Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blawg

Just recently a Florida jury awarded $2.8 million to the family of Brian R. Heikkila as a result of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family on his behalf. Heikkila was killed after being hit by a Ford Mustang while riding his motorcycle in Daytona Beach, FL. As a Pembroke Pines Wrongful Death Attorney this verdict caught my attention and it is good to see that justice prevailed. It is also reassuring that the victim's family was compensated $2.8 million for Mr. Heikkila's wrongful death. According to the lawsuit, the defendant, who was driving the Ford Mustang, caused the motorcycle accident by failing to properly yield the right of way to Mr. Heikkila.

This is another unfortunate example of the disastrous consequences that can result from unsafe driving. As a Pembroke Pines Wrongful Death Lawyer I have seen many car accident lawsuits and motorcycle accident lawsuits that resulted in someone's wrongful death. This case is particularly tragic because Mr. Heikkila has a daughter who is 5 years old. Had the defendant operated his vehicle properly, then Mr. Heikkila would not have died as a result of the accident and the little girl would still have her father.

On a related note, motorcycle accident injuries are becoming disturbingly common, which is another reminder of how we always need to make sure that we drive safely. The consequences are simply too dire. From a Pembroke Pines Personal Injury Attorney's perspective you can never be too safe when driving a car or riding a motorcycle. A vehicle is a dangerous instrumentality and this case should remind us all of that fact.

A former patient of a professional football team doctor was awarded $2.2 million in damages last week by an arbitration panel. The panel found the doctor unanimously negligent when he performed hip surgery on Kathleen Adams in May 2007. The plaintiff alleged that Dr. Chao "lacerated her femoral artery, vein and nerve, resulting in chronic pain and a limp."

Like many of the clients that the Fort Lauderdale Medical Malpractice Lawyers have help, Adams "has constant radiating pain in her foot and ankle, walks with a limp and has to take four types of medication daily just to make the pain tolerable. The pain will be there the rest of her life."

It is incredibly unfortunate that innocent people suffer lifelong pain and damages because of a doctor's negligence and malpractice. However, our judicial system provides a remedy of seeking damages as a method of helping those who have been wronged by a doctor or any other medical professional.

Medical malpractice is negligence on the behalf of a medical professional and the failure of a medical professional to provide adequate care, resulting in personal injury suffered by the patient. Even if you signed a consent form, that does not release the medical professional from his or her obligation to meet the required standard of care that society expects from him or her.

Continue reading "Medical Malpractice, Fort Lauderdale - Hip Surgery Negligence" »

This is important to the defense attorney and the insurance company because if they can demonstrate that the injured Plaintiff is partially at fault, whatever amount a Fort Lauderdale Broward County Jury may award the injured person in a verdict will be reduced by that percentage before the ultimate judgment amount is entered by the Judge of the Court.

So for example, if the jury awards the injured plaintiff of a Fort Lauderdale, Florida motorcycle, scooter, SUV, pickup truck or other vehicle accident the gross sum of $100,000 dollars, but the jury determines (through the persuasion of the insurance company's defense attorney) that the plaintiff was 25% at fault for causing a Fort Lauderdale, Florida personal injury accident, the injured Plaintiff will receive a judgment that is reduced by 25% of the verdict or a net judgment in the amount of $75,000.

Continue reading "Who's At Fault For Causing Injuries in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida Intersection Accident - Part III?" »

If the accident was witnessed and if there is a consensus of the facts from independent witnesses, then that determination is more easily assisted. If one vehicle was coming from a corner with a stop sign and the other vehicle had the "right of way" that assists the trier of fact in determining fault. If there was a traffic control light oftentimes both of the vehicles involved in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida intersection accident may claim that they had the green steady or green turn signal indicator, and beyond that there is an endless list of other often false explanations that the party at fault attempts to use to avoid their responsibility.

A Fort Lauderdale, Broward County Circuit Court will weigh all the evidence in order to determine who is at fault and to what percentage. Florida's Tort Law allows a Fort Lauderdale, Florida jury to consider each party's fault and determine what percentage, if any, of the fault may be attributable to each party involved in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida car, SUV, minivan, motorcycle or truck accident. This procedure of assigning percentages of fault is referred to in Florida as determining "comparative fault".
Most of the time defense attorneys and the insurance companies that are providing the actual defense for most vehicular accident law suits attempt to attribute some percentage of fault against the innocent victim of a Fort Lauderdale crash in order to minimize the amount of money that the defendant and ultimately, its Florida insurance company may need to pay.

Traffic intersections were created as a means to allow vehicular commuters to travel easily to destinations that are linked through Fort Lauderdale Florida's well-designed meeting roadways. Nevertheless, without some form of appropriate control over the intersection it is inevitable that accidents will occur since two vehicles coming from adjacent roadways that intersect cannot travel through the same intersection at the same time, simultaneously.

While as incredible as it may seem, there are still some intersections that have absolutely no traffic control device, most intersections are controlled by either a yield, or stop sign, or an electronic traffic light control device with various colored instructional lamps.

Unfortunately, even with such logically placed traffic control devices, Fort Lauderdale, Florida car, motorcycle or truck drivers still seem to collide at intersections.

And if one or both of the vehicle's occupants suffer personal injuries and rightfully intend to seek compensation pursuant to Florida's No Fault Laws, fault still needs to be determined. And except for those rare occasions where the wrongdoer fully accepts and admits their liability and accepts responsibility causing the accident, it may ultimately require a court of law to determine who or whom are at fault.
If the accident was witnessed and if there is a consensus of the facts from independent witnesses, then that determination is more easily assisted. If one vehicle was coming from a corner with a stop sign and the other vehicle had the "right of way" that assists the trier of fact in determining fault. Continued in Part Two in following blog