Recognized as a destination for fun and relaxation, Miami boasts sandy shores, green spaces, sports arenas, and entertainment. While attracting tourists for its recreational opportunities, Miami is also a major financial center that many people travel to for business.
The city often hosts multiple events, and more than 170,000 people pass through Miami International daily.
Unfortunately, in a city bustling with people and activities, accidents happen, and they can have serious consequences. Whether it’s a traffic collision, a boating incident, or complications arising from faulty products, a personal injury could cause daunting medical expenses, lost work hours, physical or emotional distress, and other setbacks.
Unfortunately for you, the negligent party and their insurance company may not be motivated to cover all your damages, leaving you wondering what to do.
How Can a Miami Personal Injury Attorney Help After Your Injury?
A significant injury often requires medical treatment, time off work, property damage repairs, and more. You might expect an insurance policy to handle these damages, but the insurance adjuster works for the insurance company, not you.
They will focus on saving the company as much money as possible, frequently at your expense. As a result, your claim may be denied or undervalued, and the adjuster might even blame you for your injuries.
An experienced personal injury attorney can assist you with these challenges. At the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm, we’ll review your case for free, answer your questions, and lay out your options for seeking damages.
Our investigative team will search for evidence to prove the other party was at fault, and our legal experts will develop a strong strategy to win or settle your case. We can also review a claim denial, and in some cases, we may be able to appeal it.
Finally, we’ll review any settlement offer, explain what it covers, and negotiate with the insurance carrier if you want to pursue a better deal.
Do You Need a Lawyer for a Car Accident With Florida’s No-Fault Law?
Not always, but in some cases, yes. In an effort to reduce the strain on the judicial system, Florida created a no-fault system for car accidents in which all residents are required to purchase $10,000 in Personal Injury Protection insurance or PIP.
If you are injured in a car accident, you simply seek compensation from your own insurance for any medical expenses your health insurance doesn’t cover. There is no need to prove fault since PIP is no-fault insurance.
However, $10,000 is both the minimum and maximum amount for PIP insurance, and it only pays 80 percent of your medical bills. As a result, people who suffer severe injuries in a car accident may find that their car insurance bills far outweigh their PIP coverage.
If your injuries are severe, permanent, or very expensive, you may be able to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver or make a claim on their insurance. Florida does not require bodily injury liability for most drivers because it requires PIP, but motorists can purchase it as optional coverage.
It’s also essential to understand that PIP claims should be filed promptly—within two weeks of the injury. Sometimes, this is difficult for injured people.
It could be hard to concentrate on filling out a claim form when you’re in pain, taking medication that makes you drowsy or confused, or otherwise distracted by your injuries. You may want to ask a family member to help you with the claim so you can get it filed in time.
Property damage liability or PDL is also required in the amount of $10,000. If your car was damaged in an accident, you can make a claim on the at-fault driver’s insurance policy, but there may be a disagreement about fault.
If you have concerns about your car accident claim or damages, a personal injury lawyer can answer your questions and may be able to help you pursue compensation.
How Common Are Boating Accidents in Miami?
Boating and water sports are popular for residents and tourists visiting the city. Miami-Dade County had the highest number of boating accidents in 2021 and the second-highest the following year, with 90 boat crashes, 57 injuries, and eight deaths reported in 2022.
State data shows that the most common type of boating accident involves the collision of two vessels. However, collisions with solid objects like bridges or docks can also be dangerous.
The most common cause of death in these incidents is drowning, which is why it’s crucial to wear a life jacket even if you know how to swim. If you’re ejected from the boat, injured, and unable to swim, a flotation device could save your life.
How Can You Seek Compensation After a Boating Accident?
Often, people ask us if boat insurance will cover their injuries in a boating collision. In some situations, yes, the boat owner’s liability insurance may cover your injuries, but this is only true if the boat owner is liable for the accident.
Several parties might be responsible for a boating accident:
- The boat’s owner. Typically, the owner may be liable if they failed to keep the boat in a reasonably safe condition, if they operated it unsafely, or if they allowed someone unqualified to operate it.
- The boat operator. As discussed in the last point, the person driving the boat could be negligent if they disobeyed local laws or drove recklessly—for example, speeding or boating under the influence.
- The owner or operator of a different boat. If the injury was caused by another boat operator carelessly crashing into your watercraft, they may be at fault.
- The manufacturer of the boat or one of its components. If a defect in the boat or one of its parts led to your accident, the manufacturer might be at fault. However, identifying the manufacturer is sometimes challenging.
- A service company. Sometimes, the owner takes their boat in for regular maintenance, but a service worker makes an error when fixing it. If this error causes the accident, the service company might be negligent. Generally, these cases hinge on proving the company’s mistake was the reason for the crash.
- A passenger. Passengers aren’t at fault often. However, we occasionally see cases where a passenger becomes violent or belligerent, tries to take control of the boat, or causes another passenger to fall overboard.
Unfortunately, it’s not always obvious which of these parties was responsible for the accident. If you or a loved one were hurt in a boating accident, a personal injury lawyer can help by investigating and gathering evidence in your case.
Once we identify the liable party or parties, we’ll discuss your options for recovering damages.
What Happens if You Have a Golf Cart Accident?
Golf carts are popular in Miami and many other areas of Florida. They can be driven in residential areas and on some public roads where the speed limit is below 35 (Always check your local laws about golf carts before operating one on a street).
Although it may seem like golf carts should be safe at these speeds, collisions with cars, other golf carts, or solid objects can still be dangerous.
It’s important to remember that golf carts lack some of the safety features found in cars. Many come without seatbelts, they don’t have doors, and they don’t come with airbags.
Even at low speeds, it’s common for riders to be ejected from the cart during an accident, especially if the cart tips over. This is a frequent problem given the shape and top-heavy nature of golf carts, but you can reduce the risk by driving slowly, especially around curves or downhill.
A golf cart doesn’t have to crash or be on a street to cause injuries, either. One common type of injury involves a passenger dangling a foot or arm outside the cart. This seems harmless until the driver passes close to another object and the person’s foot or arm gets caught. We encourage you to keep your limbs inside the cart at all times.
As with boating accidents, there are multiple parties who might be at fault in a golf cart accident. If it occurred on a golf course or another property owned by a third party, they could be liable if a property hazard caused the crash. (We’ll talk more about premises liability later.)
A reckless driver—of either the golf cart or another vehicle—might be at fault. Additionally, a passenger who was horsing around, standing on the cart, or riding in an unsafe manner could have negligently caused their own or someone else’s injuries.
Finally, the manufacturer of a defective golf cart or a service worker who caused a malfunction could be to blame. In many of these situations, there is an applicable insurance policy that may pay for some or all of your damages, but you will need to prove fault.
Who Is at Fault in a Bicycle or Pedestrian Accident?
Miami-Dade County features over a hundred miles of paths, trails, and bike lanes for bicyclists, and many people also enjoy walking to take in the sights. Unfortunately, a reckless driver can do a disproportionate amount of damage to someone on a bicycle or foot.
In 2021 alone, there were 885 traffic accidents involving bicyclists or pedestrians.
Pedestrians should use sidewalks when available and try to cross at a crosswalk. If one isn’t available, look carefully in both directions before crossing as quickly as possible.
Bicyclists riding on the road should obey traffic laws and signals as a car driver would.
Fault is often disputed in these cases, with the vehicle driver claiming the bicyclist or pedestrian was to blame for the accident. There may be disagreements over where the biker or pedestrian was located; they typically have the right of way in a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, but the driver could claim the pedestrian was crossing outside the crosswalk.
However, a vehicle driver is expected to yield the right of way if a bicyclist or pedestrian is crossing outside a crosswalk when doing so can prevent an accident. In many cases, the driver says they tried to stop, but the person rushed out in front of them so fast that it wasn’t possible.
In these situations, it’s especially crucial that we begin collecting evidence as soon as possible after your accident. We’ll look for video from traffic, doorbells, or security cameras, which may help to show what happened.
Unfortunately, these video files are frequently deleted to free up storage space, and the camera’s owner may not know they captured evidence in a car accident case. For this reason, the sooner we talk to the camera’s owner, the better.
What Should You Do if You Are Injured on Someone Else’s Property?
Often, people don’t think about fault when they are hurt while on another party’s property. In many cases, their accident seems like just that—an accident, but then they still need medical care and receive a large bill.
They may also have to take time off work while they heal, cope with intense physical or emotional pain, and face other difficulties. Eventually, they may wonder who was at fault and if they can recover for these damages.
Unfortunately, as time passes, evidence is often lost, and it may be more challenging to prove fault days, weeks, or months later. However, you should still speak with an attorney if you have concerns about the circumstances of your injury.
We’ll investigate, and if we can find evidence the property owner was negligent, we may be able to pursue compensation.
Although the aftermath of an accident can be chaotic, we advise you to take these steps as soon as you can:
- Look around the area where you were injured and take pictures if possible. Even if everything appears normal, there may be important evidence in the images.
- If there were witnesses to your accident, try to get their names and contact information.
- Report your accident to the owner (or the manager on duty if you’re in a store or business), even if you don’t think you were seriously hurt. Frequently, people initially feel fine after an injury but develop pain or other symptoms within a few hours or days.
- Don’t be too embarrassed to report your injury. Sometimes, clients tell us they didn’t want to “complain” or “make a fuss” about what they believed at the time was a minor inconvenience. You should be polite, but there is nothing wrong with informing the manager of a problem in the store. Get the manager’s name in case it’s needed later.
- Seek medical care right away. Again, not all injuries seem serious at first. You don’t have to take an expensive ambulance ride if the situation isn’t an emergency, but you should see your family doctor or visit an urgent care clinic to have any cuts, scrapes, or contusions treated. This will ensure no severe injuries are missed, and you will likely heal faster with proper treatment. You’ll also establish a record of your injuries in case you need further treatment later.
What if You Don’t Want to Sue Your Neighbor/Friend/Local Small Business Owner?
This is often a concern in personal injury cases, especially in premises liability situations where the injured party frequently knows the at-fault party. Someone who slipped and fell at a neighborhood store may tell us they don’t want the only locally-owned bookstore to go out of business.
Alternatively, someone who tripped over a rake in their friend’s yard might say they don’t want to ruin the friendship, but they can’t afford the medical bills. Others say they know their neighbors can’t afford to pay the claim.
We understand the difficulty of navigating an injury when the person responsible is someone you know. However, absorbing the costs yourself may not be feasible, particularly if you have serious injuries.
Recovering your damages doesn’t necessarily have to be contentious or result in the other party going bankrupt, either. In many cases, we can resolve the situation through a homeowner’s or business liability insurance claim.
This is, after all, one of the reasons people purchase insurance—so they won’t be personally liable if they make a mistake and someone gets hurt.
If you’ve been injured on another party’s property, we recommend scheduling a free consultation with us. Your visit is confidential, and we’ll provide all the information you need to make an informed decision.
How Do You Know if You’ve Experienced Medical Malpractice?
Many people struggle with this question. In some situations, a healthcare provider’s mistake may be obvious—for instance, if you wake up from surgery and discover your doctor operated on the wrong limb. But most medical mistakes aren’t this readily apparent.
It can be difficult for a patient to determine if their worsened condition or severe health complication was a natural progression of a disease or the result of a doctor’s error. You’re not a medical expert, and your doctor hasn’t said anything about making a mistake—how are you supposed to know if they did?
Although the following examples don’t necessarily mean malpractice has occurred, they are signs that further investigation is needed:
- You don’t believe you were adequately informed of the risks or side effects of a treatment before agreeing to it. For example, let’s say that you underwent a minor procedure, and afterward, you developed a severe and permanent problem such as nerve damage. Your doctor shrugged and said it was a risk of the surgery, but you don’t recall them mentioning anything about it before your operation. If your doctor didn’t fully explain the risks, they may not have operated with your informed consent.
- Your child suffered a birth injury. If your child was diagnosed with a birth injury, they may have suffered permanent difficulties due to a doctor’s error. Examples of birth injuries include shoulder dystocia, Cerebral Palsy, hypoxic brain injury, fractured bones, brain hemorrhages, and more.
- You have persistent pain or problems that your doctor can’t explain. Sometimes, a patient has a rare or difficult-to-diagnose condition. But in other cases, their symptoms are caused by a chronic condition the doctor failed to diagnose and treat appropriately. In other situations, these symptoms could be side effects of surgery or medication that the doctor again failed to diagnose and treat adequately.
- You find out a severe health complication was caused by a treatment that wasn’t appropriate for your situation. Drug companies often warn that certain patients shouldn’t use a medication. For instance, some drugs are generally safe but are not recommended for patients with a personal or family history of specific conditions. If a drug is contraindicated due to your medical history, and your doctor prescribed it anyway, they might have been negligent.
- Your treatment seems unusually aggressive. For instance, if you have a relatively minor condition and your doctor says you need major surgery when treating the condition with medication is an option, you might have cause for concern. It never hurts to get a second opinion when this happens.
- Your treatment isn’t helping, and your doctor seems uninterested in finding a better solution. In some cases, there may be no other available treatments. But in other situations, the doctor might insist the treatment will work eventually or ignore your concerns that the symptoms aren’t improving.
- You were misdiagnosed, or your diagnosis took longer than it should have, and you suffered permanent consequences. If your doctor misdiagnosed you or ignored your symptoms until your condition was more serious and challenging to treat, they may have been negligent in your care.
If you suspect medical malpractice, it’s a good idea to get copies of your medical records and speak with an experienced personal injury attorney who can help you review the situation. When needed, we can even consult with medical experts to learn if your doctor’s actions deviated from the standards of their specialty.
If so, you may have been the victim of malpractice.
Learn More From a Miami Personal Injury Law Firm Today
If the negligence of another party has harmed you or a loved one, please contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm for a free consultation about your case. There is no obligation, and if we do take your case, you won’t owe us anything until we win or settle it.
Attorney Ali Awad founded the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm to help injured people and their families pursue the compensation they deserve. He and his team have recovered millions of dollars in compensation with a 99.5 percent success rate.
When Mr. Awad isn’t busy working on a case, you can find him on social media, dispensing down-to-earth legal advice for over a million followers.
Call us today at (833) 254-2923.
