Florida Law on Personal Injury

If you are a victim of an accident that resulted in your personal injury, you may be eligible to receive compensation for the medical expenses incurred for the treatment of the injuries, as well as pain and suffering. All you have to do is to prove that someone was legally responsible for the accident, either through direct or indirect action, or through omission.

The Statute of limitations

To be eligible to receive this compensation, you must file a lawsuit within 4 years from the date that the accident occurred. This time limit may be extended, if the injury was discovered some time after the accident, and you could not have reasonably known that it existed through practices of common care.

If the case is directed against a county, a municipality or a state government, then the time limit is three years and there are other, more rigid than usual, legal procedures to be followed.

Comparative Negligence Law

In Florida, it is possible that you may be blamed, at least in part, as co-responsible for the accident that you suffered your injury. Under this law, if the judge deems that this is indeed so, the compensation that you will receive will be reduced by an amount equal to the percentage that the court decision will determine as your part of the fault. The concept behind this law is that anyone who does not pay adequate attention to reasons that can cause an accident, shares a part of the responsibility for the accident.

No-Fault Car Accident Law

For personal injuries incurred after a car accident, Florida imposes a No-Fault rule. This means that a part of the medical expenses and lost income must be paid by the victim’s own insurance company, regardless of who was at fault.

A driver causing an accident may be held liable, if the “serious injury” threshold is met. This happens if the victim suffered an injury of a permanent nature, disfigurement or scarring of significant and permanent nature.

Damage Caps

Florida imposes a cap in a compensation for punitive damages. This cap is either 3 times the amount of compensatory damages or $500,000, whichever is greater.

The scenery of personal injury law is quite complicated, especially during the process of proving who is liable for an accident.