Fort Myers personal injury lawyer

Published on: September 30, 2020

6 Factors Impacting Your Fort Myers Personal Injury Lawsuit Timeline

Fort Myers personal injury lawsuit

Aside from how much money a case is worth, Fort Myers personal injury lawsuit plaintiffs often want to know how long their case will take to resolve. Most are not thrilled to hear the ever-popular lawyer answer: It depends. But the truth is that determining how long a case will take to resolve can be more of an art than a science. First, know that settlements can often be preferable to litigation. They take less time and tend to use fewer resources. You may never even need to file a lawsuit if your injury attorney can successfully negotiate a fair resolution with the insurer(s) involved. While this is oversimplified for purposes of making this a brief blog post; for a settlement to be reached, both sides need to agree on two main issues: Liability and fair value.

Liability refers to which party is legally responsible for paying. Florida follows a system of “pure comparative fault,” essentially meaning a plaintiff (the person filing the case) could be 99 percent liable – and still collect the remaining 1 percent of damages from the other at-fault party. However, your damage award is going to be proportionately reduced by your degree of fault. So if you are 40 percent liable, your total damages will be reduced by 40 percent.

Fair value refers to how much your case is reasonably worth in light of the severity of your injuries, how much physical pain you suffered, the totality of your medical expenses (past and future), the time you had to take off work, the impact to your future wage-earning capabilities and the extent to which this has impacted your personal life. Understand that for cases involving serious injuries, it is probably impossible to resolve in less than a few months because it is going to take at least that long (usually longer) to accurately determine the full severity of your injuries, the long-term estimate of future medical expenses and how these injuries are going to impact the rest of your life.

It should go without saying that you or your attorney will need to prove causation, that is that the injury for which you are seeking “fair value” was actually caused by (or made worse as a result of) the crash or incident. This is an often contested area as many of us have some evidence of the natural aging process going on in our body at a time that we may become injured.

Needless to say, there can be more than a few points of disagreement. When those differences cannot be resolved, cases end up going to trial.

Published on: April 16, 2020

How will Coronavirus (COVID-19) Impact My Fort Myers Car Accident Claim?

by Leland Garvin

Fort Myers car accident lawyer

The novel coronavirus pandemic is dominating headlines – not to mention the lives of most Americans right now. But how might COVID-19 impact your Fort Myers car accident claim?

Our personal injury lawyers know several elements of your case could be affected by the pandemic, but the most important things to know are: You should not delay seeking medical treatment or consulting with an attorney. These are the quickest ways to jeopardize your health and reduce the value of your claim.

The silver lining in all of this is that with reduced traffic on the roads, we may see fewer crashes in total. However, pending cases will still proceed (even if delayed) and a crash during the pandemic is not impossible either.

That said, you should be aware of a few things that might be different. It is important to stay informed as we navigate this once-in-a-century national and global crisis. Continue reading

Published on: March 24, 2020

Understanding the Florida Impact Rule for Emotional Distress Claims

by Leland Garvin

Florida impact rule Mental and emotional distress, including depression, anxiety, anger, fear, and insomnia, are common experiences among those who have suffered a personal injury. Florida is one of just five remaining states that subscribe to something called the impact rule when weighing claims of emotional distress.

Also known as the physical impact rule (or Florida impact rule), it requires plaintiffs who are seeking financial compensation for non-economic damages (namely, emotional distress) to prove they also experienced some physical impact or that their emotional injuries somehow physically manifested. There are some exceptions to this rule such as a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress which we fill further detail below.

South Florida personal injury lawyers frequently request compensation for emotional distress as an element in injury lawsuits, but claims that solely involve emotional distress can be a bit trickier. This is not to say it is impossible, and the Florida Supreme Court has in recent years relaxed the guidelines for applying the impact rule. Still, it is important for anyone considering filing a claim for emotional distress in Florida to understand a bit about the legal standards that must be met. Continue reading

Published on: April 15, 2019

$1M Florida Personal Injury Lawsuit Damage Cap Proposed by Lawmakers

by Leland Garvin

Florida lawmakers are seeking to limit the amount of non-economic damages that can be recovered by plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits. Fort Myers personal injury lawyer

Specifically, HB 17 would impose a $1 million cap on payments made to injury claimants for intangible losses like pain and suffering, emotional anguish and loss of life enjoyment. While it’s true these losses are more subjective than things like medical bills or lost income, they are no less worthy of compensation.

As long-time Fort Myers personal injury lawyers, we know tort reform efforts like this are nothing new in Florida. Insurers and big corporations have lobbied intensely for them for decades. Proponents argue reform is necessary to keep consumers’ insurance rates in check and prevent frivolous claims and outrageous damage awards.