Articles Tagged with Florida personal injury lawyer

The vast majority of successful Palm Beach personal injury cases end in a settlement, as opposed to a trial. Trials are time-consuming, expensive, and sometimes traumatic for plaintiffs and their loved ones. But how are these settlements actually paid out? personal injury settlement Florida

Let’s start with the fact that if you hire an experienced injury attorney, you might not even need to file a lawsuit. Settlements can be reached by mutual agreement at any time – whether there’s a lawsuit or not.

Let the Negotiations Begin

You will probably need to submit a claim to the other party, but that’s not the same as a formal lawsuit. Skilled attorneys can sometimes negotiate favorable pretrial settlements within just a few weeks – possibly even days – without every stepping foot in a courtroom.

If those negotiations are failing and the defendant is refusing to pay you fair compensation, then it’s time to file a lawsuit. Under Florida’s new statute of limitations outlined in F.S. 95.11, you have a 2-year deadline in which to file your case. (Up until this March, it was 4 years.)

That said, settlement negotiations can continue all the way up to trial – and even at any point prior to a verdict. Ideally though, they’ll conclude sooner than later and in your favor.

Although the Palm Beach personal injury claim is technically against the individual who was allegedly negligent in causing the harm, negotiations typically involve insurance companies and their attorneys. That’s because it’s probably ultimately going to be the insurer who pays out the claim.

But even once you reach a settlement, the insurer isn’t automatically going to just cut you a check. The insurer is going to want to protect themselves and their client from any future claims of liability. Before paying up, the insurer will want you to sign a final release. It’s really important that you read over the terms of this release before signing anything. These documents can contain language that can come back to haunt you – particularly if you have latent injuries OR there are other defendants from whom you might still be seeking accountability. The final release stipulates that you forever waive your right to pursue this case in exchange for the agreed-upon payout. It’s not uncommon for these releases to include language that you agree to forfeit your right to make future claims for this incident against any party. If there are other defendants with cases still pending, you really must be careful about this.

Liens & Bills to Be Paid

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Anyone who’s ever filed a Florida personal injury lawsuit probably understands the unpredictability of life – and death – better than most. But what happens when the defendant in your pending personal injury lawsuit dies suddenly? In short, it will inevitably impact the case, but the claim doesn’t die with them. That said, there are certain steps you may need to take to preserve your claim.Florida personal injury lawsuit

Florida’s survival statute, F.S. 46.201, states that no cause of action (the reason for the lawsuit) dies with the person. Lawsuits can be initiated, prosecuted, and defended in the name of the person who has died. In other words, if the defendant in your Florida personal injury lawsuit dies while the case is pending, you can continue to pursue the claim against their estate. Further, if you have a valid cause of action but haven’t yet filed your lawsuit by the time the would-be defendant dies, can still pursue that case against the defendant’s estate – assuming the statute of limitations hasn’t expired.

What if the situation is reversed, and it’s the plaintiff who dies? Personal injury lawsuits aren’t extinguished because a plaintiff dies.  The decedent’s personal representative would have to take over the case. From there, the only thing that really changes is the type and amount of damages that can be recovered. For example, damages for future medical expenses, lost wages, and mental anguish are no longer on the table if the plaintiff is dead.

Additionally, per F.S. 733.104(1), if a potential plaintiff had grounds to file a civil injury lawsuit but died before they could do so, the personal representative of their estate can initiate the claim, so long as they do so either before the statute of limitations runs out OR within 12 months of the decedent’s death – whichever is longer. In some cases, because it can take months for a personal representative to even be appointed, personal injury claims can also be commenced by either a curator or an administrator ad litem. The absence of a known personal representative is not a valid excuse for not filing a timely motion to substitute.

All this said, our Palm Beach personal injury lawyers must stress that if any party to a lawsuit dies, it is imperative to take proper steps to preserve the claim. Continue reading

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