Accidents causing personal injury in Florida can harm a person’s mind, body, or property.
Accidents that may result in injuries include those brought on by faulty goods, prescription medications, or contact with poisonous substances. Therefore, any lost wages or expenses brought on by an injury may be compensated in court.
Auto accidents, medical negligence, and wrongful death are additional issues covered by personal injury law.
A person must be careless to be held accountable or “at fault” for an accident. In Florida, there must be evidence of negligence in the form of witnesses, images, records, etc.
Court proceedings will also require evidence of lost wages or other costs related to the accident, such as medical bills and pay stubs.
There is a legal deadline for submitting a claim for your injury. In Florida, you have four years from the accident to file a lawsuit with the court. The statute of limitations states that cases over four years old cannot be heard in court.
Insurance companies that refuse to pay for serious injuries or a class action lawsuit made up of numerous wounded people are other frequent problems in personal injury lawsuits.
What Kind of Injuries Are Covered by Personal Injury Claims?
A personal injury harms a plaintiff’s mental or physical health. Accidental emotional suffering might result in mental health problems.
Damage to the organs, limbs, or other components of the anatomy is considered a physical injury. An injury suffered by a personal injury plaintiff need not show up immediately; it could take time to materialize.
A personal injury claim may be based on a variety of incidents or accidents, such as:
- Construction accidents
- Dog bites
- Defective products (class actions)
- Elder abuse
- Nursing facility abuse
- Premises liability
- Product liability injuries
- Toxic exposure (class actions)
- Unsafe pharmaceuticals (class actions)
- Wrongful death
Many different kinds of accidents could happen. It may be useful to look at accident data to become more prepared and stop accidents from happening.
What Sorts of Behavior Constitute a Personal Injury Claim?
A personal injury may happen on purpose, such as when a defendant purposefully hurts a victim or plans to do something that causes harm. Unintentional personal injury is another possibility.
A plaintiff might file a case based on negligent behavior if someone else’s negligence caused an unintentional injury. Accidents involving motor vehicles, slip and fall incidents, and injuries brought on by medical malpractice are all regarded as negligence lawsuits.
What Is a Claim for Intentional Injury?
A defendant causes harm to the plaintiff through deliberate conduct or with the intent to do so. When a defendant engages in battery, assault, or false imprisonment, an intentional injury is inflicted on the victim. A battery is an unwanted, damaging, or offensive touch with another person.
What Is a Negligence-Related Personal Injury Claim?
In a negligence personal injury action, the plaintiff asserts that the defendant hurt them both by failing to exercise the care they both reasonably expected of them. A claim for carelessness has been established if the plaintiff can demonstrate that this breach resulted in harm followed by damages.
Depending on the situation, a plaintiff may or may not be owed a duty of care. A defendant is required by law to employ the same level of caution that a reasonable person would in the same situation.
Whether a duty of care is owed to a plaintiff depends on how predictable or foreseeable the harm could occur if the duty is not upheld. The inquiry that determines whether a defendant owes a plaintiff a duty of care is:
Would the typical person in the defendant’s situation have known that the plaintiff’s type of injury was likely to occur?
The defendant owes the plaintiff a duty of care if the response is “yes.” The defendant has negligently caused personal injury if they violate that obligation and do so in a way that results in harm and damages.
If the response is “no,” there is no responsibility to be discharged, and the defendant cannot have been negligent.
Can I File a Lawsuit for Emotional Pain?
An individual may file a lawsuit under particular circumstances for mental agony, often known as emotional distress. An emotional distress claim can be made in a legal case as a non-physical, mostly psychological harm.
According to the law, emotional distress is a condition of mental anguish resulting from an event brought on by the carelessness or deliberate actions of another, usually of a physical kind.
Along with their relatives, bystanders of those who individually experience emotional trauma may be eligible to file a legal case alleging emotional distress.
Feelings of embarrassment or shame, insomnia, depression, self-destructive thoughts, anxiety, tension, or other emotional reactions resulting from a traumatic occurrence are all signs of emotional distress.
Can I File a Lawsuit for Defamation, Slander, and Libel?
Yes, a person may be able to file a lawsuit for libel, slander, and defamation. Defamation occurs when someone intentionally and falsely disparages another person in writing or verbally.
A person’s comments that have harmed another person’s reputation or livelihood are punishable under the law under the category of defamation. The term “defamation of character” refers to any comment that harms the reputation of another person.
Libel is the term for verbal or written slander, such as criticizing someone in a book or newspaper. Additionally, published statements on audio, radio, and video may be included.
Speaking falsehoods is known as slander. It is the verbal dissemination of offensive comments that a third party overhears.
What Sorts of Damages Can a Judge Give a Plaintiff Who Has Been Injured?
A plaintiff who establishes liability for a defendant and that the defendant caused harm intentionally or negligently is entitled to compensatory damages. A plaintiff may be entitled to two types of damages under the law: damages for an injury and damages for the harm caused by the injury.
The law recognizes this distinction. General damages and special damages are the two categories of compensatory damages recognized by the law.
Damages for the injury itself are known as general damages. These losses also include mental agony, stress, and pain and suffering.
General damages are difficult to quantify in terms of money. As a result, expert testimony from a doctor or psychiatrist, for example, is required to establish a monetary value for such damages.
Special damages are meant to make up for a particular effect of an injury. Medical costs and wage loss are specific repercussions.
These things have a definite monetary worth that can be determined. A pay stub, a record of a plaintiff’s earnings, can be used to calculate the amount of wages lost due to the accident. A doctor’s bill, for instance, indicates the amount owed.
The plaintiff will receive special damages to pay the expenditures their insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid did not cover.
Getting Legal Aid
A skilled personal injury attorney in Florida should be consulted if you have been hurt due to someone else’s actions and their negligence. Your attorney will evaluate your situation and work to get you compensation for your damages.They can also provide you with legal advice, guidance, and representation if you need to attend any court hearings and proceedings.
