If you’ve been through a car accident in Florida then you’ve probably been already told that you’re living in a no-fault car insurance state. This means that no matter who caused the accident, all parties involved will have to seek compensation for pain and financial losses from their own insurance providers.
This leaves no room for justice against the offender; many have criticized the law for this reason. However, the no-fault laws don’t apply in every condition, there are exceptions and we’ll explore those too. If the damages are severe, you may be able to sue the responsible party.
Of course, for all of this to apply, you’ll first have to establish negligence on part of the at-fault driver, have sustained more than the threshold level of damages, and then file your claim within the time limit laid down by the statute of limitations for personal injury cases in Florida, which is a four-year deadline.
But first, you’ll need a competent personal injury lawyer on board to explain to you how fault is established and what it means under Florida’s personal injury insurance law for compensation. In this article, we’ll try to offer a brief overview of the topic.
The entire basis of the personal injury law and insurance process rests on negligence. Simply put, negligence is the inability to act in a responsible way that results in bodily harm and/or property damage to others. For this to apply, the neglectful individual would have to be in a role where their actions affected others around them.
For instance, whatever a driver does on the road will impact other people. If they decide to speed things up, or violate traffic signals, or get drunk while driving, or get distracted while driving, and so on, they risk hurting other people and causing severe economic damages too.
It doesn’t take someone to have a law degree to figure out that this is not okay.
None of this is personal, it affects other people too – thus the driver owes it to all the rest with whom they share the road, to show reasonable care. This means that they’ll have to act in a way that a prudent person would, i.e. follow the traffic rules, drive safely, and the list goes on.
Failing to do this will be considered an offense because it affects other people, as we noted earlier. This would be called a breach of duty, and by duty, we mean the aforementioned legal duty of care that vehicle owners owe to the rest of the public.
If this breach results in a traffic crash, which is a vivid possibility considering the stats for car crashes throughout the USA and in Florida, the driver will be considered at fault. This is because their negligence resulted in the crash, it was the only factor, or at least, the primary factor that mattered.
Of course, you’ll have to draw a line of a causal link between the said negligence, if you can prove it, and the resultant crash. You’ll have to show that it was the neglectful behavior that caused the accident, i.e. you’ll have to eliminate other factors/causes.
Once the negligence and the causal link are in place, you can claim damages from the at-fault party. But since Florida is a "no-fault" state, you’ll have to meet certain conditions before you can exploit the fault of the negligent driver.
Florida's no-fault system dictates that irrespective of who caused a car accident, the people involved in the crash will have to seek out their own liability insurance companies for compensation. This contrasts with the other type of liability insurance: at-fault insurance laws of most other states where the responsible party has to cover the damages caused by an accident.
In Florida, however, you need to get compensated by your own personal injury protection auto insurance policies. However, this auto insurance coverage only compensates accident victims for 80% of their medical care costs and 60% of the income they lost because of the accident.
If this does not feel fair, that’s because it isn’t.
Not only does the liability insurance policy limit not cover all of the damages but there is a deductible to factor in as well. For instance, at a bare minimum limit, a drive will get a $10,000 PIP insurance coverage for personal injury protection with a $1,000 deductible.
Now if the said person gets involved in a car accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence, they’ll have to contend with medical fees, lost wages, and so on. Let’s say the medical expenses capped at $2,000 and the loss of income was $3,000, totaling the damages to $5,000.
The person will not get covered for all of these losses in their no-fault claim. Instead, they’ll have to make do with 80% of $2,000, which is $1,600, and 60% of $3,000 which happens to be $1,800. Summing up, the payout totals at $3,400 but they also have a $1,000 deductible.
Thus they’ll only get $2,400 for their losses, and nothing to make up for the rest – $2,600.
There are two exceptions to Florida's no-fault insurance system where the injured person can sue the liable party for the damages they’ve caused and seek fair compensation. In this section, we’ll explore those exceptions and help you figure out whether you can sue the other driver or not.
Remember, that if you don’t sue the liable party (or can’t) then your payout will be nominal as we described above, so here are the two exceptions.
Firstly, if the accident caused you any permanent injury (not for minor injuries), you can sue the liable party for the damages. By law, the definition of a permanent injury involves the following:
This is one case where the injured party will be able to file a compensation claim against the responsible party.
The second one applies if the damages (medical bills and the lost wages) exceed $10,000 in value, in which case, the injured person will once again have the right to sue the responsible party.
Thus we can see that even though Florida is primarily a no-fault state, there are exceptions that work in your favor, be sure to discuss the legal matters with an experienced accident attorney.
Here’s a comprehensive rundown of what you need to do if you ever get involved in a car accident in Florida:
Florida’s complicated no-fault auto insurance laws make seeking compensation a very complex business and things are only made worse by the tons of other problems that arise from going through such ordeals, i.e. the physical pain, emotional distress, and financial troubles.
If you’re holding back from seeking legal help simply because you’re too confused, unsure of whether your case is even worth pursuing, or fearing that you might not be able to afford legal services, then you’ll first have to ride your mind from these thoughts. Feel free to call our legal team of personal injury attorneys at the VG Law Group, and we’ll explore your legal options together.
The initial consultation (legal advice) is free and we won’t oblige you for anything when you discuss your case with us, be we’ll be sure to guide you in the best possible way and suggest you the best approach for every situation. If you do decide on having us represent your case then we’ll handle your personal injury claim with apt professionalism and strive to get you fairly compensated.
You’ll have to take the initiative though, call us today!
