Hire an Attorney After a Car Accident in Florida
You should hire an attorney at any time after a car accident. They can be immediately useful to you by handling communications with the insurance agency, helping you document evidence of your accident and injuries, and advising you on what legal steps to take.
Because many attorneys operate on a contingency-fee-basis, rather than an hourly rate, it may not cost you additional money to hire an attorney early in your case.
Many Fort Myers auto accident lawyers offer a free phone consultation to car accident victims that could allow you to determine if you want to hire them to represent your case.
Communication with Insurance Companies After Your Accident
You may be contacted by your insurance company or the responsible party’s insurance company after your accident. Use caution when speaking with them. The insurance company representative may be able to use your statements against you to reduce or deny your claim.
If you hire a Fort Myers personal injury attorney, they may be able to communicate with the insurance company on your behalf.
Navigating the Steps of a Florida Car Accident Case
You may already know that Florida is a no-fault auto insurance state, where every driver is required to carry personal injury insurance or PIP. If you are injured in a car accident, you will first file a claim with your own insurance company for your PIP benefits.
Your Personal Injury Coverage Only Contain Mental Anguish or Pain and Suffering
This coverage may take care of your medical expenses, but it will not compensate you for non-monetary damages, like mental anguish or pain and suffering. Furthermore, your PIP coverage will have a maximum amount. If the cost of your injuries exceeds your PIP limit, you can file a lawsuit against the other driver for your additional losses.
You Also Have Right to Sue Following Things in Auto Accident Injury:
You may also be within your rights to sue the at-fault driver if your auto accident injuries meet Florida’s serious injury threshold. You may meet this threshold if any of the below hold true:
- You sustained the substantial and permanent loss of a significant bodily function.
- You sustained a permanent injury (besides scarring or disfigurement).
- You sustained significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement.
- Your loved one died.
Injuries that meet the serious injury threshold may qualify the victim to recover non-monetary damages, such as pain and suffering and mental anguish, from the responsible driver.
Auto Defect Attorneys Help in Vehicle Defects Claim
The experienced trial team at the Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato, P.A. has obtained outstanding results for clients that have suffered serious injuries or death due to vehicle defects. With so many different makes and models of vehicles on the road today, there is a broad range of potential vehicle defects.
Tire Failures claims
Most often arise out of accidents that result from tread separations when the vehicle’s tread literally separates or peels off of the underlying carcass or body of the tire. When this occurs, it can have a traumatic effect on the handling of the vehicle, often resulting in rollover accidents. Degradation is also common in tires over six years of age. Stores often sell tires that appear new but have sat on shelves for 6-10 years. This “new tire” is actually an aged tire that may be dried out and can lose its threads. If a tire failure played a part in an accident, a product defect claim may exist. The Fort Myers personal injury attorneys at Wolf & Pravato, P.A. are Ft. Lauderdale tired defect attorneys that can help you and your family.
Air Bag Claims
Air Bag Claims are very complex and immediate attention to detail is required. Evidence must be preserved and our team of experts can help determine if the airbags should have deployed. Many systems now monitor seat position and seat belt use to determine when and if an airbag deployment is needed in minor to moderate impacts to protect the occupants. If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a direct result of an airbag failing to perform as intended, a closer examination of a potential airbag defect claim is warranted.
Roof Crush
Roof Crush is a term that is used to describe the unintended failure of a vehicle’s roof structure during a rollover accident. When the roof of a vehicle fails to protect the occupants and the roof intrudes into the inner compartment, very serious injuries (significant brain injuries and spinal cord injuries) or death often is the result. If you or a loved one suffered a serious loss due to a rollover accident and the roof of the vehicle collapsed, a complete and thorough investigation needs to be implemented immediately.
Seatback Failures
Seatback Failuers occur most often in rear-end accidents. The mechanism holding up the back of a bucket seat can break, causing the seat to collapse and the occupant to fall backward violently. Accident records show that this can happen even in minor collisions, at speeds as low as 25 miles per hour, if the seatback is defectively flimsy.
At high speeds, these defective seatbacks pose a threat to the occupant of the defective seat, who are thrown away from the safety of seatbelts and airbags and may suffer serious head, neck, and spine injuries. But even at low speeds, a defective seatback is extremely dangerous for children who may be safely strapped in behind the failed bucket seat. Hit with great force by a flying seat or their own parent’s body, children placed in backseats by safety-conscious parents can be killed or suffer permanently disabling brain injuries, internal injuries or amputations.
Nearly every major auto manufacturer in the United States has been accused in a court of law of manufacturing unsafe, flimsy seatbacks that are prone to fail in a rear-end accident. Many manufacturers, including Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, and others, have known for decades that their bucket seats could not withstand the amount of force generated by a typical rear-end accident. Despite this, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, bowing to industry pressure, has not updated regulations on how strong a seat back in a brand-new vehicle must be since 1967 — an oversight that even the agency acknowledges is inadequate.
If a defective seatback has brought death or serious injury into your life and the lives of your loved ones, you have the right to hold the manufacturer legally liable. The Fort Lauderdale car accident attorneys at Wolf & Pravato, P.A. are South Florida seatback failure attorneys that can help you recover compensation for injuries including wrongful death, brain and spine trauma, medical bills, lost wages, disability, scarring, and pain and suffering.
Fuel-Fed Fires
Fuel-Fed Fires often occur after a survivable accident, when the vehicle’s fuel system design is faulty. A post-collision fuel-fed fire is one of the scariest and most devastating things that can possibly happen on the road. In other words, if the impact forces are not severe enough to kill the occupants, then the fuel system should be able to survive those same forces. After all, the fuel system can be made from metals that are far stronger than flesh and bone.
If all vehicles met this standard, no one would ever burn to death in a post-collision fuel-fed fire. Unfortunately, some vehicles, even today, do not meet this standard. The trial lawyers at the Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato, P.A. are Ft. Lauderdale Fuel Fed Fire attorneys that can help to determine if a defect played a role in your loss.
Seatbelt Failures
Seatbelts are properly credited with saving thousands of lives and are a valuable safety device and should always be worn. However, when these critical safety devices fail, serious injuries and wrongful deaths may occur.
Some of the most common seatbelt defects include:
- Excessive seatbelt slacks during collisions, through defects such as a broken seatbelt retractor.
- False latching, in which a seatbelt does not truly become latched even after it was engaged. Evidence has shown this is a real phenomenon, leaving accident victims confused to hear police reports that they were not buckled in.
- Inertial unlatching, in which seatbelts can become undone by sheer force.
No seatbelt could ever prevent all auto injuries. But by following existing standards, car manufacturers can prevent thousands of injuries and deaths. Only a few inches of slack in a poorly made seatbelt can be the difference between minor injuries and spinal cord injuries. And when seatbelts unlatch mid-accident, people may impact vehicle dashboards or be thrown out of vehicles altogether.
Remember that you are not alone. While the physical and financial toll may be heavy, you do have recourse available. You should not suffer because of the neglect of others, even if it involves large corporations. The experienced lawyers at Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato, P.A. are Seatbelt Failure attorneys who can help.
When You Hire an Attorney in Your Car Accident Case
When you hire an attorney in your car accident case, they can help you navigate these steps. A Fort Lauderdale auto accident lawyer will investigate your case, produce evidence about the extent of your injuries and their value, and decide what legal actions to take in defense of your rights.
Let the Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato Help You After Your Car Accident
Call the Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato today for a free case review. We represent victims in Florida auto accident injury lawsuits. If you choose to hire us, you can concentrate on your recovery while we handle all of the communications and legal work in your case.
We can discuss your case and your legal options as part of your free consultation. Our firm works on a contingency-fee basis, meaning there are no upfront fees to secure our representation. Our payment only comes as a percentage of your compensation if and when we win your case.
Florida places a statute of limitations, or legal time limit, on how long victims have to file a personal injury lawsuit.
Contact us today at (954) 633-8270 to discuss your case.
