Many car accident claims are based on property damage alone or minor injuries. However, severe car accidents can result in life-altering injuries or injuries that result in expensive medical bills. Before you can take your car crash case to court, you must meet the thresholds set by Florida’s no-fault insurance rules. Prosper Shaked explains when you can sue for a broken bone in a car crash and how these cases progress.
Can I File a Car Accident Lawsuit for a Broken Bone in Florida?
Florida is one of the many states that has a “no-fault” car insurance system. This means the law encourages you to recover compensation through insurance after a car crash instead of filing a lawsuit. However, car insurance policies may not adequately cover more severe injuries or especially severe injuries. To reduce the number of lawsuits, Florida law bars lawsuits for auto accidents unless the injuries you sustained are permanent or are worth more than $10,000. Permanent injuries include disfigurement (like severe scarring) and any injury that interferes with the way your body part functions.
Broken bones may qualify you for a car accident lawsuit under certain conditions. First, some breaks and fractures are severe enough to cause permanent damage. While many broken bones heal over time, some may not heal correctly or may be too severe for a full recovery. Especially if you suffered broken vertebrae and spinal cord injury or a fractured skull and brain trauma, you could have ongoing pain and discomfort for the rest of your life. Permanent injuries like these automatically entitle you to file a lawsuit for your car accident case.
Alternatively, you may qualify to sue for car accident injuries if you suffered a broken bone that results in expensive medical bills. Moderate to severe broken bones may require medical implants and surgical intervention to ensure the bones heal correctly. Most fractures and breaks also require medical imaging like X-Rays or MRIs to see the injury. Imaging, surgery, and the titanium pins, rods, and screws commonly used in orthopedic surgery can be very costly. Even minor and moderate broken bones can quickly total up to $10,000 in medical expenses, entitling you to take your case to court.
If your case goes to court, you can claim 100% of the damages you faced. This includes the full cost of medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for the pain and suffering you went through. If you are forced to file through insurance, you may still be able to get substantial compensation, but you should always talk to an attorney before accepting an insurance payout.
Proving Your Car Accident Case in FL
Before you can receive compensation from the Florida court, you must prove your case. This means presenting evidence of how the accident occurred, how the other party is at fault, what your injuries are, how much money you faced in damages.
You can present any relevant evidence to prove your case. This includes things like medical bills and receipts for payments to prove how much your injuries cost as well as witness testimony to prove how the accident actually occurred. Some especially helpful information may include photos from the crime scene taken by responding police officers, traffic cam footage, witness testimony, and your own testimony.
To prove that the other driver was at fault for the crash, you need to show four major elements:
- The other driver owed you a duty (e.g., the duty to drive as a reasonable driver should in the given situation),
- The other driver breached that duty (e.g., by driving under the influence, falling asleep at the wheel, or otherwise driving dangerously),
- The breach caused your injuries, and
- You suffered damages the court can compensate.
To prove the other driver’s duty and breach, you can point to traffic laws. Even simple traffic laws relating to speed limits, signaling before a turn, and obeying stop signs can help you prove the other driver was negligent. If no laws were violated, you may still prove that the driver was going too fast for the given weather/road circumstances or that they otherwise failed to drive safely, causing the crash.
Any damages that result from the car crash can be claimed in court. This means that your property damage, like the damage to your vehicle, can be claimed. However, the focus of your injury case should always be your bodily injuries, not your car.
Our Miami Car Accident Claims Lawyer Can Help You File Your Lawsuit
If you or a loved one was injured in a car crash in Miami and suffered a broken bone, talk to Miami personal injury attorney Prosper Shaked today. Prosper represents victims of car crashes and their families and fights to get them the compensation they need for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. For help with your broken bone case, contact our law offices today at (305) 694-2676.