South Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

As the 2012 Florida state legislative session winds down, lawmakers are still wrestling over what would be the best compromise plan for reforming the state's Personal Injury Protection (PIP) law, which all sides agree has driven up auto insurance rates for all Floridians.

The FL House of Representatives has offered up House Bill (HB) 119, what you might call an "extreme makeover" proposal, while Senate Bill (SB) 1860 features a more measured set of reforms.

The current "no-fault" PIP law provides all motorists with a minimum $10,000 level of coverage. Its original intention was twofold: to ensure that drivers injured in vehicular accidents had some reasonable level of protection, while ridding the civil court system of thousands of small claims cases.

Then that pesky old "Law Of Unintended Consequences" came into play.

Continue reading "Florida Legislators Seek PIP Insurance Reform Compromise" »

A horrific series of pileup crashes occurred on Interstate 75 just south of Gainesville, FL last Sunday, January 29th, resulting in 10 deaths and over 20 injuries.

In the aftermath of car & truck accidents, there are always questions about legal liability for injuries and damages suffered by participants and victims. In a large-scale incident like this I-75 pileup, those questions are themselves now piling up.

Was arson a factor in smoke conditions blocking motorists' visibility?

Did the Florida Highway Patrol reopen the roadway too soon?

Are trucking companies responsible for questionable actions of the drivers of two large semi-trailers involved in the crash?

Like the thick smoke from a nearby prairie fire that blanketed a stretch of I-75 in the pre-dawn darkness of January 29th, the confusing array of facts and circumstances in play here are making it hard to clearly see the answers to those and other questions, for now.

Here's what we do know:

Continue reading "Deadly Pileup Crash On FL I-75 Raises Legal Liability Questions " »