With so many past clients in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, we've received many inquiries over the years from people that the firm has fought and won for before, as well as from the broader community; inquiries about how to find a criminal law team as experienced, ethical and effective as the injury law team at Thomas & Pearl. That made this expansion into Criminal Law a much-needed response to market demand, according to our Managing Partner, Jason Pearl:

Now, we all need to fully understand and start living with the new system, which takes effect on July 1st. It's important to remember that this law and the rules that accompany it will not only impact drivers, but also any and all motor vehicle passengers, bicycle riders or pedestrians who become injury victims of car, SUV, truck or motorcycle accidents.

Interestingly enough, although the PIP bill (HB 119) has only just become law and has not taken effect yet, it is already facing stiff opposition from consumer advocates who say it penalizes accident and injury victims and rewards large insurance companies.

And according to the Palm Beach Post, a Miami lawyer is already threatening a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the law, after its final set of provisions are enacted next year.

Meanwhile, the parts of the law that do bring big changes will indeed take effect less than two months from now; making this the right time for Floridians who expect to be riding in motor vehicles after July 1st to get up to speed with what's just down the road.

In fact, motorcycle accident victims are 25 times more likely to die from their injuries - according to the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety's Report, Fatality Facts 2010 - Motorcycles:

"Motorcycles are less stable and less visible than cars and often have high performance capabilities. When motorcycles crash, their riders lack the protection of an enclosed vehicle, so they're more likely to be injured or killed."

And so the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is using the month of May to heighten awareness on all sides of the equation, delivering this core message to all motorists:

"Motorcycles are vehicles with the same rights and privileges as any motor vehicle on the roadway. Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month is a national initiative aimed at getting motorists and motorcyclists to "share the road" with each other."

This is a serious problem that leads to much pain and suffering, many thousands of deaths, and huge numbers of workplace injuries and workers' compensation claims each year.

As injury & accident law specialists, we're of course here to help. In fact, over the last 40 years we've won settlements or verdicts for thousands of Floridians who've slipped, tripped or fallen and been seriously injured due to the negligence of others.

Let's take a brief look at a true story from our case files, by way of zeroing in for now on "slip & fall" accidents.

The local connection was important in forging this new business relationship, as were the qualities and histories of the principals involved.

Thomas & Pearl was founded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1973, and has offices there and in West Palm Beach. Over the course of the last forty years, the firm has earned a reputation as "good fighters"; for having the right combination of toughness and integrity, for using all available tools - within the rules - to win its battles with insurance companies, opposing attorneys and anyone standing in the way of securing fair settlements or verdicts for their clients.

And so it seemed a perfect fit - the law firm known for "Fighting For Floridians" sponsoring a fight-related endeavor - but only if it had the same kind of profile and outstanding pedigree as Thomas & Pearl.

That's where the firm's managing partner, Jason Pearl, comes in.

After a Spring, 2011 series of investigative reports in the Miami Herald revealed an alarming number of injuries and potentially wrongful deaths among senior citizens living in these increasingly popular group residences, just about everyone from Governor Rick Scott to legislators in both parties agreed - something had to be done.

But then, Florida's powerfully well-heeled and well-connected ALF industry lobbied long and hard against any significant new oversight. Although senior citizen advocates and public interest groups fought back on the other side, pushing for passage of at least some sort of reform bill, it didn't seem to be exactly what you'd call a "fair fight".

For instance, the ALF industry is reported to have contributed over $200,000 in recent years to some of the most influential members of the legislature. And so as the clock wound down on the session, competing House and Senate versions of the bill were debated, and debated, and amended, and amended.

And no ALF reform legislation ended up gaining passage.

And so it's very good news that both nationally and locally, there are new steps being taken to better understand, treat, and most importantly prevent sports-related injuries to children and student athletes.

According to Safe Kids USA, over 3.5 million American children suffer sports injuries serious enough to require medical attention. A frightening 21% of all traumatic brain injuries to children are the result of sports and recreational activities.

In Broward County, the school board has unanimously passed a new concussion diagnosis and treatment program for High School athletes, which goes into effect before the beginning of Spring Football next month.

Broward's program is to be applauded for being proactive, coming prior to enactment of a new Florida law requiring the High School Athletic Association to come up with tough statewide safety rules to address this growing problem.

With a large and steadily growing population of senior citizens in the state, vast numbers of agricultural workers and day laborers, and a youth population that mushrooms every Spring Break season; it's no wonder that automobile, workplace, slip-and-fall and many other kinds of accidents and injuries are such common occurrences in the Sunshine State.

And so it seems that everywhere you look on the highways and byways of our great region, every time you read a newspaper, turn on the radio or TV; you see another advertisement for an injury law firm that's going to "fight" for you.

The fact of the matter is that many lawyers and law firms in our area have had trouble succeeding in their criminal or other kind of law practice, and so they've turned to injury law in recent years. Some are willing to say and do anything to get clients and cases.

As a result, the "fight" that you sometimes end up with is the fight for honest, ethical, caring and effective legal representation - at the very time that you need it most.

That's because earlier this month in Tallahassee, the severely wounded "PIP" insurance system was put out of its misery once and for all. Only time will tell if car crash and other motor vehicle accident victims will be better off with the new Emergency Care Coverage Law (ECCL!) that's taking its place.

We wrote a while back about the big push by Florida's politicos to pass "PIP reform" legislation this year and make big changes to the system that has been paying up to $10,000 in medical costs for people injured in car and other motor vehicle accidents since its enactment in 1972 - and getting ripped off for countless millions in the process.

The problem with PIP was that over the last forty years, con artists and sophisticated insurance fraud rings ended up taking advantage of the originally well-intentioned system, milking and bilking it for millions in fraudulent claim payments.

Heading into this year there was consensus across party lines in the state legislature that after many years of worsening PIP fraud, we had all become victims, with auto insurance rates steadily skyrocketing out of sight. There was disagreement and debate (hey, it's politics) about how to fix the broken system, but on the very last day of the 2012 legislative session, a compromise reform bill was passed.

All told, a total of 10 people were killed in a 24-hour period from Saturday night, March 17th through Sunday night March 18th.

As reported earlier this week in the Miami Herald:

"Crashes in Broward killed a woman who was seven months pregnant, a 5-year-old girl who was run over as she played outside her home in a toy car, an elderly churchgoer and a 14-year-old skateboarder."

While some have noted that this was Saint Patrick's Day weekend, and therefore alcohol consumption and DUI situations were most likely elevated, the sad truth is that South Florida has long been suffering from similar spates of car accident injuries and wrongful deaths caused by out-of-control motor vehicles and/or drivers.

Multiple versions of such legislation have stalled so far, all differing in their degree and methods of reform. In the wake of revelations about lax oversight, neglect, wrongful injuries and deaths in a number of Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs), it's still possible that a combination of public pressure and media scrutiny will force the hand of legislative leaders mindful of the importance of senior votes in an election year.

Projections are that 1 in 4 Floridians will be over 65 years old by the year 2025. As the elderly population keeps growing, so will the number of ALFs seeking them as residents. At almost 3,000 right now, there are about four times as many ALFs in the state as there are nursing homes. The two institutions differ in a couple of key ways:

• While nursing homes focus primarily on transitional post-hospitalization care for those in need of physicians, skilled nursing and/or rehabilitative services, ALFs are residential institutions for seniors who need varying degrees of help with "activities of daily living" - like getting dressed or undressed, bathing, cooking and other household chores.
• While Medicare and/or Medicaid cover the cost of most nursing home care, ALF residents usually pay facilities directly with private funds.

Unfortunately, one thing that nursing homes and ALFs do share in common is the potential for neglect and elder abuse, which can result in serious injury, and death.

Workers' rights advocates see those last two provisions in the House bill as big steps backwards in labor law, but Florida's business community leaders seem to have successfully lobbied their case that these changes are needed.

Meanwhile the current Senate version of the bill, which has yet to be voted on, clearly states its primary purpose:

"Prohibiting a county, municipality, or political subdivision from adopting or maintaining in effect a law, ordinance, or rule that creates requirements, regulations, or processes for the purpose of addressing wage theft."

In other words, future Florida lawmaking on the wage theft front would be the sole province of state legislators in Tallahassee.

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.

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:

Would you be willing to trade your cell phone for privacy? No? That's what I thought, but a thought-provoking video by a TV news station has people second-guessing that decision.

This video shows that any time you take a picture with your smartphone and forward it to someone else or post it on the internet (ie: facebook), it marks exactly where the photo was taken. I don't simply mean the mall or a restaurant... I mean it collects data such as which room in your house- at your exact address- the photo was taken, and what time of day! Personally, I do not want anyone knowing the layout of my house or where I take my kids for preschool. That is just TMI ("too much information").

Please watch this video and learn how to turn off that feature in your phone. Privacy is a right that no one should take away. Pass this on to your family and friends to protect themselves.

I know it is off the subject of privacy, but since we are talking about pictures... I think it's a good time to remind you, obviously being that we are a personal injury firm, that if you are involved in an accident use your cell phone to take pictures of the scene of the accident.