Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

Negotiating Hospital Liens in Cape Coral Personal Injury Lawsuits

December 4, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

If you have suffered a personal injury, you may be faced with a hospital lien on whatever damages you collect from the tortfeasor (wrongdoer). Hospital lien claims typically arise when you have received some emergency care after an auto accident or slip-and-fall and you lacked insurance to fully cover your treatment for your care.

Having an attorney to help you navigate this is important because usually, the charges claimed for the lien are highly inflated – well above what a typical health insurer would pay for the same treatment. Although hospitals and health care providers do have statutory rights to impose these liens, and they may not have to reduce the amount to the extent they would for an insurer. However, your injury attorney can help you negotiate and argue for what is truly fair.

Every state has different rules for how it handles these issues, and the Tennessee Supreme Court was recently faced with answering whether “reasonable charges” are the discounted amounts hospitals accept as full payment to the insurer or if it is the full, undiscounted bill sent to patients. Continue reading ›

Court Rules Home Inspector Not Liable for Home Defects Resulting in Injury

December 2, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

Anytime you purchase property in Florida, an inspection by a licensed, certified home inspector is typically part of the process. F.S. 468 Part XV covers home inspector requirements. Home inspectors are called upon to closely examine the structure and property and identify potential material defects. But what if they miss something that ends up resulting in personal injury? Will you have a claim?

The answer is not a simple one, and will depend on the language on the home inspector contract (whether the contractor limited his/ her own liability), as well as the duty of care owed to the person filing the claim.

The question in a recent premises liability lawsuit out of Tennessee was whether a home inspector was liable to a third party who suffered personal injury on a someone else’s property due to a construction defect. Continue reading ›

New CPSC Toy Report: 240,000 Toy-Related Injuries, 7 Deaths in 2016

November 30, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

As the holidays approach, the demand for new toys will be high, both in stores and online. Buyers must be cautious when purchasing items to make sure they are following the manufacturer’s age recommendations and that they stay tuned to any reports of injuries or news of a potential toy recall.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently issued its annual Toy-Related Deaths and Injuries report for 2016, revealing that last year, there were a total of 240,000 emergency department trips spurred by dangerous or defective toys. That doesn’t represent a significant statistical trend

While not every toy-related injury is cause for a personal injury lawsuit, if plaintiff can show the product was unreasonably dangerous or defectively designed or defectively manufactured, there may be grounds for legal action. Serious injuries can occur when toys are made cheaply, with toxic materials or sold with inadequate warnings. Defendants in these cases can include anyone in the chain of distribution – from the product designer to its manufacturer to its distributor. Continue reading ›

$7.5M Awarded in Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit After Man Suffers Broken Hip

November 28, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

A man who tripped and fell at a large chain store while purchasing a watermelon has won a $7.5 million verdict against the store.

The incident happened in Alabama, and a local jury decided the premises liability lawsuit in his favor, awarding him $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

According to AL.com, the plaintiff was shopping at a when he reached into a container to pull out a watermelon to put in his shopping card. However, he reportedly tripped and his foot became lodged in a wooden pallet that was the floor. He fell, suffering numerous injuries, including a broken hip. According to plaintiff attorneys, the container of watermelons was situated on a wooden pallet that was not visible upon approach. Although plaintiff didn’t step onto the wooden pallet, his foot slid into a side opening as he pulled out the melon and got stuck. Then when he turned to put the melon the cart, his foot was immobile and he fell. Continue reading ›

When Property Owners Can be Liable for Crashes

November 25, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

When examining liability for a South Florida car accident, our injury lawyers in Cape Coral will of course first examine the negligence of the other. We’ll examine the potential vicarious liability claims of the vehicle owner, the driver’s employer and the motor carrier (if applicable). We may even look closely at whether there was a vehicle defect that would render the auto manufacturer or repair shop responsible to cover damages. In some cases, the local county or municipality could be liable too if there is evidence the entity failed in its duty to maintain public roads.

It’s not often in these cases that we will lodge a premises liability claim – but it’s not something that should be discounted. Premises liability involves the responsibility of property owners to maintain their site in a reasonably safe condition. Usually, these types of claims would include things like slip-and-fall accidents or trip-and-falls or drownings. However, it may arise in a car accident claim if there is evidence some condition on the property that posed a danger to drivers, bicyclists or pedestrians. There are a number of successful Florida premises liability claims that have stemmed from car accident injuries.

The California Supreme Court recently considered one such case involving a pedestrian accident that resulted in the injury of a church member who was struck crossing the street from the church overflow parking lot to the main parking lot on his way to attend services. The court ruled that a landowner does not owe a duty of care to assist invitees to cross a public street when the landowner maintain a parking lot requiring invitees to cross the street to access the landowner’s main site – as long as the typical dangers of a public street aren’t in some way magnified or hidden by some condition of the landowner’s property or by some action taken by the landowner. Continue reading ›

Truck Accident Lawsuit Hinges on Reliability of Expert Witness Testimony

November 23, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

Expert witness testimony is sometimes critical to trucking accident lawsuits, which can be some of the most complex types of injury cases. These large vehicles cause some of the most horrific crashes on our roads, resulting in serious injury and death – and making the stakes in these lawsuits very high.

As noted in F.S. 90.702 of Florida’s Evidence Code, testimony by experts is allowed, but not without restriction. It can be entered where scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact in understanding the evidence or in determining a fact in issue. A witness may be considered a qualified expert by their knowledge, training, education, skill and/ or experience. They can use this background to form on opinion or outline conclusions – but only if the testimony is:

Based on sufficient data/ facts;
The product of reliable principles and methods AND;
Has been formulated with the applied principles and methods of the witnesses’s expertise reliably to the facts of the case.

Potential Product Liability Claims as Vehicle Defect Reported in Chrysler Vans

November 20, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

While the majority of auto accident injuries are the result of negligence by one or more motorist involved, crash victims shouldn’t overlook the possibility that a vehicle defect may have been a contributing factor, if not the sole cause.

The auto industry hasn’t garnered a great deal of public trust in recent years, as numerous class action lawsuits have revealed a long-standing pattern within the industry to conceal vehicle defects from unsuspecting members of the public. Last year, as noted by Automotive News, auto makers recalled a record 53.2 million vehicles for defects ranging from seat belt failures to malfunctioning airbags to non-working breaks. These are serious deficits that, even if they don’t cause a crash, may result in one suffering injuries that far worse than they otherwise would have been.

Now, we receive news of the latest reported problem, which involves an alleged defect wherein Chrysler Pacifica vans are shutting off suddenly in mid-travel. The New York Times reports one man in San Francisco was driving at 70 mph down the highway in his brand new van when the vehicle shut off without warning. As she explained, “It just died.” In the middle of a congested highway, the van slowed to a crawl with no power steering or electrical power. The driver edged his way over as far to the right as he could, trying desperately to get to the shoulder with what little juice was left as vehicles whizzed by. He was barely missed by a semi-truck that laid on the horn and was forced to swerve. Continue reading ›

Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit Requires Proof That Duty was Breached

November 17, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

In any negligence action, the plaintiff (person who was hurt) must prove several key elements. Those are:

Duty
Breach
Causation
Damages

Slip-and-fall injuries can give rise to negligence lawsuits, though every aspect must be met. Landowners owe a duty of care to visitors, and businesses that invite members of the public on site for commercial gain owe the highest duty of care. That duty may be breached when a property is not maintained in a reasonably safe condition.

Recently, the Wyoming Supreme Court weighed a slip-and-fall lawsuit that trial court had dismissed for failure to raise genuine issues of material fact. The state supreme court reversed, sending the case back on track to trial and giving the plaintiff another shot to prove her case.

Although slip-and-fall case law and statutes may vary from state-to-state, it’s worth exploring how the issue is approached in other jurisdictions. Continue reading ›

Is Anyone Liable After Mass Shootings?

November 15, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

It seems every other week, another mass shooting is in the headlines. No matter where you stand on the contentious gun control issue, pretty much everyone can agree these incidents are tragic. They leave families not only bereft, but often drowning financially. Those we lose are often people in their prime, wage-earners who help support their families. Those who survive may incur astronomical medical bills and endure months-long recovery or lifelong disability.

But aside from the shooters in these incidents, is there anyone really to blame? The gunmen in these cases (and they are almost always men) often commit suicide or are killed. If they do survive, their punishment will be handled within the criminal justice system. That case could be accompanied with an order of restitution, but it’s often not nearly enough to cover the damages of so many – and that assumes defendant would ever be able to pay it. Unlike a car accident or a dog bite or slip-and-fall at a store, intentional acts of violence are generally not covered by insurance companies. It’s an almost universal exclusion.

Pretty much the only way victims of crime can seek compensation is through third-party liability, usually on the theory of premises liability. This theory holds that property owners knew or should have reasonably foreseen the risk of such a violent act and taken reasonable steps to prevent it. Continue reading ›

Concert Injury Spurs Premises Liability Lawsuit Against Venue, Artist

November 11, 2017 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

Fans of rapper Travis Scott know that when they go to one of his concerts, it’s going to be high-energy. Not only will the bass be loud and the crowd riled, fans routinely form mosh pits, crowd surf and stage dive. But now, one of those fans has suffered serious injury after attending one of these events, and the question is to what extent was this an assumed risk and to what extent could the venue and Scott himself be liable.

The New York Times reports 23-year-old man became paralyzed and must now forever use a wheelchair after he was allegedly pushed form a third-story balcony and dragged on stage during one of the rapper’s performances this spring in Manhattan, New York. Plaintiff accuses Scott of negligence, as well as his manager, the concert promoter and the security company hired to provide protective services that night.

Representatives for Scott said they were conducting an internal investigation of the incident. A representative for the concert promoter declined to comment on the pending injury lawsuit. Continue reading ›