Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

Millea v. Erickson – Caretaker Liability for Child Injuries

June 30, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

When you entrust your child to someone’s care, you are trusting that they will care for the child as their own – or at the very least, as basic standards require.

Unfortunately, our Lehigh Acres child injury lawyers know that child-care facilities and home day care centers are prone to lapses. There have been numerous instances wherein these lapses have resulted in serious injuries, or tragic death.

For example, a recent case out of Bradenton involved a 4-month-old infant who died while in daycare. Upon further investigation by the Florida Department of Children and Families, it was revealed a day care worker had tested positive for cocaine and marijuana. Additionally, surveillance footage unveiled several licensing violations. And while the daycare workers said the infant was fed and placed in a crib to sleep on her side, surveillance footage showed that in fact, the child was put in a bouncy swing with a prop for the infant to feed herself. The child was then put in the crib, on her stomach, without being burped. The child was seen in the video kicking her legs and trying to lift her head. Within two hours, she was unresponsive and declared dead. An investigation is ongoing.
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Sidewalk Maintenance and Liability Weighed in Madden v. City of Iowa City

June 28, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

Our Fort Myers bicycle accident lawyers have written extensively in recent months regarding how poorly Florida has ranked in terms of bicycle and pedestrian safety.

Much of this has to do with the way our roads were designed. But as the recent case of Madden v. City of Iowa City reveals, bicycle accidents can often be traced to the way roads and other public thoroughfares are maintained – or rather, how they aren’t maintained.

In this case, a bicyclist was injured when she crashed her bike while riding on a sidewalk abutting the grounds of a public university. The sidewalk was reportedly cracked and uneven, which is what caused her to tumble. She filed a negligence action against the city, and in turn, the city sought to join the state as a third-party defendant.
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Zelaznik v. Isensee – Court Upholds $1.1M Verdict

June 25, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

One of the most effective ways your Fort Myers car accident attorney can help you is by not only gathering and presenting evidence in your favor, but also by working to suppress evidence that isn’t.

In Zelaznik v. Isensee, it was suppression of testimony from a defendant’s expert witness that was at issue on appeal, following a jury trial that resulted in a $1.1 million verdict in favor of the plaintiff car accident victim.

In the end, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal found that suppression of the evidence was a technical error by the trial court, but one that was ultimately harmless. Thus, the verdict and damage award was allowed to stand.
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Report: Brain Injuries Increase With Bike-Share Programs

June 24, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

Over the last several years, bike-sharing programs have become increasingly popular across the country, including South Florida.

Programs have been introduced so far in Broward (B-cycle), Miami Beach (DecoBike), Delray Beach and St. Petersburg, just to name a few. These programs have been promoted as a way to get around quickly and get some exercise to boot.

However, our Fort Myers bicycle accident attorneys know this comes at a price. A team of researchers from the U.S. and Canada found that in cities where bike-sharing programs had been unveiled, the number of traumatic brain injuries has soared.
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Sholberg v. Truman – Animal Owners Liable for Crash Risk Posed When Proper Fences Aren’t Installed

June 23, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

While Lee County is becoming an increasingly urban environment, there are still many swaths of land that are agricultural in nature.

The University of Florida IFAS Extension reports there are approximately 19,000 livestock farms throughout the state. Our personal injury attorneys know that while owners of these animals aren’t required by law to fence their livestock, they may be held civilly or criminally liable if those animals stray onto public roads.

A recent case before the Michigan Supreme Court, Estate of Sholberg v. Truman, dealt with this issue. The plaintiffs were suing the title owner of a horse farm, as well as the horse owner, who failed to install adequate fencing, despite numerous previous incidents of animals wandering onto a nearby road.
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Report: 1 in 6 Lee Traffic Deaths are Pedestrians

June 18, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

A new, comprehensive traffic report covering the last 10 years indicates that nearly 18 percent of all roadway deaths in Lee County were walkers.

That is one out of every six.

To put that into greater perspective, our Fort Myers pedestrian accident lawyers note between 2003 and 2012, nearly 5,200 pedestrians were killed in Florida.

While minorities, the poor and elderly are more greatly represented among pedestrian fatalities, the biggest problem is that our thoroughfares were designed in a way that was intended to best accommodate fast-moving motor vehicle traffic – not slower-moving public transit, motorcyclists, bicyclists and least of all those traveling on foot.
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Florida Hit-and-Run Victims May Get Greater Relief If Governor Signs Bill

June 16, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

A man is fighting for his life following a motorcycle crash in Bradenton in which the driver of the car fled the scene.

Authorities have since arrested the 27-year-old driver who allegedly turned into the path of the motorcyclist on 15th Street East, nearly killing the 53-year-old rider. Police said immediately following the crash, the driver parked her vehicle in a nearby lot, fled on foot and then returned to the scene approximately a half hour later.

Sarasota motorcycle accident attorneys recognize the top two reasons why people flee the scene of a crash is either because they are intoxicated or they have no insurance. In some cases, it’s both.
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Maddox v. Florida Farm Bureau – Fighting for Damages in Dog Bite Cases

June 15, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

During a recent Dog Bite Prevention awareness effort, Lee County Animal Control officials noted there are approximately 1,400 animal bite cases annually – and those are only the incidents for which individuals seek hospitalization.

Lehigh Acres dog bite attorneys note that 8 out of 10 of those victims are 13 or younger, and nearly all know the dog and have interacted with it regularly prior to the incident. Dog bite injuries are usually covered under homeowner’s insurance. However, insurance firms will seek to minimize their liability if possible, so a court battle sometimes ensues.

Such was the case recently in Maddox v. Florida Farm Bureau, where a mother in Brevard fought to claim the full $100,000 policy limit for injuries she sustained when her boyfriend’s dog bit her. The issue was that her son had sustained dog bite injuries from the same animal moments earlier. The insurance company had awarded the full $100,000 policy limit to the child, and argued the mother’s injuries were part of the same “occurrence.”
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Nursing Home Abuse Statute of Limitations Tolled for Fraudulent Concealment

June 14, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that the statute of limitations on a wrongful death claim stemming from alleged nursing home abuse can be tolled, so long as the plaintiff can prove fraudulent concealment on the part of nursing home staffers as to the cause of death.

In Alldredge v. Good Samaritan Home, Inc., the surviving family of an elderly nursing home resident believed she had died following a head injury sustained during a fall – because that’s what they were told by the nursing home administrators. However, it wasn’t until a former employee came forward years later that the true source of head trauma was revealed: Abuse.

Fort Myers nursing home abuse attorneys note the purported source of that abuse was another patient.
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Florida Dram Shop Lawsuit Results in $11M Verdict

June 8, 2014 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

An Eagles Lodge that served too much alcohol to a patron, who in turn crashed his truck into a motorcyclist, causing permanent injury, has been ordered to pay $11.1 million in damages by a Florida jury.

In Wilde v. Okeechobee Aerie 4137, the motorcyclist and his wife alleged that the four bartenders working for tips “grossly overserved” the 72-year-old patron to the point that he was severely intoxicated.

Cape Coral drunk driving accident lawyers understand that testimony at trial indicated the patron had been inside the club, consuming alcohol from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Other patrons offered him a ride, but he insisted on driving, saying if it got bad, he would sleep it off in his truck. Some described him as “falling off the bar stool.”
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