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Author: Dumas Sanclemente Law PLLC

  • Internal organ injuries: Common types caused by car accidents

    What is not visible to the naked eye is more difficult to detect and treat. Internal organ injuries are some of the most dangerous injuries anyone can incur after a tragic car accident. It’s even more concerning to think that they won’t be easily noticeable and only be discoverable hours or days later.

    The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department revealed 401,533 car collisions in 2021, out of which were 3,445 deaths and almost 164,000 injuries.

    Unfortunately, when your body forcefully hits even safety devices, like seat belts and air bags, you may also be at risk of internal organ injuries. 

    Suffering from the inside

    A traumatic brain injury (TBI) – A result of a violent blow, jolt or bump to the head disrupting the brain’s functions – is one of the most common internal organ injuries. As shown by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 190 Americans died daily from a TBI injury in 2021.

    Aside from a traumatic brain injury, other internal organ injuries caused by a car accident include:

    • Collapsed or punctured lungs: Due to fractured ribs
    • Ruptured spleen: Due to a forceful blow to the stomach
    • Internal bleeding: Due to severely traumatized blood vessels, arteries or veins
    • Lacerated liver and damaged kidney: Both due to blunt or penetrating trauma

    It is urgent to seek immediate medical attention. You wouldn’t want to learn that your symptoms – bruising, shortness of breath or accelerated breathing, blood in your stool or urine, abdominal swelling and pain in your chest – have escalated to the point of irreversible damage. Also, you must have medical treatment within 14 days of your car accident to claim your “personal injury protection” (PIP) insurance coverage benefits.

    As a no-fault car insurance state, Florida law imposes that your PIP policy must pay for your medical needs. This provision applies regardless of who is at fault. So, you may claim 80% of medical expenses, 60% of lost income and death benefits worth $5,000.

    Lifelong healing process

    More than the physical pain you must endure, you must also deal with deep emotional and mental distress caused by the accident. It helps to have a legal team who will walk you through seeking compensation for your overwhelming long-term care bills. It will be a long process toward recovery, and it starts with taking comfort that you’re not facing this alone.

  • Seeking medical attention can help you recover damages

    It is easy to minimize your injuries after a vehicle crash, what with all the other concerns you have to deal with simultaneously. But apart from your car, you should also have yourself checked. Even if you feel fine, seeking medical assistance right after an accident offers benefits beyond ensuring you are well.

    Delayed symptoms are common after a car crash

    Many vehicle accident victims only start to experience delayed symptoms after days or weeks have passed. They may have also aggravated their injuries by failing to seek medical attention earlier.

    Treating injuries way after an accident happens is not only expensive but can also be frustrating, knowing that it was not your fault. However, because you took too long to go to a doctor, it is possible that you will not be able to hold the driver who caused your injuries liable.

    Visits to the doctor serve as proof of injury

    The sooner you go to the doctor after an accident, the easier it will be to demonstrate that the accident was the cause of injury. The at-fault motorist’s insurance provider will make every effort to avoid paying you or to pay you less than you are entitled to. If you wait too long before obtaining medical treatment, they may blame your injuries on anything else other than their client.

    Similarly, if you wish to take legal action to recover the cost of your damages and medical expenses, putting off treatment will make it very difficult to establish that the other motorist was to blame. The court may determine that your injuries are not as severe as you claim since you did not feel the need to seek medical assistance right away.

    After an accident, some people avoid medical attention because they either downplay their injuries or are afraid of being told the truth about the severity of their injuries. However, doing so has no benefit. Instead, you would be endangering your health and losing any claim you have to sue. Knowing about your injuries sooner is preferable to paying much more expensive bills later on because they have gotten worse.

  • Suing for wrongful death after a motorcycle accident

    Losing someone you care about due to the carelessness or bad choices of another is incredibly heartbreaking. You most likely want that individual to take responsibility for their actions. You may be able to sue them for wrongful death, but you must prove their negligence, which is usually a challenge.

    Who can file?

    In Florida, only the personal representative is eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the deceased’s surviving family members. If the deceased person has a will, the personal representative they appointed before their passing may file a claim. In the absence of a will or a designated representative, the court will appoint someone for them.

    Even if the individual filing the claim is the personal representative, the damages of a wrongful death claim are paid to the victim’s estate and beneficiaries. The victim’s beneficiaries may include their spouse, minor children, living parents and dependent relatives.

    What qualifies as a wrongful death claim?

    While the loss of a loved one may always feel wrong, there are some legal conditions that must be met to claim wrongful death:

    • A family member died because of someone else’s negligence or intentional misconduct
    • The deceased person’s wrongful death resulted in financial loss for their surviving family members

    To be negligent is to fail to take the usual safety measures or exercise the level of care that a reasonable person under similar circumstances would take. Drunk driving, distracted driving, speeding or beating a red light are just examples of negligent behavior on the road.

    However, in some cases, the person liable for the accident is not another motorist but the entity responsible for maintaining the road or the manufacturer of the vehicle. This may apply if there were a lack of road signage or defects in the vehicle. An attorney can help you figure out who is at fault and evaluate the strength of your case.

    It is completely understandable to find the legal process overwhelming, especially when you are still coping with the loss of your loved one. You may even think that filing a wrongful death claim is not worth pursuing. However, if your loved one’s death was the product of someone else’s wrongdoing, filing a case may help you and your family get compensation for your financial losses and bring justice to your loved one.

  • Traffic safety agency underestimates the life-saving potential of side underride guards for trucks

    Underride crashes are some of the most terrifying types of automobile collisions. They happen when a passenger vehicle (often a car with a lower ride height) collides with a truck or its trailer, resulting in the vehicle running underneath the truck or trailer’s body. If the passenger vehicle is lucky, it hits one of the truck’s axles, preventing it from going entirely underneath. Otherwise, the truck’s bottom shears off the vehicle’s roof and hits the driver and passengers – often with fatal results.

    One way to prevent these fatal accidents is to install side underride guards, which prevent colliding cars from going completely underneath trucks in a collision. Unfortunately, these safeguards aren’t a standard issue on all trucks. The nation’s top traffic safety authority is also hesitant to make underride side guards a requirement.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently published a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of requiring side guards. The report estimated that it would cost between $973 million and $1.2 billion to equip all large trucks in the U.S. with side guards and that the move would only prevent 17 fatalities and 69 injuries per year.

    In response to the report, the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) issued a statement calling out the NHTSA for underestimating the life-saving functions of underride side guards. IIHS pointed out that NHTSA’s estimates didn’t account for other relevant crash types, such as crashes at speeds greater than 40 mph or crashes involving more than one vehicle or truck. The nonprofit additionally stated that NHTSA’s testing used speed limits and police-estimated pre-crash speeds rather than actual speed data recorded from real crashes.

    A senior IIHS researcher said that side guards could save more than ten times as many lives as the NHTSA had estimated.

    Responding to underride collisions

    Until the NHTSA reconsiders and makes side guards mandatory for all large trucks, underride truck crashes will continue to be a risk. The IIHS noted that in 2021, there were 488 passenger vehicle occupant fatalities in collisions that involved hitting the side of a tractor-trailer.

    While surviving an underride crash is possible, most have proven fatal. Tests have shown that slamming into the side of an unguarded tractor-trailer can result in fatal upper body crushing injuries and dismemberment, as the roof and passengers get sheared by the bottom of the truck or trailer.

    If you have a loved one who died from an underride truck collision, consider filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the truck driver and operator with the help of a personal injury lawyer. A lawsuit can hold the driver and operator accountable for the death, and they must pay compensation.

  • Why are elders at risk of severe fall injuries?

    Everyone might slip and fall at some point in their life. Children or toddlers could fall as they learn to balance and walk properly. Athletes might tumble while competing or practicing. These individuals might suffer physical harm during these incidents, but they could be mild and require little to no medical care. However, other age groups could have significantly different challenges.

    Elders tend to suffer from serious harm because of their age and health conditions, making them more prone to experiencing bad falls. Sometimes, their medication could affect their coordination and balance, increasing their risks. Around three million elders go to the emergency room annually for injuries caused by falls. Also, one in five fall incidents leads to severe physical harm, such as head trauma and broken bones. Their injuries tend to require extensive medical care, resulting in considerable expenses that might be too much for them to cover.

    Medical costs for falls accumulated over $50 billion in 2015 alone, with only 75% of it receiving Medicare and Medicaid coverage. If a slip-and-fall hospitalizes an older adult, their resources might not be enough to pay for their treatments.

    Protecting elders with prevention

    Fortunately, older adults and their families could take preventative measures to avoid fall injuries. They could pay attention to preventing foot pain with quality footwear, clearing potential obstructions on the floor and improving balance with light exercise.

    However, they might only implement these steps at home. In public, risk factors could be unpredictable, especially in places of business. If an elder falls in a grocery store or shop due to someone else’s negligence, they might be able to pursue compensation, depending on the circumstances. Doing so could help cover their expenses, especially if they sustained severe injuries.

  • What is aggressive driving behavior, and why is it unsafe?

    Feeling frustrated, tired and stressed is normal. These emotions could come from various situations. However, they could have severe consequences if left uncontrolled, especially when driving.

    Aggressive driving happens when someone intentionally exhibits dangerous road maneuvers and practices to elicit reactions from other drivers or vent their anger. Doing so could dramatically increase road safety hazards, risking collisions that might cause physical harm or fatalities. A driver’s aggression could translate into illegal or unsafe practices, including the following:

    • Speeding
    • Tailgating
    • Cutting off other drivers
    • Running a red light
    • Switching lanes without using any signals
    • Deliberately shifting in and out of traffic
    • Purposely blocking other drivers from passing or changing lanes

    These examples of aggressive driving could result in road accidents that could harm others and cause considerable damage. Additionally, these practices could cause road rage incidents. Unfortunately, these events might escalate into fights that could lead to injuries or death.

    Aggressive driving is common

    In the United States, it is common for angry drivers to engage in aggressive driving behavior. Millions have admitted to switching lanes, exceeding the speed limit and running red lights to target other drivers. Committing these unsafe habits out of anger or irritation could provide temporary satisfaction, but one collision or altercation could leave life-altering effects on the involved parties.

    How to face an aggressive driver

    Facing an aggressive or angry driver in public could be a scary experience. However, staying calm and maintaining a safe distance from these people is best. By practicing best driving practices, you could get through the situation unharmed. Still, if the driver targets you, follows you and makes you feel unsafe, call the local authorities immediately to de-escalate the encounter.

  • Understanding the hidden damages of a car accident

    The damages involved in a car accident can be significant. It is no wonder Florida’s no-fault laws require car drivers to carry a minimum of $10,000 worth of personal injury protection. The problem is that we do not always realize the extent of the damages until it is too late. They can far exceed what the insurance will cover. If you suffered injuries from a car accident, you might want to pursue a personal injury lawsuit. However, you should understand the hidden costs and damages in a car accident to maximize the settlement.

    The financial costs

    The vehicle repairs could be more extensive than you initially realized. You may have suffered physical injuries that take longer to manifest. Here are other financial expenses you should consider:

    • Income loss
    • Medical expenses and medication
    • Rehabilitative costs
    • Vehicle damage
    • Property damage
    • Traffic fines
    • Increase in insurance premiums
    • Additional and unexpected car repairs
    • Towing services
    • Vehicle rentals or temporary transportation fees

    It is not enough to account for the immediate damages. You must be aware of how the accident will change your daily life. When you cannot work or physically care for your family, you might even need to hire help. Sometimes, the damages are not only financial.

    The emotional costs

    After a car accident, a person can have difficulty driving again. Serious motor accidents can result in posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD. It could put a strain on your relationships at home and work.

    A car accident can seriously affect your life. Failing to account for all the economic and noneconomic damages you incurred from the car accident might lead you to settle for less than what you need to make a full recovery.

  • Did you slip and fall on government property?

    Imagine running your errands on an average day without knowing that it’ll be fateful when you must contemplate suing the government for your tragic slip-and-fall injuries on their property.

    Your slip-and-fall incident may have occurred in government-owned and -maintained locations such as offices or buildings, public sidewalks, libraries and parks. If you’re strong-willed to pursue a personal injury claim, you must know that there are varying processes, timelines and awards for each government level involved in your case.

    Florida’s sovereign immunity law

    As much as you’re determined to file a lawsuit, it won’t be as straightforward as you hoped. Sovereign immunity prevents an average citizen from suing U.S. state or federal governments for monetary damages in negligence-based personal injury claims. However, this legal protection differs per state.

    Under Florida’s statutes, you may only file a lawsuit against the state government if their employee’s actions led to your injuries. In the most catastrophic cases, even death is possible. But the state’s waiver includes three limitations:

    • Damage caps: $200,000 against a government agency and $300,000 for multiple government agencies. If you believe you deserve more than these specified amounts, you may file a petition to request more damages.
    • Intent: You may not hold any state employee liable unless their actions were committed maliciously, in bad faith or caused human rights infringement.
    • Punitive damages: You cannot collect punitive damages on top of your compensatory damages.

    Further, the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) adds another level of complexity. Before filing an administrative claim, you must first assess if your situation is permissible under the FTCA guidelines. If your situation applies and you have adequate proof to support your claim, you must ensure filing it on time. Florida’s statute of limitations specifies that you have four years since your slip-and-fall accident. After which, the FTCA allows six months for the government agency to either agree to or refuse your claim.

    Addressing legal adversities

    With extraordinarily complex laws under consideration, it will be too overwhelming to tackle the process on your own. You would not want to risk missing deadlines and misinterpreting important government statutes. You may seek the help of a legal counsel who could ease your worries and help you receive a fair judgment for your personal injury claim.

  • Can social media endanger your personal injury case?

    After an accident – whether it be a slip-and-fall, car crash, dog bite or even a loved one’s wrongful death – you usually want to inform your family, friends and colleagues through a social media post. It’s easy and quick to do, so why not?

    Posting on your social media accounts seems like a harmless move only meant to convey tragic news with just a digital click. However, what you think is a convenient way to connect to your circle can hurt your Florida personal injury claim.

    Think before you post, or don’t post at all

    Anything you share through your social media platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn, is accessible and usable in court by the defense and insurance companies. They may turn the tables against you using the content you put out on the internet.

    • Status updates: The words you use online to describe and explain your memory of the incident may not match your testimony during court proceedings.
    • Private conversations: Chats or direct messages, even if configured with elaborate privacy settings, may still be under investigation once served with a subpoena.
    • Photos and videos: Images or visuals implying that you are doing well and performing your usual activities, like eating out at your favorite restaurant or going on your nightly run, may discredit the severity of your injuries.
    • Location check-ins: Especially if you seek compensation for noneconomic damages such as emotional distress, being at a delightful spot may demonstrate that your current state is not as miserable as you claim to be.
    • Engagements: Commenting on other people’s posts about your accident may also expose your thoughts to inaccurate interpretations.

    Possible damaging content extends to your other online contacts who also have an opinion about your accident. It helps to warn them to refrain from all case-related posts as it only undermines your credibility rather than moving your claim forward.

    Getting off the web for now

    In the age of social networking, you cannot be too vigilant. Instead of contemplating what to post next, minimize online visibility and assess your existing virtual profiles. You can protect your rights by going offline for the time being and discussing your action plan with your legal counsel.

  • The wrongful death of a loved one

    The death of a loved one is always difficult to deal with. We cannot prevent disease and old age. Even though accidents occur, they should not cause the death of another human being. Wrongful death is when you lose a loved one because of negligence or adverse action. It is more straightforward to blame a criminal who intentionally caused harm that resulted to death. However, when negligence is the defining precursor, it may be more challenging to justify.

    The laws of Florida outline the possibilities an individual or entity can be liable for another person’s death. If you lost a loved one due to unintentional but avoidable causes, you may have a wrongful death lawsuit.

    Who can be responsible for a wrongful death?

    Negligence is failing to act reasonably or with due prudence. It is one of the most common causes of wrongful death. Someone should be answerable for the loss of your loved one, but you must understand how they are liable. The following are the individuals or entities that may be accountable for your loved one’s death:

    • A driver who does not obey traffic rules and regulations
    • A driver who is driving while distracted or intoxicated
    • Property owners who fail to keep their property safe and hazard-free
    • Schools that do not have preventive and safety measures for their staff or students
    • Employers are responsible for their employee’s well-being in the office
    • Employers should provide appropriate training for their employees
    • Hospitals and health care providers have duty to provide their patients with a standard or medical care

    People can go through their daily lives without much thought of how their actions or inactions can directly impact another individual. Especially when that individual is a stranger. They could have prevented the death. Your loved one should still be here today.

    Recovering justice for your loved one’s death

    In Florida, any surviving potential beneficiary or relative can seek compensation for the damages they suffered from losing their loved one. They may no longer be alive to defend themselves, but you are here. You can fight for them.