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On March 24, 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida House Bill 837 in to law. The new law has major alterations to personal injury claims that will impact Florida claimants. While Florida House Bill 837 had honorable goals to stabilize the insurance market and allegedly bring down the cost of insurance for Floridians.  It has been a law since March but have you received any discounts on your insurance policies?  We didn’t think so… The reality is that this law will make it more difficult for the injured to collect the damages they deserve and so far, we haven’t seen any reduction in premiums. The insurance companies are the only ones benefitting from this awful piece of legislation.

Some key changes:

  • The statute of limitations in personal injury cases was reduced from four years to two years. A statute of limitation creates the time you have from the date of an injury or accident to take legal action. This change highlights how crucial it is to contact an experienced personal injury lawyer quickly after an accident or injury. Waiting too long to reach out to an attorney could harm your chances of receiving the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
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You may have come across the news headlines regarding the court decision against McDonald’s, involving a burn caused by a chicken nugget. As a plaintiff’s Personal Injury attorney, I’ve not only seen these headlines but also heard firsthand the reactions to this case, which, while not surprising, continue to disappoint me. So, I thought it would be a good idea to address this issue directly.

First and foremost, many people seem to have formed hasty conclusions based solely on the headlines, something along the lines of, “Well, nuggets are supposed to be hot, what did they expect? This is ridiculous!” However, once you delve into the details of the incident, it becomes apparent that the situation is not as absurd as it may initially seem. Food should never cause harm. Let me emphasize this: YOUR FOOD SHOULD NEVER BE SO HOT THAT IT CAUSES INJURY. It’s a straightforward concept when you think about it, yet some still view verdicts like this as examples of excessive litigation.

In this specific case, a toddler accidentally dropped a hot chicken nugget into her lap, and it became trapped between her thigh and the seatbelt. Consequently, the scalding chicken came into contact with the child’s leg, resulting in severe second-degree burns. Many may dismiss this as frivolous litigation, but there is nothing frivolous about it. Reasonable individuals and businesses should not serve food that is so hot it can injure someone if it touches their skin. This is a legitimate case, and the injury is undeniably real. Admittedly, asking the jury for $15 million may have seemed excessive, but the beauty of the legal system lies in the jury’s ability to determine appropriate awards based on the evidence presented. In this case, the jury awarded $800,000, a significant sum but far from the initially requested $15 million.

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A very common occurrence that we assist people with in our practice is what to do when they are involved in a motor vehicle accident while working. Specifically, situations where the accident didn’t happen while going to and coming from work or at lunchtime, but it actually occurred while on the clock and while performing work duties. In these situations, the injured party has a choice between potential sources of recovery. If their employer has Workers’ Compensation insurance then they will likely be required to at least have an initial consultation with a Workers’ Compensation doctor to assess the extent of the injuries. In addition, most employers in the State of Florida require an initial drug test urine screen in order to establish the claim

A common misconception that occurs in these situations is that the injured party is under the impression that they are required and only have the option to treat under their Workers’ Compensation insurance. However, this is not the case if the injured party is not at fault in the crash and the at-fault party has Bodily Injury insurance coverage. In these situations, in addition to the potential workers’ compensation benefits available, the injured party can also make a claim against the at-fault party’s Bodily Injury insurance. This would provide the injured party two potential sources of recovery for their damages.

In addition the above sources of recovery, an injured party may have yet another avenue to recover for their losses. If the injured party, or the vehicle that they were in when the crash occurred, had Uninsured or Under-insured motorist coverage in their policy this may provide an additional remedy. This coverage would apply if the at-fault party did not have Bodily coverage on their car insurance or if their coverage was not enough to fully compensate the injured party for the full extent of their damages from the crash.

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Many employees lost their jobs due to the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic and economic fallout. Many others became “remote” employees overnight. However, there is a large subset of individuals who are still continuing to work at physical locations. Initially, this was limited to “essential” workers, however, at present a large percentage of the labor pool is working at a

physical job site on a daily basis. This creates a lot of concerns for employers in the State of Florida, but also, places enormous pressure on the entire work force. Concerns over health and economics and attempting to balance these two essential tenets, can be a high-stress, anxiety-provoking matter.

Florida issued emergency legislation on federal, state and local levels to increase paid and unpaid sick leave and unemployment insurance benefits for COVID-19-related absences. The true gray area that exists is with regards to employees who contract COVID-19 while working – especially now that the work “place” is a fluid term.

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The first thing you feel after being in a car accident where no one got injured is relief that the accident was not worse than it was. Only then do the worries about finances start. How much will it cost to fix your car? Will you be able to get to your job while your car is being repaired, and if so, how much will you have to pay for alternative transportation, such as rideshare rides or a rental car? Do you have the money to pay your insurance deductible? How much will your car insurance premiums increase as a result of the accident? If you have to go to court, how much time and money will that cost? Your options for the most cost-effective way to pay for property damage vary according to the circumstances of the accident. Freeman Injury Law can help you choose the best course of action.

Florida Car Insurance Basics

Everyone who registers a vehicle in Florida must have two kinds of insurance. The first is Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance, which covers medical bills and injury-related lost income only; it does not pay for property damage. The other is property damage liability insurance, which pays for repairs to the other driver’s car if the accident is your fault. What do you do about repairing your own car, then? It depends.

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You probably have some kind of car insurance, since the law requires it. However, oftentimes you may not know what your car insurance actually pays until it’s too late. After a car accident, you call your insurance company, they might ask you follow-up questions by mail or phone, and then a month or more later, one of the people involved in the accident gets a check covering the some of their eleigible expenses. Just what are all those details that the insurance companies are working out before they decide how much to pay? Different types of car insurance pay for different things, and in some cases, they can even cancel each other out. If you are not sure if the amount that the insurance company offered you after your accident is correct, contact an attorneybefore you accept the settlement offer.

What is PIP Insurance?

All registered vehicle owners in Florida must carry PIP insurance, as well property damage liability insurance. PIP stands for Personal Injury Protection, which covers up to $10,000 of medical expenses and lost income when someone gets injured at an accident, regardless of who is at fault for the accident. In order to get PIP insurance to cover your accident-related expenses, you must seek medical treatment within 14 days of the accident. If a driver collides with a pedestrian or bicyclist who does not own a car (and therefore does not have PIP insurance), the driver’s PIP insurance might also pay the medical expenses and lost income of the pedestrian or bicyclist. If the drivers involved in the accident have additional optional car insurance, such as bodily injury or uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, then the amount covered by PIP gets subtracted from what the other types of insurance must cover. This is called the PIP setoff.

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As most Floridians are aware as of the date of this blog, the Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida has issued a “Stay at Home” Order for all of Florida as a result of the global pandemic, COVID-19 (Coronavirus). However, while many individuals have lost their jobs and unemployment is at a historic high, there are still any people who are members of the work force because their jobs are considered “essential.”

Essential employees per the Governor’s executive Order 20-89 are defined, generally as: Healthcare providers, grocery, food banks, and other established engaged in sale of food, food cultivators, businesses that provide food/shelter for homeless, media, gas stations and auto repair, banks, hardware stores, contractors, repair workers, mail and shipping companies, schools (only for online learning), laundry and dry cleaners, restaurants and food preparation, suppliers of essential business needs, airlines and transportation, home-based care for seniors and children, professional services, landscape and pool care, child care centers, telecommunications, architectural services, factories, waste management, and generally businesses that interact with customers through electronic or telephonic means.

Currently, Workers’ Compensation law in the State of Florida, does not extend Workers’ Compensation coverage to all essential workers defined above, however, the State is beginning to take steps in the right direction to extend coverage to some workers.

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Aaron Papero, Esquire Freeman Injury Law

So, you slipped or tripped and fell and injured yourself while in the common area of your condominium. What duty does the Condominium owe to you as a tenant or invited guest otherwise known as an “invitee”?

Under Florida law, a landowner owes you two duties:

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Most Plaintiffs in personal injury cases that are in litigation are required to undergo a Compulsory or Independent medical examination also known as the CME. This is an examination that is requested by the opposing side and is done by a physician that is hired by the opposition.

The CME involves a review of records, a physical examination, face to face interview, review of test results, and conclusions. The goal of this examination is to confirm the initial injury diagnosis and determine whether such injury was due to the accident. The physician is also looking to verify that the current symptoms and findings are consistent with the diagnosis made. Lastly, they are looking to determine whether the individual is exaggerating or making up their complaints. This examining physician is not a treating physician and is also considered a hired expert for the opposition. Due to this, it is understood that there is always an element of bias involved in their conclusions.

It is important to keep in mind that by the time the plaintiff enters the examination room, the physician has already had the chance to review all treatment records and other records that were provided to him prior to the examination. The Plaintiff must be prepared for this examination and understand what could potentially be asked by the physician. Hired CME physicians are trained to look for and document potential indicators of fraud and deception during the interview portion of the examination and the availability of all these records prior to the appointment makes it easier for them to find. The physicians look for things such as verbal behavior indicators, omitting information such as prior injuries, too much information, overly specific answers, aggressive reactions to the questions, invocation of religion not to answer the questions and the use of qualifiers such as “honestly” and “truthfully”.

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When an individual applies for a new job, they often receive a pre-employment application and questionnaire. As a part of this application, in addition to being asked about your personal information, the often ask questions about your health and physical well-being. Employers are within their rights to ask about your physical condition prior to employing you in order to assess if you are physically able to perform the work that you are being hired for. This mostly occurs in positions that require physical labor, but can come up in applications for any type of employment.

The most common questions found on pre-employment applications or questionnaires is “Have you ever been injured?” or “Have you ever injured the following body parts,” and includes a list such as neck, knee, shoulder, etc. If you are applying to a job and falsely answer, this can be grounds for a denial of insurance coverage in a Workers’ Compensation claim. In other words, if you are ever injured at that same job where you gave wrong information, your claim may be denied in its entirety.

The Florida Supreme Court in Martin Company v. Carpenter, 132 So. 2d 400 (Fla. 1961) held that a claimant who intentionally misrepresents a pre-existing condition to his employer and who is later injured in a work-related accident will be barred from collecting compensation and medical benefits if certain elements are met. Those elements require the employer to prove (1) the claimant knew the misrepresentation was false; (2) the employer would not have hired the claimant had the employer known the truth about the claimant’s condition; and (3) there exists a causal connection between the pre-existing condition and the subsequent work-related injury.

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