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Injuries and deaths that occur in the course and scope of a victims’ employment are generally compensable under state workers’ compensation laws. These laws have provision of “exclusive remedy,” which do not allow victims to pursue additional lawsuits against the employer or its agents. 

In a case recently before the Missouri Supreme Court, plaintiffs tried to hold accountable the supervisors of a commercial trucker for negligence resulting in his death. Plaintiffs in Parr v. Breeden alleged that the supervisors’ negligence breached duties that arose from federal regulations – which were separate and distinct from the employer’s nondelegable duty to provide a safe working environment to its workers.

Had the court adopted this argument, it would have opened the door for claims against individual co-workers and supervisors in cases where federal regulations were violated. However, that did not happen. The court ruled that defendants’ alleged negligence were part of their workplace duties, and the violation of federal laws did not mean there was a separate personal duty that was distinct from their workplace duties.  Continue reading →

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Vacationers and thrill-seekers know that Florida, with its seemingly endless coastline, is the perfect location for parasailing. Summer is when the activity really takes off.

While it can be an amazing experience, the problem, as noted by a special investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is that it is largely unregulated. In fact, serious parasailing accidents are mostly the result of faulty equipment.

It’s estimated that each year, approximately 5 million people across the U.S. participate in parasailing. The safety of each of these trips is dependent almost solely on the skill of the operator and the condition of the equipment, there are:

  • No federal guidelines or regulations that set specific training or certification for parasailing operators;
  • No federal mandate for inspection of parasailing equipment;
  • No requirement that operators halt operations during unsafe weather.

Continue reading →

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The Florida Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments today over the state’s claim bill process, and whether lawmakers have the right to undercut personal injury lawyer contingency fee agreements in awarding damages to plaintiffs injured by government entities. 

In Searcy, Denny, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley v. State of Florida, attorneys are appealing the refusal of the guardianship of the court to authorize $2.5 million in attorney fees to the firms involved in the litigation of a medical malpractice lawsuit. As it now stands, those firms are only collectively slated to receive $100,000.

Of course, we understand that sounds like a great deal of money. However, consider first of all that we’re talking about a catastrophic brain injury that was suffered by a baby in 1997 at a Fort Myers hospital. The family, alleging negligence by the hospital staff, secured legal counsel by entering into a contingency fee agreement that provided for an attorney fee of 40 percent of any recovery of a lawsuit that was filed, plus costs. The case finally went to trial in 2007. Jurors awarded $31 million to the family. But, because Florida law limits damages against government entities, that amount was slashed to just $200,000. The family had to petition legislators to pass a law that would award them damages more in line with their actual losses. Finally, in 2012, a claims bill was passed that directed Lee Memorial Health System to pay $15 million in damages, with $5 million of that payable in annual installments to a special trust for the care of the minor. But the bill stipulated: No more than $100,000 could be paid in attorney’s fees.  Continue reading →

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Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeals has reversed and remanded a trial court’s summary judgment in favor of a defendant in a playground injury lawsuit against a local city and the manufacturer of the playground equipment. 

The victim at the center of Bogatov v. City of Hallandale Beach and Kidz Zone Playsystems, Inc., reportedly had to spend months in a wheelchair after suffering a fractured leg when he fell several feet from a jungle gym.

Initially, the trial court granted summary judgment to defense because it found there was not enough evidence to take to a jury to prove the child’s injuries were caused by allegedly defective playground equipment. Continue reading →

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Property owners have a legal duty to make sure their property is reasonably safe for those who lawfully enter. Those with the highest duty of care – which includes the responsibility to routinely inspect the property for possible hazards – are those owners whose properties are open to the public for the financial benefit of the owner. Those would include:

  • Restaurants
  • Hotels
  • Shopping Centers
  • Night clubs
  • Amusement parks

This duty can be breached when a property owner fails to keep the property in a reasonably safe condition, fails to correct a dangerous condition about which they knew or should have known and/ or failed to warn of that dangerous condition – and the result is an invitee is injured.

In the recent case of Grimes v. Family Dollar Stores of Florida, Inc., et al., plaintiff filed a lawsuit against a commercial tenant, a landowner and a hired landscaper after suffering a fall outside the store.  Continue reading →

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Auto accident insurance companies will always fight to limit the benefits you receive following a crash. This is true whether you are a third-party or their customer. 

All auto insurance policies define certain limits based on how much they are willing to pay per-person and how much they will pay per-accident. If the amount from the at-fault driver’s insurance company is insufficient to cover all damages, victims may want to explore recovery through an underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage policy. This could be a policy the victim held directly or one that covered the non-fault driver in a car accident wherein they were a passenger.

In the recent case of Trotter v. Harleysville, plaintiffs argued that the UIM coverage should kick in when the at-fault driver’s insurer did not pay them the full per-person amount to which they were entitled. The UIM insurer, however, argued that the total per-accident limit had been paid by the at-fault driver’s insurer, and thus it was not required to pay any more. The case was weighed recently by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  Continue reading →

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The nation’s biggest youth football organization is nixing the traditional kickoffs in its games in hopes of reducing the number of child injuries among its youngest players. 

According to The New York Times, the organization cited a concern about concussions inflicted on players by the practice. No doubt, the organization is still reeling from a series of high-profile injury lawsuits that have inevitably resulted in declining enrollment. This measure is an effort to reduce the number of child athlete injuries and perhaps paint the group in a more positive light.

There is an increasing awareness of the danger of the sport, as a range of players – both professional, student and youth – have come forward to reveal the devastating injuries they incurred as a result of the hard and often repeated blows they suffered to their head and bodies.  Continue reading →

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The Florida Supreme Court handed down a significant victory for injured workers and the attorneys who represent them in the recent case of Castellanos v. Next Door Co. et al., a challenge to state limits on workers’ compensation attorney fees.

It’s significant because many injury lawyers have been reluctant to take on workers’ compensation cases, knowing they may not be fairly reimbursed for their time. Plaintiff attorney in the Castellanos case, for example, was reimbursed $1.53 an hour for 107 hours of legal work (a length of time which lower courts agreed was in line with what was necessary to adequately prepare the case).

The ruling comes just one week after the 1st DCA ruled in Miles v. City of Edgewater that it was unconstitutional for the state to restrict a workers’ compensation plaintiff to a strict contingency fee structure with her lawyer, and prohibit a retainer fee or hourly fee payment plan.  Continue reading →

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Medical mistakes by hospitals, surgeons, doctors, nurses and other health care professionals cause 250,000 deaths a year. That’s according to recent research by physicians at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who are urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise their “Top 10” causes of death to include this problem. 

According to the new research, which was conducted over an eight-year period, medical errors cause more deaths than respiratory disease. They also cause more deaths than suicide, kidney disease, the flue and diabetes – all combined. It’s a bigger problem than accidents, strokes and Alzheimer’s disease too.

The study authors say their findings make it clear that medical errors far surpass the current third-leading cause of death, respiratory diseases, which reportedly claim 150,000 American lives a year.  Continue reading →

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A statute of limitations is a statutory deadline on the amount of time a person has to file a lawsuit. These time limits are present in many criminal proceedings, but in civil actions as well. 

A personal injury victim who tries to file a lawsuit after the statute of limitations has expired for that particular type of claim will almost certainly have their claim dismissed. That means no matter how legitimate the claim, if it’s not filed timely, there will be no damage recovery.

Florida has a two-year statute of limitations on medical malpractice acts, which is half the normal four years for other types of personal injury lawsuits. There is, however, a seven-year maximum statute of repose cap in cases that involve fraud, concealment or intentional misrepresentation by a defendant health care provider. The only other exception is if the claimant is a minor younger than the age of 8, in which case the seven-year cap won’t affect the child’s ability to bring the action before his or her eighth birthday.  Continue reading →

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