Miami Gardens Car Accident Lawyer
People who live in Miami Gardens, commute through the area, or otherwise travel through are always at a risk of injuries from a car accident. Crashes can happen suddenly, and sometimes without warning, potentially becoming life-altering events or serious interruptions to your life. If you were injured in a car accident in Miami Gardens or the surrounding areas, call Rivkind Margulies & Rivkind, P.A.
Our Miami Gardens car accident lawyers work to help injury victims and their families sue at-fault drivers to get compensation for their injuries and financial damages. For help with your injury case, call our attorneys today to set up a free legal consultation where you can learn more about filing a lawsuit for car accident injuries in Miami Gardens, FL. Our phone number is (866) 386-1762.
Suing for a Car Accident in Miami Gardens, FL
Not every car accident case requires the victim to go to court to get compensated for the crash. In some cases, where there is only vehicle damage, insurance claims will be enough to cover the victim’s damages. However, if anyone was injured in a crash instead of only facing damage to their car, they should consider filing a lawsuit.
In many cases, insurance claims do not pay full damages in Florida. Under Florida law, insurance policies must be “no-fault” policies. These policies work to cover the person who holds the insurance policy in the event of a crash regardless of who caused the accident. This means that whether you hit someone or they hit you, you would usually file a claim with your own insurance company for damages. That also means that you will have to pay a deductible, and any damages you pay will be limited by the terms of your policy. This usually means that you cannot claim damages for pain and suffering, you only recover a percentage of medical bills, and damages may be limited in other ways as well. If your insurance claim is for more than $10,000, you may be able to make a third-party claim against the other driver’s insurance to supplement your damages if they were at fault.
In any case, going through insurance means limiting your damages in some way. If you can sue instead, many of these limitations are lifted. However, to be able to sue for damages after a Miami Gardens car accident, you must have sustained “permanent” injuries or you must show that the damages in your case are worth more than $10,000. When you sue, you can often make a claim for the full value of the damages you faced, including lost wages, medical bills, and noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering.
Determining Fault in a Miami Gardens Car Accident Case
To sue for a car accident, you must know whom to sue and how to prove they are responsible for the crash. In some crashes, determining which driver was at fault can be a difficult task, especially if there were more than two cars involved. However, even in the most complex cases, courts can often decide fault.
Assigning Fault to Multiple Parties
The first thing to consider is who could possibly be at fault. In a car accident case, courts will look at any drivers who were involved as potentially being “at fault.” They usually do not look to passengers unless it is shown that the passenger reached over to move the wheel, interfered with the driver, or did something else unsafe to help contribute to the crash.
When assigning fault to multiple drivers, the court can assign a percentage of the blame to each driver – including the victim. Each driver will be responsible for paying the same amount of damages. For any percentage of fault the victim shared, they will have their damages reduced as if they paid themselves for that portion of the damages. For instance, in a case with a victim who was 10% responsible and two defendants who were each 45% responsible for a $100,000 accident, each defendant would pay $45,000 and the defendant would collect a total of $90,000, losing $10,000 for their 10% fault.
Proving Fault
When the court actually looks to see who shares legal liability, they will often use traffic laws and reasonable driving practices as the guide to determine what conduct was bad and which driver(s) should be held responsible. Drivers owe each other a legal duty to follow traffic laws and avoid unreasonably dangerous acts behind the wheel. This means that any traffic violations that led to the crash could help the court decide fault, and any other dangerous acts that do not explicitly violate the law could also support a claim.
Many everyday traffic laws are essential tools in proving who caused the crash and why they are at fault. Many crashes involve especially dangerous conduct like texting while driving, other forms of distracted driving, drunk driving, tired driving, and excessive speeding. Other cases may involve drivers who ran red lights, rolled through stop signs, failed to yield, or even failed to signal. Talk to one of our Miami Gardens car accident lawyers about how to determine fault in your case.
Call Our Miami Gardens Car Accident Injury Attorneys for a Free Legal Consultation
If you were injured in a car crash in Miami Gardens, Rivkind Margulies & Rivkind may be able to help. Call our Miami Gardens car accident lawyers today to discuss whether a lawsuit is right for your car accident injury case and how to get your case started. For a free legal consultation on your potential car accident case, call our car and motorcycle accident lawyers in Miami today at (866) 386-1762.
