After a car accident that someone else caused, understanding the correct steps can feel nearly impossible — especially if you or a loved one has suffered serious injuries. Yes, filing a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company is a simple process, but going through the claims investigation and asserting yourself as you fight to get the money you rightfully deserve is a difficult process entirely, and one best left to a Homestead car accident lawyer while you focus on your recovery and getting your life back on track.
When it comes to car accidents, Florida is known as a “no-fault” state, and drivers are required to carry a policy known as PIP — personal injury protection — that will cover $10,000 of damages to the policyholder without concern for who caused the accident. However, after a Homestead car accident that causes damages in excess of what a victim’s PIP policy will pay, they will need to take the next step by filing a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurer or filing a civil lawsuit in the Florida courts.
Source: https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/crashreports/crash_facts_2020.pdf
Many people believe that hiring an experienced car accident attorney may be unnecessary to file an insurance claim in Miami-Dade County, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Insurance companies rely on inexperienced car accident victims to manage their own case so they can work aggressively to settle quickly and inexpensively, often using aggressive and even intimidating tactics to achieve this goal. When a claim is initiated by a Homestead car accident attorney or law firm representing the victim, the insurer knows from the start that they will not be able to avoid being held financially liable, and your chances of a successful claim are greatly improved from the start.
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Read more below to learn more about essential aspects of a personal injury case, such as how fault is proven, damages are determined, and how Homestead car accident lawyers determine whether to make a settlement with the insurers or move forward with a lawsuit to recover costs like medical bills, lost wages, and more.
Contact us right away so we can schedule a free case evaluation on your behalf.
Proving Fault After a Homestead Car Accident
Although Florida is technically a “no-fault” state, this does not mean that victims cannot seek compensation from the responsible party for their personal injuries. Instead, this means that victims will first file against their personal injury protection policy for up to $10,000. If their damages exceed this amount, the next step will be to seek compensation from the other driver’s insurance. Before even discussing how much compensation they are owed, they must first assign fault.
Pure Comparative Fault and How It Factors Into Car Accidents
The concept of “pure comparative fault” is not unique to Florida but is a critical aspect of all personal injury cases. According to the Florida Statutes 768.81(2), “In a negligence action, contributory fault chargeable to the claimant diminishes proportionately the amount awarded as economic and non-economic damages for an injury attributable to the claimant’s contributory fault, but does not bar recovery.”
Simply put, a victim can accept partial fault for their motor vehicle accident while still pursuing compensation from a negligent motorist. The final award is reduced by the percentage of fault that the claimant accepts. The alternative to this law would bar a victim from any damages if they were found responsible for any negligent driving at all, but thankfully this is not the case; however, insurance companies will attempt to use this statute to their advantage by pinning as much blame as possible on a claimant to reduce their financial obligation.
Personal injury lawyers will work in their client’s best interest to reach an agreement about a fair proportion of fault before moving forward with damage calculations.
How Car Accident Attorneys Calculate Personal Injury Damages
Once fault is established for your motor vehicle accident, attorneys will move forward with documenting, quantifying, and calculating damages before submitting a demand letter to the insurance company in the hopes of reaching a settlement agreement. Even the best attorneys do not expect this initial demand to be accepted. They will then move into a series of negotiations to reach a final agreement for compensation, whether through an out-of-court settlement or a trial.
Compensatory damages are divided into two distinct categories: economic and non-economic. Each is equally important but drastically different.
Economic Damages
These damages are the basis of most claims and seek compensation for impacts that have set or measurable monetary values associated with them. The most common economic damages are the total medical expenses that a victim accrues, as well as any lost wages or other employment-related losses or impacts. There are many different economic damages that an experienced car accident lawyer in Miami-Dade County can identify, many of which are overlooked by inexperienced claimants and will typically not be volunteered by the claims adjuster assigned to your case.
Many individuals may overlook low-cost damages such as prescription copayments or transportation costs to and from medical appointments, but each of these losses are rightfully recoverable, and you should not be responsible for the impacts of someone else’s dangerous or reckless behavior that caused traffic accidents or severe injuries. Each dollar accounted for in your economic damages may ultimately result in between $1.50 and $5 in non-economic damages under the multiplier method, which will be explained in the next section.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are more complicated to calculate than economic damages because they apply to abstract or intangible impacts such as the actual pain and suffering a victim endures from their injuries, as well as the emotional effects of such a terrifying experience. Insurance companies know how difficult it can be to assign a dollar amount to something as subjective as “depression” and are quick to shut down any conversations about these damages when they are not working with personal injury lawyers.
The Multiplier Method For Calculating Non-Economic Damages
One method of calculating these damages is using a “multiplier” method, which picks a number along a scale from 1.5 – 5 to indicate the severity. Details like whether or not a client will need to deal with impacts of their accident for their entire life will affect this number, as will countless other factors that your accident attorney will consider. Once they determine this number, it is multiplied against the total economic damages. For example, a non-economic multiplier of 3 and economic damages of $100,000 will result in $300,000 of non-economic damages.
Frequently Asked Questions About Car Accidents in Miami-Dade County
The following are just a few of the many questions that are commonly asked to a Homestead car accident lawyer during a free consultation, as well as into the claims process as additional details become clear.
Whether or not you see your questions addressed below, keep in mind that the answers provided are meant to give you a general sense of how Florida law pertains to your unique situation.