Broward injury lawyer

December 8, 2023

Broward Injury Lawyer on Car Accident Dangerous Instrumentality Doctrine

One of the more unique elements of Florida injury law is the dangerous instrumentality doctrine. It essentially allows the owner of a vehicle to be held legally responsible for damages inflicted by negligent operation of that vehicle, even if it wasn’t the owner who was driving. As a Broward injury lawyer can explain, it’s an important path to compensation when a negligent driver is young, poorly insured, and/or lacking in personal assets.

Recently, the Florida Supreme Court was asked to weigh in on whether a claimant could pursue claims of dangerous instrumentality against two parties – both parents of the driver, one the title holder and the other the “bailee.” The “bailee” is one who gains possession/control of property but does not actually own it. Here, the father of the negligent, 21-year-old driver was the title-holder. The mother was the bailee; she was the primary driver of the car, but both parents frequently permitted their son to drive it as well.

According to court records in Emerson v. Lambert et al., the young man was driving home from dinner when he struck a motorcyclist, who is the plaintiff in this case. The crash was catastrophic, leaving the motorcyclist a quadriplegic.

In the subsequent Florida injury lawsuit, plaintiff named the driver and his parents as defendants, the latter two allegedly vicariously liable under the dangerous instrumentality doctrine. Continue reading

October 10, 2023

“Do I Have a Personal Injury Case?” Broward Injury Lawyer Offers Insight.

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

One of the first questions people start asking after a serious accident is, “Do I have a personal injury case?” Filing a Broward personal injury lawsuit

Weighing both the viability and value of a potential case is important when considering how to proceed. But you’re going to have a tough time answering that question without first talking to a Florida injury lawyer. Even if you have a basic sense of what negligence is and the fact that you were hurt by someone else’s failure to use care, other details can stop a case before it starts.

For instance, if the other driver is negligent but does not have insurance and you don’t have uninsured motorist coverage, you may not have a personal injury case. If you’re in an accident and the other driver was at-fault but your injuries were not serious and permanent, you may have to rely solely on your own personal injury protection coverage (PIP) because your case doesn’t meet the serious injury threshold for filing a Broward personal injury lawsuit, as outlined in F.S. 627.737.

September 1, 2020

Florida Construction Accident Injuries: Can I Sue?

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Construction sites are among the most dangerous workplaces in Florida. Those on-the-job work from heights, dodge moving objects, face the threat of slips, trips and falls, toil down in the trenches and encounter hazardous chemicals, toxic materials and live electricity. Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer

But it is ever possible for a worker injured in a construction accident to sue? The answer is yes, it’s possible, though as our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers can explain, it’s usually a third-party liability lawsuit rather than a direct lawsuit against one’s employer. The reason for this has to do with Florida’s workers’ compensation laws. Specifically, F.S. 440.11 holds that workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy of injury claims by an employee against an employer UNLESS:

The worker is not actually the company’s employee.
The employer committed an intentional tort that caused the injury or death of an employee (deliberately intending to injure the employee or engaging in conduct that, based on prior similar accidents or explicit warnings, they knew was virtually certain to result in injury/death to the employee and the employee didn’t know about the risk).
The employer didn’t secure workers’ compensation insurance, as they were required by law.

It is very tough to prove employers in construction site accidents committed an intentional tort. Most claims stem from the other two exceptions. Continue reading

September 14, 2019

Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit Will be Retried

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

The estate of an elderly, incapacitated woman who was sexually assaulted by a nursing assistant in an alleged case of nursing home abuse will have to take its case back to trial after a state supreme court reversed a $1.7 million award for damages and ordered the case retried. injury lawyer

Central to the decision to retry the case was the fact the trial court removed the question of whether the nursing home aide who reportedly raped the woman was acting in the course and scope of employment.

As Broward nursing home injury attorneys can explain, skilled nursing facilities can be held vicariously liable for the negligence and even intentional misconduct/criminal acts of employees – but only if they were acting in the course and scope of employment. This is known as the doctrine of respondeat superior, Latin for “let the master answer.”

In many cases wherein a plaintiff seeks to hold a company accountable for damages inflicted by a worker, key issues will include:

Whether the worker was an employee or an independent contractor (respondeat superior doesn’t apply where the worker is an independent contractor);
Whether the worker’s actions occurred in the course and/or arose from the scope of his/her employment.

Employers can also be held directly liable under theories like negligent hiring, negligent retention and negligent supervision. Continue reading

May 10, 2016

Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawsuit Filed After Bounce House Blows Away From Beach

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Last Memorial Day, a six-year-old child lived through a terrifying ordeal on Fort Lauderdale Beach Park when the bounce house she and two others were in took flight and sailed at least 20 feet before dropping hard to the ground.

Now, she girl has filed a personal injury lawsuit in Fort Lauderdale, accusing both the vendor and the city of negligence. The inflatable structure had been affixed to a basketball court at the park and three children were inside when a tornado reportedly swept through and picked up the structure.

A recorded cell phone video of the incident shows the horror of those involved as the structure was lifted off the ground. Screams can be heard on the jostling video. The little girl inside, now the plaintiff, would later tell reporters she was thinking, “I was about to die.” She suffered a head injury, was admitted to the Broward Health Medical Center and treated overnight.

In addition to the City of Fort Lauderdale, vendor All Star Events, based in Miami Lakes, is named as a defendant. Continue reading

February 10, 2016

Researchers: Economic Improvement Tied to Uptick in Traffic Deaths

By Ansara Law Personal Injury Attorneys

There are over 20,000 car accidents in Florida every year. Preliminary counts of South Florida traffic deaths in 2015 suggest a sharp increase. In Palm Beach County, for example, The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles counted a 29 percent increase in the first six months of the years to the first six months of 2014 – 102 deaths versus 79 deaths. Motor vehicle fatalities in Florida were also up 29 percent and nationally, up 14 percent.

There is of course the growing element of distraction now that most every driver has access to their own person computer at all times via their smart phone. But there is something else going on, researchers say.

We are now at the tail end of what has been one of the longest roads to economic recovery since the end of WW II. The labor market has improved. Unemployment is down. So are gas prices. This has meant people have more money in their pocket. More freedom to take a trip. More incentive to take a private vehicle rather than opt for public transportation or bicycling. In turn, there are more vehicles on the road and a higher likelihood of traffic deaths. Continue reading