That’s one major reason why many accident victims, after an accident, don’t seek the medical help that they need. But that shouldn’t be the case–one of the things that your personal injury can do for you, is help you tap into insurance sources that you may not have known existed, or help you work with doctors so that they will treat you.

After a Car Accident

If you are in a car accident, you have personal injury protection, or PIP. PIP allows you immediate access to medical care, by providing you access to a fund of 10,000 (or more, if you paid for a higher policy), that you can apply towards your medical bills. PIp is available, even if the accident was your fault and even if nobody was at fault.

Some PIP policies have deductibles. But that’s OK, in many cases your doctors may just hold your balance until your case resolves, or in some cases, the doctors may even waive the deductible.

If you have what is known as medpay coverage on your car insurance, you can also use that, to pick up and pay the medical expenses that your PIP doesn’t provide for including the deductible.

Beyond PIP and Car Accidents

Of course, many accident victims find that their medical bills exceed that 10,000, or they were injured in a non-car accident, such as a slip and fall. In that case, you can use your private health insurance, if you have it, and want to do so, including things like Medicare or Medicaid or any government program that pays for your normal health related expenses.

Again, your attorney will work with your doctors to help hold off repayment on things like deductibles that you may owe out of pocket even with insurance.

Letters of Protection

Some doctors will even work with you and treat you on what is called a letter of protection or LOP. An LOP is a promise to your doctor that if he or she refrains from collecting on your balance, that you will repay that doctor from the proceeds of any settlement or verdict that you might receive.

Many doctors are amenable to this, as they understand that injury cases can take time to resolve, and they understand that while no case is a guarantee, there is some security knowing that you might have a settlement or verdict coming to you at the end of the case.

One benefit to this is that whatever you are out of pocket and whatever balance is being held by the doctor, won’t go to collections, or to debt collectors, or ruin your credit, while you are waiting for the case to resolve.

Schedule a consultation with the Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help with medical bills and expenses, after any kind of accident.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0627/Sections/0627.736.html

What’s the Goal?

The public often sees “suing people for money” as some kind of derogatory term, or something to be ashamed of, or something to be avoided. But the idea behind compensation for injuries is actually very simple, and even, quite moral: The goal is to make you whole again, as best as possible, for an accident that you didn’t cause.

Economic Damages

Most people have no real issue with economic damages, or out of pocket expenses, like lost wages or medical expenses. Most people understand that if you incur a medical bill or lose wages because of someone else’s actions, you shouldn’t have to pay or lose that money. You lose money because of someone else, you should get back that money, is the logic, which most understand.

Non-Economic Damages

But non-economic damages, such as compensation for pain, suffering, anxiety, loss of enjoyment of life, or similar damages, don’t have a price tag. It is less obvious how compensation helps accident victims who suffer these losses.

Many people say that money can’t bring back a loved one, or repair a broken bone, or stop us from being depressed after an accident. And that is somewhat true. But while money can’t undo any of these losses–it can make it easier to cope with them. Monetary compensation also acknowledges that these injuries, losses, or damages, have a value.

Ask yourself how much it is worth, for you to participate in your favorite hobby. Something that you perhaps love doing, or that defines you, or which makes your life a little bit better, because you can engage in that activity or hobby.

And now ask, if that activity was taken away from you through no fault of your own, and through the fault of someone else, how much money would adequately help your pain and sadness and sense of loss?

Money cannot fully compensate you for, say, the loss of the ability to carry your infant child because of your injury. But that doesn’t mean that that loss doesn’t have a value.

If I injure you, and I can still go home and carry my child, but you can’t because of the accident that I caused, how is that fair? Compensation helps make that a bit more fair–you get compensation for that loss, which I, who caused the accident, don’t get.

Ultimately, money isn’t everything–but it’s the best that we have in our legal system, and the fairest way of making an accident victim whole again after an accident.

Let’s talk about making you whole after your accident. Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today.

Source:

news.med.virginia.edu/mindfulness/2024/11/22/the-difference-between-pain-and-suffering/

What is Road Rage?

Road rage is a broad term, for what can be a wide variety of actions.

Road rage can entail another driver getting out of his vehicle to personally and physically confront someone else. But it can also involve drivers remaining inside their cars, and simply driving aggressively. Imagine a driver, angered, who purposely tries to run your car off the road, or who purposely tails you very closely from behind.

Sometimes, someone may just be so angry that they in fact do, accidentally, cause an accident. Imagine a driver who is so desperately trying to catch up to you to yell at you (or worse), and that driver ends up losing control of his vehicle.

Inside the Vehicle

Road rage accidents that happen when the other driver is inside the vehicle, such as purposefully running into another car, have a better chance of being covered by the other driver’s insurance company.

Many insurance companies don’t cover intentional criminal acts, like road rage, but most people who cause accidents because of road rage, won’t admit to acting purposefully–some will claim that it was “just an accident,” and as such, they are unknowingly allowing you to access their insurance coverage,  which does cover accidents.

This is one reason why you should get an attorney to help you in road rage accidents, before saying anything. If you claim that the other driver in fact acted purposefully and out of anger, even if he or she did so, you may be allowing the other driver’s insurance company to deny coverage.

And really, there is a very subtle difference between aggressive driving (which is normally covered under car insurance) and road rage (which generally is not covered), so you should wait until you speak to an injury attorney who can help you, before claiming that any driver acted intentionally or not.

The Jury May Not be Happy

Insurance companies, in road rage cases, are in a difficult position, because they also know that if a jury does suspect anger, or hostility, or an aggressive act, the jury will not take kindly to that kind of behavior. In fact, in many cases, Defendants will admit to liability, in order to try to avoid the jury from ever hearing that the driver was enraged.

Outside of the Vehicle

Accidents that happen outside of vehicles, such as when someone steps out of a car and attacks another driver, create different problems, because that is often blatant evidence of intentional behavior that is normally excluded from insurance policies.

Still, there may be situations, such as when the enraged driver was working at the time of the road rage, where there may be someone or an entity that can compensate you for your injuries.

Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today to see if you can be compensated if you have been injured in any kind of road rage accident.

But that’s not exactly how it works in real life. In real life, in an accident, and after the accident you may find that you actually remember much less about the accident and how it happened than you would think that you would — and in some cases, you might even not remember anything at all.

Why You Might Have no Memory

How does this happen? In some cases, you may actually black out — many people who do black out after an accident, usually from head trauma, report afterwards that all they remember doing was “waking up” after the accident.

More commonly however, it’s just stress and adrenaline. Imagine any stressful or traumatic event in your life. You might recall that your instincts take over, and you don’t have a detailed memory of the event afterwards. The same is true after an accident.

Can You Still Get Compensation?

But just because you don’t remember every detail about how an accident happens, doesn’t mean that you can’t recover compensation for your injuries. Many victims are actually afraid to see an injury lawyer, or to bring a claim for compensation for their injuries, just because they are concerned about their inability to remember details of their accident — but that is an unfounded fear.

Remember that your memory isn’t the only evidence of your accident. Every accident has physical clues, incident or police reports, video surveillance, or other external evidence of how things happened.

Imagine a typical car accident, where a car runs a red light and hits and injures you. Even if you remembered nothing, we would still have the positioning of the cars post-accident, police reports, witness reports, property damage on the vehicles — all evidence that helps us recreate how the accident happened, and none of them are dependent on your recollection of the accident.

In car accidents, experts called accident reconstructionists can even be used, to piece together the facts of how the evidence happened.

You may have even told someone what happened after the accident — friends, witnesses on scene, or doctors — you just don’t remember doing that or might not remember what it is that you said.

No Embarrassment

And even if you are in deposition or on the stand answering questions in your injury trial, saying you don’t remember is not something to be ashamed of.

Most jurors can relate to the fact that a stressful situation can impair memory. Your memory is not the definitive verdict on when and how your accident happened — it is simply used in conjunction with other evidence, that your lawyer can and will gather, to fill in the blanks of the information that you may not remember.

Did you have an accident and you don’t remember how it happened?  Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help after your accident.

Source:

arcca.com/capabilities/engineering/accident-reconstruction/

On the one hand, you may think, no it’s not. There’s no breathalyzer test, and the traditional roadside sobriety test, doesn’t apply. The driver we assume has those medicines legally. And when we say DUI, the words “under the influence,” tends to mean under the influence of alcohol.

But think again because the legal definition of DUI does, in fact, include and encompass driving under the influence of prescription medications.

Impaired Driving

Any type of medicine, to the extent it impairs a drivers’ faculties and their ability to normally operate a vehicle, can legally be DUI.

Of course, the problem from the state’s standpoint which has to prosecute a case, is that without a breathalyzer test, and because many prescription medicines don’t show up in people’s blood tests, it can be hard for the state to prove that someone was driving under the influence of prescription medicines beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard that must to proven in order to get a criminal conviction.

But as an accident victim, injured by someone who was driving while impaired by prescription medicines, you have an easier time proving liability against the driver than the state would trying to get a criminal conviction.

In fact, you can pursue civil liability to be compensated for your injuries, even if the state had to drop its charges or even if the driver was found not guilty in a criminal trial.

Getting the Evidence

Anytime the evidence warrants it (for example the driver was driving erratically or senselessly, or visibly was not able to maneuver or control the vehicle), an accident victim’s attorney should always ask what medicines the liable, negligent driver was taking at the time of the accident, and the time that the driver last took that medicine.

If the driver was arrested by police (even if there was never a criminal charge) the contents of the vehicle may have been inventoried, and that inventory should be checked to see if there were medicines inside of the vehicle at the time of the accident.

Punitive Damages

Whether out of lack of knowledge or because they just don’t care, many people do get behind the wheel with prescription medicines in them, medicines that can alter judgment, make drivers drowsy, or impair people’s ability to react when behind the wheel.

And legally, if it can be proven, an accident victim injured by a driver on prescription medicine, may be able to get punitive damages against such a driver, just as they could if the driver had alcohol in his or her system. .

Legal Marijuana

Many people will get behind the wheel while impaired by marijuana. Because they have a legal marijuana card, they figure it is legal to drive with it in their system. But that’s not true; even if they have I legally, driving while under the influence of marijuana is also DUI.

Injured by an impaired driver? We can help you prove your case. Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help.

Sources:

nytimes.com/2010/07/25/us/25drugged.html

fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/some-medicines-and-driving-dont-mix

But parking lot accidents can be just as serious as any other kind of accident—especially when it comes to pedestrians.

No Traffic Control

One major problem with many parking lots is that they simply don’t have the traffic control devices that public roads have. How many times have you been in a parking lot where two roads intersect, and there is no stop sign, no traffic light or even any demarcation on the road itself, as to who does and does not have the right of way?

Many parking lots aren’t even well maintained—if there are lines on the road to say who has the right of way, they may be old, faded, and not very clear to drivers or pedestrians.

That means that when there is an accident, it isn’t always so clear who is at fault. Nobody can point to one driver or the other and say “he ran the red light.” This can create a lot of he said/she said liability issues, in parking lot accidents.

Pedestrian Dangers

The same goes for pedestrians. We generally know that pedestrians are supposed to cross at designated crosswalks, when they have the walk signal. But parking lots have none of this—people walk in the middle of the road, cut through parking aisles, or get out of their car into traffic, without even looking.

It is true that cars in most parking lots drive slower than they do on outside roads, but that isn’t always the case. It isn’t uncommon for a car to drive up and down, looking for a parking space, at 35mph or more—this is the same speed as many outside, public roadways.

Worse, many of these drivers aren’t looking for other cars or pedestrians, they’re looking for parking spaces. That means that parking lots are an army of distracted drivers.

Pedestrians can also get injured in a parking lot, when cars open their doors—this is also called a “dooring” accident,” as many drivers will just open their car door once parked, without looking to see what the door may be hitting.

Some Benefits for Victims

One advantage that victims of parking lot accidents have is that because it’s private property, a lot may have more video surveillance than a public road. The property owner can be asked to turn over this surveillance, and often, video is the primary way to see what was, and who was not at fault.

If you do truly believe that the design of the parking lot was faulty—for example, that there should have been a stop sign and there wasn’t, or that lines in the lot were faded and hard to see—the property owner may also be liable to a parking lot accident victim as well, giving victims another avenue of recovery.

Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help after your accident if you were injured in a parking lot or on a private roadway.

Source:

nsc.org/road/safety-topics/distracted-driving/parking-lot-safety

What Color are The Brake Lights?

You probably do already know that most brake lights tend to either be amber/yellow, or reddish in color. But you may not have known that recent experiments are showing that the difference between these two colors, may have a big impact on car safety and the number of accidents a vehicle is likely to be involved in.

Recent studies show that amber colored brake signals reduce the likelihood of car accidents, by as much as 22%-25%, as compared to red turn signals. Researchers know this, because they compared similar vehicles whose turn signals had changed in color over the years as part of the manufacturer’s routine design refreshing cycle, which often will change the color of the turn signals.

Studies also looked at cars of different makes and models, which were otherwise very similar in size, engines, or safety features, but which had different color turn signals.

Yellow is Safer

Researchers can’t pinpoint why yellow or amber signals are safer—but they did note that other drivers tended to see and react quicker to turn signals that were amber in color. The reaction time by other drivers was as much as 20% quicker when the other drivers were faced with amber signals, as opposed to red ones.

Scientifically, amber lighting has a longer wavelength, and thus, is more visible through inclement weather. Yellow lights  also may just “stick out” more than red lights do.

Color is so important to reducing the number of accidents, it actually is more effective than adding another brake light onto cars. When the government required extra brake lights on cars in 1986, it did reduce the number of accidents—but not nearly as much as changing the color of the signals reduces accidents.

Other countries have caught on as well, and in some countries, the use of red turn signals is no longer allowed. That’s why the same car can have different color turn signals, depending on whether it is sold in the US or overseas.

Will There be a Change?

Manufacturers don’t seem to be in any rush to change the color of their turn signals; many do, but mostly for aesthetics, and for cost—red lights are cheaper to produce than yellow ones. T

There is a seemingly random amount of red and amber brake lights on the roads. Most manufacturers are concerned about what color looks better, than what color is more likely to reduce accidents, and there is no push by any legislature to mandate that turn signals be yellow or amber.

Were you injured in a car accident?  Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help after your accident.

Source:

crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811115

“If you’re injured in an accident, get an attorney as quickly as possible!”

You’ve probably heard attorneys say things like this. But do you really need an attorney immediately after suffering an injury as a result of an accident? And if so, why is it so important?

Things Happen Quickly

After an accident, time matters. Yes, your immediate concern after an accident is your health, and perhaps your post-accident finances, especially if you’re out of work or facing medical bills.

But it should also be getting an injury attorney, because a lot of very important things happen after an accident—some, immediately, like within hours or days, after an accident. These are things that, if not handled properly, could affect your ability to get compensation for your injuries down the road.

The Defendant Will Reach Out to You

Immediately after an accident, you likely will be contacted by the Defendant. That may be through the Defendant’s insurance company, or corporate office, but Defendants often reach out immediately to accident victims.

They may ask you questions about the accident. They may tell you what (they think) their, or your, insurance policy says. They may tell you what defenses they have. They may even offer you a small sum of money to make the whole thing “go away.”

Either way, these things happen immediately after an accident—a time when it would be great if you just had an injury attorney by your side to handle these things for you, and tell you what the Defendant is really trying to do.

Your Own Insurance

Even your own insurance will want information and answers. They may want statements, medical records, or other documents. If you don’t respond in a timely way, you could lose insurance coverage.

But your injury attorney will communicate with your insurance company for you, in a timely manner, ensuring you don’t lose the insurance coverage that you paid for.

Getting Medical Help

You may have insurance to go to the doctor, but that doesn’t mean your insurance covers deductibles or uncovered medical expenses. And while your doctor may still see you, that balance you owe could end up on your credit report, or else, the doctor may refuse to continue seeing you until it’s paid.

An injury attorney will work with your doctor, and ask them to continue treatment. At the very least, an injury attorney can negotiate these bills and the doctor will at least refrain from collection activities for a time, allowing you to get back on your feet.

Preserving Evidence

As time goes by, evidence you may need to prove your case, can get lost. Video surveillance gets overwritten or deleted. People’s memories fade. Emails get deleted. Damage to property that your attorney may need, gets repaired or covered up.

By getting an attorney early, he or she can make sure this information is preserved, and can get photos of it, or experts to review it. This can help you prove your case later on.

Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help after your accident, because after an accident, time definitely matters.

Sources:

flabizlaw.org/member-articles/preservation-considerations-when-representing-third-party-subpoena-recipients/

httpsusclaims.com/educational-resources/what-is-a-letter-of-protection-lop/

And while a repair of your vehicle, at no cost to you (other than what you’ve paid for the insurance itself) sounds like a great deal, there is one element of loss of damage that you may not have considered: The diminution in value of your vehicle.

Trading in a Car That’s Been in an Accident

Have you ever tried to trade in a vehicle that has been in an accident – even one that had a relatively minor repair or small damage?

If so, you’ve experienced the very significant reduction in trade in value that your car is worth—even if the damage was minor or cosmetic, and even if it was fully repaired. And because insurance repair records are easily accessible by almost every car dealership, there’s no hiding your vehicle’s prior accident history.

Diminution in Value of a Vehicle in Accident Cases

In many car accident cases, victims fix their car with their property damage insurance, and then go on to claim damages for injuries, disability, pain and suffering and all of the other things that victims in a car accident can receive.

But they forget about the diminution in value of their vehicle. They often don’t think about it until months or years later, when they go to trade that vehicle in, and find the trade in value to be markedly below market value because of having been in an accident.

Because the value of a car can diminish up to 50% after an accident, including a claim for diminution in value of the vehicle in an accident can significantly increase the value of a personal injury claim after an accident.

Your property damage insurance does not pay for this loss—that insurance only pays to repair or replace the vehicle. But you can include the diminution in value of your car in your claim against the other, negligent driver in the case.

How Much Diminution?

Usually lay people aren’t qualified to appraise a vehicle that’s been in an accident. But you can take your car into CarMax, or to any dealership, and have them give you a trade in value, and then compare that (reduced) trade in value, to what online appraisal websites like Kelly Blue Book or Edmunds, value the car at.

The difference between the online quoted value, and the value given to you by dealers or Carmax or similar companies, can tell you the level and extent of the diminished value of the vehicle.

Act Quickly

But because cars always, naturally lower in value as time goes on, this kind of comparison must be done as quickly after the accident as possible. Otherwise, as time goes on, it may be difficult to tell what part of the reduction in value is caused by the accident, as opposed to being caused by the simple passage of time, and continued use of the car.

If you[ve been in an accident, get the compensation you deserve, for all of your losses and injuries. Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today.

Source:

bankrate.com/insurance/car/diminished-value-claim/

Robotaxi Drags Pedestrian

Take for example, a recent case of a robotaxi—essentially, a fully self driving car—in California.

A pedestrian was hit by a separate car, but the impact propelled her body into the path of the robotaxi. The robotaxi struck the woman’s body and then, sensing there had been an impact, pulled over. The problem is that in doing so, the robotaxi was dragging the woman’s body with it, and thus, causing her even more significant injuries.

The woman, thankfully, survived, and the company was fined by the State of California (no lawsuit was filed in the case). But eventually, as these kinds of vehicles become more common, courts will have to deal with the legal issues that surround them.

Who is Liable?

The accident above raises questions of liability, and whether the robotaxi (or the company that owned or programmed it), are even liable at all—it isn’t unreasonable for an automated vehicle to pull over after sensing an impact.

The victim’s family may allege that the vehicle should have sensed it had a person underneath, and immediately stopped. But immediately stopping a vehicle in traffic can also put occupants of that vehicle in danger.

What Cause of Action?

Then there are questions as to what kind of lawsuit a victim would file, when an automated vehicle causes an accident.

If the allegation were to be that the vehicle was incorrectly programmed, the lawsuit would sound more like a product liability claim—that there is a defect in the vehicle’s programming or the way that it reads or responds to the road.

But it could also be negligence, in that, just like a person, the vehicle is making a “decision,” and the wrong one. Or, alternatively, that the vehicle is negligently programmed to behave a certain way in a given situation.

What About the Driver?

Then there is the issue of the human person behind the wheel. Most experts believe that although we may come to a day and age where cars are fully autonomous, even those vehicles will need a human driver behind the wheel, monitoring what the vehicle is doing.

For accident victims, that may mean trying to figure out whether the vehicle was at fault for an accident, or whether the human was at fault for not spotting, reacting to, or trying to avoid, the accident.

And then there are the ethical issues—how do you program a vehicle to make choices? Does a vehicle risk its passengers inside the car, to save people outside the car? How far should a vehicle swerve to avoid an accident, knowing that by doing so, it could be endangering the vehicle’s occupants?

Call the Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian for help and to schedule a consultation today for help if you have been injured by any kind of car.

Sources:

reuters.com/legal/transactional/column-driverless-car-problems-are-outpacing-liability-laws-2023-12-11/

cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/nhtsa-robotaxi-cruise-pay-penalty-failing-report-san-francisco-crash-involving-pedestrian/