Catastrophic injuries are debilitating, and often permanent, conditions that require greater medical care. They can keep you from working and otherwise impair your quality of life. Another person or business could have fault for causing your catastrophic injury and be liable for the related damages.
Recovering compensation for these types of personal injuries through legal claims can be difficult because of the higher stakes compared to less serious injuries. This may create a greater potential for disputed facts and the need for expert medical testimony to support a claim. Our Sanford catastrophic injury lawyers could help you or your family purse these claims through representation in court proceedings or settlement negotiations.
Florida law offers some definitions of catastrophic and serious injuries for cases related to motor vehicle accidents in Section 316.027 or criminal actions in Section 960.003. While the exact language varies, these definitions generally consider the following types of injuries to be catastrophic:
Many different accident types and events can contribute to the cause of catastrophic injury, including car collisions, slip and falls, industrial incidents, criminal activity, defective premises, and others. Determining the cause of catastrophic injury is one of the first steps in identifying potential claims and your options for recovering compensation from liable parties. Our attorneys could work with you to discover the sequence of events that led to your catastrophic injury in a Sanford accident and help identify those who hold fault.
Liability for a catastrophic injury generally requires evidence of wrongdoing or misconduct by another party through their intentional or negligent actions. In most cases, this could be the individual(s) directly involved in the incident, such as the driver of a truck or a business owner. Other parties could also share in the fault and liability for your injury even if they were not directly responsible. Some examples of liable third parties may include the employer of a negligent employee, the manufacturer or designer of a product, or the property owner where the injury occurred.
It might not be obvious to you which individuals or entities hold some responsibility for your catastrophic injury, which is why it is crucial to work with a Sanford lawyer who could do the investigating on your behalf.
Florida enacted HB 837, which reformed key aspects of the state’s personal injury laws. Among these changes was a reduction of the statute of limitations for lawsuits based in negligence. The deadline was lowered from four years to two years under Section 95.11(4)(a) as of March 24, 2023. You now only have two years from the date of an accident to file a claim for damages if it occurred after that date. However, this new filing deadline only applies to negligence cases and there are other catastrophic injury cases that might have a different statute of limitations depending on the cause. For example, injuries from certain types of intentional abuse have a seven-year statute of limitations.
The Sanford catastrophic injury lawyers at The Umansky Law Firm could lead your pursuit of compensation from at-fault parties in several ways. We help clients investigate the cause of their injury by requesting information and records from potentially liable parties and other organizations. We take this information to prepare a strategy for filing a claim for damages. In this process, we may also advise you along the way about your potential rights to compensation and inform you of issues that could impact that compensation.
You might be in a difficult physical situation after one of these events and are struggling to adjust to your new life. You do not have time to focus on complicated legal wrangling. That is where our compassionate team comes in: we are your advocates for monetary compensation that offsets the enormous medical bills you have experienced. Schedule a free consultation for your case today.
The Umansky Law Firm Criminal Defense & Injury Attorneys
