South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

The only nursing home in the Lower Keys was forced to close its doors Dec. 11 after it lost its Medicare/Medicaid funding. The Miami Herald reported that the Key West Convalescent Center had its provider number revoked by the government agencies after almost four years of consistently negative reports on the center. The most recent report, conducted by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, found that residents were in “immediate jeopardy” from abuse as well as safety and administrative violations. The abuse cited includes verbal abuse, physical roughness and ignoring residents’ requests.

The closing uproots 78 residents. The only other home in the county, which is owned by the same parent company, has room for about 20 of them. The Herald article quotes several people -- one a resident -- who deny that there was abuse at the home. However, it also quotes family members of two other residents who suggest that the problems with the home stem from the parent company’s inaction rather than actions by the staff. If that’s the case, moving residents to the parent company’s other home in the Keys may not fix the problems. One man said he had seen years of failure to fix broken or dilapidated beds, wheelchairs and other equipment. This may not constitute nursing home abuse in Florida, but in many cases, it is clearly a form of nursing home neglect.

Although I sympathize with concerns about moving sick and fragile patients, I believe closing a home with such consistent neglect is the right move. As a Florida nursing home neglect lawyer, I know that neglect can make existing health problems worse or create new ones that complicate the patient’s overall health situation. Preventing bedsores, one of the most common injuries from nursing home neglect, requires staff to help disabled patients change positions every two hours. If a home is understaffed or otherwise underfunded by its parent company, these tasks may be pushed to the wayside simply because staff is overwhelmed by work. The result is that helpless patients suffer, and that is unacceptable.

Nursing home abuse and neglect in Florida make headlines because they victimize the most helpless among us -- the elderly, the ill, the disabled and people who cannot speak. As a state nursing home regulator told the Miami Herald, there should be zero tolerance for that behavior in Florida. When nursing homes and their staff abuse, exploit or neglect patients, victims and their families have a right to hold them legally responsible with a Florida nursing home abuse lawsuit (in addition to any criminal charges). Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help. If you believe someone you love is a victim and you’d like to learn more about your rights and your options, please contact us today for a free consultation.

Three Florida metropolitan areas top the list of cities where teenage drivers are most likely to crash during the holidays. A study released Dec. 3 by Allstate Insurance identified the top 10 deadliest metropolitan areas for teen drivers during the holidays, as measured by the number of teens who crash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The study used the insurer’s own claims data as well as federal crash statistics and data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The results showed three Florida metro areas topping the list of the most dangerous cities. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area topped the list, followed by Jacksonville and then Orlando-Kissimmee. Other metro areas on the list included Kansas City, Birmingham, Ala., Phoenix and Las Vegas. By contrast, the safest city for teens to drive in during the holidays was Salt Lake City, followed by the San Francisco, Cleveland and Portland, Ore. metro areas. More details are available in MS Excel form here. Pointing out that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, Allstate called for teens to pledge to drive safely during the holidays and for states to adopt graduated driver licensing laws, if they have not already done so.

Allstate is right to be concerned about teen drivers, who have less experience than adult drivers with driving in general, alcohol and the challenges of driving in bad weather. But accidents during the holidays should be a concern for drivers of every age. Police agencies set up sobriety checkpoints on holidays for a reason; the probability of intoxicated driving goes up when drivers are going to holiday parties and taking time off work. Unfortunately, teens aren’t the only ones who make bad decisions about alcohol and driving. And when drivers of any age get behind the wheel after drinking (or using drugs), they’re running a substantially greater risk of being involved in accidents that can hurt or kill them and the innocent drivers around them.

As a Florida auto accident lawyer, I encourage drivers of all ages to take traffic safety seriously during the holidays, even if that means turning down one last drink or catching a ride home with someone else. Car and truck accidents can cause wrongful deaths and very serious injuries, including brain damage, severe burns and paralysis. Under those circumstances, it’s hard to feel merry. If you or someone you love has been hurt in a car crash you believe was someone else’s fault, Cohn, Smith & Cohn would like to help. Contact us today for a free consultation on your rights and your case.

The Miami Herald reported an auto accident with an unusual twist: The accident spilled pesticides and rat poison all over the highway. The vehicle involved was a pickup truck, which rolled over for reasons not specified by the newspaper. The spill closed westbound lanes of Interstate 595 for an hour while workers cleaned it up. Fortunately, the man’s injuries were not life-threatening.

Those of us who live in South Florida have another reason to be thankful: The spill didn’t do any lasting damage to the environment or the roads we use every day. Under different circumstances, a spill of a toxic material like rat poison could become a major disaster. Toxic spills aren’t just harder to clean up; they’re also dangerous for everyone in the area, regardless of involvement with the accident. A spill involving the local water supply could make drinking water and farmland unsafe for weeks or longer, not to mention the effects on wildlife. Statistics on toxic spills are difficult to track down, but according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, about 11% of accidents with large commercial trucks -- semis, tractor-trailers or 18-wheelers -- involve a spilled load of any kind.

It’s also worth noting that a rollover accident is surprisingly common for pickup trucks like this one. By now, most people know that SUVs are unusually likely to be involved in a rollover accident, even during normal driving. What you may not know is that pickups are right behind them in the rollover rankings, representing 27.8% of all fatal rollovers in 2006. (SUVs represented 35.1%.) Both are part of a category of vehicles the federal government calls “light trucks.” Rollovers are so feared because they expose drivers and passengers to very serious risks. In a rollover, vehicle occupants are thrown around the inside of the cabin, exposing them to brain and spinal injuries from the impacts, as well as puncture wounds from deformed or broken metal and glass. If they are not wearing seat belts, they may also be thrown from the vehicle, causing death or very serious injuries.

Traffic accidents are so common that many of us have forgotten just how dangerous they can be. Unfortunately, a car crash can be a life-changing event, killing its victims or causing brain damage, spinal injuries and other injuries that lead to permanent disability. If the accident was caused by another person’s careless behavior, victims have the right to hold that person legally responsible with a Florida auto accident lawsuit. The Pembroke Pines law firm of Cohn, Smith & Cohn has substantial experience with these claims, including claims for serious medical conditions. If you’d like to speak with us to learn more about your injuries and your legal rights, please contact us today to set up a free consultation.

Three Broward County law enforcement officers were involved in crashes on the morning of Dec. 8, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. In the first accident, the paper reported that a Broward sheriff’s deputy on a motorcycle collided with another vehicle; it didn’t say how the crash happened or give more information, except that his injuries were minor. In the second, two motorcycle police officers from Sunrise were hit by an SUV that emerged from a driveway, pushing one bike into the other. Both officers were treated and released at a clinic with no serious injuries, and the driver of the SUV was cited for failure to yield.

I am pleased that none of the officers involved were seriously hurt. Despite outdated stereotypes about the kind of person who rides, I’ve discovered that police officers are often friendly to civilian motorcyclists who are clearly responsible and law-abiding. Because many officers ride on duty and know the common patterns in motorcycle accidents, they understand what civilian bikers are up against, including carelessness by drivers of cars and trucks as well as poor visibility, bad weather and the special mechanical challenges of riding. As a motorcyclist myself and a Florida motorcycle accident lawyer, I appreciate that law enforcement is often willing to give me and my clients the benefit of the doubt.

As an accident attorney, I’d also like to comment on the mechanics of the second accident. I don’t have all of the details, of course, but a citation for failure to yield suggests that law enforcement believes the driver of the SUV should have been able to stop. Motorcycles’ smaller size means they are generally harder for motorists to see, and I know that it can be hard to see clearly around parked cars and other obstructions. However, not stopping at all, or merely drifting through a stop sign, is illegal for a reason: It’s not safe for you or anyone around you.

The driver in this accident is lucky not to have seriously hurt the officers, not least because of the criminal and civil liability he or she could have faced. Law enforcement is not shy about charging or citing the people who harm their own, and a criminal charge could be very damaging in any accompanying Florida motorcycle accident lawsuit. Victims of motorcycle accidents and their families may sue a driver who caused the crash for all of the harm it caused -- financial costs, physical and emotional trauma and any lasting physical disabilities or wrongful death. My firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, specializes in motorcycle accident cases. If you or someone you love is a victim in a Florida motorcycle crash and you’d like to learn more, please contact us for a free consultation.

A news report suggests that bad Christmas lights might be to blame for a house fire that destroyed a home early on Dec. 10. The owner of the home, Roberto Gonzalez, told Miami’s Local 10.com that he and his wife awoke at about 1:30 a.m. after they smelled smoke. The couple managed to grab their children, ages four and five, and escape the fire, but nearly everything in the home was destroyed. While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, the station reported the fire started near the family’s Christmas tree, and that a firefighter told Gonzalez that a faulty cord was probably to blame.

According to the American Red Cross, bad wiring (including wiring of electrical appliances) is a leading cause of house fires. With strings of lights appearing every day in honor of the holidays, that’s worth keeping in mind. When a string of Christmas lights or another electrical device comes with bad wiring, it’s a defective product just like a tainted food product or a child’s toy with lead paint. Florida law holds manufacturers of defective products legally liable for any injuries, deaths and financial damages the product flaws cost. Even if the manufacturer didn’t know about the product’s flaws, those who are hurt as a result may still fire a Florida product defects lawsuit.

House fires that take place at night pose special dangers, because the residents of the home are almost always asleep. If they don’t wake right away and can’t be rescued quickly, they can inhale so much smoke that they are unable to wake at all -- causing death from lack of oxygen, burns or very high temperatures. If rescuers get victims out in time, those victims may still have serious injuries, including brain damage from asphyxiation and serious burns. These are physically, emotionally and financially devastating injuries that often lead to permanent disabilities or disfigurement.

This family was fortunate enough to wake up in time to escape without serious injury, but they have still lost everything in their home -- a difficult prospect at any time of year. If it turns out that their fire was caused by a product with unsafe electrical wiring, they would have the right to sue the product’s manufacturer for their financial losses, including missed wages from time off work as well as the loss of their property. Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, has handled many such Florida defective products claims. If you or someone you love is in a similar situation and you believe it may be due to a defective product, we would like to help. To set up a free consultation with an experienced South Florida attorney, contact us today.

A woman employed at a Broward County nursing home was arrested on charges of elder abuse, prosecutors announced Dec. 5. Television news station WPEC reported that a nursing aide at the home is accused of grabbing a resident by the collar and dragging her by the collar into her room. The resident is 88 years old and suffers from dementia. According to the station, the incident was caught on a hidden camera in the resident’s room. The state attorney general’s office began investigating the situation after it received a tip from the Florida Department of Children and Families. If convicted, the aide faces up to five years in prison.

As a Florida nursing home abuse lawyer, I’m very interested in the fact that this abuse was caught by a camera. The article doesn’t say whether the camera was the cause or the result of the investigation by the attorney general’s office, but it certainly turned out to be revealing. Nursing home residents with dementia are in an especially bad position to report abuse because they have trouble remembering things or holding on to reality; some cannot speak. Because of this, they are statistically more likely to be victims of abuse by caretakers. In fact, research published in the Geriatric Times found that five to 11 percent of adults with dementia are abused, which far exceeds the one to four percent of all older adults believed to be abused.

Every family with a loved one in a nursing home should be aware of this risk, especially now that the holidays may be inspiring more visits than usual. Adults with dementia or another mental impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia, may be difficult for caregivers to handle -- but abuse is never acceptable. Part of the reason that families place loved ones in nursing homes is to get the full-time, specialized care that a family member can’t provide. This is an act of trust that caregivers should repay by treating their charges with the same respect that they’d appreciate if the situation were reversed. When they fail, victims and families can and should hold them legally responsible with a Florida nursing home abuse lawsuit.

Unfortunately, nursing home abuse is just half of the story. Nursing home neglect -- staff ignoring residents’ needs, allowing irrational patients to wander and allowing patients to develop bedsores -- is actually more widespread. In addition to being an assault on the patient’s dignity, abuse and neglect can both be very dangerous to older patients, because they can exacerbate existing health problems or even create new ones that have a substantial negative effect on the patient’s quality of life. If you or someone you love is a victim of abuse or neglect at a Florida nursing home, our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, would like to help. For a free consultation, please contact us today.

The widow and three daughters of a North Miami Beach police officer killed in an auto accident won $8.07 million in a Florida auto accident lawsuit Dec. 6. As the Miami Herald reported, the lawsuit stems from an accident that took place in the summer of 2004 here in Pembroke Pines. The victim was driving west on Pines Boulevard when a young woman on a side street ran a stop sign. To avoid hitting the other car, the victim swerved, landing in a drainage ditch by the side of the road and crashing into a palm tree. He was thrown from the vehicle and died in the hospital seven days later.

The victim’s family sued the other driver for her negligence in running the stop sign. It also sued the Florida Department of Transportation for adding a drainage ditch and royal palm trees by the side of a road where the speed limit exceeded 50 mph. This violates FDOT’s own safety rules, the suit claimed. At trial, the jury apportioned 55% of the blame for the accident to the young woman and 15% to FDOT, leaving 30% of the fault for the victim himself. The original jury award of $11.5 million was thus reduced by 30%, to $8.07 million.

This case is a good reminder that the causes of Florida auto accidents sometimes go beyond mistakes by the humans behind the wheel. Accidents caused by bad roads are rare compared to accidents caused by bad driving, but they absolutely do happen. Roadways may be defectively designed if they offer drivers an insufficient view of other vehicles, don’t contain needed traffic signals or have other problems, as in this case. They can also be defectively maintained because of weather, debris, construction or other hazards left in the road for an unreasonably long time. In either case, the culprit is not the other driver but a state, local or federal agency, which may have substantially more resources than most drivers.

Florida wrongful death lawsuits are hard, because no amount of money can truly compensate a family for the loss of a loved one. But financial penalties are how the civil courts punish serious wrongdoing, including wrongdoing that takes a life. Many times, survivors also face many practical financial problems in the wake of a death, including the unexpected loss of an income, steep medical and funeral bills and other costs they never planned for. And of course, a Florida auto accident lawsuit also allows victims to claim compensation for emotional injuries caused by the sudden and irretrievable loss of someone they loved. If your family has been victimized in this way and you’d like to learn more, please contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn today for a free consultation.

A relatively new Broward County ordinance intended to prevent serious dog attacks has attracted media attention recently. The “dangerous dog” law took effect in May, but is only now controversial after becoming the subject of a lawsuit. The law says that any dog, regardless of its past brushes with the law, may be impounded if it kills or seriously harms a human or another domestic animal without provocation and off its owner’s property . Once the dog is impounded, the owner must be given written notice, and the county may euthanize the dog 10 business days after notice is served. Dog owners may request a hearing for a fee of $500 per dog.

Some dog owners whose dogs were taken away under the law sued the county, hoping to have the law overturned. However, the Miami Herald reports that they dropped the lawsuit Dec. 5 in exchange for having their dogs freed. A day before the settlement, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a more in-depth article on the same law, outlining some of recent serious dog attacks in South Florida, including one that sent a 14-year-old to a trauma center for five days and another requiring more than $100,000 worth of medical care for a Hollywood man. Other dog attacks described in the articles killed or seriously injured smaller animals.

I sympathize with concerns about the new law, but as a Florida dog bite lawyer, I also know how important it is to prevent serious dog attacks. A large dog may be a pet, but it’s also a predator with teeth and claws capable of killing an adult human. In fact, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that dog attacks kill an average of 17 people per year in the United States, the majority of them children. When there’s no death, the results of a dog attack can include major physical trauma like nerve damage, skin loss (with lifelong scarring) and broken bones, as well as possible infection. In order to be safe around humans and other animals, these dogs must have their most violent instincts trained away or controlled by the humans responsible for them.

Florida and Broward County laws require dog owners to keep dogs on their property or leashed in public, and to warn passers-by with a sign if they have a “bad dog.” Dog owners who do this aren’t subject to the county’s dangerous dog law. If owners fail to control their dogs, and someone is killed or seriously hurt as a result, dog owners may be liable for both actions by the county and a Florida dog attack lawsuit. My firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, helps victims of serious dog attacks hold owners legally and financially responsible for the results. If you know someone who has been seriously hurt by a dangerous dog in South Florida and you’re interested in talking to us about your rights and your case, please contact us today for a free consultation.

A family in the Tampa area is upset after employees of the dealership that was supposed to repair their car got it involved in an auto accident in St. Petersburg. Tampa Bay’s WTSP reported Dec. 10 that the Fisher family is asking for a new car after Crown Honda dealership employees involved their Honda Civic in an accident while test driving the vehicle. The family had brought in the car to investigate a “check engine” light and signed a standard form allowing the dealership to test drive it. That’s what the dealership says it was doing when another driver ran a red light and smashed into the car, doing $7,000 worth of damage.

No injuries were reported, fortunately, and the article does not suggest that the dealership employees were at fault for the crash itself. However, on hearing about the accident, the family immediately noticed that the time of the accident was 10:21 p.m. Asked what the employees were doing with the vehicle so late, the dealership admitted that they took it to an after-hours flag football game, to check for problems as they drove. The dealership says it frequently sends technicians home with vehicles in for repair, in order to see if they can reproduce the reported problems, and that it notifies its customers when it does this. The Fishers claim they got no such notification.

Regardless of the legalities, full disclosure seems like the best policy if dealerships plan to take repair cars out after hours. But depending on the circumstances, the dealership might also be liable in any Florida auto accident lawsuit the Fishers choose to file. The article notes that the mother of the family signed a waiver authorizing a test drive -- but she doesn’t feel that the 10 p.m. football trip counts as a test drive. A jury might agree, especially if the language of the waiver was misleading or there’s evidence that “test drives” generally take place during business hours. It’s hard to say without more information than the article could provide.

However, what is clear is that the Fishers still have a claim against the driver who ran the red light. In Florida and other states, it doesn’t matter whether the car is borrowed; a driver who causes an accident is still liable for any damage and injuries. If the at-fault diver is uninsured, victims may still be covered by their own UM/UIM or comprehensive auto insurance, even if none of the insureds were driving. If insurers refuse to pay these legitimate claims, Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help accident victims file a Florida auto accident lawsuit to claim the settlement that’s rightfully and legally theirs. If you’re in this situation and would like to speak to an experienced Florida attorney about your options, please contact us to set up a free consultation.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that two Davie men were bitten by a dog in mid-November while they were trying to stop a dog attack. According to the paper, the first victim was walking a Scottish terrier when a Labrador retriever mix ran out of an open gate and attacked the smaller dog. The man and a nearby neighbor both intervened to stop the attack and were bitten. The article doesn't give details about their (or the terrier's) injuries, but it does note that the Lab's owner was cited for violating local leash laws.

That leash violation could make a big difference, legally speaking. As a Florida dog attack lawyer, I happen to know that Broward County requires dog owners to keep their dogs confined in some way -- on a leash or tether, or on the owner's property behind a fence. Leaving a gate open, as this dog owner did, is a clear violation of that law. Furthermore, if this dog managed to seriously injure the men, or kill the terrier, it could be declared a "dangerous dog" under county laws, which means it can be taken away by the county and "put to sleep" in ten days.

Forgetting to close the gate also exposes the dog's owner to a dog bite lawsuit, if the victims choose to file one. Under Florida law, owners are legally responsible for attacks by their dogs on people who are on public property. That's true regardless of whether the dog has attacked or shown any viciousness before. Dog owners may escape liability if they post a "BAD DOG" sign on their property -- but not if they negligently allow the dog to run free, or take some other negligent action. In fact, it's not just humans who are protected from dangerous dogs in Florida. The owner of the Scots terrier, or any other domestic animal harmed by a vicious dog, could also make a claim.

The newspaper didn't report that any of the people involved went to the hospital, which I hope means there were no serious injuries. But people can and sometimes are seriously injured in dog attacks, in Florida and across the nation. Dog attacks send 386,000 Americans to the emergency room each year and kill about five, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The most seriously injured are almost always children, who are left with broken bones, nerve and organ damage and lifelong physical and emotional scars. If you or someone you love was attacked by a vicious dog in South Florida and you'd like to learn more about your rights, please contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, for a free consultation.

A medical study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology found a link between Florida's mandatory vision tests for older drivers and fewer fatal car crashes. According to MedPage Today, doctors from the University of Alabama found a 17% decline in fatal crashes involving drivers age 80 and older in Florida, after a 2004 law required them to take a vision test every time they renew their licenses. Statistically, older drivers are involved in more collisions per miles traveled, and they are a fast-growing group, both in Florida and nationwide.

The study used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a federal agency that studies traffic accidents nationwide, to compare Florida car crash fatality rates from before (2001-2003) and after (2004-2006) the law took effect. To rule out confusion caused by population changes, they adjusted their results for age, race and sex. They also compared the Florida numbers to numbers in Alabama and Georgia, neither of which had a similar law during the time period under study, and neither of which showed a significant change in fatal accidents involving older drivers.

The researchers found that while overall Florida car crash fatalities actually increased 6% after the vision testing law took effect, fatalities involving drivers 80 and older declined 17%. However, they did not find that the law had directly caused the decline in fatalities. The study noted that only 6.7% of the older drivers had their license renewal denied for any reason, including passing the vision test. Other possible explanations the researchers identified for the decline:
• More than three-fourths of the drivers who failed got vision care that helped them pass when they retook the test.
• Drivers who knew they would not pass could have declined to take the test at all.
• Human testers may have identified problems not related to vision in some drivers.
• The results may have been part of a larger trend unrelated to vision testing.

The article notes that other research has suggested older drivers may have other medical or cognitive problems contributing to their higher rate of accidents.

Mandatory testing for older drivers is a sticky subject in Florida, given our population of older folks and retirees. I am sympathetic to the idea that there's a fine line between sensible public safety measures and age discrimination. As the article notes, more research is needed to definitively identify what causes the statistically higher accident rates for older drivers -- not just the factors that correlate with it. Taking away a person's driver's license should not be done lightly, given the very real issues of practicality and self-sufficiency that it raises.

However, a decline in fatal accidents in any group is something to cheer -- especially if it goes against the overall trend, as in this case. As a Florida auto accident lawyer, I have personally seen that car crashes cause wrongful deaths, brain damage and other life-changing injuries. If this law does nothing else but identify folks who need to get new glasses or contact lenses, it's still a good law. If research turns up evidence that people from all age groups could benefit from mandatory vision testing, or that older folks should have a different kind of intervention, I would support laws on those as well.

If you've been seriously hurt or lost a loved one in a car accident in South Florida, please contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, for a free consultation on your rights and your case.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently put out an interesting study on motorcycle helmet use in the United States. The NHTSA's job is to track traffic accidents and promote safety for everyone on our roads -- drivers, riders, bicyclists and pedestrians. Rightly or wrongly, that includes studying and promoting the use of motorcycle helmets. In this study (PDF), it used statistics to predict a slight increase in helmet use across the United States in 2008.

Specifically, the study predicted that 63% of riders across the country would use helmets in 2008, up from 58% in 2007. That rate includes only the use of helmets marked as compliant with the standards of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Another 11% of riders used non-DoT compliant helmets, and the remaining 26% went unhelmeted. Not surprisingly, it found that helmet use was higher in states with a mandatory helmet law for all riders and passengers, although not universal -- only 74% of motorcyclists in those states used DoT-compliant helmets. In states without a universal helmet law, only 42% of riders used helmets.

Among the study's other findings:
• National helmet use hit a high in 2000 and dropped afterward (possibly after several states dropped their helmet laws), but is climbing slowly.
• At 71%, helmet use is most likely in the West and lowest in the Northeast, at just 45%. The South, which includes Florida, had a helmet-use rate of 61%.
• People living in suburbs were less likely (59%) to use helmets than people in urban areas (72%) or rural areas (64%).
• People who ride in rush-hour traffic and on weekdays are more likely (71%) to wear helmets than folks who ride on the weekends (54%).
• Riders are more likely to use helmets when the weather is wet (84%), when they're on an expressway (75%), in moderately dense traffic (86%) and at fast speeds (72%).
• Motorcycle operators are more likely to use a helmet than their passengers, but one using a helmet makes it more likely that the other will too.

Motorcycle helmet use is a touchy subject in Florida. Since riding without a helmet was legalized again in 2000, riders and drivers alike have debated whether helmets are safe, effective or an unreasonable limitation on riders' freedom. I believe this is a decision that we all have to make for ourselves -- and as a Florida motorcycle crash attorney, I certainly feel that riders should not be penalized after an accident for exercising their right to ride helmet-free. Unfortunately, insurance companies often do use a rider's lack of helmet as an excuse to deny or substantially reduce a payment on a perfectly legitimate claim. If this has happened to you, you don't have to put up with it. Contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, to talk to me about your rights and your options at a free consultation.

The St. Petersburg Times recently ran an article on the complications faced by two sisters who are trying to track down the truth about their mother's death. Their mother, Anne Talley, died after going into cardiac arrest at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in 2007. The sisters, one of whom was on the scene that night, dispute claims about how quickly the casino staff called 911 after Talley collapsed and what other steps they took to treat her before emergency medical technicians arrived. They want the casino to release records that could end the dispute -- but because the casino is owned by the Seminole Tribe, they cannot force the issue. The Seminoles, as a sovereign nation, are immune from lawsuits under the legal concept of sovereign immunity.

Sovereign immunity is a legal concept saying governments can't be sued, simply because they are governments. That includes Indian tribes, whose land is technically a kind of foreign nation. It also applies to the federal government, states and many local governments. Governments often waive their immunity for specific purposes, such as a lawsuit alleging wrongdoing by government officials, but they're under no special obligation to do so. In fact, when they do lift it, they frequently make it more complicated and difficult to sue them than it would be to sue a private individual or business. For example, many government agencies require you to go through a non-judicial grievance process before you may sue, or notify them that you plan to sue within a very short time after an accident.

The idea behind sovereign immunity is to protect public funds (and thus taxpayers) from lawsuits that could bankrupt them. But in an age when governments can and do get liability insurance, it's hard to see this doctrine as anything other than a convenient way for governments to avoid responsibility for their own actions, or the actions of their employees. Because the Seminoles decline to turn over the records or simply settle, the sisters have no other recourse. In fact, the article notes that they lost their lawyer because there was nothing else he could do for them. That may all be perfectly legal, but it denies them access to justice, the chance to file a Florida wrongful death lawsuit and perhaps peace of mind over their mother's death. (Victims of cruise ship injuries who have signed unfair contracts are in a similar situation.)

Because of these severe restrictions on lawsuits against the government, I always tell clients with these claims to act as quickly as possible after an accident. If you are suing a government entity that has waived its immunity, you often must still meet requirements with very strict deadlines -- some as short as 30 days. If you're considering this kind of claim, I urge you to contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, as soon as possible to preserve your access to the courts. We offer free consultations, so there's no risk in speaking to us to learn about your rights and your options.

Newly released federal statistics have bad news for motorcyclists. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency that studies traffic accidents, American motorcyclists continued their unfortunate trend toward more fatal accidents in 2007. The study (PDF) on fatal motorcycle accidents was part of a larger study the NHTSA does each year on the number of fatal traffic accidents overall. (Statistics for 2007 are issued in late 2008.)

The numbers for 2007 show that 5,154 motorcyclists (including passengers) were killed last year, a 7% jump over the 4,837 fatalities in 2006. Unfortunately, this continues a steady trend over the last 11 years toward more fatal motorcycle crashes. The number of motorcycles registered in the U.S. and the number of motorcycle miles traveled have both mostly also risen steadily throughout the last decade, which partially explains the trend toward more fatalities. However, the rates of fatalities per 100,000 registered motorcycles and per 100 million vehicle miles traveled have also risen steadily since 1997, until they saw a welcome drop in 2006. While the NHTSA has not been able to calculate rates for 2007, I hope they continue that downward trend.

The NHTSA goes into detail about the types of accidents that motorcycles are involved in -- something that interests me greatly as a motorcyclist myself and as a Florida motorcycle accident lawyer. According to their numbers, half of all fatal motorcycle crashes in 2007 involved other moving vehicles (cars, trucks, vans and SUVs); another 25% were collisions with fixed objects like a tree, parked car or the road itself. Of the fatal two-vehicle crashes, 40% involved another vehicle turning left while a motorcycle went straight, passed or overtook it. While it's difficult to extrapolate a specific accident from statistics, this statistic offers important guidance for motorcyclists: Be extra careful when a car is waiting to make a left turn. Far too many bikers have died because drivers don't see motorcycles they're not looking for.

The statistics also point toward a need for riders to be more responsible. According to the NHTSA's study, a quarter of the motorcyclists killed in accidents in 2007 did not have valid licenses. Another 27% were legally drunk (with a BAC of .08% or higher), and that percentage rose to 41% when the agency looked only at single-vehicle motorcycle crashes, which are frequently a result of bad judgment with turning and speed. And 36% of riders killed in crashes were speeding. All of these rates are higher than the rates for passenger cars; the motorcycle licensing violations rate is actually double the rate for cars. While I have no desire to let careless drivers off the hook, I can only imagine how many lives we could save with better safety education and more careful behavior in our own community.

My wife and I both ride, so motorcycle safety is personal to me. And as a Florida motorcycle accident attorney, I have seen the damage that a car can do to a rider firsthand. If you or someone you love was hurt in a motorcycle crash caused by someone else's careless or aggressive driving, I would like to help. Please contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, for a free consultation on your case.