South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

The mother of a 12-year-old boy who died at a state-run group home for kids has sued, the Miami Herald reported May 20. The lawsuit by Martha Quesada alleges that her son, Denis Maltez, was given too many psychiatric medications and not properly monitored by doctors. Maltez, who had severe autism, was on an outing with the state-funded Rainbow Ranch group home in 2007 when he died of serotonin syndrome, a rare but life-threatening reaction to an overdose of drugs or combination of drugs that includes many psychiatric medications.

Maltez had violent outbursts, including an attack on his sister that led Quesada to put him in the group home. On the day of his death in May of 2007, he had gone out with other kids from the home to get haircuts, but became violent with group home staffers. He became unresponsive after staffers restrained him on his stomach inside their van, then died. The next month, Rainbow Ranch was closed by the state.

After Maltez arrived at Rainbow Ranch, the Herald said, he was switched to the on-staff psychiatrist there, who saw Maltez once during his year at the home. That doctor, Steven Kaplan, put Maltez on four drugs: two antipsychotic drugs, a tranquilizer and an anti-seizure drug that can be used as a mood stabilizer. The lawsuit alleges that these drugs were used as a chemical restraint to control his behavior and caused him to sleep through school. During his year at the home, teachers sent Maltez to the hospital because of over-medication concerns. The anti-seizure drug was reduced on the second hospital’s recommendation, but increased again six months later. Maltez was also the subject of an anonymous call to the Florida Department of Children and Families child abuse hotline suggesting he was over-medicated.

Doctors consider serotonin syndrome a type of poisoning. It’s caused by excess production of a brain chemical called serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, sleep, metabolism and appetite. That excess production is caused by too many drugs or the wrong combination of drugs that affect brain activity, including antidepressants, opioids, central nervous system stimulators, some street drugs and certain herbs and amino acids. Symptoms include tremors and muscle contractions, elevated heart rate, sweating, confusion, agitation and hallucination.

Though a lawsuit’s complaint only tells one side of the story, these facts seem right on target for a South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit. The symptoms of serotonin toxicity could easily be mistaken for bad behavior, especially in a child who staffers knew to be aggressive and may not have been able to communicate well. If Maltez really was over-medicated and under-supervised, his family would have a strong case for their Miami medical malpractice wrongful death claim.

Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, represents children and adults throughout South Florida who were seriously hurt or even killed by the negligence of a medical professional. If you believe you or a loved one suffered an injury or illness because of bad decisions by doctors and others, we would like to help. Our Cooper City medical malpractice lawyers have more than 25 years of experience helping seriously injured people win the money they need for medical treatment, living expenses and compensation for an injury, disability or wrongful death. To learn more at a free, confidential consultation, please contact us online or call our main office in Broward County at (954) 431-8100 today.

The Coast Guard has ended its efforts to find a young man from Louisiana who fell overboard on a cruise ship, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported May 27. Bruce O’Krepki fell from the Carnival Fantasy 150 miles southwest of Tampa at around 9:45 on Sunday night, the article said. The Coast Guard had searched more than 5,000 miles of the Gulf of Mexico for him, but stopped their efforts two days after the accident, on Tuesday night.

O’Krepki was on a cruise celebrating his graduation from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Hammond, Louisiana, with 30 classmates and family members, including his own parents. After leaving from New Orleans, the ship was headed for Key West. A soccer and track player, O’Krepki had planned to attend Louisiana State University, where an older brother is a student, on an academic scholarship.

The article doesn’t give enough details about the accident to judge how it could have happened. But as a Broward County cruise ship accident lawyer, I hope O’Krepki’s loved ones are doing everything they can to preserve evidence if they believe the cruise ship line was at fault. Cruise ships spend most of their time in deep waters, outside the jurisdiction of the state of Florida, and they typically have their passengers sign contracts that give them just one year after an accident to file any lawsuit (and restrict them to a court of the cruise company’s choice). That means passengers must move very quickly to preserve the evidence and their right to sue after an accident.

Fort Lauderdale cruise ship accident lawsuits are particularly complicated to pursue because normal personal injury laws don’t generally apply to them. Florida state law no longer applies when a ship is more than three miles off Florida’s coast. Depending on the location of the ship, the port it left from and its registered home port, federal maritime law and one or more foreign countries’ laws might apply instead. Sorting out the right laws, preserving victims’ right to sue and properly valuing a claim for a cruise ship accident can be difficult and time-consuming, which is another reason experts tell victims to contact a cruise ship attorney as soon as possible.

Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, represents victims of cruise ship injuries and their families in lawsuits over serious injuries and criminal assaults on ship. Our Miami cruise ship accident lawyers represent people from around the United States in Florida federal and state courts. We can help victims recover compensation for their injuries, pain, suffering and all of the financial costs of the accident. If you or a loved one was injured by the carelessness of a cruise ship company or employee, we can help. To learn more at a free consultation, please contact us online or call our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100.

As a Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer, I was interested to see that South Florida was the subject of a May 20 Time magazine story about the cost of health care. As the president begins to look at reforming medical malpractice laws, the magazine pointed out that Miami has the highest health care costs of any major city, according to one study, spending 20% more than the national average. The magazine gave several possible reasons for the problem, including South Florida’s very high rate of uninsured doctors.

The article said a full one-third of doctors in Miami are uninsured, a situation that most hospitals and some states outright forbid. (I wrote about this last year, after a South Florida Sun-Sentinel article on the subject. The number is almost as high here in Broward County, where about a quarter of doctors are uninsured.) Because these doctors could lose personal assets in a South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit, the magazine said, they practice “defensive medicine,” meaning they order tests and hospitalization that probably aren’t necessary, just to be safe. As a result, Miami-Dade has more MRI machines than Canada and one of the nation’s highest hospital readmission rates. The situation is complicated by rampant Medicare fraud and a lack of primary-care physicians that drives patients into the arms of specialists.

While not surprising, this issue just underscores the importance of carrying medical malpractice insurance. The article notes that a history of bad medical care in Florida has made malpractice insurance very expensive in this state. As an attorney who also carries malpractice insurance, I can sympathize -- but I disagree strongly that not carrying any insurance at all is a good answer.

Uninsured doctors in Florida are required to keep no more than $100,000 on hand in case they do get sued; they are free to hide the rest under the names of their spouses and children. That $100,000 may be enough to cover some medical mistakes, but healthcare expenses can rise above six figures very quickly. In the most serious cases, they can rise to seven figures. That means patients who are injured by uninsured doctors could be stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills because of a doctor’s mistake, even after a successful Deerfield Beach medical malpractice lawsuit. (The same is true with medical malpractice damage caps.) Meanwhile, insurance companies, whose prices are the underlying problem, see no negative effects at all.

If you or a loved one is the victim of a serious medical mistake in South Florida, our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, would like to help. Based in Hollywood/Pembroke Pines, we serve clients throughout South Florida who lost a family member or were seriously hurt by the carelessness of a doctor, hospital or other medical professional or institution. In a Palm Beach medical malpractice lawsuit, you can win the money you need to pay medical bills, make ends meet if you cannot work and compensate you for any disability or wrongful death. To learn more at a free, confidential consultation, please call us at (954) 431-8100 or contact us through the Internet today.

Gov. Charlie Crist should veto legislation that would harm Floridians seeking fair workers’ compensation payments, the St. Petersburg Times wrote in a May 18 editorial. The Times opposes Florida’s HB 903, legislation that reestablishes a cap on payment to attorneys in Florida workers’ compensation lawsuits. That cap sets compensation very low -- in some cases, only slightly above Florida’s minimum wage. This would make it financially unwise for many lawyers, who run small businesses and often have six-figure student loan debt, to take workers’ compensation cases. And that, the editorial said, would hurt injured workers further by making it nearly impossible for them to get help in these legally and medically complex cases.

The legislation is a response to last year’s Florida Supreme Court decision in Murray v. Mariner Health -- a decision I wrote about at the time. In that case, a nurse was forced to sue after she was wrongly denied workers’ compensation for an injury related to lifting a patient. She won her case, but under the formula established by the 2003 workers’ compensation “reform” law, her attorney was awarded just $8.11 an hour in fees. The Supreme Court unanimously found that this violated the law’s own requirement that fees be “reasonable” and overturned it, giving Florida judges the discretion to adjust fee awards upward or downward when necessary. Both that decision and the Times editorial noted that the attorneys for the insurance companies continued to get appropriate fees, like the $150 an hour paid in the Murray case.

As a Fort Lauderdale workers’ compensation attorney, I agree wholeheartedly with the Times. Of course, I would prefer to be able to take these cases for a reasonable fee -- but the real losers if this bill passes would be people who are injured at work. I can choose whether to take a workers’ compensation case, but workers cannot choose not to be injured. Without a lawyer, they have a choice between representing themselves -- tricky even in simple cases, which workers’ compensation cases are not -- and giving up. Some such workers end up using public assistance programs to get health care or make ends meet, socking taxpayers with a burden that workers’ compensation insurance is supposed to bear. Worse, the situation creates an incentive for insurers to deny valid claims, knowing that the worker’s chances of overturning the decision are low.

Workers’ compensation law is complicated, involving medical, legal, insurance, workplace safety and sometimes union issues. If you have been injured at work, you have the legal right to claim workers’ compensation benefits, which include payment of all your medical bills as well as replacement wages of two-thirds your normal salary. But workers’ compensation benefits are expensive, and some insurers would rather leave hurt workers on their own than pay what they owe. If this happens to you, you should call our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, as soon as possible for help. We can represent you throughout the appeals process, up to and including filing a Miami workers’ compensation lawsuit when necessary.

To learn more about your options at a free, confidential consultation, please contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn online or call us today at (954) 431-8100.

Two men have died in a Lantana aviation accident, the Miami Herald reported May 7. Pilots James Howard Henderson, of Lake Worth, and James Breazeal, of Windermere near Orlando, took off from Palm Beach County Park Airport at 11:30 a.m. that morning. The plane had barely lifted off the ground when it encountered engine trouble. The pilot -- authorities are not sure which man was in control -- made a sharp u-turn and tried to land back on the runway. Possibly seeing that they were headed for a group of people on the ground, the pilot turned harder and hit the ground at a speed approaching 100 mph, causing the plane to clip two parked planes, cartwheel across the airstrip and crash into a parked semi truck.

The airplane in the accident was a 1975 Beechcraft K35. Breazeal’s son told the newspaper that his father and Henderson had been working to restore the plane’s engine. In a separate story, a former aircraft mechanic told the Herald that he had inspected the plane and recommended that it be grounded because of corrosion. Nonetheless, Breazeal obtained a new tail number for it in October. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the causes of the crash.

We may never know what happened to cause this crash, unfortunately. But if it turns out that human error or parts defects caused the problems, the pilots’ families and other victims would have the right to file an Aventura airplane crash lawsuit. According to yearly studies by the NTSB, human error by both pilots and people on the ground is the most common contributor to aviation accidents, far above weather and mechanical issues. And given the age of the plane, and its status as a refurbished craft, defective or otherwise flawed airplane parts could also be a factor. If that turns out to be the case, the manufacturer of the defective part would be strictly liable in a Palm Beach aviation accident lawsuit.

Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, represents victims of all types of aviation accidents in South Florida -- including commercial plane accidents and helicopter crashes as well as private plane accidents like this one. Aircraft disaster cases can be particularly hard on victims and their families, who must wait months for a federal investigation to clear and then navigate through the laws that may apply, which could include multiple states’ laws as well as federal aviation law. The Pembroke Pines aviation crash attorneys at Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help. To learn more at a free, confidential consultation, please contact us online or call our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100 as soon as possible.

A jury has awarded $995,600 to a Lynn Haven woman suing over her husband’s death, the Panama City News-Herald reported April 29. Betty McBride was continuing the lawsuit filed by her and her husband, Woodrow McBride, against former employers and parts manufacturers they believe exposed him to asbestos. As a result, they argued, Woodrow McBride developed mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the internal tissues. He died in September of 2006, a month after the lawsuit was filed.

Woodrow McBride had worked at two power plants in the Panhandle between 1968 and 1996. During that time, the McBrides’ lawsuit charged, he was exposed to asbestos, a known carcinogen, though the installation and maintenance of Foster Wheeler brand boilers insulated with the substance. In the suit, the McBrides named Foster Wheeler and fifteen other companies they believed had contributed to the asbestos exposure. In its decision, the jury found that products from Foster Wheeler and a company not part of the lawsuit, Gulf Power, made products that caused the illness. It apportioned 25% of the blame to Foster Wheeler, 60% to Gulf Power and 1% to each of the remaining defendants. Because Gulf Power was never part of the claim, it does not have to pay its share of the damages.

Asbestos exposure is a common subject of lawsuits because it is the only known risk factor for mesothelioma, a rare but deadly cancer of the tissues lining the chest. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that was once widely used in industry; it is composed of tiny fibers that human beings can inhale but not exhale. Once the fibers are inside the victim’s body, they get stuck in the lungs and are eventually absorbed by the body, resulting in cancer anytime from 10 to 60 years later. Because this cancer is frequently detected late, and because its location near vital body organs makes surgery difficult, the prognosis for most victims is grim. Though some patients live with the disease for years, most, like Woodrow McBride, die within 18 months of diagnosis.

History shows that scientists understood the dangers of asbestos for decades before it was removed from most U.S. workplaces. However, employers in multiple industries continued to expose workers to the material without warning or protection throughout the 20th century, which is why most mesothelioma sufferers are older men, often retired. Many of those patients and their loved ones are now striking back with South Florida mesothelioma lawsuits. A lawsuit cannot reverse mesothelioma, unfortunately, but it can help victims pay for the medical care they need, provide for their loved ones and hold the companies responsible for the asbestos exposure legally liable for their actions.

Cohn, Smith & Cohn is proud to represent mesothelioma victims throughout the state of Florida. Our Hialeah asbestos exposure lawyers can help patients and their families win compensation for a serious illness or a wrongful death caused by the carelessness of former employers and their suppliers, sometimes including the U.S. military. Unfortunately, time is of the essence in mesothelioma claims -- in addition to concerns related to the illness, it can take time to trace back all of the sources of the asbestos exposure. That’s why experts recommend that you contact a Miramar mesothelioma attorney as soon as you begin considering a legal claim.

If mesothelioma has struck you or someone you love, you can learn more about your legal options at a free, confidential consultation with Cohn, Smith & Cohn. To arrange one, please contact us online or call our main office in Pembroke Pines at (954) 431-8100 today.

A man accused of causing a fatal Manatee County motorcycle crash was found guilty of a related traffic violation, the Bradenton Herald reported May 7. James Brand pleaded no contest to a traffic citation he received after making an illegal left turn in front of a motorcycle. The motorcyclist, 50-year-old Donna Burmeister, was thrown from her bike and killed in the crash. Brand has not been criminally charged in the crash, but a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman said an investigation is still underway.

It is unclear from the article how the accident happened, but Brand was cited for making an illegal left turn into Burmeister’s path -- a common and deadly pattern in motorbike accidents. Florida law required the maximum sentence for the traffic violation: a six-month license suspension, a $1,000 fine and points on his license once he completes the suspension. Because he was adjudicated guilty of the charge, he is also liable in any South Florida motorcycle crash lawsuit victims choose to file. Burmeister’s adult son, Gavin Cipaldo, told the newspaper that he would prefer a criminal charge in the case.

Even if the agency does not come back with criminal charges for Brand, Cipaldo and his family can still pursue justice through a Florida motorcycle accident lawsuit. A lawsuit cannot put a careless driver in prison, of course, but it allows the family of a wrongfully killed biker to hold that driver responsible for his or her actions in a court of law. It also allows them to defray some of the financial costs of a motorcycle accident, which can be quite steep. In a wrongful death case like this one, family members can recover funeral costs; any medical and repair costs; income the family will lose throughout the lost person’s working lifetime; and compensation for their own emotional losses. In an injury case, the victim would instead be eligible to recover compensation for injuries, pain, suffering and any permanent disability or disfigurement.

My law firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, specializes in representing motorcycle accident victims such as these. I ride myself, as does my wife, so I understand what motorcyclists face every day on Florida roads. Our Pompano Beach motorcycle crash lawyers represent injured bikers aggressively when dealing with insurance companies and others eager to blame them for the accident. With more than 25 years of experience, we have a strong record of success in motorcycle cases, winning money that allows our clients to get the medical care they need, and when possible, eventually get back on the road.

If you or a loved one has been seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in Florida, Cohn, Smith & Cohn would like to help. For a free consultation on your case and your rights, please contact us online or call our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100 as soon as possible.

As a Hialeah defective products attorney I have followed news reports about problems with defective Chinese drywall with great interest. In short, regulators have seen a flood of complaints in the past year about defective drywall installed in their brand-new homes, generally those built between 2004 and 2008 and especially homes in South Florida. Residents say the foul-smelling drywall corrodes metal in their homes, forcing them to replace components of systems like air conditioners much more frequently than they should. More importantly, the defective drywall makes residents chronically ill, they said, giving them allergies, sinus infections, asthma attacks, chronic coughs and other cold symptoms that won’t go away.

The health problems are so bad for some families that they are forced to move out of their own homes and pay rent on another home. That was the story for the family featured in a May 6 article on CNN.com. Until recently, homeowner Amy Massachi lived in an 18-month-old, $1.2 million home in Parkland with her children and other family members, including a pregnant niece. But after more than a year of chronic visits from the family for sore throats, respiratory infections and bloody noses, their doctor advised them to simply move out. Despite the health risk, Massachi’s mortgage lender refuses to suspend her payments, leaving her obligated to pay off a home she now believes is worthless, along with rent payments.

According to CNN, authorities believe the problem is drywall imported from China during the housing boom. A test for the Florida Department of Health found volatile strontium sulfide in the drywall, which created the smell and the corrosive vapors when exposed to heat and humidity -- very common conditions in South Florida. Authorities don’t yet know how the compound is related to the corrosion and health problems, but multiple state and federal agencies are investigating, including the EPA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has received more than 180 complaints about the drywall. The Florida Department of Health told CNN it had received more than 330 complaints.

The defective Chinese drywall has already spurred multiple product liability lawsuits, and as a Boca Raton defective products lawyer, I predict many more. CNN reported that as many as 30,000 homes across the U.S. may contain the drywall, and that adds up to hundreds of thousands of affected homeowners. Florida state law allows people who have been harmed by defective products like the drywall to sue manufacturers for deaths, serious injuries and any financial costs the flawed product required. In Massachi’s case and in many others, those financial costs could be as much as the cost of the defective home. Home builders and others who used the defective drywall might also be liable in a Miami defective product lawsuit.

If your family is experiencing serious physical and financial problems because of defective Chinese drywall, or any other dangerous product, Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help. We have more than 25 years of experience helping seriously injured Floridians get justice after they were seriously hurt by someone else’s negligence. We can help you win the money you need to pay the costs of chronic illness and multiple doctor visits, missed work and the cost of setting up an entire new home. And we offer free consultations, so you can learn more about your options without any further obligation. To set one up, please contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn online or call us at (954) 431-8100 as soon as possible.

A recent article in Highlands Today highlights one of the least understood aspects of a serious motorcycle accident -- the financial costs. The May 11 article focuses on 28-year-old Jason Pearson, who was gravely injured in January after a driver made a U-turn into his motorcycle. The accident broke bones in nearly every part of his body, tore all of the ligaments and tendons in one knee and left a steel plate in one arm. Doctors had to amputate part of his left foot and remove his spleen. Perhaps most heartbreakingly of all, the accident damaged his brain, leaving him with speech problems and sometimes trouble recognizing his family.

Right after the accident, hospital administrators told the Pearson family to consider making funeral arrangements. Luckily, they were wrong -- but healing is coming at a very high financial cost. The newspaper said Pearson has had 18 surgeries since he arrived at the Tampa General Hospital trauma center, at a cost of $3 million and rising. His therapy is showing signs of success -- he recently began to eat solid food again -- but it costs another $1,850 a day. To pay some of those costs, family and friends are holding a benefit breakfast and bike run May 16.

As a motorcyclist and a Pembroke Pines motorcycle accident attorney, I am all too familiar with staggering medical bills like these. Medical care for serious motorcycle accidents like Pearson’s can easily reach into the seven figures, especially if the victim sustained brain damage or severe burns. These costs can quickly exceed the lifetime cap on the victim’s health insurance -- if there is any -- and no ordinary family can pay these costs out of their own pockets. When another driver is at fault, his or her insurance company should pay at least some of those costs -- but when claims are this expensive, insurance companies are willing to fight, even going so far as to blame the victim to keep from paying what they owe.

Sometimes, a Broward County motorcycle crash lawsuit is the only way to force insurance companies to do the right thing. In a lawsuit, motorcycle accident victims can win money not only for their current and future medical bills, but also for other costs of the accident, including repairs to the bike and lost income if the victim cannot work. Just as importantly, it allows victims and their families to claim compensation for their injuries, physical pain and emotional suffering and any disability or wrongful death they suffered.

If you or a loved one has suffered a catastrophic motorcycle accident, my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, can help. My wife and I both ride, so I understand the prejudice and wrong ideas that motorcyclists face -- and as a Hollywood motorcycle accident attorney with more than 25 years of experience, I know how to fight it. Our firm offers free, confidential consultations, so you risk nothing by speaking to us about your rights and your case. To set one up, please contact us online as soon as possible or call us at (954) 431-8100.

The family of a woman who died in a Brevard County psychiatric facility believes there’s more to her death than they’ve been told, the Orlando Sentinel reported May 5. LaWanda Smith died in 2005 at Circles of Care in Melbourne, where she was being treated for schizophrenia. Officially, her death was caused by a blood clot in her lungs that had traveled from an area of unexplained trauma on her right leg. But a former nurse at the facility alleges that workers allowed Smith to suffer for ten minutes after she collapsed before anyone called 911.

The nurse, Martin Yesowitch, says he was called to help move Smith after she had collapsed. According to official records, she developed trouble breathing after she was given a drug for nausea. When Yesowitch arrived, he found her lying on the floor with a distraught mental health technician. That technician, Megan Lushefski, said she had repeatedly asked Smith’s nurse and others for help, but was ignored. After about ten minutes, they called Yesowitch for help. He took Smith’s pulse and immediately called for emergency help, a call he says was heard by several nearby health care professionals. Unfortunately, it was too late; Smith was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The next day, Yesowitch claims, he was instructed by supervisors not to say anything. He defied that instruction by reporting the death to the county Medical Examiner’s Office, the Florida Department of Health, the Agency for Health Care Management and, eventually, the Smith family. The two health care agencies are investigating the incident, but the Brevard County State’s Attorney’s office has closed its investigation, saying evidence did not support a criminal charge. The Smiths also may not pursue a South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit, because only spouses, children and dependents may file such a claim for wrongful death in Florida, and LaWanda Smith was single. With their legal options limited, the Smiths are hoping that state agencies will reveal the full story and take any appropriate disciplinary action.

A medical malpractice lawsuit is supposed to help families in situations like this, where authorities either cannot or will not act. Smith’s death, unfortunately, falls into a huge loophole that removes legal liability for medical professionals who negligently cause the deaths of unmarried adults with no children, or whose children are adults themselves. If state agencies take no action against the workers who allegedly let Smith die, those workers may be left with no accountability for any crime or unprofessional conduct.

Families of medical malpractice victims in Florida who do qualify may file a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical professionals whose negligence caused a death. Spouses and children under age 25 of medical malpractice victims may claim the cost of the shoddy medical care and funeral costs, as well as compensation for the loss of the victim’s income and their own grief, pain and loss of companionship.

If your family has suffered a death like this, our law firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, can help. To tell one of our Coral Springs medical malpractice lawyers about your case and learn more about how we can help, please contact us online or call (954) 431-8100 today for a free, confidential consultation.

Eight motorists in Martin County were injured in a chain-reaction crash on Martin Highway, Treasure Coast Palm reported May 4. No one was killed in the accident, the newspaper said, but three cars were destroyed and the highway was closed for nearly four hours. Most victims’ injuries were minor, but one man had to be airlifted to the hospital with serious injuries. The closing complicated traffic in the region, which was already being rerouted after an entrance to the Florida Turnpike was closed due to a gas pipeline explosion.

The crash started when truck driver Noah Schou failed to slow his flatbed truck in time for stopped traffic ahead. Schou’s truck rear-ended a pickup driven by Esteban Moreno, which set off a chain reaction involving seven other vehicles, including one oncoming semi truck. The crash caused Moreno’s pickup to catch fire and sprayed debris across the road, witness Josh Ebright told the newspaper. Ebright was among several strangers who helped to pull the seriously injured Moreno out of his burning truck. All of the other people involved suffered only minor injuries, although several vehicles, including one in the opposing lanes, were heavily damaged. Schou was not injured, but was charged with careless driving.

That criminal charge could cause serious trouble for Schou and any trucking company he might work for, if the accident leads to a Florida trucking accident lawsuit. Generally speaking, a criminal charge or even a traffic citation is strong evidence that a driver’s actions were extremely careless -- and carelessness is an essential element of proving a legal claim. Broward County semi truck crash lawyers like us can use that evidence to prove that our clients’ injuries were caused by a truck driver’s irresponsible behavior, and in turn, that our clients are entitled to financial compensation for those injuries.

Most of the victims in this crash were fortunate, but generally, trucking accidents leave their victims with very serious and sometimes fatal injuries. Because tractor-trailers, big rigs and other large trucks are so much heavier than ordinary cars and trucks, a crash between the two vehicle types can crush the smaller vehicle in an instant, killing those inside or leaving them with catastrophic injuries such as brain damage, spinal damage or severe burns. In addition to being devastating, these injuries are also very expensive to treat, requiring long hospital stays and months of rehabilitation. The most severely injured may never be able to return to work and family life, requiring a lifetime of care.

When those injuries were caused by another person’s carelessness, victims and their families have the right to file a Coral Springs tractor-trailer accident lawsuit against the responsible parties. Our law firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, can help. Based in Hollywood, our firm serves trucking accident victims throughout South Florida. To learn more about your legal options and your rights at a free consultation, please contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn today.

Florida law enforcement officers may soon have the right to pull over motorists they can see are not wearing seatbelts, the Orlando Sentinel reported May 4. Gov. Charlie Crist is widely expected to sign into law a bill passed by the Florida legislature allowing officers to write tickets to motorists they can see are not wearing seatbelts, even if they aren’t suspected of other traffic violations. After court costs and fees, the Sentinel wrote, the cost of the ticket is expected to be $93 to $119. It takes effect June 30.

The law converts the state’s existing seatbelt law from a “secondary” enforcement law to “primary” enforcement. In practice, this means that officers can now pull motorists over and ticket them just for not wearing belts, whereas before they could only write a seatbelt ticket if the motorist had already been pulled over for another violation. The law was the subject of debate for two reasons. Opponents argued that a primary enforcement law would encourage racial profiling by giving officers an excuse to pull more people over. Others objected to the idea of any mandatory seatbelt law at all. Adults should have the right to make their own decisions, the argument goes, even if those decisions are dangerous.

I have a lot of sympathy for freedom arguments. However, as a South Florida auto accident lawyer, I believe that drivers should voluntarily choose to wear a seatbelt, even if it is not required by law. By now, the research is clear that seatbelts save lives -- research from the federal Department of Transportation shows that proper seatbelt use cuts the risk of fatal injury in a crash by 45%, and the risk of a serious but nonfatal injury by 50%. Those numbers are for car crashes -- the protection is even greater for people in SUVs, pickups and vans. Seatbelts also keep people from being thrown out of their vehicles and from being thrown violently around the vehicle during a rollover, both of which substantially increase the chance of death and serious injuries such as brain damage.

Research also shows that moving to a primary enforcement seatbelt law really does raise the rate of seatbelt use, and substantially so. For example, our neighbors in Alabama adopted a primary enforcement law in 1999, when seatbelt use was at 58%. Two years later, it was at 79%, and in 2005, it had risen to 82%. That is, over six years, nearly a quarter of Alabamans began wearing belts after the law passed. It’s impossible to say how many of these people might have been in car wrecks, but statistics from the Department of Transportation predict that universal seatbelt use would save 33% more lives than seatbelts currently save, or more than 5,000 people every year.

The State of Florida may make some money from this new law, but as a Hollywood car crash attorney, I bet law enforcement would be pleased if everyone buckled up and they couldn’t make a dime. Car wrecks cause deaths and catastrophic, life-changing injuries. When those accidents were caused by another person’s carelessness, victims have the right to sue for all of the costs of the accident, including medical and repair bills, lost work and other financial expenses, and compensation for pain, suffering, injuries and any death or disability.

The Fort Lauderdale car wreck lawyers at Cohn, Smith & Cohn handle these claims for clients throughout South Florida. To learn more about how we can help, please contact us online or call our main Broward County office at (954) 431-8100 for a free, confidential consultation.

This week, an Orlando jury will hear a Florida brain injury lawsuit brought by the daughter of a man hit by a municipal bus. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Gwendolyn Gill of Connecticut is suing over the injuries to her father, Robert Lee Jones. Jones was 71 when he was hit by a LYNX bus while crossing a street in Midway. The report said the collision broke the front window of the bus. Jones did not die then, but lived for 15 more months in medical facilities, or a nursing home, before dying of pneumonia. Gill is suing the municipal bus authority for her father’s medical costs, as well as his pain and suffering.

According to the Sentinel, the plaintiff and the defense offered different accounts of the accident. The accident took place as Jones was crossing the street at 9:40 p.m. in September of 2003. Gill’s attorney told the jury that the bus driver ran a stop sign and made such a wide right turn that the nose of the bus intruded into the grass on the far side of the road, where Jones was standing. The defense, by contrast, said Jones was 50 feet from the intersection, outside the crosswalk where drivers expect to find pedestrians. Jones made progress in his recovery after the accident, the defense said, but it was complicated by his preexisting dementia and cancer.

It’s impossible to know whose claims are true. But thanks to my experience as a Fort Lauderdale brain injury lawyer, I know it would be exceptional for a 71-year-old man to make significant progress in a serious brain injury. Unfortunately, older people are less resilient than others -- but even healthy young people can never fully recover from a brain injury. Brain tissue does not heal like most of the other tissues of the body, so a serious brain injury permanently robs its victim of some abilities. Dementia can only complicate those problems. The victim is likely to be left at least a little disabled, and may need months of rehabilitation or a lifetime of full-time care.

These medical needs can be staggeringly expensive, particularly for a victim on a fixed income. Nursing home care alone costs tens of thousands of dollars a year, and medical expenses for a serious brain injury can easily reach into six figures. When the injury was caused by someone else’s carelessness -- as alleged in this lawsuit -- victims and their families have the right to sue for all of the costs of the injury. That includes the cost of all medical care and support care the victim needs, as well as any income he or she lost and compensation for pain, suffering and life with a permanent disability.

If you or someone you love has suffered this sort of serious brain damage because of a negligent driver, you should speak to the Broward County brain injury attorneys at Cohn, Smith & Cohn. We have more than 25 years of experience with cases of very serious injuries, which means we have the expertise and experience to make our clients’ cases thoroughly and successfully. To learn more about your options at a free, confidential consultation, please contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn today or call our main Coral Springs office at (954) 431-8100.

The annual Leesburg Bikefest biker festival turned tragic April 25 when a participant slid on rough pavement and died. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Roger E. Williams Jr. of Fort Lauderdale hit a worn area of the shoulder of the road that was described as four inches deep and five inches wide. He lost control of his 2001 Harley-Davidson and was thrown off the bike, sliding on the asphalt and into the path of another rider from the same motorcycle club. The other rider was not injured, but Williams was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

My heart goes out to both of the riders involved and their families. As a motorcyclist myself, I know how little it takes to slip on a two-wheeled vehicle, and I can’t imagine how it must feel to lose your buddy right before your eyes. But as a Hollywood motorcycle crash lawyer, I also wonder who might be responsible for the “worn” patch of road that triggered the accident. The article described the pavement as four inches deep, which is a great deal more than “worn” -- it sounds like a deep pothole. If it turns out that the pothole was unavoidable and Williams was riding in a reasonably safe manner, the municipal or county government responsible for maintaining that road could ultimately bear responsibility for the accident.

Unfortunately, suing a government agency is much more complex than suing another driver. As I have mentioned on this blog before, governments have “sovereign immunity,” a legal concept that in essence means they can set their own terms as to whether and how they will consider lawsuits against them or their employees. To file a Florida motorcycle accident lawsuit against a state agency, for example, you must present your complaint in writing to at least two agencies within a certain timeframe and with specific information included. You do not get extra time to comply with these rules, and if you don’t follow them exactly, your claim will not be considered valid. In fact, it is possible to wait so long to pursue your claim that you miss the deadline to file and cannot sue at all.

For these reasons, experts recommend that victims get help right away from a Miami-Dade motorcycle accident attorney. At Cohn, Smith & Cohn, we have 25 years of experience as attorneys -- and motorcycle riders on staff who understand what motorcyclists are up against on Florida roads. If you or someone you care about has been seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in Florida, we can help you win money to cover medical bills, repairs, lost wages and all other costs of the crash, as well as compensation for your injuries, pain and suffering. To tell us more about your case at a free consultation, please contact us as soon as possible.