CALL NOW:
-
FOR A FREE
CONSULTATION -
CURRENT WAIT:
10 SECONDS
Menu
There is a risk of slipping and falling pretty much everywhere that you go. Stores, your home, your job, etc. and usually these slip and falls result in fairly mild injuries. Maybe you might scrape a leg or bruise and elbow but occasionally you might end up suffering an injury that can seriously affect your life. What can make this even worse is that you may have fallen and suffered such a severe injury because a certain party was negligent and did not take steps to ensure that an accident like yours would not take place.
In cases like this, a person that suffered a severe injury via slip and fall will likely want to seek compensation for the damages they sustained from the parties responsible. The parties that could potentially be liable for a slip and fall injury can actually vary depending on the circumstances of the accident. They could include businesses or property owners charged with ensuring their area is safe for customers, maintenance providers or cleaners that may have been negligent in their duty and created an accident possible environment, or anyone else that’s negligent behavior contributed to causing the accident.
When a victim of a slip and fall accident goes to take legal action, they will likely have to support their case with evidence which can often prove to be more difficult than initially thought. A plaintiff in a slip and fall injury case will come across heavy resistance from a defendant that will do absolutely everything in their power to reduce or outright deny their claims to injury compensation. In order to combat this, someone that has suffered a slip and fall injury should know what to look for and where to look when it comes to finding evidence to support their case.
Florida law actually outlines several evidentiary standards for those that are pursuing legal action in premises liability cases. Victims of slip and fall accidents need to take these standards into account before they consider trying to hold someone liable for their slip and fall accident injuries.
Once a plaintiff is sure that the circumstances surrounding their slip and fall accident meet these criteria, then they can move forward with trying to find evidence to support their case.
One of the simplest things that someone can do when they experience a slip and fall accident that results in a serious injury is take a picture of the scene of the accident. The closer to the time of the accident the better and video can also work as well. Details such as loose tile, stray wires, torn up carpet, or a spill can help show the cause of your slip and fall accident.
Another thing that you can do is make sure that in cases where you slip on a businesses’ property, alert someone in charge and make sure that some kind of accident report is filed. The more documentation that you have on a slip and fall accident’s occurrence the better.
When you slip and fall there may be bystanders around to see you become injured and witness the cause of your accident. These witnesses can help support your case and help prove that a liable party was negligent. For example, a bystander could witness a spill on the ground and how several people almost slipped while an employee walked by without doing anything. That bystander could also see a plaintiff in a slip and fall accident case fall and provide a testimony verifying that the spill was there for some time, that it almost hurt several other people, that an employee did not take action to fix the problem, and that the plaintiff was in fact harmed by that negligence. So be sure to get the information of any witnesses that can help your case. Get phone numbers, email, address, name, etc.
On top of showing that the party liable for your slip and fall injury was negligent, a plaintiff has to also show that they were also not negligent as well. In Florida, there is what is called comparative negligence which is when both parties involved in an accident were negligent in some way and their level of negligence determines the compensation given. For example, a person may trip on a loose tile on a poorly maintained floor. The owner of the property would be negligent but if that person that slipped happened to be texting while walking then they could possibly be found comparatively negligent and receive a smaller settlement than they originally would have.
If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident in the Stuart, Florida or Gainesville, Florida area, contact the experienced personal injury team at The Eberst Law Firm. We are ready to handle your case. Our skilled lawyers will be happy to speak with you about the details of your case and offer some options of what kind of legal action you can take. With representation from Eberst Law, you can be assured that you will have an experienced injury lawyer in your corner fighting to ensure you receive the compensation you need.
You can contact us online or call us at 772-225-4900.
Stuart, Florida Office
101 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Stuart, FL 34994
Gainesville, Florida Office
716 E. University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32601
Almost every single human being on the planet has ended up inside of a hospital at some point or another. Whether it is via childbirth, the emergency room, or some other ailment, we go to hospitals to get a variety of treatments and medical services. However, there are times when people that rely on these medical services end up suffering injuries because of the negligence of medical staff employed by a hospital in acts of medical malpractice.
There are a disturbing amount of people that end up suffering severe injuries and worse because of medical errors and negligence on the part of hospitals they trusted with their care. These victims of hospital medical errors can seek compensation for the damages that they suffered by filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. A medical malpractice lawsuit’s aim is to prove that a liable party such as a doctor or hospital was guilty of negligence that violated the standard of care expected of them and therefore entitles the victim of such injury-causing negligence to compensation. This compensation is meant to cover damages such as the medical expense caused by their injuries, the lost wages accumulated from time recovering from injuries, disability damages in the case a plaintiff suffers permanent injury, and pain and suffering to name a few.
Medical malpractice can be defined as any act or inaction of a physician during treatment of a patient that deviates from the expected norms and level of care so that it injures a patient. A doctor or another healthcare provider would have to violate the standard of care expected of them by acting negligently. Standard of care varies from medical professional to medical professional depending on the context. For example, a small town general practitioner will not be held to the same standard of care as a neurosurgeon at a major hospital.
When someone undergoes a surgical procedure, there are a large number of risks that come with it. It is the responsibility of the surgical team to minimize these risks by following proper procedure. Of course, this doesn’t always happen and negligent surgical practices lead to patients suffering injuries. One of the most common injuries that is suffered by patients undergoing surgery is infection. Any open wound is at risk of developing an infection and that definitely rings true for surgical wounds which is why every precaution should be taken. This includes proper sanitation procedure ensuring that the instruments are clean and that all participating in the surgery are wearing appropriate sterile clothing.
Another common form of surgical malpractice is the leaving of foreign objects such as medical instruments inside of patients. Many other mistakes can occur during surgery relating to anesthesia, wrong patients, and wrong surgeries performed.
The responsibility of dispensing medication to patients can be complex considering the number of variables that can come into play. People react to medications differently with all kinds of possible side effects that must be taken into account. Medication must always be checked to ensure that it will not trigger allergic reactions in the patient or react negatively with any other medications that a patient may be taking at the time. Medication dosage is very important as well. Either too much or too little can have potentially negative effects and cause an injury. Of course, there is also the possibility that a patient can be given the wrong medication which can severely injure them.
There are many times when the standard of care calls for a doctor to perform further tests or similar follow up on a patient following certain symptoms or conditions that may be exhibited. A medical professional may be negligent and fail to diagnose a condition in a patient or misdiagnose a patient’s condition. This negligence can be caused by improper testing, imaging, failure to follow up on red flag symptoms, etc. and result in injury to the patient. Misdiagnosis can sometimes be especially harmful to a patient since treatments for a condition a patient does not have can come with risks or increase the damage done by the condition they actually have.
If you or a loved one have sustained an injury because of a medical error caused by the negligence of a hospital, do not hesitate to contact the medical malpractice attorneys of Eberst Law immediately. Our lawyers are happy to sit with you to discuss the details of your claim and provide some options on how you can go about taking legal action. Eberst Law has the medical malpractice experience you need in order to get the compensation you deserve after a painful surgical error.
The lawyers of Eberst Law understand that injuries caused by malpractice can turn your life upside down. Allow our lawyers to assist you in your pursuit of compensation by assisting in the investigation of how your malpractice occurred, securing evidence that can prove a liable party’s negligence, negotiating with the insurance company, and guiding you through the legal process. When you hire Eberst Law as your legal representation, you ensure your case is in the hands of experienced lawyers that will fight for you.
Contact Eberst Law today at 772-225-4900 or online for a free, no-risk consultation about your injuries.
Stuart, Florida Office
101 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Stuart, FL 34994
Gainesville, Florida Office
716 E. University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32601
For many people, driving can come with a lot of stress and lead to some behavior that can increase the risk of a car accident occurring. Many things can affect someone’s state of mind while they are driving. Alcohol, drugs, lack of sleep, etc. all change the state of mind and receive a great deal of coverage when it comes to their respective levels of risk for causing car accidents. Road rage should be taken just as seriously as these other impairments on driving ability. The damage caused by road rage is widespread and catastrophic on American roads.
Road rage can be defined as violent anger caused by stressful driving conditions. This anger can manifest all kinds of reckless driving behaviors that put other drivers at risk. Most people have experienced driving conditions and situations that have caused immense stress but road rage takes things to another level. Some drivers become blinded by their anger and either succumb to reckless driving behaviors or even actively try to initiate accidents with other drivers out of spite. Road rage drivers actively attacking people with their cars is not as common yet it still happens. It is much more likely that drivers will simply resort to the following reckless driving behaviors out of frustration.
Being enraged while driving in itself is not illegal. Many of us have been frustrated and angered either by something that happens on the road or by circumstances in our life in general but most of the time this doesn’t have all that much of an effect on our driving. However, there are those that let stress and frustration get to them and they lose control. It is when people let the rage get to them and have their driving become impaired that they run into problems with the law. Florida law criminalizes “aggressive careless driving” even in cases where there is no direct collision between the vehicles involved. “Aggressive careless driving” is legally defined as committing two or more of the following acts simultaneously:
There is always a chance that you may encounter a driver with road rage while driving. In the event that this happens it is imperative that you remember to drive defensively. Being aware of other drivers is an essential part of driving and one should always be on the watch for reckless driving behaviors like those aforementioned.
Those that have been involved in car accidents with drivers exhibiting road rage may be able to seek compensation for severe injuries that they suffered as a result. A car accident claim can be filed against an at-fault driver that demonstrated negligence through their aggressive careless driving caused by road rage. Negligence caused by road rage is actually much simpler to prove since reckless driving is a felony in Florida. Reckless driving can be defined as when a person is guilty of willfully disregarding the safety of others with a “dangerous weapon,” i.e., the motor vehicle. This means that on top of damages like medical expenses and lost wages, a plaintiff can also seek compensation for punitive damages.
After being involved in an accident that has left you with severe injuries, your best bet at recovering compensation is with the assistance of a lawyer experienced in car accident injury claims. You technically could pursue a claim on your own but the odds of you successfully navigating the many pitfalls of insurance tricks and the legal process is greatly diminished. Insurance companies have everything they need to successfully deny a claim; as that is their goal since profits are their main priority. Insurance companies have the experience, personnel, resources, lawyers, and money to fight a claim to any extent necessary. If it turns into a “who can withstand the storm longer” type of situation, the answer will always be the insurance company when competing against an injured victim on their own.
It doesn’t cost you anything to get an injury attorney to look at your case. Likewise, car accident lawyers don’t cost anything out of your pocket since they work on a contingency fee basis. This means they take a percentage of the settlement once the claim is seen through and don’t get paid at all if the injury victim doesn’t recover financial compensation. You or your loved one are likely significantly injured if you are even considering hiring a car accident attorney in the first place. So you should focus on your recovery while a professional works to maximize your settlement with the insurance companies and courts.
If you have been injured in a car accident in the Stuart, Florida or Gainesville, Florida area, contact the experienced personal injury team at The Eberst Law Firm. We are ready to handle your case. You can contact us online or call us at 772-225-4900.
Stuart, Florida Office
101 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Stuart, FL 34994
Gainesville, Florida Office
716 E. University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32601
The aftermath of a car accident can be a perplexing and confusing time especially when you have suffered an injury. One should never hesitate to call the authorities when involved in a collision. Calling 911 after an accident actually is in your best interests contrary to popular belief. There are many ways that calling the police can help especially when it comes to seeking compensation for injuries you may have sustained.
Those that have suffered injuries as a result of car accidents may be able to take legal action against those at fault for their injuries. A party at fault for an accident could have been negligent and be liable for the damages that you suffered. Calling the police will factor into your car accident claim and how the insurance company may view the accident and your credibility.
After an accident takes place one of the most important things to do is get the information of all the drivers involved in the collision. This information is essential in order to make any claim that will help compensate you for damages that you suffered. A police officer can help to facilitate this exchange of information and even prepare an exchange of information report to document that all involved parties exchanged information.
One of the most useful things a police officer can do at the scene of an accident is to prepare a police report of the accident. This documentation can prove very useful down the line since it can contain all kinds of useful information from a credible source. A police report will take note of the make and model of the cars involved as well as the state of their owners in terms of injury, whether they were intoxicated the damage to the vehicles as well as any injuries to those involved in the accident. A police report will also have any eyewitnesses and even their testimonies when it came to what they saw of the accident which provides additional insight into who is at fault and therefore liable.
One of the most useful things in a police report is the officer’s determination of who was at fault for the accident. This can prove invaluable when it comes to determining who is liable for injuries after the accident when people involved are seeking compensation.
When a police officer arrives at the scene of an accident their immediate concern is the wellbeing of all those involved. They will often be the first person to see an accident victim’s injuries and are responsible for doing all in their power to stabilize them. A police officer’s testimony when it comes to their observations of a plaintiff’s injuries can hold a great deal of weight in a car accident claim down the line.
A police officer can be a valuable resource when a case makes it to trial since they can be used as a witness whose testimony holds a great deal of credibility. An officer can offer their eyewitness testimony or offer their opinion on who is at fault based on what they saw at the scene of the accident. Insurance companies may mount a defense that attacks the credibility of a plaintiff’s claims and may even blame the plaintiff as the cause for the accident which a police officer that was on the scene can help clear up.
After an accident, a police officer may follow up with someone involved. They may either visit them in the hospital if they suffered a severe injury or at home in order to fill in some blanks in their police report. They can ask questions and build a better image of what exactly happened when it comes to how the accident occurred and who caused it which undoubtedly can prove useful when seeking compensation through a car accident claim.
The best thing you can do when you are severely injured in a car accident is to seek a lawyer experienced in car accident injury claims. You technically could pursue a claim on your own but the odds of you successfully navigating the many pitfalls of insurance tricks and the legal process is greatly diminished. Insurance companies have everything they need to successfully deny a claim; as that is their goal since profits are their main priority. Insurance companies have the experience, personnel, resources, lawyers, and money to fight a claim to any extent necessary. If it turns into a “who can withstand the storm longer” type of situation, the answer will always be the insurance company when competing against an injured victim on their own.
It doesn’t cost you anything to get an injury attorney to look at your case. Likewise, car accident lawyers don’t cost anything out of your pocket since they work on a contingency fee basis. This means they take a percentage of the settlement once the claim is seen through and don’t get paid at all if the injury victim doesn’t recover financial compensation. You or your loved one are likely significantly injured if you are even considering hiring a car accident attorney in the first place. So you should focus on your recovery while a professional works to maximize your settlement with the insurance companies and courts.
If you have been injured in a car accident in the Stuart, Florida or Gainesville, Florida area, contact the experienced personal injury team at The Eberst Law Firm. We are ready to handle your case. You can contact us online or call us at 772-225-4900.
Stuart, Florida Office
101 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Stuart, FL 34994
Gainesville, Florida Office
716 E. University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32601
After a car accident, those with severe injuries as a result of an at-fault driver’s negligence will want to seek compensation with a car accident injury claim. When a severely injured car accident victim files an injury claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance, the insurance company will open a file for the claim and then assign an insurance adjuster. Insurance adjusters act as intermediaries between those that file claims and the insurance companies. They are sent out as agents of the insurance companies to make contact with the plaintiff and investigate the credibility of their claim.
Despite what insurance adjusters would like to tell you, they are absolutely not your friend and they do not have your best interests at heart. First and foremost, they are representatives of the insurance company and look out for their interest which is to ensure the least amount of payment possible or the outright denial of your claim. Insurance companies are for-profit enterprises concerned with the approval of shareholders that expect a steady increase in money that is made. They may have a duty to pay out on a policy that you took out with them but they will do everything within their power to minimize the money they payout while still abiding by the rules. Insurance adjusters are often key players in this and will use several strategies and tricks to reach this goal.
You have the right to refuse an insurance adjuster’s wishes to access your medical records should you find the request unreasonable. A lot of insurance adjusters will present the authorization of them to view your records as a routine aspect of the claims process and in some ways this is true. An insurance company may need to see medical records relating to the injuries that you suffered in an accident in order to verify that your injuries are credible. However, insurance adjusters do not need to have carte blanche to go through your entire medical history. They may try to nose into injuries from your past that they can try to use against you in a claim either because they could claim you have a pre-existing condition or a past injury may be embarrassing.
Car accident injuries can often be severe enough to land a victim in the hospital for some time. These car accident injuries will usually require extensive treatment via surgery, medication, hospital stay, physical therapy, etc. that is all anything but cheap. These medical expenses can easily drain the finances of a person filing a car accident injury claim and insurance adjusters will use this to their advantage.
Insurance adjusters can delay the payment of your claim and leave you out to dry while your finances take a plunge. While this is happening they will try to get you to agree to a lowball offer on a payout that is significantly less than what you need but can be paid out immediately. Don’t give in to this kind of dirty trick. Employ an attorney that will fight for you and let the insurance company know that you will not be backing down.
Living with a car accident injury can be a difficult thing to deal with. You might have diminished mobility and ability to perform certain tasks. Despite the limitations that an injury may put on a car accident victim, some car accident victims give in to the temptation to partake in activities advised against doing due to their injuries. This is not only bad for injuries but could also affect your car accident injury claim. Insurance adjusters will sometimes have those that file a claim under surveillance. If an insurance adjuster catches someone who suffered severe injuries out engaging in serious physical activity, they can call into question the credibility of the claim. They may surveil either through traditional means such as by staking out and watching you or by looking into your social media presence.
Insurance adjusters may try to tell you that hiring a lawyer is completely unnecessary and that you can handle a claim entirely on your own. You can go about trying to handle a claim on your own and try negotiating with the insurance company but without the expertise of an experienced car accident lawyer, you will likely encounter some issues. It is true that you can technically go about filing a claim without a lawyer but settlements have been found to be significantly smaller when attained without a lawyer. Even with a lawyer’s contingency fee taken into account, a claim payout is typically much larger with an attorney’s help in investigating the fault of an accident, negotiating with the insurance company, dealing with insurance adjusters, and guiding accident victims through the legal process in general.
The best thing you can do when you are severely injured in a car accident is to seek a lawyer experienced in car accident injury claims. You technically could pursue a claim on your own but the odds of you successfully navigating the many pitfalls of insurance tricks and legal process is greatly diminished. Insurance companies have everything they need to successfully deny a claim; as that is their goal since profits are their main priority. Insurance companies have the experience, personnel, resources, lawyers, and money to fight a claim to any extent necessary. If it turns into a “who can withstand the storm longer” type of situation, the answer will always be the insurance company when competing against an injured victim on their own.
It doesn’t cost you anything to get an injury attorney to look at your case. Likewise, car accident lawyers don’t cost anything out of your pocket since they work on a contingency fee basis. This means they take a percentage of the settlement once the claim is seen through and don’t get paid at all if the injury victim doesn’t recover financial compensation. You or your loved one are likely significantly injured if you are even considering hiring a car accident attorney in the first place. So you should focus on your recovery while a professional works to maximize your settlement with the insurance companies and courts.
If you have been injured in a car accident in the Stuart, Florida or Gainesville, Florida area, contact the experienced personal injury team at The Eberst Law Firm. We are ready to handle your case. You can contact us online or call us at 772-225-4900.
Stuart, Florida Office
101 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Stuart, FL 34994
Gainesville, Florida Office
716 E. University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32601