Changes To Florida’s Personal Injury Laws Are Here

If you have a personal injury case, the laws in Florida are changing. These changes may make it harder for you to file and win your case. Your personal injury attorney can help you understand these changes, and how the law changes may affect your ability to get compensation for your injuries.

Time Limits are Shorter

There isn’t much you, personally, can do about these law changes. But one thing you can do, is get yourself to a good personal injury attorney in a hurry. That’s because one change has to do with the time that you have to file your lawsuit.

It used to be that Florida had a longer time period to file a negligence lawsuit—up to 4 years, for standard negligence lawsuits. But now that law has changed, and the time limit to file a lawsuit is now down to 2 years.

This means that if you are injured, you can’t afford to sit and wait. Insurance companies and defendants like to do things that make you delay seeing an attorney, or delay filing your case. They may make offers to settle, or act like they are being helpful to you.

But what they are really doing is delaying, and now, with the law change, even a small delay can end up with you missing the 2 year window to file a personal injury case.

Negligent Security Cases

Negligent security cases also now are much harder to win. That’s because when it comes to landlords and owners of property with multiple dwellings, so long as the property owner has instituted basic safety measures, the owner will be generally protected from any kind of negligent security claim.

Landlords or property owners who use surveillance cameras, have deadbolts on doors, or who install proper lighting throughout their property, will be presumed to not be liable for a criminal attack that may injure residents and victims on their property.

Comparative Negligence Changes

Additionally, the law of comparative negligence is changing, for all personal injury cases.

A jury could always apportion liability to the victim, saying the victim did or didn’t do something that caused or contributed to the victim’s own injuries. Even if that was the case, the victim could still recover—a victim that was 99% responsible for his or her accident, could still recover 1% of his or her damages.

But now, this is not the case. Any victim that is found to be 51% or more liable or responsible for the accident, now can recover nothing. That’s right—no matter how damaged or injured a victim is, if a jury finds the victim 51% liable or more, the victim receives absolutely nothing.

This is expected to make defendants offer less in settlement, and fight cases more in trial, knowing that they don’t have to win a case—they just have to convince a jury that you were more than half responsible for your own accident.

We can help you understand Florida’s injury laws, and how they can help you get compensation for your injuries. Contact the Miami personal injury attorneys at Velasquez & Associates P.A. today.

Sources:

jdsupra.com/legalnews/florida-tort-reform-law-brings-3541739/

nbcmiami.com/news/local/gov-desantis-expected-to-sign-floridas-tort-reform-bill-into-law-but-how-could-it-impact-you/2997956/