Understanding Florida’s Comparative Negligence Laws
Brian O Sutter
Traffic Accidents
Imagine a teenager driving down the road, music blasting loud, smartphone in the right hand, left hand precariously perched on the steering wheel. He looks down at his smartphone, glances back up at the road, and then looks back down at his smartphone as he approaches an intersection 5 mph over the speed limit.Meanwhile, a man jogs down a sidewalk towards the intersection with headphones on. Instead of stopping to wait for the crosswalk signal, he glances at the road in one direction, and then continues into the intersection without breaking his stride.
If the teenager hits the man, and both suffer serious injuries, who is at fault for the accident? Who should be responsible for the medical expenses, the lost income, the property damage?
If you’re not sure what the answers to those questions are, you’re not alone. Accidents usually aren’t black and white, and figuring out who’s at fault is incredibly difficult. In the aftermath of an accident, it’s important to have an experienced personal injury lawyer that can sort through the facts and zealously represent your position.
Florida’s Comparative Negligence Law
Practically, there are three legal doctrines in America for dealing with accidents in which both participants contributed to the accident, or in other words, where both parties were negligent.
For the purposes of explaining these doctrines, let’s assume the man in the example above sued the teenager for negligence, claiming $50,000 in medical expenses, and the teenager was 95% at fault for the accident because he was speeding and not looking at the road, and the man was 5% at fault for failing to check both sides of the road before entering the intersection.
- Pure Contributory Negligence – In states that use the pure contributory negligence doctrine, if the party bringing suit is even slightly at fault, he is barred from recovering any money from the other party. In a pure contributory negligence state, the man will not be allowed to recover any money from the teenager for the accident. Only a handful of states still use this doctrine.
- Pure Comparative Negligence – The pure comparative negligence doctrine is the law in Florida. In Florida, the money you can recover is proportional to the degree to which the other party was at fault. Looking at the example above, the man would be allowed to recover 95% of his damages, or $47,500. Interestingly, if the teenager countersued the man for $10,000 damage to his car, the teenager could actually recover 5% of that amount, or $500.
- Modified Comparative Negligence – In modified comparative negligence states, the money you can recover is proportional to the degree to which the other party was at fault, but only if you were not just as or more responsible for the accident. The man in the example above could still recover the same amount of money from the teenager because the man was not just as or more responsible for the accident. But, the teenager could not recover any money from the man because the teenager was more at fault for the accident.
Why Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?
Well, that doesn’t seem too difficult to understand, right? So why do you need a personal injury lawyer? There are three reasons why it’s important to have a personal injury lawyer represent you in the aftermath of an accident:
- Due to Florida’s no-fault motor vehicle insurance laws, cases can become remarkably complicated when there are multiple injured parties, each with their own insurance companies that have already paid out some, but not all, of the expenses to their own insureds. An experienced personal injury lawyer can navigate these situations to ensure that you recover all the money that you are due.
- Splitting up fault is also not a clear-cut process. If your case goes to trial, you need an lawyer to convince the jury that you were less at fault. An experienced lawyer will not only marshal the evidence in a way most favorable to your case, but will also put on a strong performance at trial in front of the jury.
- If you are negotiating a settlement, an experienced lawyer will zealously negotiate on your behalf to get you the largest recovery possible.