Dealing with a car accident’s physical, emotional, and financial stress is overwhelming for many victims. Further, once you receive immediate medical care and recover from the shock of the collision, the last thing you want is a battle on your hands when pursuing compensation.
While you recover from your injuries, a Jacksonville personal injury lawyer from Ged Lawyers can fight for your full financial recovery, taking on any insurers and holding the negligent driver accountable.
If you are unsure about your legal options after being injured by a negligent driver, our Jacksonville car accident lawyers can provide legal advice on what steps to take next during a free consultation. Our legal advocates can seek damages on your behalf while you take time to heal. Call us today to review your legal options during a free consultation.
We Work on Your Jacksonville Car Accident Injury Case Without Upfront Attorney’s Fees
Ged Lawyers accepts personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you don’t have to pay us now for us to start on your case. If we don’t win your case. We know an auto accident’s financial impact is nearly immediate, and some allow concerns about their ability to pay for legal representation to deter them from pursuing damages they are due.
We don’t want that to happen to you. We can take your case at no upfront cost, and you can expect our personal injury attorneys to be there for you throughout this process, handling your legal issue with the care and professionalism you deserve. We answer calls, even on evenings and weekends, and we’ll travel to meet with you if that’s easier.
Our multicultural staff speaks multiple languages, including Arabic, Creole, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and Turkish, so we can converse in another language if you prefer.
Whether your Jacksonville car accident involved another passenger vehicle, a commercial trucking company, a government agency’s vehicle, a rideshare accident, or a motorcycle, we will take on any case and any opponent of any size. Our case results demonstrate how committed we are to our clients’ recoveries. We are a full-service law firm with nearly 30 years of experience, and we will use it to win maximum compensation for you while providing everything you need for your case.
We Will Demand Your Full Damages While You Recover from the Accident in Jacksonville
You may be in the hospital or at home recovering from a wreck in Jacksonville, wondering how you’re going to pay your medical bills and other expenses, especially if you haven’t been able to get back to work after the crash.
Our Jacksonville car accident lawyers will assess your personal and professional losses, assign a financial value to your case, and file a personal injury claim against the party responsible for the motor vehicle accident. We will seek a fair settlement that covers all your losses.
We can also ensure you receive fair treatment from an auto insurance company, whose claims adjuster may try to offer you a settlement offer that falls short of your needs, which commonly happens.
You need to get on with your life and deserve financial recovery that allows you to do that. We can review the accident for your economic and non-economic damages to determine what compensation to request for you.
Economic Damages
After a Jacksonville car accident, you could recover the following financial damages, which we can prove with documentation, such as receipts, invoices, billing statements, and paystubs:
- Medical expenses and treatment costs
- Rehabilitation expenses for ongoing care
- Loss of income
- Loss of income earning ability if you are permanently injured or must take another job because of your injuries
- Property damage (e.g., repair or replacement costs for a vehicle and other personal property)
Non-Economic Damages
Not all damages that accident victims suffer have a fixed dollar figure, but we must still consider them among your losses as they affect you now and could for the rest of your life. These damages can include:
- Compensation for pain and suffering, including mental anguish
- Impaired quality of life
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Disability or disfigurement
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of consortium
Filing a Wrongful Death Claim After a Jacksonville Car Accident
Sometimes, car accidents cause fatal injuries. If you lost a loved one after a car accident in the Jacksonville area, we are sorry for your loss. We will work hard to help you recover damages under a lawsuit our wrongful death lawyer can file if your family is eligible. We can explain how wrongful death actions work in Florida.
Parties in these cases generally recover benefits such as:
- The decedent’s accident-related medical expenses and rehabilitation expenses
- Funeral and burial or cremation expenses
- The decedent’s lost household income
Your personal injury lawyer will review every loss suffered in the accident and determine the fair compensation you could recover. We can file an insurance claim or lawsuit against the liable party, depending on the specifics of your situation. Varying circumstances are why there is no average car accident settlement in Florida. Usually, an attorney can help injured parties determine how much their compensation case is worth.
Call us today for legal counsel from our attorneys serving Jacksonville on how to proceed with your case.
Time Limits Apply to Your Jacksonville Car Accident Lawsuit
While you should notify your auto insurance provider immediately after a car accident, several other critical deadlines could affect your compensation case. The clock starts ticking on the day a motor vehicle crash occurs. Florida law limits the time injured parties have to sue a liable party in court.
Florida Statutes § 95.11(4)(a) allows two years from the car accident date to file a personal injury lawsuit. Florida Statutes § 95.11(4)(e) generally allows two years from the decedent’s death date to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Two years can go by quickly when an attorney must handle many tasks involving filing an insurance claim or civil action after a motor vehicle collision. For example, they may have to investigate the accident, review how much compensation to demand for medical providers’ services, and determine the economic impact of catastrophic injuries on their client.
It takes time to build a case, so we encourage you to start as soon as possible if you want to pursue legal action against the negligent party. If you miss the state’s deadline for protecting your right to sue, you risk losing your chance to recover compensation forever. If any exceptions apply to your case, our car accident attorneys in Jacksonville, FL, will advise you on how they affect the timeline for recovering damages.
Seeking Compensation after a Car Accident in Jacksonville
One reason accident victims hire an injury attorney after a car accident is to help them navigate the maze of complex issues that can arise when figuring out who will cover the damages. Florida’s insurance laws work slightly differently from other states. Initially, both drivers can make a claim under their policy’s personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, regardless of who is legally responsible for causing the accident, up to policy limits.
Compensation Available Under PIP in Florida
Florida drivers legally must carry a minimum of $10,000 in PIP coverage, which pays up to 80 percent of medical bills and up to 60 percent of lost wages if your injuries prevent you from working. So, if your medical treatment costs $10,000, PIP would pay $8,000. Further, if your injuries are not considered an emergency, PIP only provides $2,500 in coverage. In fatal accidents, PIP provides $5,000 in death benefits.
What If the Damages From a Jacksonville, FL, Accident Exceed the Limits of Your PIP Coverage?
If the sum of your medical treatment and lost wages exceeds your PIP policy’s cap, you can seek to recover the difference from the at-fault driver’s PIP (again, up to their policy limits). However, if they also suffered injuries in the crash in Jacksonville, their claim would be deducted from the PIP available first, reducing the amount available to cover your losses.
For example, if your losses amount to $50,000, and you and the other driver each have $10,000 in PIP coverage, the maximum you could recover would be $16,000 (as PIP covers up to 80% of costs) minus the amount the other driver claimed under their PIP. So what about the rest?
If you purchased underinsured motorist coverage (UIM), an optional add-on to your auto insurance, you could use this to recoup the rest of your losses up to policy limits. UIM pays for medical expenses, lost wages, and other related losses, provided you are not at fault for the accident, and the other driver doesn’t have enough insurance to pay for your financial damages.
If PIP and UIM aren’t enough to cover your medical costs, you could sue the other driver for the remaining amount by filing a personal injury lawsuit. However, your injuries must meet a specific legal threshold.
What If I Don’t Have UIM Insurance Coverage?
UIM coverage and uninsured motorist coverage (UM) are both vital in Florida, where many drivers are uninsured. However, if you don’t have UIM coverage, you could still make a third-party claim or lawsuit against the other driver or their insurer if the accident caused a permanent injury, severe disability, severe scarring, or disfigurement.
What Happens If the Other Jacksonville Driver Is Not Insured?
According to the Insurance Research Council (IRC), 20.4 percent of Florida motorists do not have auto insurance, much higher than the national average of 12.6 percent. Again, we recommend taking additional insurance coverage to protect you if an underinsured driver injures you. If you do not have uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, you could file a lawsuit against the other driver if their negligence caused your injuries.
Our Jacksonville Auto Injury Lawyers Take the Stress Out of Filing a Car Accident Claim or Lawsuit
While PIP coverage was designed to make auto accident claims easier for injured drivers, recovering compensation after a collision can still be complex and overwhelming. This is where our Jacksonville auto accident lawyers can help. We make the auto insurance claim process simpler for our clients by:
- Helping you understand how to file a claim and what to expect from the legal process
- Investigating the accident to determine who is liable
- Assessing how much insurance coverage is available to pay for your injuries and other accident-related losses
- Determining an appropriate course of legal action to recoup your losses (the process could involve several claims against different policies or parties)
- Gathering evidence to support your case (e.g., a police report, witness testimony, photos and video footage, medical records, etc.)
- Calculating your current and anticipated financial damages
- Negotiating for a fair settlement that meets your post-accident needs and future care
- Representing you in court if we cannot resolve your claim and must file an accident lawsuit
- Always being available to answer your questions and providing regular case updates
- Providing our legal services with a no-win-no-fee guarantee
Ged Lawyers is Ready to Represent You
Recovering from a car accident is stressful for victims and their families. We aim to help them recover the compensation they need while they take care of their medical issues from the accident and other concerns.
For almost three decades, Ged Lawyers has been helping clients fight for results that make a difference in the lives of everyone we represent. So, if you or a loved one is worried about making a claim or struggling to get the compensation you deserve, call Ged Lawyers today. We offer free consultations so that you can explore your legal options, and we can determine how our Jacksonville car accident lawyer can take the stress out of a challenging situation. You deserve to heal, and we want to help.
