Articles Posted in Florida

A Florida wrongful death lawsuit, filed by the widow of a mentally ill Ohio man, has settled after a roughly five-hour settlement conference. The 2009 death occurred after the man was repeatedly pepper sprayed while being held at the Lee County Jail. The suit, filed against the Sheriff, the jail’s medical provider, and several deputies and nurses is said to have settled “well into” the seven figures.

The decedent had come to Florida to visit family, when he stopped taking his medications, causing him to act erratically. After being asked to leave his family’s home, he was later arrested at a motel for trespassing. Once at the jail, he was placed in an observation wing because he was loud.

Because of his continued behavior, he was repeatedly pepper sprayed, even after having been restrained to a chair. The man was exposed to pepper spray ten times during a forty-three-hour period while pleading for mercy as he couldn’t breathe. The record shows that the jail’s ventilation system was not adequate to dissipate the amount of spraying and that he was subjected to prolonged exposure of the pepper spray as the area was never adequately decontaminated after the spraying. After having passed out and rushed to a local medical center, he died two days later. According to the medical examiner, the pepper spray was found to be a contributing factor that led to heart and brain failure. Brutal, just brutal.

It used to be easy back in the old days. You had lawyers running Yellow Page ads, and you had lawyers with illegal runners. Think Danny DeVito in Rainmaker. (Fun fact: Claire Danes was in that 1997 movie.) Oh, yeah, and you had people getting personal injury cases the old fashioned way: doing good work and word of mouth.

Times have changed, obviously. In some states, the laws have changed pretty dramatically too. In states like Florida and New York, no-fault laws have lead to a new player in the game: the health care providers.

Matt Dolman, a good lawyer in Florida, has been pointing out some of the weakness in doing this, targeting the problems with what some health care providers have been doing, specifically 411 PAIN and its progeny. Matt argues that while 411 PAIN pushes itself as a “lawyer referral service” it is is really a health care provider answering service that pushes its own services.

Florida Personal Injury Settlement Statistics

According to a not-so-recently published Jury Verdict Research study, the average verdict in a personal injury lawsuit in Florida is $1,732,150. Huge and almost invariably uncollectable verdicts, because of caps on a defendant’s ability to pay, and overturned verdicts inflate the average to a number that is really no longer meaningful. The better measure, the median verdict, was $149,411.

The breakdown of the injuries relative to the verdicts in the study was interesting:

The average personal injury verdict in Florida is $1,819,751, according to Jury Verdict Research, a company that tracks jury verdicts. In Florida personal injury cases, plaintiffs win approximately 61 percent of cases that go to trial.

Florida’s threshold requiring a more serious injury in motor tort cases is one reason why the average jury verdict in Florida much higher than the national average. These Florida jury statistic verdicts also underscore that large cases inflate average jury verdicts and settlements. The median—as opposed to the average—money damages in Florida personal injury trials in Florida is $122,674.

If you have been injured in a serious car accident (our lawyers only handle serious claims), call us t 800-553-8082 or click here for free no-obligation consultation.

Very dated but still interesting data on Florida workers’ compensation cases: the average back injury settlement was $ 38,000 with medical care continuing (called “keeping your case open”). The average  workers’ compensation back injury settlement is $ 9,800 with no continuing opportunity for further medical care.

• Average Back Injury Settlements (what can you expect as compensation for a back injury from a car accident)
• Average Value of Florida Personal Injury Cases (statistics on Florida jury verdicts)

Jury Verdict Research reported this month on Florida personal injury lawsuit verdicts. The median – not be confused with average which is much higher – money recover in Florida personal injury lawsuits that go to trial is $185,000. Florida personal injury lawyers can expect to receive a verdict for their clients in 60 percent of lawsuits that go to trial.

Putting these number in context, the national median personal injury verdict is $35,000, and personal injury victims recover about half of the time. In other words, you can drive a truck through the difference between Florida and the rest of the nation. Florida voters may go for caps at the ballot box, but when faced with live human beings, they have a very different approach.

If you have been injury by a defective product or medical malpractice or in a car or truck accident in Florida in Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahessee or anywhere in Florida, call our lawyers at 800-553-8082.