Personal Injury

October 2, 2014

Miami Club “The Spot” Hosts Minors and Gun Violence

Liberty City nightclub, The Spot, was the scene of a massive shooting on Sunday, September 28^th early in the morning. The nightclub which is located at NW 7^thave and 64^th street in Miami, was hosting a party when gunfire broke out randomly throughout the club. According to sources, 15 people were shot, including many under the age of 21. It was initially reported that the club obtained a liquor license this past April and was legally permitted to serve alcohol until 3 am. Yet, its doors appear to have been open to minors of nearly all ages. In fact, a young girl only 12 years of age was in the nightclub during this shooting. One of those critically wounded was a 15 year old boy.

As the criminal investigation continues, more information about the potential negligent and illegal operations of this business are trickling in. Our Miami Crime Victim Lawyers are keeping a close eye on the criminal investigation and representing one of the innocent shooting victims. Earlier today, news reports were that the club manager was arrested. It was also reported that the club was licensed to operate as a business but not a “nightclub”. Other news reports state that the “Spot” may only have been licensed to sell beer and wine only.

Under Florida common law negligence principals, property owners and operators have a duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. The latest news reports of numerous violations may be proof of not just ordinary but “gross negligence” under Florida law. This could open the door to potential punitive damages under Florida Statutes 768. 72.

According to sources, there may have been 2 shooters involved. However, no suspects have been arrested. The only lead the police have is that the getaway vehicle may have been a white car.

September 26, 2014

Failure to Understand Rules of Appeal Prevents Plaintiff From Recovery

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

When a personal injury case goes to trial, many attorneys are prepared for the trial itself. They may line up witnesses, prepare evidence, and have a good working knowledge of trial rules. But many attorneys don’t realize how important it is to not only understand the rules of evidence at trial, but to also understand the rules of appeals.

Preserving Matters for Appeal

Contrary to popular belief, an appellate court cannot review just anything that may go wrong or be improper at trial. An appellate court can only consider arguments that are made at trial. This is often called “preserving” an issue for appellate review. And it means that a trial lawyer must understand what has to be done at trial to preserve problems for appellate review.

September 9, 2014

Bad Jury Instructions Can Lead to Problems Later On

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

When a personal injury case gets submitted to a jury, the jury doesn’t just automatically know what questions it must decide on, nor does it know what kind of law applies. It’s up to the parties, at the conclusion of a trial to instruct a jury to give them guidance on how to rule. That’s normally done by submitting jury instructions.

Both parties must agree to the instructions, and when they can’t it’s often a judge that will make the final decisions.

Those instructions are vitally important. As you can imagine, subtle wording can persuade a jury, and misstating the law, or what the parties have to prove to win, can be the difference between winning and losing. And when jury instructions are incorrect or inaccurate, it can create huge problems, such was the case in a recent appeal to Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals.

August 19, 2014

Miami Judge Declares Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Laws Unconstitutional

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

In a bold decision, Miami Dade’s Judge Cueto struck down Florida’s Workers’ Compensation statute as unconstitutional. The ruling is considered a victory for injured workers.

The History of Workers’ Compensation

Before workers’ compensation, employees injured on the job sued their employers in the same manner other victims sued over their injuries. Legislatures eventually realized this was not fair for many workers, as personal injury suits frequently took a long time to settle. Worse, some on-the-job injuries did not result from negligence, but merely from working in an inherently dangerous job. Many injured workers had little or no monetary relief for their injuries.

August 12, 2014

The Confusing Laws for Victims With Only Emotional or Mental Damages

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Victims of injuries very often suffer not only physical injuries, but emotional ones as well. Anxiety, fear, post traumatic stress disorder, and any number of mental ailments are natural consequences of injury, and damages for these injuries can be recovered from a liable party in a personal injury suit. But what if you have only mental or emotional injuries, without physical injury? In these cases, the law makes it much tougher to recover damages.

Situations Where Victims Might Have Only Emotional/Mental Damages

In many cases, someone may suffer no physical injury or impact at all, but still have mental or emotional injury. Emotional damage can stem from an event that happened to you, or from witnessing something happen to a loved one. Some common examples of situations where there may only be emotional damage would be:

August 7, 2014

Suing the State Can Be an Uphill Battle

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

If you are injured by an agency of the state or city government, or any public entity, you are entitled to recover damages for your injuries. Governments, just like private companies, can be sued for negligence. However, government entities are often protected by what is known as “sovereign immunity,” a concept that can make suing and recovering, much more difficult for injured Florida victims.

What is Sovereign Immunity?

Sovereign Immunity has its roots from the days when we were an English colony. It means that you can’t sue the King—in modern days of course, “the King” being the government (sometimes called “the sovereign”). In many countries, citizens can’t sue their governments at all. But in Florida as well as many other states, the state has consented by statute to allow itself to be sued for certain things, and only up to a certain amount.

July 31, 2014

Child Injured in Sumo Suit Raises Liability Questions

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

A Florida charter school is being sued by a student for personal injuries arising from a traumatic brain injury suffered during an organized and sanctioned school function featuring, of all things, Sumo Wrestling. The tragedy brings up questions about who is at fault when events such as these go wrong; our Miami injury attorneys may be able to provide valuable answers.

What Exactly Happened?

The event featured large, inflatable suits, which children (and adults) fit themselves into. The size of the suit is supposed to allow them to smash into each other in the same way that a sumo wrestler might, and also allows the user to tumble, roll around, and bounce off the floor and walls, presumably protected by the large inflatable “body” that they are fitted inside of. The activity is often used at carnivals or festivals, and can even be rented for private functions.

May 30, 2014

Increasingly Warm Weather Leads To Higher Risk Of Swimming Accidents

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

As the weather continues to heat up, many Florida residents are heading to their local pools and beaches to cool off. Although swimming can be a great way to relax on a hot day, it is important that the risks associated with this activity are fully appreciated, and that anyone injured in a swimming accident contact a Miami personal injury attorney immediately.

The risks associated with swimming are especially high for children, especially when they are inadequately supervised or permitted to swim without appropriate safety equipment. According to statistics published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, drowning is the second leading cause of death among children aged one to nineteen, with over a thousand such children drowning every year.

As this blog has discussed on several occasions, premises liability is a legal term that references a property owner’s duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. Owners and operators of private pools and breaches are no different, and owe certain duties to guests of their property.

May 20, 2014

Another Florida Pedestrian Killed In Recent Spate Of Motor Vehicle Accidents

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Earlier this month, thirty-six year-old woman Keythe Perez was struck and killed by a vehicle while crossing Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers, Florida. This unfortunate incident marks the sixth pedestrian that has been killed in Lee County since the beginning of the year, and, even more shocking, the fifth in a little more than a month. Based on those numbers, motor vehicle crashes involving a pedestrian death now account for 37.5% of all traffic fatalities that have occurred in Lee County this year. Our Miami pedestrian accident attorneys can help those injured in pedestrian accidents.

In 2011, the city of Fort Myers adopted an ordinance in 2011 reducing the speed limit on all streets to 25 miles-per-hour. However, Palm Beach Boulevard was one of four roadways that was exempted from the measure, which was seen by some as a significant issue given the high volume of pedestrian and bicycle traffic on that road. The incident involving Keythe Perez gives some credence to these concerns and raises questions regarding the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists in an environment of ever-increasing motorists.

In November of last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) published a press release in which it discussed findings related to U.S. highway traffic accidents in 2011 and 2012. According to the release, highway traffic fatalities jumped more than three percent (3.3%) from 32,479 in 2011 to 33,561 in 2012, with nearly three-quarters (72%) of the increase involving motorcyclists and pedestrians. At the time of the study, the NHTSA estimated that fatalities for the first half of 2013 would be lower than those that occurred during the same time period in 2012, but that pedestrian fatalities would increase for the third straight year by 6.4% over 2011.

April 8, 2014

Federal Trucking Agency Launches Program To Hold Carriers Responsible For Safety Violations

by Gerson & Schwartz, P.A.

Last month, this blog discussed the newly-passed Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration hours-of-service (“HOS”) safety requirements for commercial truck drivers, limiting the number of hours a truck driver is permitted to operate his or her vehicle during any given period of time. Since then, our Miami truck accident lawyers have been keeping an eye out for new developments related to this issue.

Last year, the FMCSA, launched the Compliance, Safety, Accountability Program (“Program”) which scores the safety of trucking carriers and is designed to increase accountability for carriers that continually violate safety regulations. Carriers that receive poor safety scores under the Program often suffer negative consequences such as loss of business from customers that don’t want to work with a carrier that has a poor safety record, greater insurance rates, and additional scrutiny from law enforcement and inspectors.

Although the Program appears, on its face, to be a step in the right direction towards increasing trucking safety standards, recent reports by not one, but two, government agencies have concluded that the Program may suffer from some problems affecting its accuracy. Both the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) and the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) have issued results of their audits of the Program, concluding that it suffers from several problems stemming from poor data quality.