Personal injury claims must be reported if the claims are eligible for Medicare or are reasonably expected to be eligible within thirty months.  People eligible for Medicare have to be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, and include people at least 65 years old and individuals with certain disabilities who qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

To determine whether a claimant is a Medicare beneficiary, a query should be sent to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) through their website. The CMS has 14 days to respond.

Reporting thresholds. There are minimum reporting thresholds to be met before payments need to be reported.  These thresholds decrease over time.  In 2012, payments totaling a minimum of $2,000 must be reported.

Who must report. The entities eligible to report include anyone making a payment to a Medicare beneficiary on a settlement, judgment or award.  The entities include insurers, self-insured entities and several other entities.

What must be reported. If the claimant is entitled to Medicare, the reporting entity must report information about the claimant and their claim once it is resolved. Medicare must be reimbursed within 60 days after the claim is resolved.

If the claimant receives a payout and Medicare is not reimbursed, Medicare can initiate legal action against the claimant as well as the reporting entity.  The reporting entity can be liable to reimburse Medicare even if it already paid the claimant for the same expenses for which Medicare is seeking reimbursement.  The reporting requirements still hold if the parties agree that a personal injury payout does not include paying for medical expenses.

Information to provide for lost wages claim

• Provide proof of your injuries. This can be in the form of a letter from your treating physician describing your injuries that prevent you from working.
• Missed time at work. Document the amount of time you missed from work and the wages lost.  This would typically take the form of documentation from your employer substantiating the amount claimed.  If your injury also resulted in long-term loss of wages, you must document your lost earning potential, too.
• Other documentation. The insurance company might request other documentation, including your medical records and other wage documentation from your employer.
• Tax returns. If you are self-employed or your salary is commission-based, then the insurance company might require you to provide previous years’ tax returns to substantiate your claim for lost wages.

A claim for lost wages can be part of a larger claim for damages arising from a variety of situations, including automobile accidents, disability or any other incident in which the claimant missed work because of someone else’s fault.  Regardless of the situation, you would have to prove that the defendant’s actions or inactions caused the loss in wages.

There are different time limits for different causes of action.  An attorney can help you determine which statutory period applies to your particular claims in order to protect your rights.

Medical Malpractice

For medical malpractice actions, the statute of limitation varies.  Typically, you have a two-year limit from the date of the action that caused your injury. Alternately, you can file suit within two years from the date the injury was, or should have been, detected.  However, a malpractice action cannot be commenced more than four years after the act giving rise to the injury.  These limitations apply to anyone aged eight or older

Personal Injury

All personal injuries, including injuries suffered in an automobile accident, have a four-year statute of limitations from the date of the accident.

Accrual of Claim

The statute of limitation starts running at the time the claim accrues (is incurred).  However, it is sometimes not possible to discover the cause of the injury or even to know that one suffered an injury until well after the injury was caused.  This is especially true in medical malpractice cases, which is why the statute of limitation for medical malpractice cases provides an alternative period of two years from the date the injury was detected or reasonably should have been detected.

Tolling the Statute of Limitations

Sometimes a statute of limitation can be tolled, e.g. something stops the statute from running for a period.  This is commonly the case where the victim is a minor at the time of the injury.  In medical malpractice cases, an injured child under the age of eight must file a lawsuit by their eighth birthday or within the standard limitations period — whichever period is greater.

What should you do if this happens to you?

First and foremost, stay calm and don’t panic. If you do lose your cool, you will not be able to concentrate on what you need to do to extricate yourself and your loved ones. Here are some tips for how to escape after driving into a canal:

• Roll down your window. You can only do this while your car’s electronic system is still working before water damages it, so acting quickly may give you an immediate escape route.
• Do not try opening the door if partially submerged. Water pressure is pushing against the door and you will not be able to force it open. Don’t waste energy trying.
• If you are unable escape through the window, you need to wait until your car fills with water. Once water pressure is equal inside and outside your car, you will be able to open the car door.
• If you cannot open a door, you should break a window.  The easiest windows to break are the side windows. The front and rear windshields are made of special glass that is not easy to smash.  You should use a specially designed escape hammer, like the LifeHammer or ResQMe. This tool should be kept in an easily accessible place in your vehicle at all times.  If you do not have such an escape tool, use another object, like your shoe or keys, to break the window.

Canal crashes can result from numerous causes, some of which may be the fault of others. If you or a loved one have been in a canal crash, you should consult with an auto accident lawyer to determine how to proceed and if any damages are owed to you. Please feel free to give our firm a call.

This incident, however, is not unique.   According to the U.S. Coast Guard, as many as one-third of all fatal boating accidents involve alcohol.

Why is boating while under the influence of alcohol so dangerous?

The effects of alcohol on the body lead to a decreased awareness, slower reaction time, loss of balance and coordination, and impaired judgment.   All of these are known dangers on a road, and they are no less dangerous in the water.

The Coast Guard notes that water adds to the impairment of alcohol in a number of ways:

First, the Coast Guard notes that the boating experience involves a number of subconscious stressors such as the rocking of the boat, the engine noise and vibration, the sun, wind and spray.  Once the impairment of alcohol sets in these stressors exacerbate its effects.

Additionally, many people boat recreationally, and thus have an attitude of relaxation that leads to carelessness about their surroundings.

Third, most boaters are not as experienced on the boat as they are in their vehicles, and therefore do not handle the sudden appearance of another boat, debris or navigational buoy with the same control as they would handle a motor vehicle.

Fourth, the effects of alcohol can lead to drowning or hypothermia when a passenger is thrown overboard. Alcohol can make it difficult for an individual to orient to the surface of the water, and the warm feeling that the ingestion of alcohol provides may hide the dangers of hypothermia until it is too late.

Florida leads the country in boating fatalities. While boating can and should be a fun recreational activity, it is important to do so safely, without alcohol, to avoid an accident at sea.

Every person who under the law has a duty towards others and breaks that duty because of his or her negligence, or lack of care, can be liable to the injured party for damages. Drivers have a duty towards others to drive their vehicles with care. When their carelessness—through speeding, distracted driving, driving under the influence, or some other reason—causes an accident that injures others, the victims may be able to sue for damages.

However, Florida law carves out an exception to this rule, known as the doctrine of comparative negligence. The relevant law states: the court shall enter judgment against each party liable on the basis of such party’s percentage of fault. For example, if two drivers are involved in an accident, and both have made errors that equally caused the accident, the Court would find each one 50% liable to the other. If one party’s mistake were found to be less, say 30%, then the other party’s fault would be 70%.  As a result, the victim of an accident whose actions contributed to the accident may receive a smaller amount in damages than a victim who was without fault.

Because of the special nature of motorcycle riding, comparative fault may often play a role.  The most common cause of motorcycle accidents is left-hand turns by cars that strike the motorcyclist. If the motorcyclist shouldn’t have been in that lane, then he or she may bear some of the fault of the accident, in addition to whatever fault lies with the driver of the car.

Similarly, many motorcyclists engage in lane splitting, where they drive the motorcycle between two lanes of cars when the cars are slowing or stopped for a red light. Lane splitting is an inherently risky activity that is illegal in Florida.   A motorcyclist who is struck when lane splitting may find that the court will declare that he or she bears a portion of the fault, which could decrease or eliminate any recovery sought for damages following a motorcycle accident.

Economic damages include expenses for medical care and rehabilitation, lost wages, the replacement or repair of property, and funeral expenses.

Non-economic damages are those that are not directly connected to money lost because of the accident, but instead relate to the decrease in quality of life that results from the accident.   They include the following examples of pain and suffering:

• Physical pain
• Emotional distress
• Permanent disability
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of consortium (benefits, both emotional and physical, of marriage)

Florida law requires that all drivers carry Personal Injury Protection (PIP), with a minimum coverage of $10,000 per person. Someone who is injured in a car accident is paid, without regard to fault, by the insurance company. While in such cases the law makes it very difficult to sue for economic damages, in cases where the physical or emotional pain and distress is great enough, a victim can still sue for pain and suffering.

Outside of the automotive context, the value of a personal injury lawsuit extends further.  If a homeowner, business owner or other entity is inadequately insured, the victim can sue to recoup economic damages that were not covered by the defendant’s insurance policy.

In fact, I-95 has been rated the most dangerous stretch of highway in the United States, leading to estimates of between 627 and 667 fatal accidents between 2004 and 2008, which amounts to an average of about 1.73 accidents per mile of roadway.   When one adds the number of severe but non-fatal injuries, and the families, friends and co-workers of those killed and injured, the damage is vast.

What makes I-95 so dangerous?

Part of it may be the design of the road.  For example, US 92 merges onto I-95 South from the left side, an unusual and therefore unexpected merging that is unsafe.

Driving while intoxicated, distracted driving, speeding of up to 95 miles per hour, and driving without a seatbelt are all factors that add to the risk of driving on this highway. These dangerous risk factors, when combined with the unusually high volume of traffic on I-95, make for an often deadly combination.

Route I-4 is not too far below I-95 in terms of danger.   As one of the main roads cutting across central Florida, it has seen massive congestion because of the development of the numerous theme parks in the Orlando area.   As with I-95, the high traffic volume, combined with the other major risk factors for automobile accidents, makes I-4 a dangerous highway to be driven on with extra care.

Sadly, it is common for dogs to bite people. According to the Center for Disease Control, dogs bit about 4.5 million people each year and dogs belonging to the victim’s friends, family or neighbors cause almost half of those bites.

Naturally, children are at greater physical risk from the gross injury of a dog bite. Their smaller size means that the laceration or puncture caused by a dog bite can injure and scar a proportionately larger part of the child’s hand or face than an adult.   When the risk of infection of the wound is added to the mix, the danger increases.

However, kids are more vulnerable than are adults in another area.   An attack by a dog can often be far more traumatic to a child, who is both small in size and at a sensitive stage of development, than to an adult.   A study at Beijing University in China found that more than five percent of children who were bitten by dogs had symptoms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), a figure that jumped to more than 25% if the injury was severe.   Even without a full-blown PTSD diagnosis, the anxiety and fear that a child carries with them after an attack can have untold effects on their development.

If your child has been bitten by a dog and suffered an injury then you should speak to a personal injury lawyer about your options.

Homeowner’s insurance pays back the insured homeowner for damage or destruction to the property (by fire or storm, for example), as well as any damage that the property itself has caused to third parties (such as a slip and fall).

Insurance companies walk a fine line, which makes them both the friend of the homeowner as well as his or her adversary.  It is true that the insurance company is in the business of making payouts to homeowners when houses are damaged.  But it is also true that the insurance company is a business, and wants to maximize its profits.   So it will sometimes try to exclude (not pay you for) certain types of damage that it thinks will cost it too much.

Mold illustrates the point. As the Florida Department of Financial Services points out, many insurance companies exclude coverage of mold damage from their policies.  They explicitly either exclude mold from coverage under the policy or exclude various events, such as flooding, which are most likely to lead to mold damage.

Mold is difficult to remove, and requires two separate professionals, a mold assessor who evaluates the level of damage and prepares a detailed report, and a mold remediator who removes the mold damage.   As a result, insurance companies will often try to get out of paying these expensive claims by excluding mold at the outset.   Before you take out a homeowner’s insurance policy, check the exclusions and shop around for the most comprehensive coverage that you can afford to protect yourself, your family and your property.