Injuries & Damages

Bike Accidents in Florida

April 3, 2019 | Wolfson & Leon

personal-injury-lawyer Florida’s official nickname is the Sunshine State. Its beautiful beaches and luscious state parks draw thousands each year to enjoy the great outdoors. This may sound like Florida is therefore the perfect place to go for a bike ride. Unfortunately, however, Florida is ranked as the most dangerous state in the country to ride a bicycle.

According to a recent study by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, bicyclists in Florida as far more likely to be killed than in any other state in the US. The NHTSA study looked at the number of deaths resulting from traffic crashes between 2007 to 2016, and the results were surprising. For Florida, many, if not most, of the state’s cities dominate the study’s rankings as the most dangerous for cyclists.

Unlike many cities in Europe, like London or Amsterdam, metro areas in the United States are not built with cyclists in mind. Most cities in Europe specifically build their infrastructure to include modes of transportation that do not revolve around cars. For example, the European cities are better at including independent bicycle lanes or creating safer crosswalks for pedestrians.

The Electric Scooter Revolution Comes to Florida

March 6, 2019 | Wolfson & Leon

hospital-300x200 If you have been in a large city recently, you may have noticed a lot of people riding around on electric scooters. The trend is sweeping across the United States, with large companies investing millions of dollars and dropping hundreds of dockless electric scooters in cities across the nation.

The electronic scooter companies are aiming to reshape how people get around cities by creating a new era of environmentally friendly micro transportation. Bird and Lime are two of the largest electronic scooter companies in the United States, each with valuations of $2 to $3 billion.

The appeal? Both companies offer fairly cheap and convenient services. It costs just $1 to rent an electronic scooter, plus 15 cents per minute. There is no docking station, which means that riders are allowed to just “drop” their electronic scooters as soon as they are done with them. Moreover, the companies require that each rider is at least 18 years-old, and technically requires the riders to use a helmet, although enforcement of the helmet rule is difficult to police.

Marsy’s Law – Florida Crime Victims’ Rights

February 12, 2018 | Wolfson & Leon

proof3-300x200 Being a crime victim or someone close to a deceased crime victim is a difficult and life – changing experience. The world doesn’t look the same anymore. Suffering attack on your life, personal freedom, sexual freedom, safety, property, or anything else, means that the trust in others you once had is now shaken, or completely lost. After the unfortunate event, crime victims are in a very specific mental and emotional state: at the same time, they eagerly seek for justice, and criminal procedures are overwhelming for them. While they do their best to help the investigation, it is struggling to relive the criminal event repeatedly.

Overall, the United States provides a crime victim a significant position in the criminal procedure by entitling them to many rights. Each state can widen the scope of these rights further, and they often do that. Crime victims cooperate with investigation by giving valuable information to authorities, and later testify in court, but they also have the right to be informed, to be present, and to be heard when relevant, at all crucial stages of criminal proceedings, so long as exercising their rights doesn’t interfere with the rights of the accused.

It might look as if victims are in a very comfortable position in criminal proceedings, but the big picture is different. If you take a closer look at the laws, you’ll notice that in the US Constitution and every single state constitution have enumerated rights for accused and convicted individuals. Entitling them to these rights is in the spirit of modern civilization and democratic values, as it provides for fair procedure and shouldn’t allow anyone to be convicted in unfair trials. Whereas, the US Constitution and fifteen state constitutions haven’t enumerated crime victim rights yet. While accused persons have more than twenty rights listed in the US Constitution, crime victims have none yet.

Watch What You Sign or Suffer the Consequences

August 23, 2017 | Wolfson & Leon

proof3-300x200 It happens all the time. You go to an amusement park. You go to a tumbling facility for children. Maybe you take your kids to a horseback riding facility. Perhaps you’re even at one of those trampoline places where everyone jumps around with socks on. And this could even happen at a doctor’s office. What is it? Signing papers without reading them first.

What happens if you don’t get to do what you want unless you sign a piece of paper? It seems unfair that you could be stuck and held to an agreement that you signed in that sort of a situation. But when you sign something you need to read it. In fact, in all the situations above, if you sign away your right to sue if somebody else does something wrong and hurts you, then you can’t sue them no matter if the other person is negligent.

In fact, if the agreement says that you are releasing the location or person or company from any of their own negligence that means you can’t sue them if they’re negligent. Seems pretty straightforward. But nobody reads these agreements. Even lawyers will fail to read them. But you should think carefully about whether or not to even want to go forward with the activity. Because even if the other side is negligent, if you sign that paper, you can’t sue them.

Boating Accident Injury Lawyers in Miami

May 23, 2016 | Wolfson & Leon

image002-300x240 The Boating Accident Injury Lawyers at Wolfson & Leon have reviewed the 2015 Boating Accidents Statistical Report which was published by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The results were shocking. The Florida Keys and Broward County led the state in boating related deaths with five boating-related deaths each. If you or a loved one were injured in a boating accident, you should call the Miami Boating Accident Personal Injury Attorneys for a free consultation today at (305) 285-1115.

Boating Accident Statistics

Here are the important facts you should know when it comes to boating safety in Florida:

The Head-on-Collision: What Types of Injuries Can Be Sustained? (Part 2 of 3)

September 28, 2015 | Wolfson & Leon

Possible Safety Issues Regarding Protective Features Such as Airbags and Seatbelts You Should Be Aware Of

When a head-on collision occurs, the front seat occupants are rapidly propelled forward towards the windshield. In order to prevent someone from going through the windshield, most cars have two important safety features, the seatbelt, which must be buckled to be effective, and airbags, which react automatically to a crash and open by themselves. Seatbelts and airbags have made driving safer and do their part in protecting people well in most cases.

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However, you should note that these safety features can also cause injuries of their own. When an airbag deploys, it opens very quickly with a lot of impact. It is designed to do that to protect drivers and passengers as fast as possible to quickly “pillow” the occupants of the car from as much of the crash impact as they can. However, being struck by an airbag can feel like a major impact of its own, especially to a person who has never had an airbag open on them. Getting struck by an airbag in action mode may result in ancillary injuries, especially ears and eyes before the impact lessens and it goes into “pillow” mode. If small or petite individuals are struck by a deploying airbag, more serious injuries can occur. That’s why people are advised to have children ride in the back seat. Another problem with airbags is sometimes they are defective or installed incorrectly and fail to go off altogether and the driver and passenger in the front seats may hit the window, which can cause extremely serious “life or death” types of injuries.

The Head-on-Collision: Statistically More Likely Than Any Other Accident to Cause Death and Incapacitating Injuries (Part 1 of 3)

September 28, 2015 | Wolfson & Leon

MIAMI, FLORIDA – Data from the Florida Department of Transportation lists 1,173 wrong-way crashes (also known as “head-on collisions”) on Florida’s freeways and toll roads from 2003 to 2012. In those, 164 people were killed and 1,322 hurt.

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Seaside attraction Miami, which is the largest metropolitan area in Florida, is no exception. Some factors noted in Miami that are not common in other areas which can cause a motorist to have a head-on collision include large streets that resemble highways where people tend to drive very fast; some large streets and highways with places that don’t have a shoulder to seek safety on when faced with an oncoming wrong-way motorist; a highway and toll system that can be very confusing for people who are not from Miami, sometimes causing them to panic when trying to make decisions and end up going the wrong way; very heavy downpours of rain that occur quickly and with no warning where the driver literally cannot see out of the windshield; and tourists (particularly international ones) driving who are not familiar with the area. Miami can be a challenging place to drive, especially for the uninitiated.

Miami can especially be a challenging place to have a serious automobile accident, whether you are a visitor or Florida resident. Attorneys at Wolfson & Leon have a combined 62 years of experience representing accident victims in Miami. If you contact Wolfson & Leon immediately after your accident, even before speaking to the car insurance companies involved, you will not be misled into making any statements by a car insurance company that will come back to haunt you and harm your case. Wolfson & Leon will make a thorough investigation of your personal situation and assist you when it comes to making statements to insurance companies.

Legal Representation Help – Filing a Lawsuit after a Head-on Collision in Florida (Part 3 of 3)

September 28, 2015 | Wolfson & Leon

The minimum Personal Injury Protection coverage required by law in Florida is only $10,000. This amount is never enough to fully pay for damages, especially when it comes to a catastrophic accident like a head-on-collision. And that is your own insurance that covers your own damages. Unfortunately, many car owners skimp on their insurance to save money and just purchase the minimum amount of insurance. Another problem that may occur is the at-fault driver does not have any insurance at all, so remember it is always recommended to carry uninsured motorist coverage on your vehicles.

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Besides injuries and a destroyed automobile, head-on-collisions can wreak havoc financially. Medical care is costly and you may end up with a lot of debt because of it. The cost of the most advanced and intensive care, such as for injuries to the brain and spinal cord can easily end up in the six figures. You may need physical rehabilitation for a long time. You may be laid up and unable to go to work, which can hurt your budget even if it is for a short time. If you are unable to work because of your injuries for a long time, you could end up bankrupt.

The worst case scenario is death. If a relative died in an auto accident, you also may be able to file a wrongful death claim … to obtain justice for your loved one who has passed over, and to fight to provide the survivors of the deceased much deserved financial stability.