South Florida Personal Injury Blog

Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorneys Andrew Alitowski and William Moore have seen numerous cases in which a plaintiff contributed to her own injuries at least marginally. Most south Florida personal injury lawsuits involve the negligence of one or more people (see the Dog Bites discussion for an example of a strict liability situation). Negligence occurs when someone has a duty of care to a particular person, but does not fulfill that duty. The failure to fulfill the duty must cause an injury in order to recover. For instance, if a woman in a Broward County grocery store slips on the unmarked wet floor in the freezer aisle and fractures her tailbone, she will very likely be able to recover. Shopkeepers owe a high duty of care to their customers, which is why you frequently see yellow signs marking wet floors. If someone trespasses on your tract of land in Palm Beach County and you were unaware of his presence, you may not be liable for his injuries if he falls into a ditch, depending on the specific circumstances of your case. A shopkeeper has a much higher duty to a patron than a landowner has to a trespasser. This is due in part to the fact that a shopkeeper invites customers into her store, whereas trespassers are often unknown and unwanted. Contact Broward injury lawyer Andrew Alitowski to discuss recovering monetary damages in your Fort Lauderdale area injury case.

What happens when the plaintiff was at fault, too? The person she sues, the defendant, will not want to pay for the entirety of her injuries if he only caused part of them. Florida law recognizes that it would be unfair for him to do so. The state uses pure comparative negligence, a system which apportions fault between the plaintiff and defendant(s). The defendant must pay only the damages for which he is at fault.

For instance, assume that Bertha was riding her bicycle in the bike lane on a crowded Hollywood street. She was riding in the bike lane, wearing her helmet. She stopped at a red light, but not wanting to be late to class, she went on through. Bertha had a red light and the crosswalk signal indicated that pedestrians should not walk. Nonetheless, she continued through, not realizing that oncoming traffic had a left turn signal. Cara, who was driving her car to play in her afternoon bowling league, was turning left. Although Cara was able to brake, the car still hit Bertha. Since Bertha had worn her helmet, her injuries were painful but not life-threatening. Bertha sued Cara to recover for her injuries, alleging that Cara was negligent in the operation of her vehicle. The jury determined that Bertha’s injuries amounted to $10,000. Additionally, the jury found that Bertha was 65 percent at fault and Cara was 35 percent at fault. Under Florida law, Cara owes Bertha $3,500.

In most states, that degree of fault on the part of the plaintiff would bar her recovery from a defendant. Florida and 12 other states use a pure comparative negligence system in which any plaintiff who is less than 100 percent at fault can recover for the percentage of her injuries caused by the defendant(s).