South Florida Personal Injury Blog

Under the personal injury law, negligence is said to have occurred when at least one of the parties involved in the accident did not exercise reasonable care under the circumstances, or when at least one of the parties did something that another reasonably careful individual would not do in those circumstances. Our personal injury attorneys in Fort Lauderdale explain the basics.

Negligence is the most common basis for personal injury lawsuits. Auto accident related cases or premises liability cases involving personal injury are usually based on the argument that the defendant acted negligently. See our article on Merchant Circle on car accidents. Negligence law may differ from one jurisdiction to another. Therefore, it is important to know the local laws pertaining to negligence where the accident has occurred.

Establishing Proximate Cause

Proximate cause is said to exist where the victim sustained personal injuries due to negligent conduct of the defendant. Furthermore, the victim’s injury must be a natural and probable outcome of such negligent conduct. Therefore, in order to prove liability of the defendant, the victim must establish not only negligence, but also proximate cause.

Many accidents involving personal injury may have multiple proximate causes. It is not necessary for the establishment of liability that the negligence of the defendant should be the only proximate cause of the victim’s injury, or the final proximate cause. The defendant may be liable even when a personal injury occurred due to more than one proximate cause, and whether such causes occurred simultaneously or in combination.

Components of an Act of Negligence

Assessment of an act of negligence typically requires that the victim must prove four factors arising out of a preponderance of the available evidence. The first factor is that the defendant must have owed a duty to the victim, or a duty to the public, including the victim. The second factor is that the defendant must have violated such duty. Thirdly, the victim must have sustained personal injury as a result of the violation of such duty by the defendant. Lastly, the injury must be reasonably foreseeable result of the defendant’s action.

Gross Negligence vs. Ordinary Negligence

Gross negligence refers to such conduct or inaction that is so reckless that it shows a substantial lack of care and concern for whether a personal injury may result from it. In some cases where ordinary negligence may not suffice, it becomes important to establish a case of gross negligence in order to hold the defendant liable for damages.

For instance, if a government employee caused an accident while on government duty, he or she may enjoy immunity from liability for ordinary negligence. In such a case, gross negligence may have to be established to hold the defendant liable.

For more information contact our personal injury attorneys in Fort Lauderdale.
Alitowski & Moore
707 NE 3rd Avenue, Suite 201
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33304
954-523-5333
502-523-6938
888-275-2637
888-Ask-Andrew

Patricia Kluge, seen for years as one of America’s richest divorcees, has taken up a day job after she went bankrupt in June. Kluge along with William Moses, her third husband, will oversee the production of wine at the newly renamed Trump Winery in Charlottesville, VA. The woman who was famous for her spectacular Virginia mansion, a large collection of jewels, and a huge pile of cash from her former husband, media mogul John Kluge, lost her fortune due to bad business decisions and poor financial management.

The good thing is that her day job is not an ordinary one. She is working for the winery taken over by Donald Trump, which had been built on her estate in Virginia. It was a financially risky venture that led her to seek bankruptcy protection from creditors. However, Kluge is still not the one to settle for an ordinary life. She rents a lavish 6,000 square-foot home with five bedrooms and a swimming pool in an exclusive gated community close to her old mansion.

Kluge’s saga of financial undoing is not very different from that of so many Americans who overused their credit cards and borrowed heavily during the times of the economic boom. As the creditors closed in on her, her financial straits became public knowledge. At last, she has chosen to speak publicly about her bankruptcy. She appears resolute and confident to survive without the servants that at one time attended to guests at her lavish parties.

For the moment, Kluge and her husband Moses will earn nearly $250,000 under a 12-month contract to work for Trump’s winery. She handles wine production, bottling and marketing, while Moses looks after the legal and issues part time. About a third of their earning goes to rent (she still has not learned much). Kermit Rosenber, the couple’s lawyer, says that the future remains unclear for Kluge since they have walked out of bankruptcy with nothing. Well, at least she has her third husband around to share her life with.

This article has been brought to you by the personal injury attorneys of Alitowski & Moore. We have decades of combined experience settling car accident claims in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Louisville Kentucky. Call to learn how our legal team can help you. 

Fort Lauderdale Attorneys

Alitowski & Moore 
707 NE 3rd Avenue
Suite 201
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
954-523-5333
954-523-6938
888-275-2637
888-Ask Andrew

Louisville Lawyers

Alitowski & Moore 
332 W. Broadway
Suite 613
Louisville, KY 40202
502-582-9100
502-582-9440
888-275-2637
888-Ask Andrew

The impending divorce between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver continues to attract attention, and it is difficult not to be fascinated by it. Arnold and Maria came as close as America can get to royalty. He was a self-made, hugely successful star in sports, entertainment, business, and politics. She was a Kennedy and the most popular First Lady of California ever.

Reports suggest that Arnold has made a deal to publish his memoir with Simon & Schuster in October 2012. It is likely to be a huge bestseller and make plenty of money for Arnold. It remains a matter of conjecture on what new aspects and details will Arnold reveal about his life that is not already known.

Schwarzenegger appears to have moved on after the scandalous divorce announcement. He has been busy making celebrity appearances, working on his forthcoming memoir, and making plans to produce new feature films (hopefully they are better than Terminator 3). Shriver, on the other hand, appears to be in a more difficult position. She has been through the death of both her parents within a year. She has been frank enough to say she does not know what the future holds in store for her. She is rich; there are people on this planet, and in this country, far worse off.

Shriver will be reportedly worth a hundred million dollars and Schwarzenegger four hundred million after the divorce. However, the real difficult part has emerged with the recognition of a half-sibling. Questions remain whether Schwarzenegger provided for the child under a confidential support agreement, or used community funds from his marriage, or what the source of funds was that Schwarzenegger used to buy a home for the child and her mother.

For the sake of the children, Schwarzenegger and Shriver need to avoid a prolonged divorce settlement and maintain privacy. Confidential judicial arbitration or private mediation may be the best way to approach the situation, and it appears from all accounts that the couple may be already following this approach. Schwarzenegger has had to put his movie projects on hold because of this, certainly costing him millions of dollars.

This article has been brought to you by the personal injury attorneys of Alitowski & Moore. We have decades of combined experience settling car accident claims in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Louisville Kentucky. Call to learn how our legal team can help you. 

Fort Lauderdale Attorneys

Alitowski & Moore 
707 NE 3rd Avenue
Suite 201
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
954-523-5333
954-523-6938
888-275-2637
888-Ask Andrew

Louisville Lawyers

Alitowski & Moore 
332 W. Broadway
Suite 613
Louisville, KY 40202
502-582-9100
502-582-9440
888-275-2637
888-Ask Andrew

Insurance companies play a crucial role in the settlement of personal injury claims. Determining the fairest amount of claim is the most challenging issue because each side may view things from their own perspective. The claims usually vary from one case to another because no two cases will have identical circumstances.

Types of Damages Insurer Must Pay

Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers maintain that a person who is held liable for causing an accident and his or her insurance company is required to compensate for certain damages in most cases. These include the cost of medical treatment and related expenses incurred by the victim to recover from the personal injuries. Secondly, the defendant or the insurer must compensate the victim for the wages lost due to absence from work while undergoing medical treatment for the personal injuries.

Compensation may also be claimed for loss of social, education, and family experiences such as missed training, family events, recreation, or vacation. Emotional costs suffered such as loss of confidence, depression, stress, or strained personal relationships may also be a part of the legitimate claim. Lastly, any loss or damage to the victim’s property must be compensated for by the defendants or their insurers.

Damages Computation by Insurers

Medical expenses and loss of income are computable more easily than subjective losses such as emotional loss or pain and suffering experienced by the victim. In such cases, the insurance adjusters usually add up the actual medical costs known as “medical special damages”. This amount is treated as a base figure to arrive at an amount for the non-monetary costs, which is known as “general damages”.

If the personal injuries suffered are minor in nature, the insurance adjuster may compute the general damages by multiplying the special damages amount by 1.5 or 2. If the personal injuries are serious in nature, the general damages may go up to five times the special damages, or even up to 10 times in extreme cases. However, this is just a broad formula used by insurance adjusters, but the actual figures may vary from one case to another. Furthermore, this is not a final figure, but only an amount from where the insurer may initiate negotiations for compensation with the victim.

Extent of Fault

In some personal injury cases, both the victim and the defendant may be partially at fault for having caused the accident, resulting in personal injuries to one of them. In such cases, the insurance company will try to determine the percentage of fault of each party. The insurer may reduce the amount of compensation by the same percentage for which it holds the victim responsible for the accident. This is an issue of comparative liability, and a fair distribution of liability must be determined based on the facts and circumstances of the accident.