Boca Raton Car Accident Lawyer

Car accidents are common in Boca Raton. Whether you were injured driving on I-95 or while pulling into the post office parking lot, these wrecks leave motorists with serious injuries and massive expenses. At this moment, you need financial compensation to cover the costs of your accident, and an experienced legal team to help you.

Call Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein, LLP, today. One of our Boca Raton car accident lawyers can schedule a free consultation to learn more about your case. Our Boca Raton car accident lawyer has obtained settlements and verdicts for hundreds of clients injured in Florida car accidents. Our Boca Raton car accident lawyer understands the state’s laws like the back of our hands, and our car accident lawyers are eager to hear your car accident case.

Is It Possible to Receive Compensation an Auto Accident?

Car wrecks leave too many people with life-changing serious injuries. Even relatively minor injuries can force someone out of work for weeks, costing them thousands of dollars in medical expenses and lost wages and adding stress. What can you do after auto accidents? You should start by hiring a qualified car accident attorney to help you get compensation for those medical expenses and receive maximum compensation caused by auto accidents.

Florida is a no-fault insurance state. Motorists must carry a minimum amount of personal injury protection (PIP) benefits.

If you are a Florida resident, you should have this personal injury protection insurance. It will pay for a portion of your medical bills and lost income. PIP has many regulations, such as a requirement that you receive treatment within 14 days. If you don’t, you won’t receive any benefits.

Unfortunately, many people carry only the minimum insurance, which is not enough after even a minor fender bender. If you have additional expenses, or if you suffered a serious injury, you should consider filing a lawsuit with our experienced car accident lawyer in Boca Raton, FL if another driver was at fault.

Car Accident Cases Our Personal Injury Attorneys Handle

Our personal injury attorneys have honed their legal skills on many types of car accident cases:

• Rear end collisions
• Head on collisions
• Rollovers
• Drunk driving accidents
• Sideswipes
• Side-impact collisions
• Distracted driving crashes
• Hit and runs
• Single vehicle accidents
• Multiple vehicle pileups
• Rental car accidents

There is no “typical” car accident. Instead, every person’s car accident lawsuit is unique, with their own evidence and fact patterns. Our car accident lawyers can begin gathering evidence to use for your case, if you call our Boca Raton car accident lawyer today.

Serious Injuries & Stepping Outside the No Fault System

Any car accident will leave painful injuries, even if the crash happened at slow speeds. The human body isn’t designed to come to a quick stop, and many organs and body parts can suffer traumatic injuries. A motorist can be injured in several ways in an auto accident:

• Thrown from the vehicle. A driver who is not wearing a seatbelt could get tossed out a window or go through the windshield. They might even get run over by another car when lying unconscious on the road.
• Collide with other passengers. Even those wearing seat belts can slam heads with another passenger in the car as everyone twists and turns after a crash.
• Bang into the steering wheel or dash. A person in a car suffers multiple traumatic impacts with the interior of a vehicle.
• Suffer violent shaking. A motorist can get injured even if they don’t collide with anything. Violent whipping or shaking can injure nerves, as well as the brain.

Our clients often struggle with:

• Concussions
• Head injuries
• Whiplash
• Lacerations
• Chest injuries
• Fractured ribs
• Spinal column injury
• Paralysis
• Burns
• Amputations

You can seek personal injury protection insurance (PIP) benefits for any injury to take care of medical expenses from your physical injuries. But Florida’s PIP law limits suing for pain and suffering to only those injuries defined as significant under the law:

• Significant and permanent disfigurement or scarring
• Significant and permanent loss of a bodily function (like blindness or the loss of a limb)
• Permanent injury
• Death

Our personal injury lawyer at Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein always analyzes whether your injuries support a personal injury lawsuit for pain and suffering in Palm Beach County. If so, you can dramatically increase the amount of compensation you take home.

When is Another Driver at Fault?

Our car accident lawyer can sue if another driver’s negligence caused a wreck. There are many examples of negligence in a motor vehicle accident, such as:

• Distracted driving—texting while driving, eating and drinking, and talking with passengers.
• Aggressive driving—speeding, tailgating, passing illegally, driving on the sidewalk, or running a red light.
• Moving violations—illegal lane changes, failure to yield, illegal U-turns, and driving too fast for conditions.
• Inadequate maintenance—failing to have necessary repairs to make a car safe to drive, such as ignoring squeaky brakes or refusing to fix blown headlights.
• Chemical impairment—drinking and driving, driving while high, and excessive fatigue caused by chemical use.

This is not a comprehensive list for a motor vehicle accident. But it gives you some idea of what negligence looks like in auto accident cases. If a motorist fails to use reasonable care causing a motor vehicle accident, our car accident attorney can often step outside the no-fault system and file a car accident lawsuit. You should contact our car accident lawyer as soon as possible regarding your car accident claim.

Car Accident Damages

Our car accident lawyer has decades of experience suing defendants for hurting our clients in a car accident. As your Boca Raton car accident attorneys, we can seek full compensation for all damages:

• Medical expenses, including surgery, at-home help, wheelchairs, prescription medication, and doctor visits.
• Common car accident injuries that can even cause a fatal car accident.
• Future medical expenses, if your permanent injuries require ongoing care, such as future surgeries.
• Property damage, including the damage your car suffered in a collision.
• Lost income and self-employment income, when you can’t work due to injuries suffered in a car accident.
• Loss of earning capacity, if permanent disabilities prevent a quick return to your old job.

These damages are economic in nature. Our car accident attorneys in Boca Raton can easily identify how much you have lost by looking at receipts and paystubs from your medical bills and lost wages.

Other damages are general or non-economic. These include pain and suffering, depression, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life. These types of losses are admittedly hard to translate into dollars and cents. How much money will make up for constant back pain or depression? Or for never enjoying romantic walks on the beach with your spouse? At DDRB, our car accident attorneys in Boca Raton have handled so many car accident cases that we know how much we can ask for in pain and suffering compensation for auto accident claims.

Loss of Consortium Claims

Catastrophic injuries like paralysis or brain damage do more than injure the accident victim. Their spouse also suffers a severe injury. In particular, they might no longer enjoy the companionship, sexual intimacy, and guidance that they used to receive from their spouse before the car crash. They can also lose the benefit of household services, such as cooking, cleaning, or household chores. In sum, major injuries completely upend a family’s life.

Florida law allows a person to bring a loss of consortium claim when an accident impairs their marital relationship. There are certain requirements, such as being married to the accident victim. Also, the victim’s injuries should be significant. A back sprain or mild case of whiplash probably did not impair a marriage to any significant extent. But brain damage or amputation very well could. As experienced Boca Raton car accident attorneys, we will consider whether a loss of consortium claim is viable.

Evidence for Boca Raton Car Accidents

The most helpful evidence in your Boca Raton car accident will allow people to reconstruct what happened even though they were not at the car accident scene. In this way, our auto accident lawyer in Boca Raton can assign fault for the car crash. Our personal injury lawyer typically relies on the following for a car accident case:

• Physical evidence, including damage to your car from the car crash. This evidence can show the angle of collision, as well as the relative speeds each car was traveling.
• Witness testimony, including the testimony of passengers and third parties. These witnesses can identify what happened.
• Toxicology results, if the other driver was drunk or high. This evidence is extremely helpful at showing a motorist was legally impaired.
• Cell phone records, when the other driver was texting or talking while driving. We can try to request these records as part of your suit.
• Video footage, such as surveillance video from nearby stores. Pictures truly are worth a thousand words when it comes to piecing together what happened.
• Driver statements, such as an admission the driver wasn’t watching where he was going.

How Comparative Negligence Affects Your Accident Claim

Car accidents aren’t always black and white. Sometimes, both motorists are to blame—at least partially. For example, the other driver might have fallen asleep and drifted into oncoming traffic, where he collided with your car. At the same time, you were distracted because you were reading a cell phone while driving.

In situations like these, both drivers share fault because they were both negligent. You can’t really claim to be blameless, since you could have avoided the wreck if you weren’t looking at your phone.

What happens? Can you receive compensation when you are partially at fault?

The law in Florida has recently changed. Today, you can seek compensation so long as you are not more at fault than the other driver. That means you can be up to 50% to blame but not more so. Anyone who is 51% at fault or greater is prohibited by law from obtaining compensation.

If you are 50% or less, your compensation is still reduced by your share of fault. That means you will probably receive much less than if you were entirely blameless.

Comparative negligence (also called comparative fault) is a bone of contention in many accident cases. The other side has an incentive to pin all the blame on you. That way, they can avoid paying any compensation, or at least dramatically reduce the amount.At DDRB, we strive to understand car accidents from all angles. This commitment has helped us minimize our client’s negligence, while amplifying the other driver’s culpability. We will back up our argument that the other driver bears most of the blame using solid evidence.

How Many People Are Injured in Car Accidents in Boca Raton?

Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles collects accident statistics. The most comprehensive statistics for Palm Beach County are from 2021:

• 24,857 total crashes during the year
• 198 fatal crashes, leading to 215 fatalities
• 9,806 injury crashes, resulting in 15,203 injuries
• 6,919 hit and run collisions, causing 21 fatalities and 1,824 injuries

These numbers are very high. At our Boca Raton car accident law firm, you are never a car accident statistic. Our accident lawyers know that you have an individual car accident story, and we want to hear it.

Can Hit & Run Victims Receive Compensation?

Hit and run victims face unique challenges. For one thing, the at-fault motorist has fled after hitting you. That makes it harder for our car accident lawyer to sue them since we don’t know their identity. The police might catch the person, but they often don’t.

Helpfully, you can still use PIP benefits to pay for some medical care and/or replace a portion of lost wages from your Boca Raton car accident. You might have other insurance, too, like collision insurance.

Our experienced car accident attorney can also negotiate a settlement if you have uninsured motorist coverage (UM). This is auto insurance you pay for. It is fault-based, so you can only tap it if you are not to blame for the wreck, but it can pay for medical care, lost income, and other damages. Sometimes getting a UM settlement is much harder than it should be, so please call an attorney to review what steps to take.

Were You Injured While Visiting Florida?

Boca Raton is a popular tourist destination, with thousands of people arriving each month to enjoy the sun, especially in winter. Some of them might be injured in a car accident during their stay. For example, someone might rent a car while in Boca Raton and end up in a crash. Others will be riding as passengers when they are involved in a collision.

Cases involving out-of-state motorists have added wrinkles. For example, a driver from a different state might have an insurance policy bought in their home state. That policy will provide different levels of protection and compensation than Florida’s required coverage.

Visitors might also need to return soon after the accident. Some might be tempted to wait until they return home to hire a car accident attorney. But the best bet is to hire a Boca Raton car accident lawyer to handle your case. Not only did the accident happen here, but most of the evidence will be in Boca Raton, as well. The defendant probably lives in Boca Raton or a neighboring town. It is easier to have a local personal injury attorney begin investigating and negotiating on your behalf.

Also, if your case ends up going to trial, you will need injury attorneys who are licensed in Florida to represent you in court to get fair compensation. We recommend scheduling a consultation with Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein before you return home. Let us explain how we help out-of-state clients and how we will keep you updated on the status of your case. We offer the same no-risk, no-obligation consultations to visitors that we do to Boca Raton residents.

Rental Car Accidents

An accident involving a rental car has added complexity. A person who rents a car should either have personal insurance or get insurance from the rental company. That is helpful if the rental driver causes an accident. Our injured clients then submit a personal injury claim to the at-fault driver’s insurer.

However, some drivers are uninsured. They might not have any insurance on their car back home, and they didn’t pick up coverage through the rental company. In that case, we might need to turn to the rental company for compensation.

One myth is that the rental company is always at fault because they own the vehicle, but that’s not the case. A federal law called the Graves Amendment (49 U.S.C. § 30106) states that rental companies are not liable simply for owning a car.

Instead, a rental company might have liability if they rented out a dangerous vehicle or if they rented to someone who should not have driven. Let us investigate whether we can bring a claim against a rental company for a wreck.

If you were driving a rental car, you can still seek compensation from the driver who struck you. But we can review all options, including whether to make a claim on your uninsured motorist policy.

Boca Raton Car Accident Claims Process

Here is an overview of what to expect after your collision:

1.       Information swap at the accident scene. Get the other driver’s license number, registration number, insurance information, and personal details, such as where they live. You should also have called the police. An officer can come out to collect other evidence.

2.       Medical treatment. You should go to the hospital immediately after finishing at the accident scene. Continue with your medical care until you reach maximum improvement.

3.       Consultation with an attorney. We can listen as you describe the accident and your injuries. Our experienced auto accident attorney might also ask for more information to analyze whether you can file a lawsuit for a serious injury.

4.       Evidence gathering and analysis. If hired, we can begin finding evidence and speak to witnesses. We are building an insurance claim to show the other driver was at fault.

5.       Negotiation with the defendant. Our experienced attorney will negotiate with a negligent driver or their insurer for a settlement. This process could take a couple of months or much longer, depending on their willingness to settle.

6.       Litigation. Sometimes we need to file a lawsuit in court. You have a maximum of two years from the date of the crash to file, otherwise you lose your legal rights to compensation. Typically, we can settle a claim without a need for litigation.

Why Should You Hire a Car Accident Attorney from Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein?

Florida has a thousand law firms. What makes our Boca Raton car accident lawyers stand out from the competition?

• Depth of experience. Few firms can match our experience in motor vehicle accidents. We know where to find relevant evidence, which pays off in the form of efficient and effective representation.
• Reputation. Our lawyers have received some of the most prestigious honors for personal injury lawyers. For example, our lawyers have been honored by Best Lawyers in America®, Florida Super Lawyers®, and the American Board of Trial Advocates, among other awards. When you hire us, the other side will know you mean business.
• Results. We have obtained more than $1 billion for our injured clients over the years, and we aren’t done fighting for injured accident victims. Look at our results to see the dedication we bring to all auto accident cases we accept.
• Compassion. This is a stressful time for you and your family. At DDRB, we never lose sight of how personal injuries can turn your life upside down, and we lessen the load in any way we can.

We make choosing a lawyer easy. We offer free consultations to anyone hurt in a Boca Raton car accident. You can meet at our office, ask questions, and find out more about the legal considerations involved with filing an accident claim. There is no risk to you. Call today!

What Steps Should You Take after an Accident?

Our lawyers recommend that victims do the following if they are not in too much pain:

• Ask if anyone at the accident scene needs an ambulance, and call emergency services if they do.
• Share with the other driver your insurance, driver’s license, and registration, along with your personal address.
• Write down the other driver’s personal information, including information regarding their insurance.
• Note anything unusual about the driver. Is he agitated? Are his eyes red? Does his breath reek of alcohol? Also note what he or she says.
• Call the police to report the accident and share your suspicions with the responding officer if you believe the other driver is high or intoxicated.
• Get pictures of all vehicles involved in the crash, including at least a few pictures showing where all cars ended up in relation to each other.
• Talk to any witnesses at the scene and ask them for a way of contacting them. We might use their witness testimony to establish fault.
• Visit the emergency room when you finish at the accident scene. Tell a doctor where you feel pain.
• Follow your doctor’s orders and get a second opinion if you do not believe you are improving.
• Stop adding friends to social media. And never post anything about your accident.

Mistakes to Avoid Following a Boca Raton Collision

Florida law provides powerful remedies to accident victims, but success is not guaranteed. Some people end up undercutting their legal claim in the weeks after an accident. They make some mistake which sounded like a good idea at the time, only to find out that they can’t receive as much compensation as they had hoped.

Here are some mistakes to avoid:

• Do not admit fault, to the other driver or to anyone else. The reality is that you probably don’t know with certainty what happened. Until you do, there’s no reason to say you are to blame. Instead, you can certainly express concern for other motorists involved in the crash. But don’t say anything like, “I didn’t even see you!” which sounds like you are admitting you were distracted.
• Never give a recorded statement to an insurance adjuster without a lawyer present. The adjuster might trick you into admitting fault. Or the adjuster will challenge you on the severity of your injuries. It is easy for someone experiencing intense bodily pain to say something they later regret.
• Avoid self-diagnosing injuries. Medical care is expensive, and some people don’t have health insurance. Still, you should try to go to the hospital or visit a doctor. Self-diagnosis is often wrong. Even worse, you give the defendant leverage to claim you are partially to blame for your pain.
• Refuse to accept any settlement offer until you talk with us. The first offer from an insurance company is rarely sufficient. We have experience getting insurers to offer more. Once you accept an offer, it’s hard to take it back.
• Avoid talking about your accident or case on social media. Some people love to share every detail of their life on Instagram, Facebook, or X/Twitter. That is a definite mistake. An insurance adjuster can click through your profile to find evidence to use in negotiations to your detriment. Set profiles private until your case is over with.
• Don’t hire a lawyer who is unfamiliar with car accidents. This area of law is different from criminal or divorce law. Your divorce lawyer might have been terrific at getting you child custody and alimony after divorce. That doesn’t mean she can handle a car accident case.

Car Accidents & Road Defects: What Are Your Rights?

Not all accidents are caused by negligent drivers. Some are also the fault of hazardous roads:

• Construction debris left in the road
• Improperly designed work zones
• Missing or obstructed signage
• Malfunctioning stop signs
• Potholes and defective guardrails
• Flooded roads due to inadequate drainage systems

Motorists can easily end up in a single-vehicle accident if they swerve to avoid road debris or if they rollover after tripping on it. Poorly designed work zones also cause many accidents because traffic is so congested.

Road defects injure hundreds of people each year, and many are naturally curious about their legal rights. The good news is you can often sue the party responsible for the road. If the government owns the road, you can sue them for a defect which caused a collision.

Bringing a claim against the government is much harder than we can summarize here. Generally, the state enjoys sovereign immunity from any lawsuit, which means you can’t sue them. A judge would not even consider it. Helpfully, the state has waived this immunity in some cases, including certain accidents caused by a road defect.

Nonetheless, the state has attached strings to these cases. You can’t sue until you provide written notice to the government about the accident, and you also need to notify the Florida Department of Financial Services.

Special deadlines apply in lawsuits against the government. We encourage anyone who believes a road defect contributed to their crash to reach out by phone or online. We can ensure you meet all applicable deadlines. We can also fight to get you the most compensation possible. Florida caps damages in lawsuits against the government, but we will do everything in our power to obtain full justice.

Florida’s Evolving Personal Injury Law

Florida continues to experiment with tort reform. These reforms invariably disadvantage injured victims and favor large insurance companies. The good news is that our lawyers stay abreast of all proposed changes, so we can always protect your rights.

Here is one recent change: the state has shortened the statute of limitations for most personal injury cases, including car accidents. Today, the limitation period is only two years after the wreck. Anyone who goes over this deadline will watch helplessly as their legal rights disappear. It is critical to get a lawsuit filed before the deadline to maintain leverage in settlement negotiations.

Call DDRB. Our Boca Raton car accident attorneys will keep a close eye on any approaching deadlines. When a deadline looms, we can quickly spring into action to file a lawsuit in the appropriate forum. This is just one reason why you should call us soon after an accident. Two years can pass quickly, especially if you are trying to overcome significant injuries. The stakes are too high to wait.

Will Your Case End Up in Court?

Many people are terrified about testifying in open court about an accident. Their voices shake and they are so nervous they forget how to answer questions. Luckily, our lawyers are generally able to settle a case to our satisfaction. We might need to file a lawsuit, but that doesn’t mean you’ll end up testifying in front of a jury. We usually obtain a fair settlement before trial is necessary.

Nonetheless, a few cases cannot settle, often because the other side acts unreasonably. They might continue to blame you for causing the crash, even though we have sufficient evidence to show you are the victim. Or the defense could claim you have lied to doctors about feeling pain.

Let us figure out how to bring the other side to the bargaining table so that they see the accident our way. Some insurers engage in bad faith practices, which means we might end up suing them for compensation as well.Should your case end up going to trial, we will fully prepare you for any testimony. Our legal team has won many honors for our trial work, and we leave no stone unturned when preparing clients for their day in court.

Schedule a Meeting Today with a Boca Raton Car Accident Lawyer

If you were hurt in a car accident in Boca Raton, you deserve an experienced car accident lawyer and established law firm in your corner. Hire the right car accident lawyer. Dolan Dobrinsky Rosenblum Bluestein, LLP, can handle all aspects of your car accident case and provide personal injury protection to all our car accident victims if you call our auto accident lawyer. Suffered a serious accident? Went through a minor automobile accident? Call our experienced car accident attorney in Boca Raton, FL for a free initial consultation today.