Best & Anderson, P.A. Personal Injury Blog

If you are injured in an accident caused by an uninsured driver, you may not be able to collect all of the compensation that you need and are entitled to, but that does not mean you should not pursue your case. There may be more compensation available than you are aware of. Experienced car accident attorneys David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. will thoroughly investigate your accident and your options to help you and your family recover from your accident.

You May Still Receive Partial or Total Compensation
Before you assume that you are out of luck just because the other driver was uninsured, you should consider two things:

• Your own insurance policy may cover part or all of your damages
• There may have been a third party to blame for your accident

Collecting From Your Own Insurance Company
Under Florida law, every auto insurance policy includes personal injury protection (PIP) of $10,000. This covers the policy holder no matter who was at fault for the accident and pays for the first $10,000 of you medical expenses and lost income whether or not the other driver had insurance.

You may actually have uninsured/underinsured motorist protection and not even know it. It is automatically included in certain types of Florida auto insurance policies unless the policy holder rejects it.

Collecting From Other Responsible Parties
A thorough investigation of your accident may reveal that someone else was actually responsible for your accident. For instance, if your accident was caused by faulty brakes or defective tires, you may have a product liability case against the auto manufacturer or dealership. If roadway defect is the cause, such as an intersection that is known to be dangerous and left uncorrected, then the city, county, or state may be held responsible.

If you have been involved in an accident with an uninsured driver, please contact Orlando, Florida car accident attorneys David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. today.

The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program is set up so that if you have suffered a qualifying disability you could file your Social Security Disability claim yourself. If you want, you can assemble all the documentation, get witnesses together, attend the hearings, file your appeal, assemble more documents, attend more hearings, and maybe earn your benefits without the benefit of the lawyer.

But there are many reasons why you should get a lawyer for your SSDI claim. A lawyer:

Increases the chances that your claim will be successful by:

• Filing all paperwork in a timely fashion
• Assembling all necessary evidence, including the specific tests necessary to prove your disability
• Making sure evidence is presented appropriately at hearings

When you are disabled, you need your Social Security Disability payments as soon as possible. Why add extra risk that your claim will be denied and have to go through multiple appeals? With the average wait time for hearings over a year, why make yourself wait longer than necessary? And when your claim is approved, the amount of your lawyer's fees is limited by the law to a fraction of your benefits. The more you earn, the more we are paid, but we will never be paid more than a quarter of your benefits.

If you are a disabled worker looking at the prospect of filing for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, please call or email our Orlando, Florida personal injury lawyers to learn how we can help. The initial consultation is free.

The mass and speed of a car get turned against the human body in the event of a car accident. Even when the car takes the brunt of the force through its crumple zones, the possibility for serious injury is very high.

Common types of injuries in car accidents include:

• Traumatic brain injury, both closed and open head injuries
• Spinal cord injury (car accident is the number one cause of spinal cord injuries)
• Limb amputation when portions of the car intrude on the passenger cabin. Loss of legs was recently determined by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to be a serious potential risk related to microcars when struck by a larger vehicle.
• Burns when gasoline in the car ignites.
• Internal organ trauma can also lead to multiple organ failure.

Many of these injuries require lifelong care and/or expensive immediate treatment. If you or a loved one have suffered any of these serious injuries in a car accident, the Orlando, Florida car accident lawyers at Best & Anderson, P.A. can help you pay for expenses related to your injury. Please schedule a free case evaluation today.

When you are involved in a car accident, you may end up in the hospital whether your injuries are serious or not. Often, you are transported from the scene by an ambulance, maybe on a stretcher. If you are conscious, this can be the scariest part of the ordeal as you are beginning to recover from the initial shock and you have time for the worries to flood into your mind.

How badly am I hurt? you may wonder. Will the doctor misdiagnose a serious injury? Will I recover? Who will take care of my family? The chatter of the paramedics about your condition can serve to heighten your anxiety as you worry about every injury they discuss.

Then, when you are admitted, you are asked many questions. As you try to answer the questions to the best of your ability, you may also wonder what your answers mean about your condition.

And as you realize you're going to be okay, you watch the nurses open prepackaged procedure kits and use only half the material, you wonder again how much this is going to cost you. Test after test comes back without indicating injury, and you wonder whether all these tests were necessary, and how much each costs. $100? $1000? If you are moved to a hospital bed, you think about how this bed costs as much as a suite in a swanky resort hotel. The cost-meter in your head is going like a gas pump, and it just added another figure. You now wonder whether you will have to pay $10,000 or $20,000 or more. You might remember a recent study that tied over 60% of all bankruptcies to medical bills. You might remember that 75% of those people bankrupt with medical bills had health insurance. You might worry about how you can possibly pay your medical bills that are escalating by the moment.

If these worries are on your mind when you or a loved one is admitted to the hospital following a car accident, the best way to put your mind at ease is to talk to an experienced car accident attorney. The Orlando, Florida car accident attorneys at Best & Anderson, P.A. may be able to help you get compensation to pay for your medical expenses, even if your insurance company or that of the other driver refuses to pay at first. Schedule a free case evaluation today to learn more.

It's unfortunately one of the things that first spring to mind after a serious car accident: how can I possibly pay all these bills? Your car may be totaled. The other driver's may be, too. You and other members of your family may have been admitted to the hospital after your car accident. The total cost of the accident may easily be $100,000 or more, not counting lost wages and less tangible costs like pain and suffering and diminished quality of life. And if you are forced to miss work or are unable to return to work, it may become impossible to pay even for everyday expenses like utilities, a mortgage or rent, or groceries.

So who will pay these bills? There are a few possibilities:

• You
• Your insurance company or companies
• The other driver
• The other driver's insurance company or companies
• No one

Everyone will try to get out of paying the bills, if they can. The other driver and the insurance companies may deny responsibility or coverage. And if no one pays the bills, you may face years of aggressive collection tactics. Medical bills, including medical bills from car accidents, are a leading cause of bankruptcy, contributing to more than 60% of bankruptcies, according to a 2009 study, published in the American Journal of Medicine.

Don't let that happen. The Orlando, Florida car accident attorneys at Best & Anderson can help. Contact us today for a free consultation.

People come to Orlando, Florida for work and play. Many of them are seasonal or short-term visitors and are often struggling to navigate unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar car. These drivers can both drive slow and move erratically on the roads. These drivers share the road with natives who are often impatient to get to work or home, and with truck drivers who have a schedule to keep. The combination can lead to many potentially serious car accidents.

Transitory visitors can often lead to difficult insurance situations as well. If the other driver is in a rental car and does not have specific coverage, their insurance company may attempt to deny coverage.

On top of this, Florida has one of the highest rates of uninsured motorists in the country, with an estimated one fourth of drivers on the road without insurance. This sobering statistic should be enough to convince you to carry uninsured motorist (UM) coverage, although sometimes collecting on that coverage may require a lawyer.

If you have been involved in an accident in Orlando, Florida, you may need a lawyer to ensure that your bills get paid. Contact the car accident lawyers at Best & Anderson, P.A. today.

Unfortunately, the residents and tourists of Florida see more than their fair share of assault crimes. In recent years, nearly 85,000 people annually have been charged with aggravated assault — and that does not by any means include all cases of assault, battery, sexual assault, hate crimes, domestic violence or even murder.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that in so many of these cases, the crimes of assault could have been preventable, if only third-party property owners had taken action to make their premises safe.

This is frequently the case when an assault happens in high-risk areas with negligent security, such as ATM locations, hotels and motels, apartment complexes, shopping malls, convenience stores, bars and all-night restaurants, and parking lots and garages.

If you have been a victim of assault, you can file criminal charges, and sometimes civil personal injury charges, against your assailant. You may also be able to receive compensation for medical bills, loss of wages and your overall pain and suffering, if a property owner failed to take steps to ensure your and other users’ safety.

We’d like to discuss your specific case today. Please contact the experienced assault victim attorneys at the Orlando, Florida offices of Best & Anderson, P.A. at 800-282-2378.