Auto Accidents

Here’s what really happens after a crash: an adjuster sets a reserve using software, pushes for a “quick statement,” waves a small check, and hunts anything to pass 50% fault your way.

Netska Law Group preserves critical video and vehicle data before it’s lost, narrows medical authorizations, and secures treating-physician permanency opinions—positioning non-economic damages to be legally available. The firm then crafts a precise causation narrative and sequences coverage across PIP, BI, UM/UIM, and any commercial or umbrella layers, moving promptly under Florida’s two-year deadline.

Ready to protect the claim? Call (954) 836-7530 or send our skilled auto accident attorney a message to get started.

What Must Be Proven in a Florida Car-Crash Claim

Most Florida auto cases are straightforward negligence actions built on four elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. Drivers owe a duty to use reasonable care—obey signals, maintain a safe following distance, yield when turning left, keep a proper lookout, and avoid impairment or distraction. A breach occurs when a driver texts through a light, drifts across a lane, speeds through rain, or follows too closely.

Causation links that breach to the harm: the side-impact that herniates a disc, the seat-belt load that fractures ribs, the frontal crash that concusses the brain. Damages are the consequences that can be measured and proved—medical expenses, lost income, diminished earning capacity, and non-economic losses such as pain, loss of enjoyment of life, and scarring.

Insurers rarely concede this chain. They may accept a traffic violation but argue the impact was “minor,” or agree the impact was significant but attribute symptoms to age-related changes. Strong cases answer those moves with objective materials gathered early: traffic-camera or retail-camera video, event-data-recorder (EDR) downloads, intersection signal-timing records, photographs that show crush and intrusion, eyewitness statements memorialized while details are fresh, and medical records that tie the mechanism of injury to the diagnosis. Auto accident lawyers treat those items as the backbone of liability and damages, not as accessories to a demand letter.

Two Rules That Shape Every Florida Crash Claim Now

Florida law changed in 2023 in ways that directly affect car-crash litigation. First, for collisions on or after March 24, 2023, the statute of limitations for negligence claims is two years. That is a hard deadline. Surveillance video typically overwrites in 7–45 days, vehicles are repaired or sold, and witnesses scatter. Speed matters because proof disappears long before a lawsuit deadline arrives.

Second, Florida now applies modified comparative fault in most negligence cases. A jury may reduce compensation by a claimant’s percentage of responsibility—and if the claimant is more than 50% at fault, there is no recovery at all. For auto cases, that change intensifies defense efforts to shift blame with cell-phone logs, “sudden stop” theories, lane-position diagrams, and social-media posts. Accurate reconstructions, phone-use timelines, lighting and visibility measurements, and scene photos push responsibility back where it belongs.

Where the Money Actually Comes From

Florida’s Personal Injury Protection (PIP) is the entry point for most collisions: up to $10,000, generally 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of wage loss, provided treatment starts within 14 days. PIP does not pay for pain and suffering. To access non-economic damages from the at-fault driver, a claimant must meet the serious-injury threshold (significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function; permanent injury within reasonable medical probability; significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement; or death).

Beyond PIP, coverage can stack from several sources:

the at-fault driver’s bodily injury (BI) liability policy;
an employer’s commercial auto policy if the driver was on the clock;
an umbrella or excess policy above those layers; and
the injured person’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage when BI limits are low or nonexistent.

Rideshare and commercial-fleet cases add specialized certificates and endorsements; rental-car incidents add contractual coverages. Insurers set reserves early using valuation software and local verdict data. Files built with clean liability timelines, treating-physician narratives, imaging extracts, and wage-loss models push those reserves—and offers—upward. Accident lawyer in Florida identifies and tenders to all potential carriers early so medical funding is not stalled by finger-pointing.

The Main Types of Auto Collisions in Fort Lauderdale

Involved in any type of accident? Here are the crash types most often litigated in Florida and the evidence that tends to resolve them.

Rear-End Collisions. In stop-and-go traffic, the presumption usually starts against the rear driver, but it can be rebutted. Brake-light function, unexpected hazards, and sudden lane intrusions matter. EDR downloads and dash-cam angles turn opinion into timestamped fact.
Intersection and Red-Light Crashes. Angle impacts often come down to who had the green. Signal-timing records, turn-arrow phases, and third-party video (nearby storefronts, bus cameras) often answer the question.
Sideswipe and Lane-Change Impacts. Chronic around merges and construction. Damage patterns along doors and quarter panels and the direction of paint transfer identify the lane violator.
Head-On Collisions. Less frequent but severe, especially on undivided roads or wrong-way incidents linked to impairment. Scene mapping and toxicology testing often support punitive-damages exposure in egregious conduct.
Multi-Vehicle Chain Reactions. Visibility drops in heavy rain; one mistake compounds quickly. The sequence of impacts—who struck whom first—shifts fault and coverage. Coordinated EDR timing from several vehicles can build a single, reliable chronology.
Commercial Vehicle and Trucking Collisions. Box trucks, delivery vans, and 18-wheelers add weight and regulation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (brake inspections, hours-of-service, hiring/retention) provide concrete liability anchors.
Rideshare (Uber/Lyft) Collisions. Coverage pivots on app status: available, en-route, or with passenger can trigger a $1 million third-party layer. Trip logs and GPS telemetry must be preserved quickly.
Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers. UM/UIM coverage becomes central. Scene canvasses for cameras and rapid police reports improve identification and coverage outcomes.

Each crash type points to a specific evidence set. The earlier those items are preserved—video, EDR, signal data, hiring and maintenance records—the clearer the liability picture and the stronger the settlement position.

Auto Injuries That Appear Again and Again

Rear- and side-impact forces place the neck and back under rapid flexion and rotation. Cervical and lumbar disc herniations can compress nerves, producing shooting pain, numbness, and weakness. Imaging (MRI), targeted injections, and nerve studies document both the structure and the symptoms; some clients require discectomy or fusion.

Concussion and mild traumatic brain injury often present with headaches, light sensitivity, poor concentration, and irritability even when CT scans are “normal.” Neurocognitive testing translates those symptoms into objective findings and a care plan.

Seat-belt and door-pillar loading frequently injure the shoulder (labrum tears, rotator cuff damage) and knee (meniscus tears, ligament sprains) as the body twists. These conditions limit overhead reach, kneeling, and pivoting—critical movements in hospitality, construction, healthcare, and childcare roles.

Fractures (tibia/fibula, wrist, clavicle, ribs) often require plates or rods; even when bones heal, hardware pain and endurance limits can persist and must be priced into future care. In higher-energy impacts, internal organ injuries emerge hours later; returning for re-evaluation after delayed abdominal pain is medically smart and legally protective.

Psychological harm is real and compensable when tied to physical injury: PTSD, anxiety, and insomnia can follow violent crashes and often improve with cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication. Thorough documentation—treating-physician narratives, therapy notes, functional testing—lets a damages model reflect daily life as it is actually lived, not just what a scan shows. Netska Law Group builds medical chronologies that connect the mechanism of injury to the diagnosis and then to the practical limitations that affect work and family.

What To Do After an Auto Accident in Florida

A short plan is better than a long memory. These steps help your health and your claim.

Before the scene changes: If safe, call 911, move to a secure location, and photograph vehicle positions, damage, skid marks, traffic signals, and weather. Exchange information and identify witnesses. Avoid arguing fault.
Medical care within 14 days: Florida PIP requires timely treatment. Even if you left the scene feeling “okay,” get evaluated; adrenaline can mask symptoms, and early records tie injuries to the crash.
Preserve the digital trail: Save dash-cam files, ride receipts, rental agreements, and any texts with the other driver. If nearby businesses might have video, note their names and locations so your lawyer can send preservation letters before footage overwrites.
Limit insurer communications: Report the crash to your carrier, but decline detailed recorded statements to the at-fault insurer until counsel is involved. Broad medical authorizations and off-the-cuff comments routinely reduce claim value.
Follow medical advice and keep records: Attend appointments, follow therapy plans, and keep a simple diary of pain levels, sleep, work limitations, and missed events. These notes help treating physicians and make later testimony specific.
Speak with a Fort Lauderdale auto accident lawyer quickly: Early legal help locks down video, downloads EDR data, identifies coverage layers (BI, commercial, umbrella, UM/UIM), and prevents costly missteps.

Doing these things does not “build a case”—it preserves the truth. That preservation is what turns a fair settlement from possibility to probability.

South Florida Car Accident Attorney for Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach

Florida gives most crash victims two years to file suit, but the proof that persuades an insurer or a jury often disappears in days. If you’re dealing with medical bills, missed work, transportation problems, or persistent calls from adjusters after a collision anywhere in Broward, Miami-Dade, or Palm Beach County, Netska Law Group can step in quickly. The firm will secure the evidence, identify every insurance layer, and explain—in plain, specific terms—what a fair result looks like.

Disclaimer: This page provides general information and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Legal advice depends on specific facts and governing law.