If you or a loved one suffer a car accident injury due to another driver’s negligence, speak with a distracted driving car accident lawyer as soon as possible to build a case and file for compensation for your injuries. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles attributes roughly 50,000 crashes a year in Florida to distracted driving, amounting to millions of dollars in medical bills and lost wages for those affected. Don’t bear the financial burden of another driver’s reckless behavior. Holding them liable for your injuries and receiving a cash settlement may be possible, but you must act quickly.
Call Weinstein Legal Team for a free and confidential case evaluation today. All of our case evaluations come with no obligation, and our phones are open around the clock every day of the year, so no call for help will ever go unanswered.
Establishing Liability for a Distracted Driving Accident
The state of Florida follows “no-fault” insurance laws regarding accidents and liability, and injured parties may only sue the other driver for negligence under certain circumstances. You must prove that the other driver acted recklessly or with negligence and that they are, in fact, responsible for your injuries and should bear the cost.
Florida’s definition of “serious bodily injury” is somewhat vague and leaves room for interpretation. For this reason, you must speak with a distracted driving accident lawyer as soon as possible to begin building your case. Under Florida’s no-fault threshold (Fla. Stat. § 627.737), you can sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering only if your injury falls into one of these categories:
- You suffer a permanent injury
- You suffer significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement
- You suffer significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function
- Death resulting from the crash
Then, to establish negligence on behalf of the other driver, you must be able to prove that they acted in a manner that endangered your safety, caused your injury, and was not in line with how any other reasonable driver on the road could have been expected to behave. Often, distracted driving falls into this category of negligence. However, you need an aggressive car accident lawyer in Florida to fight for your rights.
The Types of Distracted Driving
There are three main types of distracted driving, yet many different actions that can fit into each category. The three types of distracted driving are:
- Visual: When you take your eyes off the road.
- Manual: When you take your hands off the steering wheel.
- Cognitive: When you take your mind off driving.
Distractions can be external, or outside of the vehicle, such as flashing lights up ahead or something on the side of the road that catches a driver’s attention. Or, they may be internal, or inside of the vehicle, such as a conversation with passengers. Still, cognitive distractions can take place in your own mind, such as getting lost in thought, daydreaming, or excessive fatigue. The reality is that each of these distractions is equally dangerous and puts others at risk.
Common examples of activities that constitute distracted driving include:
- Using a cellphone for texting, voice calls, or any other purpose
- Using a GPS system while driving
- Eating or drinking
- Reading a map
- Holding a conversation with passengers
- Adjusting the car stereo or focusing on any other knobs or buttons in the vehicle
- Smoking
- Looking through a purse or bag
- Caring for a child
- Applying makeup or grooming
- Reading passing billboards
- Using a Bluetooth device
- And more
Anything that diverts or takes a driver’s attention away from the road in any sense may qualify as distracted driving.
Florida’s Texting and Driving Law
Texting while driving is a primary offense in Florida, which means police can stop a driver for it alone (Fla. Stat. § 316.305, the Wireless Communications While Driving Law), and handheld phone use is banned entirely in school zones and active work zones (Fla. Stat. § 316.306). For your injury claim, the statute matters in two ways.
- A citation is powerful evidence. A driver ticketed under § 316.305 in your crash gives your negligence case a statutory anchor.
- No ticket? We can still prove it. Phone carrier records, which we subpoena, app usage logs, vehicle infotainment and telematics data, and witness observations routinely establish distraction even when the police report is silent. Timing is everything, because carriers purge records and vehicles overwrite data, so preservation letters go out the day we take a case. Read more about proving fault in a distracted driver accident.
A distracted driver is a negligent driver. Proving the distraction converts a he-said, she-said fault dispute into a documented liability case, which is exactly how settlement value gets built. The same evidence protects pedestrians and cyclists hit by drivers looking at a phone, and when a distracted driver kills someone, the family’s claim becomes a wrongful death case.
How a Distracted Driving Injury Lawyer Can Help
Due to Florida’s no-fault insurance laws, it may be challenging to secure a personal injury settlement following an accident on your own. For this reason, seek the assistance of an experienced distracted driving car accident lawyer to increase your chances of receiving a positive outcome. Hiring a car accident injury attorney can benefit your case in several ways.
First, the team at Weinstein Legal Team has access to a wide range of professionals who can strengthen the facts surrounding your case. Crash scene investigators, private investigators, and doctors who can testify about the extent of your injuries each supply evidence the claim file would otherwise lack. Investigators may obtain video surveillance footage of the accident, receive statements from eyewitnesses, and more.
Second, there are times when personal injury cases are settled out of court and other times when they process to a trial in front of a judge and jury. If your case moves forward to trial, you want an aggressive legal team fighting on your behalf each step of the way. Mr. Weinstein at Weinstein Legal Team has years of experience serving as a distracted driving accident lawyer throughout Florida and knows the ins and outs of the local court system.
Two deadlines matter after a Florida crash. To qualify for PIP medical benefits, you generally must receive initial services and care within 14 days after the motor-vehicle crash under Florida Statute 627.736(1)(a). Other PIP benefit categories and coverage conditions should be reviewed separately. Separately, a negligence lawsuit against the at-fault driver must be filed within two years of the crash under Florida Statute 95.11(5)(a) for crashes on or after March 24, 2023.
