Boca Raton Personal Injury Lawyer

Key Elements of an Injury Case

During your free consultation, Boca Raton attorney Senft will review the details of your case and determine if the following four elements are present. If all four elements are present, he can pursue maximum compensation through a personal injury claim.

1. Duty of Care

The first element an attorney must establish for there to be a viable case is the duty of care. For a defendant to be held liable, they must have had some duty of care to the plaintiff. For example, all drivers have a duty of care to other individuals who use the roadways, including cyclists and pedestrians. In addition, the owners of establishments have a duty of care to ensure the safety of employees, visitors, and customers.

2. Breach of Duty

A personal injury lawyer must next show that the defendant breached their duty of care. For example, a driver failing to stop in time because they were looking at their cell phone or a restaurateur who doesn’t post warning placards outside of a freshly mopped restroom.

3. Causation

Personal injury attorneys must be able to demonstrate that the breach of duty caused the accident or at least contributed to it. An example of causation would be a rear-end car accident where the driver of the lead vehicle was stopped at a red light. In this case, the victim has lawfully stopped their car, but the defendant, for whatever reason, failed to avoid the accident. A personal injury lawyer could easily demonstrate that the defendant’s failure to use due care caused the accident.

Under Florida law, a plaintiff can recover damages even if they were partially responsible for the accident. This is referred to as comparative negligence, and will be covered in another section.

4. Damages

If you’ve been injured in an accident, you have damages, even if you haven’t had any out-of-pocket expenses.

When Boca Raton personal injury lawyer Scott J. Senft meets with you for the first time, he will go over the details of your accident and explain if it has each of these elements. Then, if you have a viable personal injury claim, attorney Senft can offer you immediate representation free of charge. Call today for a free consultation.

Our Boca Raton Personal Injury Practice Areas

As a Boca Raton personal injury lawyer with years of case experience, attorney Scott J. Senft has handled various injury cases. The types of cases our Boca Raton personal injury law firm handles include:

Car Accidents

According to the CDC, 2.1 million people are injured in motor vehicle accidents every year. In Florida, passenger car accidents are responsible for more injuries than any other type of vehicle, according to the FLHSMV. This may be because there are more cars than any other type of vehicle on Florida roadways. If you’ve been injured in a traffic accident, our Boca Raton car accident lawyer can help.

Commercial Truck Accidents

With their enormous weight and length, commercial trucks are among the most dangerous vehicles on the roadway. Trucking accidents can lead to serious physical injuries and even death, even at low speeds.

Motorcycle Accidents

Because they can travel at high speeds and offer very little personal protection, there are almost always personal injuries associated with motorcycle accidents. Even when wearing a helmet and personal protective equipment, riders can face serious injuries.

Slip and Fall Accidents

The owners of premises have a legal responsibility to ensure the safety of employees and invitees. When they falter in this duty, serious injury can occur. A little-known fact is that falls are a frequent cause of death among the elderly population and a leading cause of emergency room visits.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Product Liability

Manufacturers have a legal duty to ensure that their products are safe for use or consumption. Product liability cases fall into three categories:

• Manufacturer Defects – This occurs when the design is fundamentally sound, but individual units or batches have a dangerous defect. For example, a hammer where the head is not securely fitted to the handle.
• Design Defects – These are flaws in the product and are shared across all units. This frequently occurs in medical devices and medications when testing is rushed or safety protocols are skipped.
• Failure to Warn – This occurs when there is a known risk that is not conveyed to the consumer.

Because product liability cases are often part of a large multi-jurisdictional case, personal injury lawyers will often pool their resources and join a class action personal injury lawsuit.

Animal Bites

The owners of dogs and other animals must ensure that their pets are properly vaccinated and are controlled by a chain, leash, or physical barrier. In animal bite cases, the owner’s property insurance company is usually liable for financial compensation.

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

There are more than a dozen nursing homes in and around Boca Raton, housing thousands of residents. Allowing a facility to care for an aging or disabled loved one is a sacred trust. When a staff member either fails to attend to the needs of your loved one or is directly abusive, Boca Raton personal injury attorney Scott J. Senft holds staff and facilities responsible for nursing home abuse. Call today to discuss how to better protect your elderly or disabled relative.

Catastrophic Injuries

These are devastating injuries that cause permanent disability or loss of capacity. Catastrophic injury cases usually involve high dollar amounts and can become extremely contentious. For these reasons, many personal injury lawyers avoid these more complicated personal injury cases. Attorney Senft, however, represents catastrophic personal injury victims in their pursuit of fair compensation.

Wrongful Death

Few things are as emotionally painful as seeing a loved one die from injuries caused by another person’s negligence. With wrongful death cases, there are additional elements that aren’t present in other personal injury cases. In addition to the medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering of the victim, there are also emotional distress and economic losses for the survivors.

These are just some of the practice areas that our Boca Raton personal injury lawyer can handle on your behalf. If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident, talk to a personal injury attorney now.

Most Common Types of Accident Injuries

Nearly any type of personal injury can occur in an accident. However, different injuries are often more prevalent in specific types of accidents. Here are some of the most common injury types we see at our Boca Raton personal injury law firm:

• Whiplash – This occurs when the head snaps backward and then forward or vice versa. The sudden motion strains the ligaments and tendons in the neck. These are commonly associated with car and truck accidents, but can also result from a physical attack or a fall.
• Burns – Burns are frequently caused by workplace accidents or in-premises liability accidents. Types of burns include thermal burns, chemical burns, and electrical burns.
• Spinal Cord Injury – The spinal cord is the thick collection of nerves that travel down from the base of the skull to the center of the back. The nerves that regulate all of the body’s functions, including motion, emanate from the spinal cord. Depending upon where spinal cord injuries occur, they can affect different bodily functions. Contact a spinal cord injury attorney to discuss your claim.
  Source: Wikimedia Commons
• Traumatic Brain Injury – TBIs range from mild concussions to brain injuries that can cause complete debilitation. Traumatic brain injury victims are often involved in a car accident, a bad slip and fall, a physical attack, or a sports-related injury.
• Internal Injuries – With internal bleeding, accidental injury victims are often unaware that they’ve been injured until days after the accident. It’s one of the main reasons that most personal injury lawyers recommend that injured victims get examined by medical professionals as soon after the incident as possible.

Regardless of the nature of your accident, if you believe you’ve been injured, seek medical attention immediately after the accident occurs. It will not adversely affect your injury case or your ability to pursue maximum compensation.

Types of Personal Injury Damages and Compensation

The state of Florida recognizes three different types of damages in personal injury claims. Economic damages and non-economic damages are compensatory damages, while punitive damages are non-compensatory.

Economic Damages

All financial costs associated with an accident are compensable. These include medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, etc. In wrongful death cases, in addition to the medical costs prior to the death of the accident victims, economic damages can include funeral expenses and the future lost earnings of the decedent.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages are also referred to as “pain and suffering” because they account for the severe pain and emotional suffering that victims often experience in the aftermath of an accident. In wrongful death cases, non-economic damages include the pain and suffering of the decedent and their surviving loved ones.

Punitive Damages

In cases where the defendant either behaved in an egregious manner or their actions were intentional, the court may award punitive damages. These are damages that the liable parties must pay in addition to compensable damages. For instance, if a defendant who was way over the legal blood alcohol limit caused an auto accident that severely injured or killed another driver, the court might award punitive damages.

Florida Damage Caps

Florida law does not place caps on compensable damages (economic and non-economic damages). However, there is a cap on punitive damages of three times the amount of compensable damages or $500,000 — whichever is greater.

Personal injury attorneys hold liable parties accountable by seeking the maximum compensation for their clients. If you have any question about how much your case could be worth, contact our law firm in Boca Raton, FL, for a free case evaluation.

Immediate Steps to Take After a Personal Injury Accident

While every type of accident is different, there are similarities that occur with most personal injury cases. By taking the following steps, you can help to protect yourself from further injury and strengthen your case for a personal injury lawsuit:

• Get to a Safe Place – This is particularly important with car accidents where remaining in place may further endanger you. You should not move injured parties unless it is absolutely necessary to protect them from imminent harm.
• Call 911 – Never assume that witnesses or other parties are going to call the police. The dispatcher will need to know your physical location, known injuries, and how many people were hurt. For an auto accident, they will also require lanes of travel and vehicle descriptions.
• Speak to Witnesses – In many Palm Beach County accidents, witnesses will stop to make sure that accident victims are safe but will quickly move on. Ask witnesses to remain on the scene. If they have to leave, ask them for their contact information.
• Take Pictures or Video – Accident scenes change rapidly, so if you can, take pictures from a safe location. Photos should include visible injuries, the conditions that led to the accident, and geographic indicators (i.e., a road sign in auto accidents, an aisle number for slip and falls, etc.). This evidence can be invaluable to plaintiff attorneys when it comes to the insurance company claims process.
• Allow EMTs to Examine You – This will establish a baseline for your injuries. However, even if the paramedics don’t see the need to transport you to an emergency room, follow up with your regular doctor and other medical professionals as necessary.
• Contact a Boca Raton Personal Injury Attorney – It’s common for an insurance adjuster to take proactive measures to get you to accept an early settlement. That’s because they know that if you retain the services of a personal injury lawyer, the settlement amount is likely to climb much higher.

The adjuster may offer to cut you a check on the spot for your medical costs, property damage, and even a little additional money for your inconvenience, but if you accept the settlement offer, you’ll have to sign a liability waiver, which will prevent you from recovering further damages.

The Florida Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims

For most personal injury claims in Florida, the statute of limitations is four years from the date of the accident. While that may seem like a substantial amount of time, personal injury lawyers usually prefer that you talk to them as early as possible.

For wrongful death claims, the statute of limitations is two years from the date of death. If you attempt to file a legal claim after the statute of limitations expires, it will be rejected by the court.

Florida’s Comparative Negligence Law

Florida operates under the pure comparative fault principle. Under pure comparative negligence, a plaintiff can make a legal claim even if they are partially at fault. For instance, if the owner of an establishment fails to clean a slippery substance from their floor, they have created a hazard. If a customer slips in it, it’s very likely that the court would determine the store owner or their insurance is responsible for the customer’s injuries. However, if the customer was running at the time of the accident, the court might determine that the customer was 25% liable for their injuries. In this case, the plaintiff could seek compensation for 75% of their damages.

In most personal injury cases, the law firm and the insurer try to agree on the percentage of liability each party should incur.

Personal Injury Statistics

According to the Florida Department of Health, accidental injuries are the leading cause of death for individuals aged 1 to 44. In 2020, injuries resulted in 18,159 deaths, which was 8.8% of the total deaths for the state. In 2021, fall injuries accounted for the most accidental deaths in Palm Beach County, followed by traffic accidents. Additionally, Palm Beach County had an injury hospitalization rate of 756.4 per 100,000 people. This compares with a rate of 643.2 for the rest of the state.

Why Hire a Personal Injury Attorney?

Many accident victims in Boca Raton, FL, wonder why they shouldn’t just accept a settlement or try to negotiate their claim with the insurance company without an attorney. While this is an option, it’s in your best interest not to give in to this inclination. The adjusters who work for the insurance companies are experts in their field, and their responsibility is to the insurance company. If you try to work with them without representation, you may be very disappointed in the results.

On the other hand, Boca Raton personal injury attorney Scott J. Senft will work for you on a contingency basis. He only receives compensation if your case settles or he wins in court. If Mr. Senft accepts your case, he will perform the following duties:

• Collect accident reports and medical records
• Subpoena and depose all witnesses, including the defendant
• Calculate all compensatory damages
• Review discovery evidence from the defense
• Review all settlement offers
• Negotiate with the insurance company’s attorneys or the defendant’s legal counsel
• Prepare Letters of Protection (LOPs), which will allow you to defer your medical bills
• File a civil lawsuit on your behalf
• Retain the services of expert witnesses and accident reconstruction experts
• Represent you in a lawsuit to seek compensation under the law

Personal injury lawyers representing accident injury victims often recover much more in damages than the initial settlement offer, even after their fees are deducted. Call our Boca Raton office today for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Personal Injury FAQ

Attorney Scott J. Senft is a personal injury lawyer who has successfully represented hundreds of Boca Raton, FL clients. These are some of the most common questions he receives. For specific answers to your questions, call our Boca Raton office today!

Will my case result in a personal injury lawsuit?

Even if your case is likely to result in a personal injury lawsuit, it’s far less likely to wind up in court. Insurance companies prefer settlement to the unpredictability of a civil trial. However, in cases where the insurer is not willing to negotiate, you’ll want a seasoned veteran like attorney Senft representing you in court.

How much is my personal injury case worth?

Every personal injury case is different. You’re entitled to compensation for all of your medical bills, lost income, property damage, pain and suffering, and more. However, damages are based on complex calculations that account for the severity of the injuries, the degree of negligence of the defendant, and more. After your initial evaluation in our Boca Raton office, attorney Senft can begin assembling the information he needs to present a demand letter to the at-fault parties.

What if my injuries were the result of an intentional act?

Criminal acts are still compensable in civil court. For instance, if you were in a car crash due to a road rage incident, the civil and criminal case can run concurrently.

Who sets the contingency fees in Florida?

The Florida Bar establishes the contingency fee guidelines for law firms. However, you should always review the contingency fee schedule before hiring an attorney.

Personal Injury Law Firm in Boca Raton, FL

The Boca Raton Law Offices of Scott Jay Senft has built its reputation by successfully representing injury victims throughout South Florida. If you’ve been injured in an accident, contact a medical professional immediately, but then contact attorney Senft for a free one-on-one consultation.