When it comes to determining who is at fault for an accident, not every case is cut and dried. Maybe you were driving a little too fast just before a car collision. Or maybe you weren’t paying sufficient attention to the floor right before you slipped and fell on a wet spot. In these circumstances, you may have been partly at fault for your accident.
Believe it or not, this sort of situation happens all the time in injury cases. You’re not always going to be 100% free of fault, even if somebody else was also negligent in causing the accident. Sometimes it’s partly your fault, and sometimes it’s partly the other person’s fault.
You may be wondering whether you can still recover for your injuries under these circumstances where you were partly at fault. Well, the short answer is, as lawyers often say, it depends. But in many cases, yes, you can still recover for your injuries. Keep reading for a little more information about this.
No-Fault PIP benefits for car accidents
You may have heard that Florida is a “no-fault” state. That means that your own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) policy provides coverage regardless of whether or not you were at fault for a car accident. Basically, if you get into a car crash, your insurance pays 80% of your medical bills and 60% of your lost wages if you meet all the necessary conditions to recover PIP benefits. But Florida law only requires drivers to have $10,000 in PIP coverage, so this coverage only goes so far. And while PIP covers up to $10,000 in medical bills and lost wages, it’s not compensation for your pain and suffering due to an accident.
What is comparative negligence?
Long ago, Florida was a contributory negligence state. That basically meant that if the jury found you were even a little at fault for your accident (say, 1% at fault), you could not recover no matter how substantial the other person’s negligence was in terms of causing your accident. But that harsh rule was changed way back in the early 1970s. Since that time, Florida has been a comparative negligence state.
For the last 50 years or so, the rule in Florida generally was that you could recover for your injuries caused by somebody else’s negligence even if you were 99% at fault for the accident. So, if a jury determined that you were 99% at fault for the accident, you could still recover for 1% of your damages. There were some exceptions to the rule, including where alcohol or drugs were involved, but for the most part, that is how things worked in Florida for the last five decades.
That all changed in March 2023.
Tort reform changes in 2023 regarding comparative negligence
As noted, from the early 1970s onward, with few exceptions, you could still recover something even if the jury found you up to 99% at fault for your damages. If the jury found a defendant to be 1% at fault, then you could still recover from that defendant for 1% of your damages.
But in March 2023, the state legislature passed wide-ranging reforms to Florida’s tort laws. The changes went into effect on July 1, 2023. One of those changes relates directly to the comparative negligence issue that we’ve talking about here.
Nowadays, if a jury finds that you were more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover anything for your injuries. It doesn’t matter how significant your injuries are. If the jury finds you greater than 50% at fault for your harm, then you get nothing. So, if the jury determines that you were 51% at fault, you lose. It’s as simple as that. But on the other hand, if the jury determines that you were only 49% at fault and the defendant was 51% at fault, then you can still recover for your damages (you’d be able to recover from the defendant for 51% of your damages).
This new rule applies to most personal injury negligence cases in Florida, including car crashes and slip and trip and falls. But the new rule does not apply in medical malpractice cases.
Call our office today for a free consultation
If you’ve been injured in an accident anywhere in Florida and have questions about how the new comparative negligence laws may impact your case, give us a call today at (954) 833-1440 for a free consultation so we can discuss your options.
Our office is located in Broward County, and we represent clients in injury cases in Miami, Broward, Palm Beach, and all across the rest of Florida.