What Are The Fault Laws For Auto-Accidents In Florida?

Florida is what would be called a pure comparative negligence state. This means that when an accident or an incident occurs in Florida, and there is an injury, and someone is making a claim, then a determination has to be made as to who is at fault. Every entity’s fault will be considered, including the injured Plaintiff. Fault is assigned proportionally. A party can be made to pay (something), even if that party is only 1% responsible for causing the Plaintiff’s accident or injuries.

A practical example would be an intersectional collision where both parties claim they had a green light. Unless somebody can prove otherwise, a claim like this one would often be resolved with divided liability. If the overall value of the Plaintiff’s damages is $100,000.00 case, a case like this one will often be resolved for $50,000.00 – reflecting a fifty-fifty division of fault.

Thus, in Florida, a tourist can still recover money damages – even if the tourist is partially at-fault. Many travelers do not understand this.

Is Purchasing Rental Car Insurance Ever Beneficial For A Personal Injury Claim?

Most of the time, the insurance the rental car company is trying to sell is designed to cover the company’s own vehicle in the event of a crash. This is called collision damage waiver coverage. It is always a good idea to have it if you get involved in an accident because you certainly do not want to pay for the rental car, but if you are involved in an accident and it is somebody else’s fault, typically in Florida every driver is required to carry property damage coverage. So typically the at-fault driver is going to pay for the damage to the rental car anyway.

Many credit card companies, if you rent vehicles with the credit card, many credit card companies, as just an aspect of membership, will provide collision damage waiver coverage as an aspect of benefit whenever you use it to rent a car.

It would be probably worthwhile to check with your credit card company to see if that is a benefit that it is available to you because it is usually either thrown in for free or it is very cheap to get and it would save you a lot of money if you rent cars often. So that is the number one thing.The second thing that most people do not know about rental car companies is if you have bodily injury liability coverage at home and that is the type of coverage that pays for injuries that you might cause to somebody else. They will cover you if you are involved in a Florida car accident typically. It may not be true in every state, obviously travelers would want to check with their home insurance agent and find out, but that is how it usually works. It is whatever coverage you have at home will normally cover you while you are here in Florida.

The other thing that travelers would probably benefit from knowing is that there are a ton of drivers in Florida that do not carry bodily injury liability coverage, because it is not required in Florida. So that means there is a decent chance if you are here and you are doing nothing wrong and you get hit by somebody, there is a chance that they will not have any liability coverage. So, you need to be prepared for that. That is why we advise everybody, Floridians and otherwise, to carry what is called Uninsured Motorist Coverage. In Florida and in every other state, it works a little bit differently, but in Florida, uninsured motorist coverage will pay out if the person who hit you does not have any bodily injury liability coverage.

So it will act just like bodily injury liability coverage and pay you for personal injuries that you suffer in an accident that is not your fault. Every state offers it as an addon to your car insurance and we advise everybody in Florida to carry it, because we have so many uninsured drivers, so it would not be a bad idea for anyone who is traveling in Florida to carry it.

For more information on Auto-Accident Fault Laws In Florida, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling 407-565-7386 today.