If you are to be successful in a personal injury claim after an auto accident, you need to be able to prove liability on the part of the defendant. This is, of course, easier said than done—depending on the circumstances of the accident, being able to determine fault can be a difficult prospect.
Here’s what you should know about how this process happens in Florida.
Finding fault in Florida car accidents
Florida is a no-fault state for car accidents, so the processes you’d use to determine liability aren’t quite the same as in most states. In no-fault states, all people are required to carry a minimum amount of insurance to cover themselves and others (in some cases). The system does not automatically assign liability or determine fault in auto accident cases. Instead, victims will file claims with their own insurance companies.
There is a threshold in no-fault states that must be met before you are able to file a lawsuit. For example, the injuries must be a certain level of severity, based on the seriousness of the injuries and the cost of the medical bills, before any lawsuit can be filed against a negligent driver. The idea of such a system is that it cuts down on the amount of lawsuits in auto accident cases, essentially eliminating unnecessary cases.
These rules are subject to criticism because of the debatable objectivity they provide, but regardless, those are the rules in Florida and other no-fault states that must be abided by.
So the only circumstance in which you need to prove liability is if your injury is serious enough to meet the statutory threshold, in which case you’d collect evidence and build a case just as you would in a fault-based state.
For more information about proving fault in auto accidents, contact an experienced Sarasota auto accident attorney at Goldman, Babboni, Fernandez & Walsh.