Are you searching for a Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney? If so, you have come to the right place. Anthony Quackenbush is a lawyer who handles all types of accident cases throughout South Florida, including: Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and West Palm Beach.
Anthony Quackenbush is a graduate of Yale University. Over the last three years, he has tried over 60 jury trials in Florida jurisdictions. Through these experiences, he has obtained the knowledge necessary to win your case. In the last year alone, he has settled in excess of $1 million dollars in personal injury cases.
Reasons to Consult a Fort Lauderdale Personal Injury Lawyer
If you feel that consulting with a Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer is in your best interest, don’t delay. There are many reasons why you should contact an experienced professional:
1. To determine if you have a case. No matter if you were involved in a car, bike, or truck accident, you won’t know if you have a case until you speak with a qualified lawyer.
2. For professional assistance. You will not be able to receive the compensation you deserve unless you get the help of an experienced lawyer. From start to finish, your lawyer will walk you through the process while doing whatever it takes to get you the money you deserve.
If you have been injured anywhere in the state of Florida, contact Anthony at (786) 294-7711 for a free consultation.
Please Call : 786-294-7711
Personal Injury Info
Information from Broward personal injury attorney
In Florida, if you own an automobile licensed for use on the road, it is illegal not to have insurance for that vehicle. However, the law only requires you to have certain kinds of insurance, including PIP (or No-Fault Insurance) and Property Damage Liability Coverage. In 1971, the state legislature adopted the state’s first No-Fault plan. Over the years, there have been many amendments to the law. The current requirement of the law for $10,000 in Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage will expire in October 2007. This will have a huge impact on Florida driver’s. Tampa personal injury attorney Anthony Quackenbush fears that after the expiration of the $10,000 PIP law, Florida drivers injured in car accidents will no longer have the benefit of medical payments for their injuries regardless of fault. The Florida legislature has not dealt with the issue, and therefore soon millions of Florida drivers will be paying on their own for their medical bills due to injuries sustained in car accidents. The Florida Hospital Association, Florida Justice Association and other groups have sent thousands of letters to the state legislator urging it to correct the issue. The Hospitals, doctors and lawyers for the most part all agree. There will be a great negative impact upon Florida’s drivers. The insurance industry continues to claim that this is being done to lower insurance rates. In reality, Florida drivers will now be paying on their own for medical bills due to injuries caused by a car accidents. Many people injured in accidents in Florida will not being able to get any treatment at all, although insurance companies will continue to prosper.
Questions answered by Miami personal injury attorney
ARE YOU ADEQUATELY INSURED?
When people buy insurance from their agent, many think that they have bought enough to protect themselves in any situation. However, they may not know that the minimum amount of insurance is not always enough. Many people unfortunately find out too late that the minimum is not always enough. Tampa personal injury lawyer Anthony Quackenbush recommends you carefully examine your insurance coverage and determine what you have and what you don’t have. He suggests you do this with your insurance agent.
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WHAT IS “PIP”
Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, insurance protects you, and possibly (depending on the circumstances) a relative living in your household, if you are injured in an automobile accident in Florida. It doesn’t matter who was at fault in causing the accident. You should be covered by PIP either way. You must first submit your medical bills and lost wages to your insurance company. That is why PIP is also known as “no-fault insurance”. It doesn’t matter whose fault the accident was. Your insurance company will pay a certain portion of your medical bills and lost wages. In Florida, the law requires that PIP insurance pay 80% of your medical expenses and/or 60% of your lost wages. But PIP requires other things as well. PIP covers a portion of other bills as well. This includes things such as lawn maintenance or housekeeping caused by injuries relating to a car accident. PIP also reimburses mileage expenses for travel necessitated by medical care treatment associated with a car accident.
Medical bills information from Miami personal injury lawyer
MEDICAL PAYMENTS COVERAGE (MED-PAY)
It is important to consider that PIP pays 80% of your medical bills due to injuries caused by an accident, not the whole 100%. Alot of drivers will also purchase a secondary coverage known as “Medical Payments Coverage” (or MedPay). This MedPay coverage is in addition to PIP insurance and pays the excess 20% of medical bills that is not coverred by the PIP policy. Orlando personal injury attorney Anthony Quackenbush believes that it is prudent to select Medical Payments Coverage when buying automobile insurance.
DEDUCTIBLES
PIP policies typically include $10,000.00 in coverage. In addition more expensive coverage can be purchased at an additional price. PIP insurance can unfortunately be costly. Because the law requires PIP coverage, sometimes consumers have to purchase PIP insurance that requires a deductible. The typical deductible with PIP policies costs $2,000.00. In the short run, this type of coverage seems to be less expensive. In the long run, however, if you are in an automobile accident causing injuries, the deductible can wind up being quite expensive. Orlando personal injury lawyer Anthony Quackenbush believes that it is important to note that your PIP pays only 80% of your medical bills due to injuries from an accident, not the full 100%. Until the $2,000.00 deductible is paid, your PIP policy will not pay benefits for medical bills due to injuries from an accident, lost wages, housekeeping or mileage. In reality, the deductible is more than $2,000.00. Up until the point when 80% of your medical expenses due to injuries from an accident is $2,000.00 or greater, PIP will not pay any benefits. Therefore, if you select a $2,000.00 deductible, your policy won’t start making payments until the time when your bills and lost wages due to injuries from an accident exceed $2,500.00. The reason for this is that 80% x $2,500.00 = $2,000.00, which is the amount of the deductible.
Deductibles can be very negative in another way. The law says that electing a deductible makes you responsible for that deductible amount. Another way of putting it is that if you are injured by somebody else’s negligence, Florida law says that you can’t recover the amount of the deductible from the negligent driver because you purchased a deductible on your PIP policy. In other words, if you have a $2,000.00 deductible, you will be responsible for $2,500.00 of medical bills due to injuries from an accident. You cannot recover that amount from the person who caused your accident and injured you.
Clearly, deductibles are very deceptive. You should think long and hard before choosing a deductible policy. If you must choose a deductible, you should select the smallest deductible possible.
LOST WAGES
One good thing about a PIP policy is that it will pay 60% of lost wages if you are injured in an accident. Insurance companies ask for proof from your doctor demonstrating that you cannot work. They also ask for completion of a “Wage & Salary Verification Form.” This is to be completed by your employer before your lost wages due to injuries from an accident can be paid. Once the insurance company receives that information, they must begin paying your lost wages due to injuries from an accident within 30 days. So long as you are cannot work due to injuries from an accident (and the insurance company is aware of this), you will be able to receive a check from your insurance company every two weeks. It is important to note that PIP pays only 60% of your lost wages due to injuries from an accident. You can receive this regardless of who caused the accident causing injuries. The driver that caused the accident will also be liable for the remaining 40% of your lost wages that are paid by PIP. However, you will not be able to receive the 40% of your unpaid wages until after your case is done.
Insurance information from Miami-Dade personal injury attorney
PROPERTY DAMAGE LIABILITY COVERAGE
The other type of insurance necessary under the law in Florida is “Property Damage Liability Coverage.” This insurance will cover damage to property caused by another motorist. Another way to put it is that it protects the other driver in an accident. Property damage liability coverage will not protect your car if it is damaged in Florida. It only protects the property of the other driver involved in the accident in Florida.
So a question that Jacksonville personal injury attorney Anthony Quackenbush often gets is: what is “full coverage?” If you ask your insurance agent for full coverage, you may be given only a PIP and Property Damage Liability Policy in Florida. The law in Florida is that this would be considered the full coverage required. However, it will only protect you for a small amount if you are involved in an accident in Florida. Many other coverages are available to Florida driver’s:
Collision Coverage which covers your car if it is damaged, regardless of fault;
Bodily Injury Liability Coverage. This applies if you injure someone in an accident; and
Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Coverage. This applies if you are hurt in an accident by an uninsured or underinsured motorist.
In reality, having these types of insurance will give a Florida driver “full coverage”. How much insurance you need is your own decision. Jacksonville personal injury lawyer Anthony Quackenbush believes that it is important to note that you need to feel confident that you have enough insurance to protect you under any circumstance that might arise.
More questions answered by Miami-Dade personal injury lawyer
WHAT IS UNINSURED AND UNDERINSURED MOTORIST COVERAGE?
Uninsured Motorist Coverage, in Florida, protects the policy holder and other eligible persons from personal injury damages suffered as a result of negligence caused by another driver who does not have any Bodily Injury insurance coverage or doesn’t have enough Bodily Injury liability coverage to compensate the injured party adequately for his or her damages.
It is important to note that the law in Florida does not make Bodily Injury liability protection necessary. This affects things by creating a situation where there are too many drivers in Florida that do not have any Bodily Injury liability coverage at all. If one of these uninsured Florida drivers causes an accident resulting in injuries, then you must have Uninsured or Under Insured Motorist coverage in order to be able to recover damages for your injuries not including medical expenses and lost wages under PIP. This is true no matter how severe the injuries are. Almostone-third of all cars on the roads in Florida have absolutely NO Bodily Injury Liability coverage whatsoever!
The typical Uninsured-Under Insured Motorist policy in Florida usually includes coverage for the named insured, their spouse, and all relatives who reside in the named insured’s household. The policies also typically provide coverage to any person who is in the insured’s vehicle at the time of the accident. This creates a situation wherein, if you select Uninsured or Under Insured Motorist coverage, you will receive coverage not only for yourself, but also for members of your family and any passengers that happen to be in your vehicle at the time of the accident. The UM-UIM coverage follows the person and not the vehicle in Florida. This means that if the insured person is injured anyplace in Florida by an uninsured motor vehicle in an accident, then his own UM coverage will activate and will compensate him or her for any damages. This is true just as long as he or she meets the legal requirements for recovery of the coverage in Florida. This includes persons who are hurt while pedestrians, occupants of someone else’s vehicle without UM coverage, or while on a bicycle or in some cases on a motorcycle.
The coverage applies to circumstances where the injuries are caused by: (1) a vehicle without Bodily Injury Liability insurance, (2) vehicles guilty of hit and runs and thus that cannot be identified and (3) phantom vehicles such as in situation where a driver “cuts you off” and forces you to drive off the road, or otherwise have an accident that causes harm. In these circumstances, if you do not have UM coverage, even if you are seriously harmed, you won’t be able to receive anything besides medical expenses and lost wages in Florida.
Tips from West Palm Beach personal injury attorney
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HOW MUCH UM SHOULD YOU PURCHASE? STACKED OR NON-STACKED?
The first thing to do is to determine how many vehicles you have on your policy. The reason for this is that there are two types of UM-UIM coverage, “stacked” coverage and “non-stacked” coverage, in Florida. A person who purchases UM-UIM is entitled to “stack,” or to add together, the total UM coverages of his/her policy in order to determine the complete amount of coverage available. For instance, if a person owns two cars, each with $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident UM limits, he/she will have $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident possible for the collision in Florida. A party has the right to stack all of his or her own UM coverages in Florida. In addition, the party may stack the UM coverages of all of the vehicles owned by relatives who live in his/her household in Florida.
The other possibility is that you could have “non-stacked” coverage and own more than one vehicle. If that’s the case, you can only receive the UM coverage on the one particular car that was involved in the accident in Florida. It is much better to purchase stacked coverage if you own more than one car.
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What to Look for in a West Palm Beach/Miami Personal Injury Attorney
Have you been searching far and wide for the perfect Miami personal injury attorney? Are you trying to find a West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer who is willing to take on your case? Regardless of your location or the extent of your injuries, you deserve highly qualified professional help.
1. Experience. Make sure you hire an attorney with courtroom experience. Over the past three years, Anthony has been involved in more than 60 cases – that is what you call experience.
2. Success. Your goal is simple: to receive compensation for your injuries. Last year, Anthony won more than $1 million for his clients.
3. A helpful, caring personality. You are going to spend a lot of time communicating with your lawyer. Why not choose somebody who is easy to get along with?
If you need the help of an experienced, highly successful Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney, contact Anthony today.
Please Call : 786-294-7711