Pensacola Personal Injury & Criminal Lawyers

Florida is a no-fault state. That means that every driver needs to carry a certain amount of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage to cover a percentage of medical bills and lost wages after a car accident, irrespective of fault. If you were injured in a car accident caused by another driver, you can sue in court if you meet a threshold for serious injuries. Serious injuries under section 627.737 include a significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of probability, significant and permanent disfigurement or scarring, and death.

Due to the weight and size of commercial trucks, truck accidents can have devastating consequences for everyone involved. After a truck accident, it may be important to conduct accident reconstruction with the help of a specialist or expert. You may be able to hold a negligent truck driver liable for harm arising out of the accident. There may be additional parties responsible, including the trucking company, another driver, a mechanic, or a truck manufacturer. Different theories may be used to hold parties accountable for a truck accident. For instance, your Pensacola personal injury attorney may be able to hold the trucking company responsible under a theory of negligent hiring, negligent training, or negligent supervision, as well as a theory of vicarious liability.

A motorcyclist is vulnerable to the force of a collision in a way that people in larger vehicles are not. Even helmets and gear cannot fully protect a motorcyclist from injuries in the event of a serious crash. As a motorcyclist, PIP coverage is not required. If you are injured in a motorcycle accident, the elements that must be demonstrated are the same as in any other negligence case. Often, however, insurers are biased against motorcyclists. This makes it especially important not to talk to an insurer for the other party until you have consulted an attorney of your own.

Bicyclists can be injured in many different ways. Drivers of larger vehicles may not see them, drive too closely to them, or cut in front of them at an intersection. They can also be injured in dooring accidents, when someone in a parked car opens the car door without checking for bicyclists. In Florida, a bicyclist who does not have his or her own auto insurance can make a claim under an at-fault driver’s automobile insurance policy. To go beyond no-fault insurance, an injured bicyclist needs to have suffered a serious injury as it is defined under the law. A personal injury lawyer in the Pensacola area can help a bicyclist bring this type of claim.

Many people in Florida go boating as a form of recreation. Unfortunately, some boaters are not trained or experienced enough to deal with unpredictable events. Varying laws and rules may apply to a boating accident, depending on the body of water where the accident took place. For instance, maritime law may apply when an accident occurs on navigable waters. In some cases, a boating accident victim may be able to recover damages by establishing a boater’s negligence.

Slip and fall accidents may occur when someone visits another party’s property. Property owners owe a duty to use reasonable care to avoid injuries to visitors. They may need to provide warnings or fix dangerous conditions. Generally, to recover damages, you will need to establish that the property owner had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous property condition. As in other personal injury lawsuits, property owners may argue that accident victims were partly at fault. However, an experienced Pensacola personal injury lawyer can gather and persuasively present the evidence needed to prove your claim.

In a medical malpractice lawsuit, you will need to show a professional standard of care, a departure from the professional standard of care, causation, and damages. There are many ways in which a doctor may depart from the professional standard of care. They may fail to diagnose a serious condition, misdiagnose it, prescribe the wrong medication, perform a procedure on an incorrect body part, make a treatment error, or fail to provide timely treatment. You generally will need to initiate a medical malpractice lawsuit within two years of discovering the injury, or at most four years from when you experienced malpractice.

An alarming amount of negligence and elder abuse occurs in nursing homes. Residents may be injured because of falls, lack of medical care, physical or chemical restraints, or outright physical or sexual assault. Often, nursing homes suffer from understaffing and lack of training. If you or a loved one was injured by nursing home negligence, it is important to consult a personal injury attorney in the Pensacola area. An action can be brought by a nursing home resident, a guardian of the resident or a person acting on the resident’s behalf, or a personal representative of the decedent’s estate.

Some of the criminal defense matters that we handle include DUI, drug crimes, sex crimes, theft crimes, and domestic violence. All crimes, whether felonies or misdemeanors, must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a tough burden for the prosecution, but in most cases, charges are not brought until some evidence has been gathered. A conviction is not certain even if a prosecutor has gathered some evidence. It is important to talk to a knowledgeable attorney as soon as possible so that they can investigate all the substantive, procedural, or constitutional defenses that may help defeat or reduce a charge.

You may be worried after an accident, but you have legal recourse that can take the burden off your shoulders. We are here to help you hold the responsible parties accountable. At Cardoso Law, PLLC, we represent accident victims in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. Call us at (850) 466-2073 or complete our online form to let us know about your case.