A driver’s carelessness may cause your ankle injury in a car, truck, motorcycle crash or other wreck in Florida. You may suffer an ankle fracture, tear or other ankle injury. If so, you may be able to get money for your damages.
I wrote a separate article on ankle injuries from slip, trip and falls in Florida and on cruises. Here, this article is focuses on ankle injury from car accidents, truck and motorcycle crashes.
I want to start off by sharing one of my actual settlements.
My actual case: $25,000 settlement for a client who claimed that a car crash caused ankle pain. Another driver was cited for careless driving.
My client also complained of pain in his shoulder, wrist, back, knees and neck. The careless driver was uninsured. My client had uninsured motorist (UM) coverage with USAA.
Actual Case (not mine): $211,000 Verdict. A Lee County Sherriff Department employee was operating a motorcycle and was involved in a crash with Mr. Siergiej.
Mr. Siergiej sued the Lee County Sheriff’s Department (the Sheriff) and State Farm, his uninsured motorist insurer. State Farm disputed that the victim’s ankle and back injury were caused by the crash.
The trial lasted three days. The jury found that the accident caused his neck and ankle injury.
I do not know the specific neck and ankle injuries that he had. The verdict awarded him $211,000.
State Farm received a credit against Mr. Siergiej’s damages for the $26,780 in medical expenses and $20,000 in past lost wages paid by workers’ compensation, the $5000 in PIP benefits, and the $50,000 settlement from the Sheriff.
I assume that $159,220 was awarded for pain and suffering. This would be the difference between the $211,000 verdict and the economic damages that the court mentioned.
The case is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Siergiej, Fla: Dist. Court of Appeals, 2nd Dist. 2013.
Insurance coverage in an ankle injury auto accident claim in Florida
In order to receive compensation, there needs to be insurance coverage without an exclusion or the fault party needs to have money to pay for your case. If the liability insurer has a policy with bodily injury liability insurance on the policy, you may not get any money if the insurer denies coverage. This is true even if you have a fractured ankle.
An exclusion in an auto liability policy may allow the insurer to assert a coverage defense and deny your claim if your injuries. Examples of common exclusions that may apply are if the at-fault driver party:
- Was driving a motor vehicle without permission (e.g. stolen car, etc.)
- Was driving a motor vehicle that is not listed on a company’s business liability policy
- Is driving a car that he or she owns but is not listed on his or her auto insurance policy
Bodily Injury (BI) Liability Insurance
BI liability coverage is optional insurance coverage for Florida private passenger motor vehicles. In Florida, if an owner of a private passenger motor vehicle does not have to have bodily injury liability coverage.
Uninsured motorist (UM) Coverage claims
In a motor vehicle accident (e.g. car accident, truck accident, etc.), even if the negligent driver is excluded from coverage, you may still be able to make a claim if you are an insured under an auto insurance policy with UM coverage.
How Limited liability insurance affects a Florida auto ankle injury settlement
You are driving a motorcycle in South Miami, (or any city in Florida) and you are hit by a driver of a car who rear ends you. Let’s assume that you were stopped and did nothing to contribute to the accident.
Assume the owner of the car that hit you only has $10,000 in bodily injury (B.I.) liability coverage with State Farm Insurance Company. Following the accident, you set up a personal injury claim with State Farm.
Because a Florida car owner may be liable for damages that a driver of his or her car causes, you can make a claim against the BI insurance of the owner. In addition, the driver has $10,000 in BI insurance. You did not purchase uninsured (UM) on your car, and you do not live with any relatives that have UM/UIM auto insurance.
Your ankle (malleolus) is fractured. You are 60 years old and retired. Your out of pocket medical bills are $15,000. You go the emergency room, and you treat with doctors and get physical therapy for over a year.
You have some limitations. You can walk without a cane, and do not have a limp. Since you still have “issues”, the value of pain and suffering may be somewhere around $50,000.
The amount of money that you may get for settlement purposes is further from the low end of the range of pain and suffering for a fractured ankle. Because you are not at fault, the settlement formula for this case is:
Case value = (Pain and suffering) + (Medical Bills) + (Lost Wages)
Case value = ($50,000) + ($15,000) + ($0)
Case value = approximately $65,000 or so
Even though your case may be worth $65,000 or so, you may only get the $10,000 BI limits from the car and the $10,000 from the driver of the car that hit you because that it is the only liability insurance that is available. You may only get $20,000 due to limited insurance.
I settled a slip and fall case with similar injuries for $25,000, but that was because my client had comparative fault and she had very low medical bills.
How the Injured Person’s Fault Affects Case Value
In both of the above examples, I assumed that you were not at fault. If you were comparatively negligent (at-fault), the value of your case will be reduced.
Example
Let’s say that you are driving a car in Kendall (or any city in Florida), and you make a left hand turn in front of another car that had the right of way. To keep it simple, assume that you are 90% at fault.
The owner of the car that hit you only has $10,000 in bodily injury (B.I.) liability coverage and the driver has $10,000 in liability coverage. You can make a claim against the BI insurance of the car owner and the driver’s BI insurance.
Your out of pocket medical bills are $3,000. You get a little bit of physical therapy. The cast is removed after 6 weeks or so. You really don’t have any or many limitations or permanent injury.
Since you do not have any or many limitations, the value of your pain and suffering may be $25,000. If you failed to yield the right of way and are 90% comparatively negligent, the value of your claim is reduced by 90%.
To keep it simple, in the formula to calculate the value of your case, I will use the abbreviation of P & S for pain and suffering.
Value = [(P & S) + (Medical Bills)] – {[(P & S) + (Medical Bills)] X (% your fault)}
Value of Case = {[($25,000) + ($3,000)] – {[($25,000) + ($3,000)]} X .9}
Value of Case = {[$28,000] – {[$28,200] x .9}
Value of Case = {[$28,000] – {[$28,000 X .9]}
Case Value = {[$28,000] – {[$25,200]}
Case Value = $2,800
d. Need to Prove Threshold Injury in Certain Florida Auto Accident Cases
In some Florida vehicular accidents you need to prove that you have a threshold injury in order to get any money for pain and suffering. This “threshold” law does not apply to non-“motor vehicle” cases such as if you hit by a car while on a motorcycle, slip and falls, trip and falls, and other types of accidents.
In Florida, whether you need to prove that you have a permanent injury to get money for pain and suffering, depends on whether you were involved in a car accident, bike (bicycle) accident, or pedestrian accident.
If a doctor does not say that you have a permanent injury, there is a possibility that the liability insurer (who ultimately may pay you) may not offer any money for your pain and suffering.
In my past cases, sometimes the medical records do not state that my client has a permanent ankle injury. Even so, I have had many cases where the bodily injury liability insurer for the owner or driver of the at-fault motor vehicle offers money for the claim’s pain and suffering component.
Even if you cannot prove that you have a permanent injury, you are still allowed to make a claim for economic damages (past medical bills, past lost wages, future medical bills and loss of future earning capacity).
Did someone’s carelessness cause your injury in a Florida car crash or other type of accident?
See Our Settlements
I am a Miami car accident lawyer. I have settled many Florida injury cases. They include, but not limited to, car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, bike accidents, pedestrian accidents, taxi accidents, drunk driving (DUI) accidents, accidents involving an Uber or Lyft driver, and many other types of accidents.
I want to represent you if you were hurt in an accident in Florida. If you were injured in another state but live in Florida, we may also be able to represent you.
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