W&C

Whether your fishing, island hoping, pleasure cruising or out for sunset ride – boating is part of our community fabric in Naples, Florida. With it, however, comes a likely increased rise in boating accidents, injuries and sometimes death. Florida continues to lead the nation in boating accidents – a problem that is only intensified as summer approaches and temperatures rise. 

Civil lawsuit plaintiffs typically receive two main types of damages. Those are punitive damages that punish a defendant’s wrongdoing and compensatory damages that seek to make a victim “whole” again after an accident. Every state has different laws concerning punitive damages, their limits and the types of damages available in particular civil claims. However, compensatory damages are generally the same for any civil lawsuit depending on the effects of defendant’s negligence.

Did you know that an estimated 2.8 million Americans visited a hospital emergency room as a result of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) according the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)? It’s also estimated that 50,000 Americans die each year as a result of a traumatic brain injury.  

There are certain signs of physical and emotional abuse you can recognize and these are the legal steps you can take to protect the safety and interest of a loved one. 

Car accidents happen every day in parking lots across Collier County and Southwest Florida. Most parking lot accidents occur at low speeds and don’t typically cause massive damage. However, determining fault in these types of incidents can be tricky. It can be difficult for drivers to understand who has the right of way, which is an important factor in determining liability. 

Did you know that in 2018 there were more than 399,000 traffic accidents in the state of Florida, resulting in more than 215,000 injuries and nearly 3,000 fatalities? So far in 2019, there has already been 24,500 traffic accidents on Florida roads with more than 15,000 people injured and 162 with traffic crash fatalities.

Slip and fall accidents occur with regularity across South Florida and the first thing you should do if you find yourself a victim of one is to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit for damages against the at-fault party. That at-fault party is usually the owner or whoever is operating the property where the accident occurred. Property owners are required to maintain adequate insurance, which means that if you file a lawsuit you’ll more than likely be dealing with the property’s insurance company. 

People have been getting injured in moving vehicles accidents since the invention of the wheel. There is hardly a day that goes by that your local news does not highlight a car accident. But what you think you know about car accidents and the insurance claim process may not be completely accurate. 

There are so many new vehicles on the road today that offer advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). These improvements in vehicle technology are designed to increase safety and convenience by warning drivers that a crash is imminent or even by temporarily automating certain parts of vehicle control like speed, breaking or acceleration. We’re big proponents of technology here at Weinstein & Cohen, especially when it comes to vehicle safety and the reduction of traffic accidents, injuries and deaths on our South Florida roadways. 

Accident cases are always nuanced, but tend to follow certain patterns. However, a recent $400,000 settlement in Steve vs. Leonel by Weinstein & Cohen Founding Partner Judson Cohen highlighted one particular part of the law that not everyone might be aware of.