Miami Personal Injury Law Blog

Riding a motorcycle is great fun. People all over Miami love to ride in the open air on motorcycles. But there is some danger involved. Miami auto accident attorneys know that over 166,000 Americans are injured in motorcycle accidents every year. Around 5000 of those accidents result in fatalities.

Experienced riders and beginners learn fast to be alert to their surroundings. Motorcycles, despite their reputation, are quite safe when riders keep their minds on the road and on their safety. Here are some additional recommendations:

Miami auto accident attorneys see victims of car and truck accidents on a regular basis. They know the heartbreaking stories of negligent drivers who cause permanent damage to families. People who cause these injuries need to be held accountable for the damage they do. In addition to criminal penalties, negligent drivers must pay damages that will do something to restore the victims.

A girl named Elle Vandenberghe was on a scooter in a crosswalk last September when a driver in a Ford Bronco struck her as he backed down the street looking for a parking spot. The girl had a serious stroke not long after she arrived at the emergency room with a fractured skull. She spent the next four months in the intensive care unit and ultimately endured 11 operations. Doctors told her parents that Elle would most likely never walk or talk. In fact, they were told she might not live. 

Elle's mother, Heather Vandenberghe, struggled with the rage she felt toward the man who had nearly killed her daughter in his quest for a parking spot. This was made worse when she learned that he had come away from the accident with nothing more than a ticket.

A two car accident left three injured and one dead in Florida on August 18. The fatal crash involved a Jeep SUV and another car. The second car was carrying a 10-month-old baby and another passenger.

The driver of the SUV died at the scene of the accident. The driver and passenger of the other car were seriously injured. The baby is currently listed as being in critical condition at Shands hospital.

A University of North Florida business school professor died at Shands Hospital in 2002. It took the family eight years, but they were finally awarded a $6.2 million medical malpractice verdict this August.

We all know that certain medical procedures involve risks. When Cory Fine agreed to the gastric bypass surgery, he expected certain risks associated with the surgery. But he did not expect to die because nurses ignored his complaints that he was unable to breathe when laying flat on his back.

Miami brain injury attorneys are always interested in how their clients, and other people who must deal with brain injuries, cope with the changes in their lives. In Kansas (coincidentally in Miami County, Kansas) a fledgling support group, named Heads Up, has opened its arms to people living with a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and those who support them.

The survivors and supporters have found the support group the way people in rural areas often do -- largely through word of mouth.

In 2007, Roxanne Bollin co-founded Heads Up.

"Everybody was looking for resources and not being able to get them," Bollin said. "Then we found out that other people were looking for them, too."

They built their group using a blueprint from the Brain Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas City.

Roxanne, or Rox, has become one of the most recognizable faces of Heads Up.

As small as she is, she's hard to miss in a room. A dark-haired and dark-eyed Italian, she's spunky like Sally Field, gesturing and pointing as she speaks.

She wears a medal of St. Teresa of Avila, the patron saint of...

Miami auto accident attorneys are aware that many states are moving to close a gap in seat belt laws that allows rear-seat, adult passengers in many states to ride legally without fastening a seat belt.

There are six states: Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Texas, that have expanded their seat belt laws to cover rear-seat occupants since 2007, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia require seat belts for all passengers. Florida does not.

Seat-belt use has steadily...

A new study raises the implication that Lou Gehrig, the face of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or "Lou Gehrig's disease," may not have died from A.L.S., but from a very similar fatal disease brought on by brain injuries.

Most A.L.S. patients are not autopsied, but doctors are now saying that there are instances where a patient may appear to have A.L.S., but examination of the actual tissues of the body indicate that it is not A.L.S.

Miami brain injury attorneys are noting that the study may result in changes to the way doctors look at motor degeneration in athletes and military veterans who are currently being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease at very high rates. If the patient has a significant history of brain injury they might be considered for different treatments, which may lead to an alternative path to a cure.

Lou Gehrig had a well-documented history of concussions...

In a study released this week, researchers found that children aged 4, 5 and 6 were at significantly lower risk of injury in a car accident following the implementation of New York's upgraded child restraint law. The "booster seat law" required children to be in an appropriate child safety restraint system until age 7 (updated in 2009 to age 8).

The study is the first to compare accident injury statistics before and after the implementation of such a law. Using data collected by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, the researchers looked at both compliance and injury rates.

After the law went into effect in March, 2005, there was a 72 percent increase in the use of booster seats and a dramatic 18 percent decrease in the number of 4- to 6-year-olds injured in car accidents. In comparison, New York has long required car seats for children under 4, and, during the study period, there was no change in the injury rate for that population.