A careless driver struck our client, a pedestrian, who was standing next to his rental car in Coconut Grove, Florida.
A diagram of the accident is below.
The pedestrian was placing a parking ticket in his car when he was hit by a federal government employee that was carelessly driving.
In the picture below, the white “x” on the door is where the car struck my client.
Below is the damage to the outside of the car door.
A car driven by a Department of Homeland Security (US Border & Customs) employee hit him.
The driver was given a ticket for careless driving. The driver of the car stated that he was cut off by a phantom vehicle that left the scene.
His lower leg (tibia) was broken (fractured) in the accident. My client was visiting Miami-Dade County, Florida from another country.
At the hospital the orthopedic surgeon performed surgery on his leg. Every accident lawyer knows that surgery increases a personal injury claim’s full settlement value.
The surgeon drilled an intramedullary rod and an external fixator into the injured man’s tibia. This is so that his leg (tibia) fracture could properly heal. You can see the external fixator in the photo below.
Here is a close up of the external fixator.
You can see what the external fixator and the intramedullary rod looked like inside his leg in the picture below.
The external fixator was removed months following the accident, but rod and screws were left in his upper tibia. You can see this in the picture below.
Fire rescue came to the scene and took the pedestrian to the hospital where he had a device drilled into his lower leg (tibia) to stabilize the open fracture (bone sticking out of the skin).
The client’s medical bills were about $140,000 but were reduced to $75,000 after I negotiated them down. The driver of the car was working for the federal government at the time of the accident.
The pedestrian was a foreigner who was visiting Florida at the time of the accident.
In Florida, uninsured (UM) motorist auto insurance pays for your injuries if a motor vehicle hits you while you’re a pedestrian.
In this case, the pedestrian was sure that he did not purchase uninsured motorist insurance on his rental car but his attorney wrote a letter to the rental car company asking for all insurance which may provide coverage for this accident.
It turned out the he had purchased $100,000 of UM coverage for his rental vehicle.
The driver of the government vehicle had also rented a car. After writing a letter to the rental car company for the driver, I discovered that there is a government contract on rental cars that provides for $100,000 of bodily injury liability insurance for all cars rented by a government employee for work purposes.
Philadelphia Insurance Company insured the rental car that struck my client.
Philadelphia Insurance paid its $100,000 BI liability limits after I filed a civil remedy notice of insurer violation.
Because the other driver was working at the time of the accident, the United States was responsible for the pedestrian’s injuries. I gave notice of the claim (Form 95) and pursuant to Federal law the US had 6 months to respond to the notice and make an offer.
In Florida, if you have uninsured motorist insurance coverage and the person/company at fault is self-insured, your UM insurance company is responsible for paying your claim and you do not have to make a claim against the driver (or company) who caused your accident.
In Florida, all city, county or federal employees (while working) are considered self-insured.
I demanded the $100,000 limits of uninsured motorist insurance with Ace American Insurance Company.
I gave Ace 30 days to respond.
ACE did not make an offers. They hired an attorney. I sent a civil remedy notice to the uninsured motorist company.
The UM auto insurer paid the $100,000 limits close to the time where the civil remedy expired. I sent a letter to Ace Insurance demanding within 30 days that they match the $100,000 offer from the other rental car company or they waive their right to subrogation.
At the expiration of the 6 month notice of claim to the US government I had not received an offer so he sued the federal government.
I settled the claim against them for $125,000 before the Plaintiff’s deposition was taken so that the foreigner did not have to fly back to Miami to have his deposition taken by the defense attorney.
My client was still able to ski after he recovered from this crash so his injury was limited. The entire case settled for $325,000.
Side Note: Ace bought Chubb Insurance and is now known as Chubb.
As you can see from this settlement, a pedestrian that was visiting Florida and hit by a car may have a case. Learn more about the settlement value of a broken lower leg as a result of an accident in Florida caused by someone else.
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