Scooters are leading the “micro-mobility” revolution across the United States, both as personally-owned and on-demand rental options in many major cities. These scooters can provide simplified transportation between someone’s bus stop and office and can make for an enjoyable and hassle-free trip to and from a night out with friends. While there are many benefits an individual can enjoy by using a scooter, the reality is that as scooters become more common in our cities, so will accidents involving scooters.
While the risk of an accident is no reason to stop using a scooter, it’s important that a rider knows their rights and options when it comes to a crash. Drivers are not used to looking out for scooter riders as they pass through pedestrian areas, and like bicycles and motorcycles, scooters can put someone in the way of a moving vehicle due to an inattentive driver. If you are hurt in an accident that someone else caused, then you may be entitled to compensation in the form of a personal injury claim — compensation beyond what the insurance company wants to pay. A Destin motorcycle accident lawyer can help you through this process.
Contact Fasig | Brooks to Learn About How We Can Help After a Scooter Accident in Destin
We offer a free consultation to people who have been hurt in scooter accidents in Destin, as well as surviving family members in the event of a fatal scooter accident. If someone else is responsible for the accident, then the victim or the surviving loved ones deserve compensation for a range of damages from their medical bills to the emotional impacts of such a traumatic and painful experience. Unfortunately, insurance companies prioritize their own bottom line over the needs of a claimant, meaning that you will need to take an aggressive stance in order to fight for the money you deserve. By hiring a Destin personal injury lawyer, you can rest assure that they will fight for you and to get the compensation that you deserve.
Trying to handle a claim in a way that gets you the money you deserve can seem, understandably, impossible as you are trying to come to terms with the impact that your injuries or loss has on your life — something the insurers know and use to their advantage. Most often, victims accept low settlement amounts as a one-time payment only to realize too late that they should have been paid far more than they received. Once you accept your settlement, you waive your right to any future legal action, therefore blocking your ability to revisit the case regardless of whether or not new information arises.
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Determining Fault After a Scooter Accident in Destin
One of the first steps in any type of personal injury case is determining who caused the accident, and therefore who is liable for the cost of the accident. Typically these costs are paid out by the representative insurance company, but it must be made clear who caused the accident and how they caused it before an insurer will accept liability.
In some accidents, there is little or no question about who caused the accident, possibly due to things like dashboard cameras, eyewitness accounts, and even charges against the driver for something like drunk driving. In other cases, it may not be so clear, or there may be some fault applicable to both parties. In this case, your personal injury attorney will need to use the many tools at their disposal to reach a clear and irrefutable determination about what happened and what amount of liability each party owes.
Comparative Negligence in Scooter Accidents
Florida has a law called “comparative negligence” that allows for fault to be assigned to victims in an accident while still allowing them to seek compensation for their damages. Under this law, the victim’s percentage of fault is determined, and their final settlement is reduced by that amount. For example, if you are found to have contributed 10% to your accident, perhaps by not wearing reflective clothing at dusk, and the insurance company agreed to a settlement of $100,000, the award would be reduced by that 10% resulting in a final payment of $80,000.
This law is extremely important for allowing victims to get the money they deserve even in the event that they partially contributed to the crash, but it also introduces another tool for the insurers to reduce your settlement. When you consider the enormous quantity of claims that major insurance companies handle each fiscal year, you can understand why the adjuster assigned to your case will attempt to reduce your payment as much as possible, even if that is accomplished by pinning a single additional percentage point on your comparative fault. Your attorney will fight to ensure that you do not accept any more fault than is accurate and that you get the money you deserve.
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Calculating Damages After a Scooter Accident
Concurrent to determining the final percentages of negligence in the crash, your attorney will need to go through an in-depth investigation to calculate each of the damages you have suffered in your accident. Compensatory damages are divided into two distinct subcategories: economic damages, and non-economic damages. Each of these subcategories is equally important in determining your final settlement, but each applies to very different impacts of an accident.
Economic damages are the impacts of an accident that have set measurable dollar values associated with them. These damages include the cost of your medical care, the lost wages and disruptions to your earnings that your injuries cause, and many different services and products you may need to pay for in order to go about your daily life while accommodating your injuries. These damages also include damage to your property, such as the replacement cost of your scooter, replacement costs of the clothing you were wearing, and more.
Non-economic damages are more complicated to calculate because they seek financial compensation for impacts that do not have dollar values. These types of damages include things like the pain and suffering you have endured, as well as the emotional impacts of experiencing the accident and having to go about your life with serious injuries after the crash. Your attorney will have a range of tools at their disposal to calculate these damages and will then need to defend them aggressively during negotiations.
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