Car accidents · · Updated
Learn how The Altman Law Firm investigates, preserves, and prosecutes catastrophic injury and wrongful death claims involving car crashes, commercial trucks, and negligent security in Miami and throughout Florida
A catastrophic injury changes far more than a person’s medical condition. It can change how someone thinks, communicates, works, moves, cares for a family, and experiences daily life. When negligence causes a traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, paralysis, amputation, severe burns, loss of vision, organ damage, or another permanent disability, the consequences may last for decades. When the negligence causes death, the family faces grief together with the loss of companionship, guidance, services, and financial support.
The Altman Law Firm represents people who have suffered catastrophic injuries and families who have lost loved ones in Miami and throughout Florida. These cases require more than proof that an incident occurred. They require immediate evidence preservation, a disciplined liability investigation, careful medical and damages development, identification of every responsible party and insurance policy, and preparation for trial from the beginning.
Below are three types of negligence that frequently cause catastrophic injury or death—and how our firm works to preserve and prosecute each type of case.
There is no single definition that controls every Florida negligence case. In practical terms, a catastrophic injury is one that permanently or profoundly affects a person’s health, independence, employment, family relationships, or life expectancy. Examples include:
A person does not have to be unconscious, hospitalized for months, or completely unable to work for an injury to be life-altering. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that even a brain injury initially described as “mild” can be serious and can affect memory, concentration, behavior, sleep, balance, and other functions.
Our work is to prove both the mechanism that caused the injury and its complete human and financial impact—not only today, but over the client’s expected lifetime.
Miami’s roads bring together dense traffic, tourists unfamiliar with the area, pedestrians, bicyclists, rideshare vehicles, construction, and drivers moving at highway speeds. A moment of inattention can produce devastating consequences.
Catastrophic car crashes may be caused by:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s risky-driving resources provide information about distracted, impaired, speeding, and drowsy driving. In an individual case, however, liability must be established through case-specific evidence.
Our investigation may include:
Video can be overwritten quickly, vehicles can be repaired, and electronic data can be lost. We send targeted preservation notices and, when necessary, seek court relief to prevent alteration or destruction of material evidence.
Florida’s no-fault system contains a threshold for recovering noneconomic damages such as pain, suffering, mental anguish, and inconvenience in many motor-vehicle cases. Under Florida Statute § 627.737, the injury must include at least one of the following:
Catastrophic injuries commonly meet one or more of these categories, but the threshold still must be supported by competent medical evidence. We work with the client’s treating doctors and appropriate experts to establish the diagnosis, permanence, functional loss, causation, prognosis, and future care.
Florida’s personal injury protection statute also generally requires initial qualifying medical services within 14 days after a motor-vehicle accident for PIP medical benefits. The amount potentially available for medical benefits depends in part on whether an authorized provider determines that the patient had an emergency medical condition. The current requirements appear in Florida Statute § 627.736. This PIP rule is different from the permanent-injury threshold for noneconomic tort damages, and both must be evaluated separately.
We build the liability case around objective proof rather than competing stories. Vehicle data, video, physical evidence, cellphone activity, and expert reconstruction may establish speed, braking, driver attention, and collision sequence.
We also investigate legal responsibility beyond the individual driver. An employer may be responsible for an employee acting within the course and scope of employment. A vehicle owner, commercial operator, bar or alcohol vendor under limited circumstances, rideshare company, maintenance provider, or product manufacturer may also require investigation. Every potential claim depends on its particular facts and governing law.
The damages case is developed at the same time. We collect complete medical records and imaging, document work loss and lost earning capacity, interview family members and coworkers, preserve photographs and video of the client’s life before and after the crash, and retain appropriate experts. When needed, a life-care planner can assess future medical and support needs, an economist can calculate their present value and lost earning capacity, and medical experts can explain the injury in clear language.
Commercial trucks can cause catastrophic harm because of their size, weight, stopping distance, and force. A tractor-trailer collision may involve brain and spinal injuries, crushing injuries, amputations, burns, or death. It may also involve a network of companies and a large volume of evidence unavailable in an ordinary car case.
Negligence may include:
Florida applies major portions of the federal motor-carrier safety regulations to commercial vehicles, subject to statutory distinctions and exceptions for certain operations. Florida Statute § 316.302 addresses those requirements. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also publishes national information about large-truck and bus crashes.
We promptly send preservation notices to the driver, motor carrier, tractor and trailer owners, freight broker, shipper, cargo loader, maintenance company, telematics and electronic-logging providers, towing facility, and insurers when the facts warrant it. Evidence may include:
Truck data may be overwritten and equipment may be repaired or returned to service. Early intervention allows qualified experts to inspect the equipment and capture the available electronic evidence in a reliable manner.
We look beyond the driver’s final mistake. The evidence may show a carrier hired an unsafe driver, failed to act on repeated safety alerts, tolerated false logs, deferred necessary maintenance, or imposed an unrealistic schedule. Formal discovery, subpoenas, corporate-representative depositions, and expert analysis allow us to test the company’s written policies against what actually occurred.
Potentially responsible parties may include the driver, motor carrier, tractor owner, trailer owner, employer, shipper, loader, broker, maintenance contractor, or component manufacturer. Not every entity is liable in every case. We examine the operational control, contracts, ownership, conduct, and applicable law rather than relying only on the name displayed on the truck.
Catastrophic injury and death can occur when a person is attacked at an apartment complex, hotel, shopping center, nightclub, restaurant, parking garage, gas station, or other property. The criminal actor is responsible for committing the attack. A separate question is whether the owner or operator of the property failed to take reasonable security measures in light of foreseeable risks.
Potential security failures may include:
A bad outcome alone does not prove negligent security. The case generally requires evidence of a duty, breach, foreseeability, causation, and damages. The investigation must address what the property owner or operator knew or should have known, what reasonable measures were available, and whether the failure to use those measures contributed to the attack and resulting harm.
Security evidence often disappears even faster than motor-vehicle evidence. Camera systems may overwrite recordings within days or weeks. Lights, locks, gates, and fences may be repaired immediately after an attack. Employees may leave, and incident records may be lost.
Our investigation may include:
We also anticipate evidence regarding the attacker’s fault and the defense claim that the crime could not reasonably have been prevented.
Under Florida Statute § 768.0701, when a person lawfully on commercial or real property is injured by a third party’s criminal act and brings a claim against an owner, lessor, operator, or manager, the factfinder must consider the fault of everyone who contributed to the injury. This makes it particularly important to prove not just that a crime occurred, but how the property defendant’s own failures contributed to the opportunity for and consequences of that crime.
Florida also created a statutory presumption against liability for qualifying multifamily residential property owners or principal operators that prove substantial implementation of specified security measures. Florida Statute § 768.0706 addresses cameras, lighting, locks, gates, a crime-prevention assessment, and employee training. The statute places the burden on the owner or principal operator to establish the requirements for that presumption and expressly states that the section does not itself create a private cause of action.
In an apartment case, we carefully test whether the defendant actually and substantially implemented each claimed measure. A security policy, invoice, or assessment is not necessarily proof that cameras recorded properly, lighting met the stated standard, locks worked, gates remained controlled, employees were trained, or recommendations were followed when the attack occurred.
We assemble the history of the property and compare it with the security response. Prior police calls, internal incident reports, tenant complaints, employee testimony, security-vendor communications, and budget decisions can show notice and foreseeability. An expert may evaluate lighting, access control, environmental design, security staffing, industry practice, and whether reasonable measures could have reduced the risk.
Depositions of owners, property managers, security directors, maintenance personnel, vendors, and corporate representatives are used to determine who received warnings, who controlled security decisions, what was promised, what was budgeted, and why identified problems were not corrected.
Florida Statute § 768.81 generally reduces negligence damages according to the claimant’s percentage of fault. For covered actions, a person found more than 50% at fault for his or her own harm may not recover damages. A person found 50% or less at fault may have the award reduced proportionally.
This rule affects how we develop liability evidence from the start. Defendants frequently try to shift blame to the injured person, a criminal actor, another driver, an unidentified nonparty, a contractor, or another company. We preserve evidence not only to prove the defendant’s negligence, but also to rebut unsupported attempts to place fault elsewhere. Different rules or exceptions may apply to particular causes of action, so comparative fault must be analyzed case by case.
Depending on the evidence and applicable law, recoverable damages may include:
Catastrophic damages cannot be established adequately by medical bills alone. We work to understand how the client lived before the event, what has been lost, what functions remain, what future complications are reasonably probable, and what resources are needed for safety, dignity, and independence.
The proof may include treating physicians, specialists, neuropsychologists, rehabilitation experts, vocational experts, life-care planners, economists, family members, friends, coworkers, photographs, video, demonstrative evidence, and day-in-the-life documentation. The goal is a supported, understandable presentation—not an inflated number disconnected from evidence.
When negligence causes death, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act determines who brings the case and the categories of damages potentially available. The personal representative generally brings the action for the benefit of the estate and the statutory survivors.
Florida Statute § 768.21 addresses damages that may include, depending on the family relationship and circumstances:
We develop the wrongful-death case with care. Financial records and economic testimony may establish support and future accumulations, but family testimony, photographs, videos, messages, traditions, and the details of daily life are often necessary to show who the person was and what the family truly lost.
Under the current version of Florida Statute § 95.11, an action founded on negligence generally must be filed within two years, and an action for wrongful death generally must also be filed within two years. The applicable period can depend on the date of the incident, the type of defendant, the legal theory, and other facts. Claims involving government entities, medical negligence, product defects, minors, out-of-state events, or other special circumstances can involve different notice requirements, deadlines, repose periods, or exceptions.
The deadline to file suit is not the only reason to act quickly. Evidence may disappear long before the statute expires. Surveillance video might be overwritten in 30 days. A vehicle may be repaired in a week. A dangerous gate may be fixed the next morning. Witnesses move, memories fade, electronic data cycles out, and responsible companies can change ownership or dissolve.
No injured person or family should assume that two years will always be available. A lawyer should evaluate the exact deadline promptly.
An effective catastrophic-injury case requires coordinated work on liability, causation, damages, and collection sources.
We identify the evidence most likely to disappear and send specific preservation notices. When appropriate, we arrange inspections, downloads, measurements, photography, witness interviews, public-record requests, and emergency court relief.
We investigate ownership, employment, agency, contracts, operational control, insurance coverage, umbrella policies, uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, corporate relationships, and assets where relevant. A catastrophic claim should not be limited prematurely to the most visible defendant or the first policy identified.
We collect the complete pre-incident and post-incident medical history, imaging, operative reports, rehabilitation records, and treating-provider opinions. We address preexisting conditions honestly and distinguish them from new injury or aggravation. Appropriate specialists help explain mechanism, diagnosis, permanence, future risk, and medical necessity.
Catastrophic injury affects an entire life. We document employment, education, household roles, family relationships, hobbies, independence, and future plans. Where appropriate, life-care planners, vocational experts, economists, and rehabilitation professionals quantify future needs and earning loss.
Insurance companies evaluate risk based in part on the quality of the evidence and the willingness and ability of counsel to present it. We organize each case so that documents, witnesses, experts, demonstrative evidence, and legal theories can be presented clearly to a jury if a fair resolution is not offered.
After a catastrophic injury or death, a family should be able to focus on medical care, grief, and the difficult decisions immediately ahead—not on chasing video, deciphering insurance policies, or persuading a corporation to preserve its records.
The Altman Law Firm has represented injured people and families since 1998. We understand that every catastrophic case involves a person whose life has been changed and a family that deserves honest answers, direct communication, and careful preparation.
If you or someone you love suffered a catastrophic injury—or if your family lost a loved one because of suspected negligence—we would be honored to listen and help you understand your options. Contact The Altman Law Firm for a free, confidential case review, or call (305) 373-3730. There is no obligation, and we will treat your family’s circumstances with the care and respect they deserve.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Deadlines, legal standards, available claims, and damages depend on the specific facts and law governing each case. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.