Daytona Beach Personal Injury Protection Lawyer
Personal Injury Protection Attorney Serving Clients in Daytona Beach, Florida
Were you recently injured in a car accident in or around the Daytona Beach area? You should be planning to file an insurance claim, and to do so it is important to understand how personal injury protection benefits can provide you with compensation. In short, since Florida is a “no fault” state when it comes to car accidents and auto insurance, Florida law (Fla. Stat. § 627.736) requires drivers in the state of Florida to carry personal injury protection insurance. Personal injury protection insurance, or PIP insurance, is also known as “no fault” insurance.
If you need help filing a personal injury protection claim, or if you have filed a claim and were denied benefits, an aggressive Daytona Beach personal injury protection lawyer at our firm can assist you.
What is Personal Injury Protection in Daytona Beach?
As we mentioned above, since Florida is a “no fault” car insurance state, all drivers who own and register a motor vehicle in Daytona Beach must carry certain minimum amounts of personal injury protection coverage. Given that Florida is a “no fault” state, anyone who has been injured in a crash caused by another driver may not have the same options available that an injury victim would in another state. For example, PIP coverage does not allow a person to obtain compensation for non-economic damages like pain and suffering.
Florida is one of only about a dozen states in the U.S. that is a “no fault” car insurance state, and that effectively means that an injury victim must go through his or her own insurance in order to be compensated in the event of a serious traffic crash. The type of insurance that you must buy to cover you is PIP coverage. PIP benefits typically can cover:
- Policyholder (in the policyholder’s car or if the policyholder is a passenger in another vehicle or a pedestrian);
- Policyholder’s minor children (regardless of where the accident occurs);
- Members of the policyholder’s household; and
- Passengers in the policyholder’s vehicle who do not have their own PIP coverage.
Threshold for Filing a Claim Against the Negligent Driver in Daytona Beach
If personal injury protection cannot provide you with full and complete compensation, you may be wondering if you are eligible to file a third-party insurance claim (through the negligent driver’s insurance) or if you are eligible to file a car accident lawsuit against the responsible driver. To do so, and to seek damages for pain and suffering, Florida law (Fla. Stat. § 627.737) requires a plaintiff to show that she has sustained a “serious” injury that necessitates seeking compensation outside the PIP insurance system. A serious injury may include, according to the statute:
- Significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function;
- Permanent injury with a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement;
- Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement; or
- Death.
Contact a Daytona Beach Personal Injury Protection Lawyer
Filing a personal injury protection claim can be complicated, and in some cases PIP insurance cannot provide an injured person with the coverage that she or he deserves. To seek help with a PIP claim, or to learn more about lawsuit options after filing a personal injury protection claim, you should get in touch with a personal injury protection lawyer in Daytona Beach today. Contact The Pendas Law Firm to learn more.
