Personal Injury, Malpractice, Liability, and Insurance Disputes in South Florida
When a serious injury changes someone’s life, the problem is rarely limited to the injury itself. Medical treatment may continue for months or years. Work may become difficult or impossible. A family may suddenly face expenses it never expected. At the same time, an insurance company may be evaluating the claim with its own financial interests in mind.
Determining what comes next often requires answering difficult questions: Who is legally responsible? Was the injury caused by negligence, malpractice, a dangerous condition, or another form of misconduct? What insurance coverage applies? What is the full extent of the losses? And what happens when an insurer refuses to offer fair compensation?
At Reinfeld Cabrera Tison, our personal injury attorneys represent injured people and families throughout Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and South Florida. Our practice includes personal injury, medical malpractice, premises liability, product liability, motor vehicle accidents, wrongful death, and other injury-related legal disputes.
We also represent clients in insurance disputes, including cases involving uninsured and underinsured motorists and carriers that deny, undervalue, or otherwise contest legitimate claims.
Written by: Alan Reinfeld
Reviewed by: Devin Tison
When Someone Else’s Conduct Causes an Injury
Personal injury law is broader than the typical car accident claim.
A person can be seriously injured because another driver was negligent, because a property owner failed to address a dangerous condition, because a product was defective, because a professional failed to provide an appropriate standard of care, or because another person or organization failed to meet a legal responsibility.
The circumstances differ from case to case, but the central issues usually include:
What caused the injury?
Understanding what happened often requires evidence from accident scenes, medical records, witnesses, professionals, documents, video, or other sources.
Who can be held responsible?
Responsibility may fall on an individual, business, property owner, driver, employer, manufacturer, medical provider, insurance company, or multiple parties.
How serious are the consequences?
The financial and personal impact of an injury may extend far beyond the first medical bill or the first weeks away from work.
What compensation and insurance coverage are actually available?
Even when liability seems clear, the available recovery can depend on insurance policies, competing claims, comparative fault, and other legal issues.
Personal Injury and Liability Matters We Handle
Reinfeld Cabrera Tison handles a broad range of claims involving serious injuries, professional negligence, unsafe conditions, and disputed insurance coverage.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
We represent people injured in car, truck, motorcycle, bus, and other motor vehicle crashes. These cases can involve disputed fault, multiple vehicles, serious injuries, commercial insurance policies, uninsured drivers, and questions about who had the right of way or otherwise caused the collision.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents
Pedestrians and cyclists are particularly vulnerable when a collision occurs. These claims can involve crosswalks, traffic signals, visibility, roadway conditions, distracted driving, and disputes over the conduct of the driver and injured person.
Premises Liability
Property owners and other responsible parties may be liable when dangerous conditions contribute to an injury. Our premises-liability practice includes slip and falls, unsafe property conditions, inadequate security, hazardous surfaces, and other accidents occurring on residential or commercial property.
Medical Malpractice
Medical negligence claims can arise when a healthcare provider fails to meet the applicable standard of care and a patient is injured as a result. These cases can involve misdiagnosis, surgical errors, medication errors, failure to diagnose, birth injuries, improper treatment, and other forms of professional negligence.
Medical malpractice litigation can require extensive medical documentation and expert analysis because the question is not simply whether a patient experienced a bad outcome, but whether the healthcare provider’s conduct fell below the applicable standard of care and caused the injury.
Product Liability
A defective product can cause serious injury even when it is being used in an ordinary and foreseeable manner. Product-liability cases can involve defective design, manufacturing defects, inadequate warnings, dangerous machinery, vehicle components, consumer products, and other unsafe goods.
Wrongful Death
When negligence, malpractice, or another legally actionable event causes a death, surviving family members may have a wrongful death claim. These cases can involve both the conduct that caused the death and the financial and personal consequences experienced by the family afterward.
Insurance and Coverage Disputes
Not every injury dispute is simply a claim against the person who caused an accident. Sometimes the central dispute is with an insurance company.
We handle matters involving uninsured and underinsured motorist claims, disputed coverage, denied claims, inadequate settlement offers, competing claims, multi-claimant disputes, and other insurance-related issues arising from personal injury matters.
Other Injury and Liability Claims
Our practice also handles other serious injury and liability matters when the facts and applicable Florida law support a claim. The circumstances of these cases can vary considerably, which is why an initial evaluation of the specific facts is important.
Fighting Insurance Companies
For many injured people, the first legal problem is not proving that an injury occurred. It is dealing with an insurance company that is trying to limit what it will pay.
Insurance carriers have financial reasons to scrutinize claims. An adjuster may question who was responsible, whether treatment was necessary, how serious the injury really is, whether a condition existed beforehand, or whether a settlement offered early in the process is enough to resolve the claim.
A low settlement offer can also become particularly problematic when the long-term effects of an injury are not yet understood.
At Reinfeld Cabrera Tison, challenging the insurance company’s position is an important part of our personal injury practice. We investigate the underlying facts, review the available insurance, document the injuries and losses, and negotiate with the carrier based on the evidence.
When a fair resolution cannot be reached, litigation may be necessary.
Our goal is not simply to pass an insurance company’s offer along to the client. It is to understand why the insurer is offering what it is offering, what the evidence supports, what coverage is available, and what legal options exist when the offer is inadequate.
How a Personal Injury Claim Is Built
A strong injury claim is usually developed over time rather than determined by one document or one conversation with an insurance adjuster.
Establishing Liability
The first step is determining what happened and what evidence supports responsibility. Depending on the case, this may involve accident reports, photographs, surveillance footage, witnesses, physical evidence, expert opinions, medical records, professional records, or other documentation.
Documenting the Injury
The nature and extent of an injury need to be established through appropriate medical evidence. A serious injury can involve surgery, rehabilitation, continuing treatment, permanent impairment, or other consequences that may not be fully apparent immediately after an accident.
Calculating the Loss
The financial consequences may extend beyond current medical bills. A claim can involve lost income, reduced future earning capacity, continuing treatment, physical impairment, pain and suffering, and other losses supported by the facts and applicable law.
Identifying Insurance and Responsible Parties
The first potential defendant is not necessarily the only one. A claim may involve multiple responsible parties, several insurance policies, uninsured or underinsured coverage, or disputes over which policy applies.
Negotiating or Litigating
Some cases are resolved through negotiation. Others require filing a lawsuit and preparing the case for litigation. Even when a case ultimately settles, thorough preparation can affect the position a client has during negotiations.
What Compensation Can a Personal Injury Claim Include?
There is no universal value for a personal injury case. The potential recovery depends on the circumstances of the injury, evidence of liability, the losses involved, available insurance, comparative fault, and other legal considerations.
A claim may involve:
Medical expenses: Emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgery, medication, physical therapy, rehabilitation, specialist care, and reasonably anticipated future treatment when supported by the evidence.
Lost income and earning capacity: An injury may prevent someone from returning to work temporarily or permanently. The claim may therefore involve both income already lost and the longer-term effect on the person’s ability to earn.
Pain, suffering, and emotional consequences: Serious injuries can affect mobility, independence, relationships, recreation, sleep, and ordinary daily activities in ways that are not reflected in a medical bill.
Physical impairment and disfigurement: Permanent limitations, scarring, disability, and other lasting consequences can significantly alter a person’s life.
Property damage: Certain accident claims may also involve damage to vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, equipment, or other property.
Wrongful death damages: When an injury proves fatal, Florida’s wrongful death laws may allow surviving family members to seek damages recognized under the statute.
What If You Are Blamed for Your Own Injury?
Insurance companies frequently argue that an injured person contributed to an accident or otherwise caused their own losses.
Florida’s comparative-fault statute generally reduces damages according to a claimant’s percentage of fault. A claimant found to be more than 50% at fault for their own harm may not recover damages in a negligence action covered by the statute. (flsenate.gov)
The practical importance is that an allegation of fault should be examined rather than simply accepted.
Depending on the claim, the dispute may involve a driver’s speed, a pedestrian’s conduct, a property condition, a medical decision, a product’s design, or another factual issue. The evidence needs to be considered in the context of the entire claim.
Florida Personal Injury Deadlines
For an action founded on negligence, Florida law generally provides a two-year limitations period. Other claims can have different deadlines, and particular defendants or circumstances may affect the applicable limitation period. (leg.state.fl.us)
That makes early evaluation important not only because of the filing deadline but because evidence can become harder to obtain as time passes. Video can be overwritten, physical conditions can change, and witnesses may become harder to locate.
What Makes a Personal Injury Case Valuable?
A serious injury does not automatically translate into a particular settlement amount.
The potential value of a claim may depend on the extent and duration of the injuries, the medical treatment required, whether the person can return to work, future earning impact, pain and suffering, available insurance coverage, the strength of the liability evidence, comparative fault, and other circumstances specific to the case.
That is why settlement calculators and supposed “average injury settlements” can be misleading. A proper evaluation requires looking at the actual injury, the actual losses, and the actual evidence.
Why Reinfeld Cabrera Tison?
We believe the most useful role of a personal injury attorney is to give an injured person a clear understanding of what happened, what can be proven, what insurance is available, and what options exist from there.
A Personal Injury-Focused Practice
Personal injury and related liability disputes are central to our practice. Our attorneys handle accident claims, malpractice matters, premises liability, product liability, wrongful death, and insurance disputes rather than treating personal injury as a secondary area of a broader general practice.
A Focus on Insurance Disputes
The opposing party in an injury claim is often represented by an insurance company whose interests are not the same as the injured person’s. We investigate coverage, evaluate offers, challenge unsupported positions, and negotiate with insurers when the evidence supports a stronger claim.
Trial Experience
Not every case goes to trial, but serious injury cases should be prepared with litigation in mind. Evidence that can withstand scrutiny in court can also strengthen a client’s position during settlement negotiations.
Direct Communication
Clients need to understand the decisions affecting their cases. Our approach emphasizes communication with attorneys and clear explanations of the legal and practical issues involved.
You Stay in Control: We explain your legal rights clearly without confusing legal jargon, outlining options so you can make informed decisions.
South Florida Representation
Our offices in Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale serve clients throughout Broward County and surrounding South Florida communities.
Bilingual Assistance
Our team provides bilingual assistance for clients who prefer to communicate in Spanish.
Contingency-Fee Representation
Personal injury matters are handled on a contingency-fee basis under the terms of the representation agreement. Clients do not pay attorney fees unless compensation is recovered.
What Should You Do After an Injury?
The first priority is appropriate medical attention. Once immediate medical needs are addressed, preserving information about the incident and the resulting injury can become important.
Keep medical records, bills, photographs, employment documentation, insurance correspondence, and other relevant records. Preserve damaged property or equipment when it may become evidence. Identify witnesses if possible.
Be cautious when giving an insurer a statement about the accident, especially before the full extent of the injury is known. An early settlement can also be difficult to evaluate when treatment is still ongoing.
An early legal evaluation can help identify potentially responsible parties, available insurance, relevant evidence, and the deadlines that apply to the claim.
Serving Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, and South Florida
Reinfeld Cabrera Tison represents injured clients throughout Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and South Florida.
Our local offices are:
Main Coral Springs Office
9625 W Sample Rd, Suite A
Coral Springs, FL 33065
Trial Division Office
10235 W. Sample Rd, Suite 207
Coral Springs, FL 33065
Fort Lauderdale Office
2933 W. Cypress Creek Rd, Suite 201
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
Our practice serves clients whose claims may arise from accidents, professional negligence, unsafe property, defective products, wrongful death, and related insurance disputes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of personal injury cases does Reinfeld Cabrera Tison handle?
Our practice includes motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle and pedestrian accidents, premises liability, product liability, medical malpractice, wrongful death, uninsured and underinsured motorist claims, insurance disputes, and other serious injury and liability matters.
Do I have a case if an insurance company denies my claim?
A denial does not necessarily mean that the underlying claim has no legal merit. The reason for the denial, the applicable policy, the evidence of liability, and the nature of the injuries should all be examined before deciding how to proceed.
How much is a personal injury case worth?
There is no fixed amount. Potential recovery depends on liability, injury severity, medical treatment, lost income, future losses, non-economic harm, available insurance, comparative fault, and other facts specific to the claim.
What if I was partly responsible for the injury?
Florida’s comparative-fault law generally reduces damages according to a claimant’s percentage of fault. A claimant found more than 50% responsible for their own harm may not recover damages in a covered negligence action. (flsenate.gov)
How long do I have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Florida?
A negligence action generally has a two-year limitations period under Florida law, although different claims can be subject to different deadlines. (leg.state.fl.us)
Do I need a personal injury attorney?
Some relatively straightforward claims can be handled without legal representation. An attorney can become particularly valuable when injuries are serious, liability is disputed, multiple parties or insurance policies are involved, professional negligence is alleged, or an insurance company challenges the validity or value of the claim.
Florida Personal Injury Legal Resources
Florida Statute §768.81 — Comparative Fault
Sets out Florida’s current comparative-fault rules for covered negligence actions. (flsenate.gov)
Florida Statute §95.11 — Limitations of Actions
Sets limitation periods for negligence and other civil claims. (leg.state.fl.us)
Specific statutes, regulations, and case law can apply to medical malpractice, premises liability, product liability, motor vehicle accidents, and other specialized claims. Those authorities should be addressed on the relevant practice pages where they are most useful to the reader.
