Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

According to statistics, falling is the leading cause of worldwide injuries. Approximately 60% of all falls are initiated by slipping.

The victim in this Florida premises liability case was staying in a hotel in Orlando, Florida for a short time. As she was walking from the elevator to the lobby on the first floor of the building, she slipped and fell on the floor after taking a step out of the elevator, causing severe and debilitating injuries to her body.

Evidently, the floor of the lobby was wet and there were no signs warning the guests of the hotel of this fact. Additionally, the tile floor from the egress of the elevator exit to the lobby was sloped in violation of Florida's Building Code. As a result of this negligence on the part of the hotel’s employees, the victim was permanently and totally disabled and unable to return to work. She had to undergo numerous surgeries and significant therapy. In fact, this victim was confirmed to be suffering from C.R.P.S. (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome), which is a chronic progressive disease characterized by severe pain, swelling and sensitivity to touch. Because of this, she incurred substantial medical bills and is faced with a lifetime of pain and suffering that is immeasurable.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for this condition. Her physician believes that she may need a spinal cord stimulator in the future, which would require surgery.

The victim in this case sought the assistance of Attorney Jason D. Weisser. Mr. Weisser sued the hotel in this matter and stated that they breached their duty to the victim as follows:

• By failing to maintain the lobby area in a safe condition;
• By failing to provide warning signage that the floor outside the elevator was wet;
• By failing to provide an employee to greet customers as they exited the elevator on the first floor to warn them of the dangerous condition;
• By failing to provide an accessible route from the elevator to exit the building;
• Negligent mode of operation by forcing patrons to walk across a wet floor to exit the building;
• By creating the dangerous condition of having a wet soapy floor in the main lobby directly outside the elevator entrance or elevator exit; and
• By having a dangerous slope/grade leading from the elevator to the lobby floor.

Mr. Weisser successfully settled this case without the necessity of a trial and obtained a verdict in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for this client. She now will be assured of getting the medical treatment she will need in the future.

The couple in this Florida medical malpractice case had been happily married for almost 23 years. She was a hairdresser who was very active and athletic and had just been certified as a personal trainer. He worked for an aerospace firm in Delray Beach, Florida and life was good.

Our victim in this case was only 48 years old and had a heart valve problem that had been watched over the years. She had been told that someday she would have to have something done about it.

One morning over the weekend she noted she woke up short of breath with wheezing. She would have to sit up to feel better. She stated she did not have any chest pain or
lightheadedness. The first of the week she went in to see her cardiologist and it was his feeling that she experienced these complaints over the weekend due to salt and volume overload which was all secondary to significant underlying valve or heart disease. He felt that she was more likely than not approaching the need for valve replacement surgery and scheduled her for an echocardiogram as soon as possible.

After the echocardiogram was done, the results showed that she was in need of a cardiac catheterization, which was also done, and showed that she had mitral valve and aortic valve problems, along with two coronary arteries that needed to be bypassed.

Continue reading "Cardiac Surgery in Palm Beach County, Florida Causes Death of " »

This tragic products liability accident occurred shortly before Christmas in Belle Glade, Florida as our victim was operating a sugar cane harvester manufactured and sold by a large equipment company. He was employed by one of the major sugar cane harvesting concerns in South Florida.

While the victim was operating this harvester, it became jammed with sugar cane, a common and well-known occurrence for this machine. Our victim exited the operator’s cab with the harvester running, in order to dislodge the cane, as he and others have been required to do in the past. While attempting to pull the lodged cane from the machine, the victim’s right hand suddenly became caught in a adjacent drive chain. This unfortunately caused the amputation of his right thumb and the majority of his right index finger.

Our victim was driven to the emergency room at the hospital in Belle Glade by his supervisor immediately following this incident. However, there were no available trauma surgeons on staff at the hospital to perform the necessary surgery. Therefore, he was transported to the trauma center at a hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida where he underwent debridement and lavage of his wounds. Several days later a right groin flap was required to be inset on the wound site. After several more days of observation, he was released from the hospital. To this date of course, he must live without his dominant right thumb and index finger.

The victim in this case sought the assistance of Attorney Richard D. Schuler. Mr. Schuler investigated this case thoroughly and enlisted the aid of an expert safety engineer to inspect the sugar cane harvester in question. After much discussion and research, a complaint was filed against the manufacturer of the sugar cane harvester listing the following defects:

• That there was no proper guarding designed into the machine to prevent the hands of the user from being caught in an adjacent drive chain of the machine;
• That there was no “dead man switch” designed within accessible reach of the machine so that the machine could be turned off if an operator’s hands were pulled into the machine;
• That the safety devices for stopping the machine were inoperable such that the machine would not shut off when the “stop button” was activated;
• That there were no options available with the machine to prevent a human being’s hands from being dragged into the adjacent drive chain of the machine while trying to dislodge the jammed sugar cane;
• That there were insufficient and inadequate warnings posted on the machine regarding its danger;
• That there was no stop or kill switch to stop the machine, even after the power source was cut off, so that shutting off the power to the machine would actually be detrimental to the operator, since the operator could then not be extricated from the drive chain of the machine;
• That the machine was not designed with the ability to reverse the chain so that jammed cane could be extricated without manual intervention;
• That the machine was negligently designed in that frequent cane stalk jams occurred because of lack of guarding, thus necessitating manual intervention in an area where machine parts were moving.

Continue reading "Operator of Sugar Cane Harvester in Belle Glade, Florida " »

Many people say attorneys are only in it for the money – and of course, they are – money for the little boy who fell off his bicycle and incurred brain damage as a result, then not given the proper treatment by the hospital so that he is left with permanent damage; money for the young mother involved in an automobile accident who is no longer able to care for her family the way she has in the past; money for the college student on her way to classes on her moped who is backed over by a beverage truck and spends several months in the hospital; and money for the grand-mother who was involved in a boat explosion and received severe burns over 52% of her body.

Unfortunately, these scenarios are all too common, and someone has to be there to look out for the individuals, because insurance companies are in business to make money for insurance companies and not to pay money out on claims. The insurance companies hold out because they know the great majority of people won’t file claims, and generally, if there is no attorney involved, will walk away with the small amount the insurance company is willing to pay them for severe and substantial injuries.

Sure, attorneys do make money on most cases, eventually. Attorneys take a chance by spending their own money to obtain these recoveries through investigating the merits of these tragedies for their clients, and, if no money is obtained for the client, the attorney does not only not get paid, but may lose the money it takes to investigate the case. Many cases take several years of investigation and a lot of hard work to bring to a conclusion. During that time, the attorney is making no money on the case if it is a contingency case, and in addition, is footing all the bills for the investigation as well. This can accumulate to several thousand dollars, and if it is a case such as a large medical malpractice case, sometimes it can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars when all is said and done.

A good law firm is dedicated to protecting the individual’s right to obtain the compensation they are rightfully due and attempting to make that individual as whole as possible at the conclusion of their case. A good law firm will provide the initial consultation at no charge and will not take a fee unless a recovery is made for the individual. Schuler, Halvorson and Weisser is such a law firm. They genuinely care about an individual’s rights and securing a successful settlement or prevailing in a jury trial on behalf of that individual and they will work diligently toward that end.

So yes, attorneys are in it for the money – the money they can obtain on behalf of their clients so that they can get the medical care and treatment they need, the money to help them get back to where they were, as much as possible, before tragedy entered their lives.

This Florida truck accident case took place early one morning as this young mother and her five year old son were in their Jeep heading down a street in West Palm Beach when suddenly, a delivery truck pulled out in front of her and she had no way of avoiding the collision. The front end of her Jeep impacted the driver’s side of the delivery truck and her Jeep was deemed a total loss.

This mother and son were transported via fire rescue to a local hospital. The mother was suffering from injuries to her left shoulder, neck and back as a result of this heavy impact crash. Since that time, she has had cervical and lumbar surgeries and continues to have pain and headaches on a daily basis. Sadly, at the time of the accident, she was pregnant and lost her baby shortly after this crash occurred.

The five year old son suffered a severely fractured jaw as a rear seat passenger. He was seated in the center seat with his lap belt on. His face still flew forward and hit the center console in between the two seats after this sudden stop. He was also transported to the local hospital after the crash, but had to be transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami due to the severity of his fractures. The medical records detail the hardware that had to be used to correct his mandibular fracture. One of the significant side effects of the injuries suffered by this young boy is that his smile is now crooked, and while this may not be a big deal to a five year old, it certainly will be important to him in years to come.

At the time of this accident, the mother in this case was working two jobs and lost both of them due to the amount of time she had to miss from work for her injuries and surgeries and caring for the injuries of her son.

Attorney Steven W. Halvorson and Attorney Richard D. Schuler were asked to represent this young mother and son regarding this accident and were successful in obtaining a very substantial settlement for both mother and son without the necessity of a trial.

According to statistics, between 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die in hospitals each year due to preventable medical errors.

The victim in this medical negligence case was a young 39 year old mother of three children who went to the emergency room of a hospital in Cape Coral, Florida after fever for two days, with her highest temperature being 104 degrees. She also had diarrhea, nausea without vomiting, and abdominal cramps in the bilateral mid to lower abdomen. She also complained of a painful lump on the left side of her neck that had come up over the past two weeks but had become painful in the last couple of days.

After examination and some minor testing, she was given prescriptions for Bactrim for infection and Paregoric for the diarrhea and advised to take Ibuprofen and to follow-up with her primary physician the following morning. It should be noted that some blood work had been ordered and then canceled, no EKG was ordered and no chest x-ray or abdominal x-rays were ordered.

The next morning, her husband stated that she did not rest well, she had chills and her temperature was 96.8. Her husband then called the emergency room, spoke with one of the nurses on duty and informed her of the events of the previous evening and that her temperature went from 104 to 96.8 within 10 hours. The nurse stated that he did not need to bring her back in to the emergency room because the temperature drop was just an effect of this medication.

Next the victim attempted to make an appointment with her primary care physician and was informed that she could not get in to see him for three days. Her husband then attempted to get an appointment for her to see his physician, but they could not see her for two days. The victim also tried to make an appointment with a third physician to no avail. The husband confirmed that he told these individuals on the phone that the victim had been to the hospital, the prescriptions she had been given and the symptoms she had. Still, no one was able to see her on that day.

About six o’clock that evening, because they could not get in to see a physician and she was steadily getting worse, her husband once again took her to the emergency room. The nurses attempted to take her blood pressure three times in triage and were unable to get a blood pressure reading. After the third time, she was taken back into a room immediately, a series of x-rays were taken, she was given antibiotics intravenously and a CAT scan of her abdomen was performed. After obtaining the results of the CAT scan, one of the emergency room physicians informed them that she would either be taken for surgery or placed in ICU for observation.

Continue reading "In Cape Coral, Florida, Young Mother of Three Dies Due to Medical Negligence" »

While attending an alternative music concert at a local entertainment complex, the victim in this Florida premises liability case suffered serious and permanent injuries as he was watching one of the bands playing on the stage. All of a sudden, a crowd surfer literally fell out of the sky on top of the victim collapsing his knee and causing him to fall to the ground.

At the time of the incident, this young man heard and felt his knee pop out of place. Fortunately, he was able to pop it back into place on his own and was treated initially in the medics tent at the concert. Subsequently, due to excruciating pain, weakness, swelling and stiffness, he was seen by an orthopedic surgeon who performed arthroscopic surgery for derangement of the right knee. Regrettably, even though he tolerated the procedure fairly well, his post-op recovery was hindered with continued swelling in his knee, and stabbing sensations along the side of his knee and sinovitis.

Unfortunately, despite aggressive physical therapy and rehabilitation on the knee post-surgery, the victim remained extremely symptomatic and a second arthroscopic surgery had to be performed. Even after his second arthroscopic knee surgery, he continues to have significant ongoing pain and symptomology. During one of his later visits to his orthopedic surgeon, he was prescribed a hinged knee brace and his physician advised him that he should not work for the following month. More recently, this same physician also advised him that he will undoubtedly require a total knee replacement of his right knee at some point in the future.

The total value of his past, present and future medical expenses claim, broken down to present day value, would be between $100,000.00 to $200,000.00. He also sustained a substantial loss of income and loss of future earning capacity.

Understandably, this young victim and his family have been devastated by his serious injuries and a young man’s life has been forever changed as a result of this senseless injury.

This young man and his family sought the assistance of Attorney Richard D. Schuler in this matter. Mr. Schuler’s investigation indicated that there was inadequate security at this entertainment complex, and that the security provided was not properly trained in crowd control and the prevention of body surfing or other irresponsible behavior on the part of its patrons.

Mr. Schuler was successful in obtaining a very substantial settlement for this young man who will now be able to obtain the medical help he needs presently and in the future. He will also be able to continue to pursue his career as a chef after having received his certificate of completion for culinary arts.

This wrongful death case involved a 19 year old who was employed by the U. S. Navy as an enlisted man. He had been out for the evening with two of his friends, who were also Naval enlistees. These three young men were on their way back to the Naval base and the victim in this case was in the rear passenger seat. There is no evidence of any contributory alcohol on the part of the three men in the automobile.

While traveling back to the Naval base, they traveled in the inside lane nearest the median of a four lane divided highway at about 45 miles per hour. Coming up behind them and traveling about 70 miles per hour was an individual who was intoxicated and driving a pick up truck. The driver of the pick up truck rear-ended the motor vehicle of the three young men in the rear right-hand portion of the vehicle with the left front portion of his truck. At the time of impact, it appears that the motor vehicle containing the three men spun several times until it ended up facing the same direction it was traveling. The driver in the pick up truck kept on going, fled the scene, and was later apprehended for DUI. He is currently serving a jail term for manslaughter.

When the impact occurred, the driver of the automobile looked back immediately to see what had hit him. He never did see the pick up truck. Instead, he saw a pillar of flames shooting out from the right rear of the car which is where the gas filler line is located. Once the vehicle stopped, the driver ran around to the front passenger side of the car as he was concerned about the right front passenger. When he got to the passenger side of the car, he could not get the passenger side door open and the passenger was crawling out of the driver’s side of the car.

After helping the front passenger out of the car and to the median, the driver returned to the car to attempt to rescue the passenger in the back seat. However, the passenger in the back seat appeared to be passed out, although the driver states that he had his seat belt on. The driver then grabbed the passenger’s arm and attempted to rescue him but he was unable to free him. The driver noticed that this victim was still alive when he was trying to rescue him because he saw him take numerous breaths. There are also some witness reports at the scene giving evidence that screaming was heard.

As the fire began to engulf the car, the upholstery of the top interior of the car began to drip on the driver’s arm; therefore, he had to retreat from the car and witness his own friend burn to death in his car. The Medical Examiner of Duval County, after doing an autopsy, concluded that the passenger in the back seat died of conflagration (fire) sustained as a passenger. The deposition of the Fire Marshall revealed that the source of the fire was fuel. He did not determine what in fact caused the fire, although he did determine that there were no other possible fuel sources of the fire other than the gasoline from the fuel tank.

Continue reading "Passenger in Back Seat of Vehicle Killed When Struck from Behind by Drunk Driver in Jacksonville, Florida" »

Energetic and outgoing in high school, the victim in this truck accident case was editor-in-chief of the yearbook, and in her senior year she took approximately 30 college credits at Palm Beach Community College to complete her core classes.

At the time of this truck accident, this 19 year old was a student at a university in Florida, and had a very bright future. Her GPA after the first semester of her freshman year was an impressive 3.4. This promising future was nearly derailed as a result of the accident that happened on the U.F. campus.

Unfortunately, while she was sitting on her moped behind a beverage distributing truck, the driver of the truck placed his truck in reverse without any knowledge as to who was directly behind him, in order to allow a bus to negotiate a turn. What happened next is absolutely unfathomable.

The victim saw the beverage truck in front of her rapidly reverse and was unable to take any evasive action to avoid the accident. She was thrown backward, with her moped being thrown to the ground. The truck continued its backward movement, running over her and crushing her, literally pinning her between the moped and the massive truck. She could hear people screaming frantically and pounding on the truck in order to get the driver to stop backing over her. To make matters even worse, the truck driver attempted to move his truck forward to get off of her, but this actually caused her to be dragged underneath the bottom of the truck along the pavement. Finally the truck stopped, with our victim being crushed beneath it. Frantically and without success, numerous witnesses and students attempted to lift the heavily loaded truck off of her.

Continue reading "Student at a Florida University is Backed Over by a Beverage Distributing Truck" »

In rear-end collisions, injuries to the occupants of the vehicles are usually much worse for the impacted car, because occupants of the following vehicle can see the imminent impact and brace against it. Generally, impacting into another car is the equivalent of impacting a wall at half of the speed. This means that rear-ending a stopped car while traveling at 40 miles per hour would be the same in terms of mechanical damage and injury to passengers, to impacting a wall at 20 miles per hour. This is true if the vehicles have roughly the same mass. However, if one vehicle is much larger than the other, the smaller vehicle suffers most of the damage.

Our victim in this Florida automobile accident case, a U. S. postal employee in her early 50’s, was stopped, waiting for a Palm Beach County Deputy Sheriff’s vehicle in front of her to make a left turn. While waiting, she was struck from behind by another vehicle, and the impact was severe enough that it pushed her about 10 feet into the deputy sheriff’s vehicle. There was no way for our victim to take any evasive action in this rear-end collision, and she sustained a severe injury to her lower back.

As a result of the above rear-end collision, our client had persistent and ongoing pain and symptomatology resulting from her low back injuries which necessitated surgery with a fusion at the lumbar L4, L5 level, with implant of a prosthetic device and a partial vertebral corpectomy.

Subsequent to her release from the hospital for surgical recuperation, she developed significant leg pain on the right side. Unfortunately, she failed to respond to medication and was readmitted to the hospital approximately ten days later for diagnostic work-up. At that time, x-rays were performed of the lumbar spine which showed collapse of the L5 vertebral body with anterior migration of the cages. She was taken to surgery a second time and underwent a release and decompression of the nerve roots at L5.

She was unable to return to her work in the post office as a mail sorter and continues to have difficulties with her routine daily living needs. Her husband had to assist her in and out of the shower, she could not perform the household chores, and has trouble even trying to dress herself. Sadly, this couple was forced to sell their home due to her inability to work and their reduced income.

Continue reading "Rear-End Collision in Palm Beach County, Florida Dramatically Alters Lifestyle of Couple" »

How many times have we heard or uttered those words? When we take the Bar Association oath of office, we promise to “uphold the Constitution”. But what is in the Constitution? Have you ever actually read it? (And I’m not talking about the Cliff Notes version!)

This past several years, I’ve had the pleasure and honor of meeting two Supreme Court Justices (Justice Alito and Justice Thomas) and having dinner with another (Justice Scalia). All are extremely intelligent men whose main job it is to interpret the Constitution and its Amendments (there are 27). Here are some (I hope) fascinating facts about the Constitution and the men and women who have and still do interpret it for us: (I hope these peak your curiosity enough to make you want to give it a read!)

1. The U.S. Constitution has 4,440 words. It is the oldest and shortest written constitution of any government in the world.

2. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, never signed the Constitution. He was serving as U.S. Minister to France (now called Ambassador) at the time of the convention.

3. At first, the Constitution wasn’t even called the “Constitution” – it was called “The Articles of Confederation”.

4. When the Constitution was signed in 1787 in Philadelphia, the U.S. population was 4 million. Now we are approaching 300 million. Philadelphia was the nation’s largest city with 40,000 inhabitants.

5. At least seven Constitutional Amendments were passed in order to reverse Supreme Court decisions. Some of the most notable ones: the Thirteenth Amendment (1865), barring slavery, and the Fifteenth Amendment (1868), protecting the citizenship of African Americans, effectively overturned the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857. The Sixteenth Amendment (1913) gave Congress the power to levy an income tax, which had been previously outlawed by the Supreme Court in Pollock v. Farmer’s Loan & Trust (1895). And the Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971) overturned Oregon v. Mitchell which, among other things, held that Congress could not regulate the voting age in state elections. The Amendment set the voting age at 18 years.

Continue reading "That’s Unconstitutional!" »

According to the National Center on Caregiving, a traumatic brain injury is an insult to the brain caused by an impact, internal damage or loss of oxygen, and although not always visible, may cause enduring physical, emotional, intellectual and social changes for the survivor.

This organization also reports that there are about two million head injuries of all types each year in the U.S., with 300,000 individuals suffering brain injuries severe enough to require hospitalization, and 99,000 resulting in a lasting disability. A total of 56,000 people die each year as a result of traumatic brain injury.

The victim in this case was an 18 year old woman who had just left her mother’s home and the police report indicates that she was making U-turn when the accident occurred. Not only was the victim injured to the point that she was unable to communicate or remember this incident from her substantial head injuries, but the passenger in her vehicle died at the scene of the accident. An eyewitness indicated that the other driver operating a truck, was in the far right lane and believed to be turning right. However, he changed lanes as she commenced her turn resulting in the collision between the two vehicles.

The defendant driver in this Florida truck accident case was in the course and scope of his employment and the permissive user of a motor vehicle owned by his employer at the time of this accident. He stated that he did not see the victim’s vehicle prior to the impact, and denied changing lanes before the accident.

Continue reading "Truck Accident in West Palm Beach, Florida Causes Traumatic Brain Injury" »