Personal injury lawyers blamed for our high insurance rates
Oct 4, 2011
The following article was published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel on October 4, 2011:
Person injury lawyers blamed for our high insurance rates
By Ronnie Sue Goldfarb
Florida has a reputation for high automobile insurance rates due to the racket that the personal injury lawyers have created. Apparently, the statistics show that Florida is notorious for its residents filing fraudulent claims and suing for personal injury at the slightest hangnail after an accident.
I am writing this letter because I am now part of those statistics. I was involved in a parking lot fender bender and am being sued for personal injuries by the driver and passenger of the car that hit me. I have been told that parking lot incidents are usually assessed at 50-50 for liability. So I figured both parties would take care of their respective vehicles.
However, before I had the chance to exchange details with the driver of the other car, she called the police. Once the police officer arrived, he assessed that no one was injured, checked our details and wrote a report that had only our individual details. He said he does not determine fault in a situation such as this.
Since neither of us said we were injured, I thought that would be the end of the incident, and we would each have our cars repaired. But I was wrong. I received a letter from a law firm representing the driver and passenger stating they were injured in the accident. Initially, at the time of the accident, I did not even realize the other car had hit me. How can someone be injured in such a minor accident? And how can the passenger claim injury when she was seated on the opposite side of the car? Maybe they were not wearing seat belts.
We should do something to stop these ambulance-chasing lawyers. Our rates are high enough in Florida. These lawyers should invest their time in real cases and be advocates for those who really require assistance. Tear down all of those horrible billboards.
Find this article here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-forum-pip-lawsuits-fraud-1004-20111004,0,7616969.story