Articles Posted in Florida

Florida Personal Injury Settlement Statistics

According to a not-so-recently published Jury Verdict Research study, the average verdict in a personal injury lawsuit in Florida is $1,732,150. Huge and almost invariably uncollectable verdicts, because of caps on a defendant’s ability to pay, and overturned verdicts inflate the average to a number that is really no longer meaningful. The better measure, the median verdict, was $149,411.

The breakdown of the injuries relative to the verdicts in the study was interesting:

The average personal injury verdict in Florida is $1,819,751, according to Jury Verdict Research, a company that tracks jury verdicts. In Florida personal injury cases, plaintiffs win approximately 61 percent of cases that go to trial.

Florida’s threshold requiring a more serious injury in motor tort cases is one reason why the average jury verdict in Florida much higher than the national average. These Florida jury statistic verdicts also underscore that large cases inflate average jury verdicts and settlements. The median—as opposed to the average—money damages in Florida personal injury trials in Florida is $122,674.

If you have been injured in a serious car accident (our lawyers only handle serious claims), call us t 800-553-8082 or click here for free no-obligation consultation.

Very dated but still interesting data on Florida workers’ compensation cases: the average back injury settlement was $ 38,000 with medical care continuing (called “keeping your case open”). The average  workers’ compensation back injury settlement is $ 9,800 with no continuing opportunity for further medical care.

• Average Back Injury Settlements (what can you expect as compensation for a back injury from a car accident)
• Average Value of Florida Personal Injury Cases (statistics on Florida jury verdicts)

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Florida Medical Association is asking the Florida legislature to change the law to increase what doctors may charge to get copies of medical records. Currently, Florida doctors can charge $1 per page for the first 25 pages and 25 after that.

Believe me, I realize the retrieval costs are such that doctors are not making money producing medical records at this price. But should they be? Patients are entitled to their medical records. You need medical records for a lawsuit. Personal injury lawyers in Florida have characterized the Florida doctors’ request as a backdoor strategy to avoid medical malpractice claims. I’m not sure that an increase in the cost of medical records will do that. But I also don’t see why the current prices don’t adequately give reimburse doctors for their costs of producing medical records.

• This is an older post, obviously. But this is the 2022 Florida statute on the cost of collecting medical records.  The key language: “The exclusive charge for copies of patient records may include sales tax and actual postage, and, except for nonpaper records that are subject to a charge not to exceed $2, may not exceed $1 per page. A fee of up to $1 may be charged for each year of records requested…However, a patient whose records are copied or searched for the purpose of continuing to receive medical care is not required to pay a charge for copying or for the search. “