A recent article appearing in the Sun Sentinel outlines the near fourteen (14) year battle for Eric Brody and his family to finally receive a portion of the damages he was awarded for having suffered severe injuries as a result of an automobile accident with a Broward Sheriff ‘s officer. The Broward deputy was speeding and collided with the car that Eric Brody was in. While the jury awarded $30.7 million, Florida Statute Section 768.28 (The Sovereign Immunity Statute) limited the amount that the Sheriff’s Office (or its insurers) were obligated, to pay to the amount of $100,00 per claimant at the time of the incident, without necessitating the need to appeal to the Florida’s Legislature for a “Claim’s Bill” to receive anything above $100,000 of the award.
The article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel states that “Florida law, however protects government agencies from paying damages in excess of $200,00 (which is the current limitation amount), but what the article neglects to point out is that if the Broward Sheriff’s office had obtained liability insurance for the incident (which they apparently had in effect at the time), this legislation was protecting an insurance company (or possibly several of them) and not the Broward Sheriff’s Office or the interests of Broward County and Florida citizens. While the law has been recently amended to increase the governmental entity’s obligation to each claimant from $100,000-$200,000, without the need of obtaining a “Claim’s Bill”, the law is still seriously antiquated and continues to protect the interests of the insurance industry over the needs of victims or the residents of Broward County, and Florida.
For further information regarding this and similar topics please feel free to consult with the Schulman Lay Group, a personal injury law firm located in Weston, Florida that is committed to representing personal injury victims including victims of Weston, car and governmental accident claims. Please visit our website at www.schulaw.com, for a free consultation. Please call us at 877-LAW-0444 or email us at info@www.schulaw.com
