How Can the Use of a Cell Phone by the Plaintiff Impact an Injury Claim in Florida?

If you are injured in an accident caused by another person’s negligence, you may ‌file a personal injury claim to recover damages. In order to succeed in your claim, you will need to prove that the other party was at fault and that the accident directly caused your injuries.

One piece of evidence that can be used to support your claim is the cell phone records of the other party. If the cell phone was in use at the time of the accident, this may be considered evidence of negligence. On the other hand, if the defendant was using their cell phone at the time of the accident, this may be used as evidence that they were distracted and not paying attention to their surroundings, which could have contributed to the accident.

Florida State Laws on Cell Phone Usage

In the state of Florida, it is against the law to text while driving. This law applies to both handheld and hand-free devices. This means that even if either party was not texting, but was using their cell phone for another purpose, such as talking on the phone or looking up directions, they may still be considered at fault. For example, if the defendant was talking on the phone immediately before the accident, this may be considered evidence of distracted driving.

If either of the parties was using their cell phone at the time of the accident, cell phone records will be required in order to prove this. Although the process may be complicated to most people, an attorney who specializes in personal injury law will be familiar with the process and can help you obtain the evidence you need to support your claim.

Being a comparative negligence state, the jury will not only look to see if the defendant was texting and driving but will also assign a percentage of fault to each party if the plaintiff was also at wrong. For example, if the defendant was using their cell phone, and you were not paying attention to the road, you may be assigned 20% fault and the other party may be assigned 80% fault. This would mean that you would only be able to recover 80% of the damages you incurred.

It is important to note that even if you are partially responsible for the accident, you may still be able to recover damages provided you are not over 50% at fault.

How Cell Phone Usage Can Impact Your Claim

If the cell phone was being used at the time of the car accident, this can impact your claim in a few different ways. First, if the other party was breaking the law by texting while driving, this can be used as evidence of negligence. Second, even if the other party was not breaking the law, cell phone records can still be used to show that the other party was distracted at the time of the accident. This is important because distracted driving is one of the leading causes of accidents in Florida.

Conclusion

If you are injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you may use the other party’s cell phone records as evidence to support your claim. An attorney who specializes in personal injury law will be familiar with the process of obtaining cell phone records and will fight for the compensation you deserve. Therefore, it is important to contact an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible.