When a jury awards a substantial verdict to someone injured as the result of someone else's negligence, tort reformers refer to the outcome as jackpot justice. The reference is a purposefully demeaning comparison between the juries attempt to make up for the injured persons losses and winning a jackpot in a game of chance. Personal injury attorneys know there are two types of people that promote this crude comparison. The first are those with a political agenda to increase corporate profits by eliminating personal injury lawsuits altogether. These people create false and misleading statistics to support their conclusions. The second type are those that truly believe that compensating someone for their injuries is harmful to society. Their beliefs are usually based on blind faith that the false and misleading statistics created by those with a political agenda are true. Fortunately, many in the second group will change their minds about the benefits to society of personal injury lawsuits when they are provided with the true facts.

The bad news is that those in corporate America with a political agenda to prevent juries from making up for the harms caused by negligence have far more money to spend peddling their propaganda. The public relations budgets of the fortune 500 corporations and their support organizations dwarf the public relations budgets of personal injury law firms and their support organizations.

The good news is that it takes far less money to convince people of the truth than it does to perpetuate a lie. If those of us that believe in the jury system continue to speak out, our voices will be heard over the noise of tort reform because we speak the truth. For more information about the myths spread by tort reformers, go to the American Association for Justice Website.

Scott Distasio
Clearwater Personal Injury Attorney

DISTASIO LAW FIRM
HELPING INJURED PEOPLE
OFFICES: TAMPA
888-595-0022

Tort Reformers claim that our country's economy is crumbling because of out of control personal injury settlements and jury verdicts that include a recovery for pain and suffering damages. If you listen to many politicians discussing the subject, you will come away believing that it is very easy to receive pain and suffering damages. At least in car accident cases in Florida, the truth is just the opposite.

As a Tampa car accident lawyer I am familiar with the Florida laws that govern car accident cases. One of those laws, section 627.737 Florida Statutes, bars a plaintiff in most car accident cases from receiving pain and suffering damages unless they can prove to a jury one of the following:

(a) Significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function.

(b) Permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement.

(c) Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement.

(d) Death.

Because all of these conditions require proving a permanent injury, Florida attorneys often refer to this statute as creating a permanency threshold. In the overwhelming number of auto accident cases tried to a jury in Florida, the jury concludes the plaintiff did not suffer a permanent injury based on the above criteria and therefore does not award pain and suffering damages.

Scott Distasio
Clearwater Car Accident Lawyer

DISTASIO LAW FIRM
HELPING INJURED PEOPLE
OFFICE: TAMPA
888-595-0022