Drunk Driving Personal Injury Claims (The Real Story)

Drunk-driving personal injury claims are very complex. If you are a victim of a car accident where the at-fault driver was drunk, you may be entitled to something called “punitive damages.” Punitive damages are additional compensation on top of those that cover injuries and property damage. Unfortunately, some estimates suggest that 30% of us will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some point in our lives.

Even worse, last year, well over 10,000 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes. This blog will guide you on what you should know about drunk-driving personal injury claims. Our court system has consistently held that punitive damages should be given to injured victims or their surviving family members when drinking and driving is a factor. However, insurance companies are very talented at hiding drunk driving from juries.

Understanding punitive damages in drunk-driving cases

Combatting big insurance companies and their teams of attorneys can be intimidating. You can level the playing field by hiring an experienced, board-certified personal injury trial lawyer. Your attorney can work to protect your rights and inform you of all your options for compensation – including punitive damages. At their core, punitive damages are available when an at-fault person does something intentional or reckless without regard for the consequences of their actions. In contrast to damages that compensate for losses, punitive damages are a form of punishment for the wrongdoer. Another term for punitive damages is “exemplary damages.”

One goal of punitive damages is to make society safer by punishing wrongdoers. The law allows this extra financial penalty because it makes an example of drunk drivers, other bad actors, or corporations. Hopefully, the additional damages deter others from engaging in that same conduct.

Punitive damages can also compensate the victims for their losses in cases where the pain is amplified by the defendant’s callous disregard for others. Criminal court cases can also pursue justice and punish drunk drivers for their crimes. Still, the criminal system does not compensate the victims.

How courts award punitive damages

Courts allow punitive damages to punish wrongdoers and help victims. However, punitive damages are only allowed after a trial—in most cases, a jury trial.

Before the court can consider punitive damages, the attorneys will present their arguments, and the jury will reach a verdict. The judge can then hold a second mini-trial with the same jury. At this stage, the jury will determine whether to punish the defendant by ordering the payment of punitive damages. The punitive damages would be in addition to the compensatory damages the jury awarded at the end of the original trial.

The judge tells the jury that they should award punitive damages if they find by “clear and convincing evidence” that:

• The defendant was guilty of intentional misconduct; or
• gross negligence; and
• The conduct or negligence was a substantial cause of damages.

Defining clear and convincing evidence, intentional misconduct, and gross negligence

So what do these terms mean?

Clear and convincing evidence

The standard for a personal injury case will be the preponderance of the evidence. Clear and convincing requires a greater weight of the evidence in comparison. The evidence must be more compelling and persuasive. However, it is not the strict standard criminal courts apply, which is beyond a reasonable doubt.

Intentional misconduct

This term means that the defendant had actual knowledge of the wrongfulness of the conduct and that it created a high probability of injury or damage to the victim. Despite that knowledge, the defendant intentionally pursued that wrongful course of conduct.

Gross negligence

This is conduct so reckless that it constitutes a conscious disregard or indifference to the life, safety, or rights of others. Standard negligence is simply a failure to act as a reasonably prudent person under the circumstances. Gross negligence is behavior that goes beyond standard negligence.

Factors considered when awarding punitive damages

The court will tell the jury to consider an amount of punitive damages that will deter others. To achieve this, they will look at the following factors:

• The nature, extent, and degree of the misconduct
• Whether the wrongful conduct was motivated solely by unreasonable financial gain
• If the defendant knows that the conduct is unreasonably dangerous and has a high likelihood of resulting in injuries
• Whether the defendant had a specific intent to harm

The court will also inform the jury that they can consider the defendant’s financial resources. The award should be enough to punish them, but not an amount that would financially destroy them. As a result, a defendant with more financial resources may face more punitive damages. For instance, a lower amount may punish a small local restaurant but not a large chain like McDonald’s. So, it makes sense for McDonald’s to pay more punitive damages than a smaller business would pay.

How insurance companies hide drunk driving from juries

Insurance companies are well aware of the potential financial consequences of drunk-driving claims. These companies do not want to pay large sums and may work to hide the fact that their insured was drunk driving. It’s important to note that car insurance companies are not obligated to pay punitive damages. However, they must do everything possible to protect their insured from paying punitive damages.

Insurance companies’ tactics in drunk-driving cases

Insurance companies have a duty to offer victims the policy limits in exchange for a full release of their insured. If an insurance company decides to gamble and not offer the policy limits, your attorney should prepare to take the case to trial.

The insurance company will do everything in its power to hide the alcohol and intoxication from the jury. One tactic defense lawyers use is to ask the judge to hide the alcohol use from the jury by saying the drunk driver admits fault. The claim is that the driver’s intoxication is, therefore, irrelevant.

Judges are inclined to grant these “motions in limine” – orders stating that no one may discuss something in court. If the judge grants such a motion, then the jury will never hear about alcohol. When the insurance defense lawyers admit fault, they claim that the only issues for the jury to determine are causation and damages.

Causation addresses what injuries, losses, and harm the drunk driver caused. The defense often tells a jury, “Sure, we’re at fault, but the negligence did not cause any damages.” They may argue that the medical bills are too high or that the injuries are not as serious as you claim. Insurance companies may also rely on their compulsory medical exam doctor. This doctor may claim that no injury exists.

Insurance defense lawyers often tell judges the alcohol use does not relate to causation or damages. So, they argue, the jury should not hear that the defendant was drunk at the time they caused the crash. These efforts make drunk-driving personal injury cases challenging to win. Especially if the plaintiff’s lawyer lacks experience handling similar claims.

However, the jury needs to hear that a driver was drunk if they are going to be fair to the injured victim or victims. One important thing we do is to follow the related criminal case to see if the driver pleads guilty or goes to trial. We encourage our clients to attend the sentencing of drunk drivers.

They will also need to understand how the conduct caused damages to the victim and how severe the injuries are – both physically and mentally. In fact, bringing in emotional damages is one way to combat the defense attorneys’ attempt to hide the fact that the driver was drunk.

The emotional and psychological impact of drunk driving accidents

Most of my clients who suffered injuries because of a drunk driver become more upset knowing a drunk driver caused them. The harm can seem even more needless than in a case of standard negligence.

After accidents involving drunk drivers, my clients often become sensitive and paranoid about other cars on the road. They start believing that any car that swerves or follows behind them too closely is drunk driving and creating a risk to their safety. These experiences are part of mental anguish, which is a loss for which injury victims can recover.

Mental anguish damages are the key to getting evidence of drunk driving in front of a jury. My clients tend to relive the crash in their thoughts for the rest of their lives. Each of those examples is mental anguish damage that victims are legally entitled to recover for under Florida law.

A judge will often let the jury hear drunk-driving evidence if the client told doctors, friends, and family about their fears of drunk drivers. If a drunk driver injures you, you need to tell your doctors about how the experience affected your life. Tell your friends and family about how alcohol involvement in the crash has made things more challenging for you. How has it caused you to have fears about drunk driving you’ve never thought about before the crash? Contact victims’ assistance in your county and fill out the victim’s impact statement form. Make sure you give a copy to your lawyer. Some of my clients also take action against drunk driving by joining MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. This action goes a long way toward proving they are feeling mental anguish as a victim of a drunk driver. At the same time, it allows them to feel like they are doing something to prevent others from suffering as they did.

Other ways your attorney can help you build your claim

Working emotional damages and mental anguish into your claim is one powerful way that your attorney can help you recover damages. However, there are many other things they can do to support you and build the strongest case possible, including the following:

• Getting a copy of the 911 recordings if someone called the police
• Obtain the DUI affidavit from the police
• Seek DUI videotapes of the arrest
• Obtain the DUI breath or blood alcohol test results
• Obtain a certified copy of the DUI conviction if they are convicted.

All of this can help us strengthen your claim.

Also, your lawyer should make a quick offer to settle your claim for the drunk driver’s policy limits. If the insurer delays or denies paying the drunk driver’s policy limit, the attorney should file suit quickly. Then, after the suit is underway, file a motion to seek punitive damages against the drunk driver. When the punitive damages are allowed, your lawyer should do discovery to find out what financial resources the drunk driver has to pay them.

Unfortunately, there are too many victims of drunk driving. However, the courts allow victims to seek punitive damages against people driving under the influence of alcohol. Without experience in this area of drunk-driving negligence law, many lawyers make simple mistakes. Those errors prevent the jury from knowing all the facts in the case, often resulting in less than a full measure of damages Florida law allows.

If you have more questions, please contact me, Matt Powell, at (813) 222-2222. I am a board-certified civil trial lawyer by the Florida Bar. I’ve helped many victims and their loved ones with drunk-driving and personal injury claims.