Of course, “No Fault” is something of a misnomer. It simply means you have Personal Injury Protection under Florida law that pays for 80% of your medical bills and 60% of lost wages up to $10,000 when you are involved in an accident, no matter whose fault the accident was. However, you have to recover the rest of the money for your medical bills and lost wages from the at-fault party’s insurance company, and for that, you do indeed have to prove who caused the accident.
Liability works differently according to the specifics of each accident. Basically, you need to identify causation, show negligence, and establish provable damages. Many accidents are the result of a distracted driver, but proving driver distraction after the fact can be difficult. Start by detailing everything that happened at the scene and get witness contact information if possible. If there are no witnesses present, take photos to establish whether there are skid marks – no skid marks imply the driver wasn’t paying enough attention to slow down. Police reports also help, and with photos, can tell a pretty accurate account.
Be your own detective and notice things that could have distracted the other driver. The police accident report will make note of details like if there were multiple kids in the car, or dogs, or open maps in the passenger seat, or any evidence of texting. And the police will be looking at you also to determine whether you were partially negligent. If you did absolutely nothing wrong, make sure you demonstrate that in your account of what happened.
