• ✓Drivers must yield to pedestrians — and pedestrians have duties too. Fla. Stat. § 316.130(7) requires a driver at a signalized intersection to stop before entering the crosswalk and remain stopped while a pedestrian with a permitted signal crosses, and subsection (15) goes further: “every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian… and give warning when necessary and exercise proper precaution upon observing any child or any obviously confused or incapacitated person.” Pedestrians have duties too — § 316.130(10) requires someone crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk to yield to vehicles. Who held the right of way is usually the central fight in the case.
• ✓PIP can pay your medical bills — but whose PIP depends on your household. Florida no-fault reaches people on foot. Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1) extends Personal Injury Protection to a person “other persons struck by the motor vehicle and suffering bodily injury while not an occupant of a self-propelled vehicle,” up to a $10,000 limit that pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost wages. The order matters: under § 627.736(4)(e), your own policy pays if you own an insured vehicle; a resident relative’s policy pays if you do not; and the striking vehicle’s PIP applies only to a Florida resident who neither owns a vehicle requiring coverage nor is entitled to benefits from such an owner’s insurer. The 14-day rule in § 627.736(1)(a) applies to all of it — initial care must come within 14 days of the crash.
• ✓Comparative fault applies, and the tort threshold decides what you can sue for. Fla. Stat. § 768.81 bars a pedestrian found “greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm” and reduces recovery by any smaller share. The deadline is generally two years from the crash, because Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) places negligence actions in the two-year category. To recover pain and suffering from the driver at all, Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2) requires the injury to consist of significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.

• •Failure to yield in crosswalks. Drivers turning or proceeding without yielding to a pedestrian who lawfully has the right of way, contrary to the stop-and-remain-stopped duty in Fla. Stat. § 316.130(7).
• •Distracted driving. A driver looking at a phone instead of the road often never sees the person crossing until it is too late.
• •Speeding. Higher speed means less time to stop and a harder impact, and it also undercuts the driver’s claim that the collision was unavoidable.
• •Left- and right-turn collisions. Drivers watching for a gap in traffic frequently strike a pedestrian in the crosswalk they never checked.
• •Impaired driving. Alcohol and drugs slow reaction time and impair judgment. Impairment can also support a claim for punitive damages, which Fla. Stat. § 768.72 allows only after a court finds a reasonable evidentiary basis for them — it is not automatic.
• •Poor visibility & road design. Dark, unlit stretches, missing crosswalks, and long distances between safe crossings put pedestrians in harm’s way.

1. “You darted out into traffic.” Arguing you crossed suddenly or outside a crosswalk so that your own carelessness caused the crash, which moves the fault allocation without ever addressing what the driver did.
2. “You were jaywalking.” Pinning fault on you to push you past the 50% line in Fla. Stat. § 768.81, where recovery is barred outright — even when the driver was speeding, distracted, or impaired, and even though § 316.130(15) still required that driver to exercise due care to avoid you.
3. Missing or ‘unavailable’ video. Traffic and business surveillance that would show who had the right of way runs on its own retention cycle and is overwritten unless a lawyer demands preservation. Nothing obliges a business to keep footage it has not been asked to keep.
4. Fast, low offers and recorded statements. A quick call to get you on record, then a small check framed as help. Accepting it normally requires signing a release, which closes the claim even if your treatment is not finished.
5. Using the 14-day rule against you. If you delayed care past the 14 days Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1)(a) allows, they will argue both that PIP never attached and that your injuries were not serious — one more reason to see a doctor immediately.

The most important protection is simple: talk to a lawyer before you give the driver’s insurer a statement — and before that video disappears.

• ✓We move immediately to preserve the video. We send preservation demands for traffic-camera and business-surveillance footage, and the driver’s phone and vehicle data, before they are overwritten — often within days.
• ✓We reconstruct how the crash happened. The police report, physical evidence, and where relevant an accident-reconstruction expert establish who had the right of way and who was at fault.
• ✓We unlock every source of insurance. Your own PIP, a resident relative’s policy, the at-fault driver’s bodily-injury coverage, and uninsured-motorist coverage may each apply — missing one leaves money on the table.
• ✓We document your injuries fully. We gather your complete records and, in serious cases, bring in medical and economic experts to project future care and lost earning capacity.
• ✓We prepare every case for trial. A trial-ready file is what moves an insurer off a lowball offer. If they still will not be fair, we are prepared to try the case to a jury.