West Palm Beach Intersection Accident Lawyer

Nobody watched your crash except the two people arguing about it.

West Palm Beach does not run a red-light camera program. If you were hit at an intersection here, there is no automated video waiting to be pulled, and the police report often comes down to which driver sounded more certain. Our West Palm Beach intersection accident lawyers build the case the camera would have made, using signal timing records, nearby business footage, vehicle data and physical evidence at the scene.

Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers has been in practice since 1985. Consultations are free and someone is available 24 hours a day at +1 (866) 640-7117.

Intersection Cases Usually Come Down to One Driver's Word Against Another

In most West Palm Beach intersections, nothing recorded what happened. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles publishes an annual list of every Florida city and county running red-light cameras, and West Palm Beach is not on it. This lack of camera footage highlights the caution needed at Florida intersections, where documenting a crash may depend on other available evidence.In Palm Beach County, Boynton Beach is the city that runs one. West Palm Beach does not. This lack of camera footage can make investigating a fatal motor vehicle accident at Florida intersection more challenging.

That absence shapes everything about how these claims get proven.

A responding officer arrives after the fact, hears two versions, and often issues no citation at all. The insurance adjuster reads that report and treats the question of who ran the light as unresolved. Unresolved usually means a low offer, or no offer.

The evidence still exists. It is just not sitting in a camera file. It sits in the airbag control module of both vehicles, in the county's signal phasing logs, in the security systems of the gas station on the corner, and in the debris field the officer photographed but did not analyze.

Most of that evidence has a shelf life measured in days.

Call +1 (866) 640-7117 before the footage on the corner overwrites itself.

The Intersection Crashes We Handle in Palm Beach County

An intersection accident is any collision where two vehicles' paths crossed because one of them failed to yield. We handle all of them across Palm Beach County, including cases involving a fatal auto accident at Florida intersection.

Side-impact and T-bone collisions. Left-turn crashes. Red-light and stop-sign violations. Four-way-stop disputes. Right-turn-on-red collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists in the crosswalk.

If your crash happened at a signal or a sign anywhere from Okeechobee Boulevard to Blue Heron, describe it to us and we will tell you within a few minutes whether the claim needs representation.

Which Florida Statute Decides Who Had the Right of Way?

Four of them, depending on how the intersection was controlled. Uncontrolled crossings fall under Section 316.121, left turns under Section 316.122, stop and yield signs under Section 316.123, and signalized intersections under Section 316.075. Knowing these rules can help you protect yourself at these dangerous intersections by understanding when drivers must yield

Knowing which statute applies is the easy half. The hard half is proving what actually happened, and that is where these claims are won or lost. If you want the rules themselves broken down, our guide to who is at fault in an intersection accident walks through each one.

What we do on your file is different work. We go get the proof.

Call +1 (866) 640-7117 before the footage on the corner overwrites itself.

The Evidence That Wins These Cases, and How Fast It Disappears

The evidence that decides these claims is the kind that carries a timestamp and cannot argue back. In a market without traffic cameras, our approach starts with sources that decay quickly.

Evidence source	Why it matters	How long it typically survives
Nearby business and residential cameras	Often the only visual record of the light phase	Frequently overwritten in 7 to 30 days
Event data recorder (vehicle "black box")	Captures speed, braking and throttle in the seconds before impact	Lost if the vehicle is repaired or salvaged
Traffic signal timing and phasing records	Establishes how long each phase ran at that specific intersection	Retained by the operating agency, requires a formal request
Scene photographs and debris field	Shows point of impact and direction of travel	Only what was captured that day
911 audio and dispatch logs	Independent witnesses describing the crash in real time	Subject to agency retention schedules
Cell phone records of the other driver	Relevant when distraction is suspected	Requires litigation to obtain

We send preservation demands early because a repair shop has no reason to protect the other driver's black box, and a convenience store has no reason to keep your crash on its hard drive.

Tell us where it happened and we will start there. +1 (866) 640-7117.

What Happens in the First Two Weeks of Your Case

The work that matters happens before anyone talks about settlement.

Days one to three. We identify every camera with a view of the intersection and send preservation requests. We request the crash report and any supplemental investigation, and we notify both insurers that you are represented so the calls stop coming to you.

The first week. We arrange inspection of both vehicles and the download of the event data recorders before either car is repaired or released for salvage. We request signal timing and phasing records from the agency that operates that specific intersection.

Weeks one and two. We locate independent witnesses from the report and from the scene, request 911 audio and dispatch logs, and make sure your treatment is documented in a way that connects the injuries to the crash rather than leaving the link to be argued later.

None of that is glamorous and all of it expires. A case built in week one negotiates from a different position than a case opened in month four.

We can start this today. +1 (866) 640-7117.

What If the Insurance Company Says You Were Partly at Fault?

Partial fault reduces what you recover. It does not erase your claim unless your share crosses 50%.

Florida uses modified comparative negligence. Under Section 768.81(6), a person found more than 50% responsible for their own harm recovers nothing. At 50% or less, your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault.

This is exactly why intersection adjusters push the shared-fault theory so hard. Getting you to 51% is not a partial win for them. It is a total one.

Common versions of the argument: you entered on a stale yellow, you were speeding, you could have avoided it, you were looking at your phone. Each of those is answerable with data rather than argument, which is the point of building the file properly from week one.

What an Intersection Crash Claim Accounts For

The value of a claim depends on the injuries, the available coverage, and how clearly fault can be proven. Anyone quoting you a number before reviewing your medical records is guessing.

What a claim typically accounts for:

Medical care already received and reasonably expected going forward. Side-impact collisions concentrate force on the occupant compartment, which is why intersection crashes produce a disproportionate share of shoulder, spine and internal injuries.

Lost income and reduced earning capacity. Not only the weeks you missed, but the work you can no longer do the same way.

Pain, limitation and the effect on daily life. Florida's no-fault system limits when these damages are available.

Property damage and out-of-pocket costs, including the rental car and the mileage to medical appointments.

How Does Florida's No-Fault System Affect an Intersection Claim?

Your own Personal Injury Protection coverage pays first, regardless of who ran the light. Florida requires drivers to carry at least $10,000 in PIP, and FLHSMV explains the requirement here.

Three details catch people out.

The 14-day rule. Under Section 627.736, PIP applies only if you receive initial care within 14 days of the crash. Waiting to see whether the neck pain settles can cost you the coverage entirely.

The $2,500 ceiling. PIP pays up to $10,000 only if a qualified provider determines you had an emergency medical condition. Without that determination, reimbursement is capped at $2,500.

The injury threshold. To pursue pain and suffering from the at-fault driver, Section 627.737(2) requires a significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.

Meeting that threshold is a medical question with legal consequences, and it is one of the main reasons the documentation in the first sixty days matters so much.

Florida's Two Year Deadline, and the Shorter One Nobody Mentions

You have two years from the date of the crash to file most negligence claims in Florida, under Section 95.11(5)(a). The window was four years before the 2023 tort reform, and claims that arose before that change may still fall under the older period.

Two years sounds generous until you account for the evidence timeline. Signal records, business footage and vehicle data are usually gone long before the deadline arrives. Filing on time and building a provable case are two different problems.

Cases that go to suit here are filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, with the main courthouse on North Dixie Highway in downtown West Palm Beach.

Working With Our West Palm Beach Intersection Accident Attorneys

We are a Palm Beach County firm that has been in practice here since 1985, from offices in West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie. Our attorneys and staff are bilingual in English and Spanish.

What that means practically for an intersection case:

• We request signal and phasing data from the operating agency rather than relying on the crash report's narrative.
• We identify and preserve nearby camera sources in the first days, not the first month.
• We arrange for vehicle inspection and data download before either car is released for repair or salvage.
• We handle communication with the adjusters so a recorded statement does not become the shared-fault argument used against you later.

There is no fee to talk to us, and no fee unless we recover for you.

Speak with a lawyer today at +1 (866) 640-7117.

West Palm Beach Intersection Accident Questions

The Corner Will Not Remember for You

Intersections in West Palm Beach are busy, poorly watched and getting worse. The crash you were in produced a record for a few days, and then most of that record quietly disappears.

If you were hurt at an intersection anywhere in Palm Beach County, talk to us while the evidence is still there to be found. The consultation costs nothing, we answer 24 hours a day, and we handle these claims in English and Spanish.

Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers. Fighting For The Injured Since 1985. Call +1 (866) 640-7117.