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~~ must weigh the value of the com~aon law remedy abrogated or
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;; abolished by Statute and compare it with the legislated
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~; replacement. The Florida Legislature has taken away much of
'; what the Lasky.Court labeled as the alternative remedy,
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~~ Accident victims are no longer guaranteed either the speed of
!~ PIP payments or full basic economic recovery. Additionally~
~ the former statutory requirement (now abolished) of the
financial responsibility law that drivers obtain $15,000.00
'~ of liability coverage per person and $30,000.00 per accident
~ covering personal injuries caused by the insured gave seriously
injured victims an additional pool of insurance money from
which they could seek recovery.
For the foregoing reasons, I conclude that the
present No-Fault Statute violates the "right to redress" and
;"access to the Courts" provisions of Article I, Section 21,
of the Florida Constitution; it is my determination that the
present statute does not pass the same "reasonable alternative"
test employed by the Supreme Court in Lask~, wherein the 1972
No-Fault Statute was held constitutional because "in exchange
for the loss of a former right to recover - upon proving the
other party to be at fault - for pain and suffering, etc., in
cases where the thresholds of the Statute are not met~ the
injured party is assured a speedy payment of his medical bills
and compensation for lost income from his own insurer, even
where the injured party was himself clearly at fault;" the
same simply cannot be said aboct the present No-Fault Statute.
The present statute deprives innocent victims of accidents,
such as the Plaintiff herein, of the right to recover 20%
of their medical expenses and 40% of their lost wages from
either their own PIP carrier or the negligent tortfeasor
(except only in those cases where the stringent to~t threshold
has been met).
~ FHr;.:r:
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The original No-Fault Statute which passed
Page Ten
a~34~ Pdcf~~
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