West Palm Beach bicycle accident lawyer
Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident represents cyclists injured in collisions with vehicles in West Palm Beach and throughout Palm Beach County. That includes whose PIP pays a rider, where the law says a cyclist belongs on the road, and the three-foot passing rule. Attorney Paul R. Shalhoub spent years defending insurance companies before he began representing injured people, and he handles every case himself, from the first call through trial.
You were on a bike, so you are probably being told there is no insurance for you. That is usually wrong. Florida’s no-fault system reaches a cyclist struck by a car, and it comes with a deadline that most injured cyclists miss: fourteen days.
The driver will say you came out of nowhere, or that you were not far enough to the right. Both of those have statutory answers, and both are decided by evidence that stops existing within days — the camera on the shop you were passing, the position of your bike, the damage pattern on the car.
Palm Beach County recorded 724 bicyclist crashes, 6 deaths and 706 people injured in 2024, against a three-year average of 633 crashes (FLHSMV, Florida Traffic Crash Facts Annual Report 2024). More cyclists are hurt here each year than in most counties in the country, and the reason is not mystery: this is a place people ride all year, on arterials built for traffic speed.
What Paul Shalhoub does on a bicycle claim
The first two have a two-week clock attached to them. Most of the rest stop being possible within weeks.
| Finds the PIP policy you did not know covered you | Yours if you own a car, a resident relative’s if you do not, otherwise the striking vehicle’s. Being on a bicycle does not put you outside the no-fault system, and being told it does is the most common reason a cyclist never claims the $10,000 |
| Protects the 14-day window and the emergency determination | Benefits need initial care within 14 days, and the full limit needs a provider to have recorded that you had an emergency medical condition. Both go in the record or the benefit shrinks to $2,500 |
| Chases the footage the same week | Shopfront and car-park cameras along the arterials overwrite in days. On a bicycle claim that footage is frequently the entire liability case, because there is rarely an independent witness |
| Preserves the bicycle exactly as it is | Where the frame bent and where the paint transferred establish the angle of impact, which is how “he swerved into me” is answered. Do not repair it and do not throw it out |
| Answers the lane-position argument with the statute | Section 316.2065(5)(a) lists three written exceptions to riding far right, including avoiding any condition or potential conflict. Most cyclists have never heard of them and most adjusters do not raise them |
| Gets the driver’s data, and the three-foot question answered | Event data recorders hold speed and braking before impact. Section 316.083 requires a driver to pass at not less than three feet, and to stay behind where that is not possible |
| Documents permanency | The threshold applies to your claim, because the driver’s vehicle carries the security the statute keys on. The opinion has to be asked of a treating physician and written down |
| Negotiates the liens, then files if the number is not fair | PIP and health plan reimbursement argued down before anything is signed. Same attorney through depositions, mediation and trial |
What you do: get seen inside 14 days, keep the bike, and tell us the exact location so the cameras can be chased today.
Why choose attorney Paul Shalhoub
Paul R. Shalhoub is the sole attorney at Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident, and he began his career at a Florida insurance-defense firm, working for carriers. Bicycle claims are defended on the rider’s conduct rather than the driver’s — where you were riding, what you were wearing, whether you had lights — and knowing which of those arguments a carrier actually believes comes from having made them.
He has recovered policy limits of $500,000 and $250,000 in motor-vehicle claims and taken a case to a jury verdict at sixteen times the last pre-trial offer. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome, and no two cases are alike.
He is admitted to The Florida Bar (number 88300, admitted 22 March 2011) and to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He is also a former Mayor of Lake Clarke Shores and served three terms on its Town Council, which is the body that decides where bike lanes and street lighting go.
The practical difference is access. This is a single-attorney practice, so the lawyer who takes your first call is the one who chases the footage, orders the coverage and tries the case.
More about Paul R. Shalhoub · Case results · All practice areas
Do you need a lawyer for a bicycle accident?
An honest answer, including when it is no.
Where you probably do not. A driver clipped your wheel at low speed, you are scraped and shaken, you were checked once and discharged, and the only real question is the cost of a wheel. Your own PIP or the driver’s property damage cover will deal with it.
Where you almost certainly do. You went to the hospital. You do not know whose PIP applies, or you have been told there is none. The 14-day window is close or gone. The driver left. The driver says you were not far enough right, had no lights, or came off the pavement. You were on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk when it happened. A child was riding. Or somebody died.
The consultation is free and it is with Paul, not a screener.
The practical details
| Attorney | Paul R. Shalhoub, the sole attorney at the firm |
| License | The Florida Bar number 88300, admitted 22 March 2011. Verify it yourself |
| Office | 1011 N Olive Ave, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. He will also come to your home or your hospital room |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Calls and messages answered 24 hours |
| Cost | The consultation is free. The firm advances case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fee and no reimbursement of those costs unless it recovers compensation for you |
Yes, you have PIP — the question is whose
This is the part cyclists are most often told wrongly, and it is worth $10,000.
Section 627.736(1) extends no-fault benefits to “other persons struck by the motor vehicle and suffering bodily injury while not an occupant of a self-propelled vehicle”. A bicycle is not self-propelled. So a cyclist struck by a car sits in exactly the same position as a person on foot: inside the system, and inside its deadline.
| You own a vehicle | Your own PIP pays, even though the car never left the driveway. PIP follows the person |
| You live with a relative who owns one | That resident relative’s PIP generally pays |
| Neither applies | The striking vehicle’s PIP pays, where there was physical contact with that vehicle and you are a Florida resident |
| You are visiting Florida and own no vehicle here | That route is conditioned on Florida residency, so a visitor may fall outside it and have to rely on their own health insurance and the liability claim. It does not affect your right to bring the claim |
| A driver forced you down without touching you | The route through the striking vehicle’s policy is written around physical contact. The liability claim is unaffected, but the no-fault benefit may not be available |
The 14-day rule binds you. Section 627.736(1)(a) conditions medical benefits on receiving initial services and care within 14 days of the crash. Cyclists miss it constantly, because a person who got up, walked the bike home and only stiffened up three days later does not think of themselves as someone with an insurance deadline. Miss it and the $10,000 is gone outright.
And because the driver’s car carries the security section 627.737(2) keys on, the permanent-injury threshold is in your case for pain and suffering. Medical bills and lost earnings are never subject to it.
Where the law says you should have been riding
The defense’s first move is that you were in the wrong place. The statute is more generous to you than almost any cyclist realizes.
Under section 316.2065(1), a cyclist has all of the rights and all of the duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle. You are traffic, not an obstruction.
Subsection (5)(a) is the one that gets argued. A cyclist riding slower than traffic must ride in the bicycle lane, or where there is none, as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway — and the statute then lists the exceptions:
- When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle going the same way.
- When preparing for a left turn at an intersection, or into a private road or driveway.
- When reasonably necessary to avoid any condition or potential conflict.
Read that third one again. A drain grate, a pothole, broken glass, a car door about to open, a lane too narrow to share safely, standing water, debris swept to the curb — all of it is “any condition or potential conflict”. It is written into the statute, and it is the answer to the single most common thing said to an injured cyclist in Florida.
Other provisions that come up:
| Helmets | Required for riders and passengers under 16 (s. 316.2065(3)(d)). There is no helmet requirement for an adult, and not wearing one is not a defense to a driver’s negligence |
| Lights after dark | A white front lamp visible from 500 feet and a red rear lamp and reflector visible from 600 feet, between sunset and sunrise (s. 316.2065(7)) |
| Riding two abreast in a bicycle lane | Permitted only where both riders can stay within the lane (s. 316.2065(6)(a)) |
| On a sidewalk or in a crosswalk | The cyclist has all the rights and duties of a pedestrian in the same circumstances (s. 316.2065(9)), must yield to pedestrians and give an audible signal before passing one (s. 316.2065(10)) |
That last row changes cases. A cyclist struck while crossing at a crosswalk is analyzed as a pedestrian, which means the driver’s duties under the pedestrian right-of-way statute apply — see pedestrian accidents.
The three-foot rule, and what it actually requires
Section 316.083 governs the driver who overtakes you.
- Passing within the same travel lane, the driver must pass at a safe distance of not less than 3 feet (subsection (2)).
- Where you are in a bicycle lane, the same three-foot minimum applies (subsection (3)).
- If a safe pass cannot be made, the driver must remain at a safe distance behind — not squeeze past. That duty is in the statute.
- Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply where the bicycle is in a separated bicycle lane (subsection (4)).
In a sideswipe or a clipped-elbow case this is the whole liability argument, and it is worth knowing that the statute does not merely ask a driver to be careful. It gives a number, and it tells a driver who cannot meet it to wait.
The defense you should expect
Under section 768.81(6), a person found more than 50 percent at fault for their own injuries recovers nothing. The defense does not need to prove the driver blameless. It needs to push you over half.
| “He was riding in the middle of the lane” | Check the three written exceptions in 316.2065(5)(a) before conceding anything, and photograph the curb line for the condition that made riding further right unsafe |
| “He had no helmet” | No helmet is required over 16, and not wearing one does not cause a collision. It can only ever be argued about head injuries, and then only with causation evidence |
| “He had no lights” | Relevant only if it caused the crash and only between sunset and sunrise. A daytime left-turn collision has nothing to do with lighting |
| “He came off the sidewalk” | Riding on a sidewalk is lawful in most places here, and a cyclist in a crosswalk is treated as a pedestrian |
| “He was going too fast for a bike” | Answered by physical evidence: point of impact, damage pattern, where the bike and rider came to rest |
| “I never saw him” | Not a defense. It is usually an admission that the driver did not look |
Where these crashes happen here
| Bicyclist crashes, Palm Beach County, 2024 | 724, against a three-year average of 633 |
| Bicyclist deaths, 2024 | 6, against a three-year average of 10 |
| Bicyclists injured, 2024 | 706, up 6.97 percent on 2023 |
Source: FLHSMV, Florida Traffic Crash Facts Annual Report 2024, Palm Beach County table.
The pattern here is specific. The six-lane arterials — Okeechobee, Military Trail, Southern, Forest Hill, Congress, Lake Worth Road, Belvedere — carry high speeds, frequent driveways and long gaps between signals, which produces the right-hook and the driveway pull-out. The downtown West Palm Beach grid around Clematis, Olive, Dixie and Flagler produces door openings and low-speed turning collisions, and it is dense with private cameras that overwrite within days. And the coastal and western recreational routes, including A1A and the roads out toward the Glades, produce the sideswipe and the overtaking collision that section 316.083 exists to prevent.
Freight matters to a cyclist too. I-95 through West Palm Beach carries about 14,954 trucks a day, 45th Street at I-95 runs roughly 11 percent trucks, and the western end of Southern Boulevard about 17.6 percent (FDOT, 2025). A collision with a commercial vehicle changes the case entirely — federal records with destruction dates as short as three months. See truck accidents.
If you were taken for trauma care, the county has exactly two state-approved trauma centers, both Level I: Delray Medical Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center. Those records carry the emergency medical condition determination that unlocks the full PIP limit and the baseline imaging a permanency opinion depends on.
Where a suit is filed, it goes to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, whose main courthouse is at 205 North Dixie Highway in downtown West Palm Beach, with branches at PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach and State Road 15 in Belle Glade.
Injuries, and what the claim can include
A cyclist has no structure around them and tends to be thrown. The recognizable pattern is an impact to the body, then a second impact with the road or a fixed object:
- Traumatic brain injury, including in riders who wore a helmet. See brain injury.
- Clavicle, wrist, shoulder and hip fractures from the instinctive attempt to break a fall.
- Facial and dental injury, which carries its own significant and permanent scarring category under the threshold.
- Road rash and degloving, needing repeated debridement and sometimes grafting.
- Spinal injury, where the question becomes lifetime care.
- Psychological injury, compensable when it accompanies physical injury, and routinely under-documented because nobody raised it.
| Medical expenses | Emergency and trauma care, surgery, imaging, rehabilitation, medication and equipment. Not subject to the threshold |
| Future medical care | What you will need and have not yet had, proved through treating physicians and, in a catastrophic case, a life care plan |
| Lost earnings | Wages lost and lost earning capacity. Also outside the threshold |
| Pain, suffering and mental anguish | The category the threshold governs |
| Permanent scarring and disfigurement | Its own category, and common after road rash, grafting and facial injury |
| Loss of enjoyment of life | What you can no longer do, documented rather than asserted. For many riders that includes riding |
| Property damage | The bicycle, the helmet, the computer, the kit. Keep all of it |
If a family member died, the recoverable categories are set by the Wrongful Death Act rather than ordinary negligence law. See wrongful death.
If the driver left
Leaving the scene of a crash involving injury is a felony under section 316.027, and that runs on its own track. Your civil claim does not wait for anyone to be caught.
- Uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy, or a resident relative’s, can respond to a hit-and-run driver (s. 627.727). Most cyclists never check.
- Vehicles are identified more often than people expect — debris at the scene, mirror fragments, paint transfer on the bike, body-shop reporting, and cameras, if someone collects them in the first days.
- Report it promptly, because an uninsured motorist claim for an unidentified vehicle has its own notice requirements.
What to do, and the clock you are on
- Get examined within 14 days, without exception. This is the deadline that destroys the benefit rather than reducing it.
- Keep the bicycle and the helmet exactly as they are. Both are evidence of the impact.
- Photograph the location, not just your injuries — the curb line, the drain grate, the parked cars, the lane width, the lighting. These establish the exception that justified your road position, and they change when the road is resurfaced.
- Ask nearby businesses to preserve footage today. The most time-sensitive step there is.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the driver’s insurer.
- Get the crash report, but expect a wait. Florida crash reports are confidential for 60 days after filing, released in that window only to those involved, their legal representatives, insurers and certain others (s. 316.066(2)(a)).
- Watch the deadline. Two years for a negligence claim accruing after 24 March 2023 (s. 95.11(5)(a)). A death claim runs under the Wrongful Death Act. A government vehicle, or a claim about the road surface itself, changes the timing entirely.
What these cases look like in practice
Four situations Paul sees most, and what tends to decide each. These are illustrations of how the rules above apply. They are not case results, and nothing here predicts what any particular claim is worth.
The right hook
A driver overtakes you and immediately turns right across your path, or turns right out of a driveway into you. You were lawfully in the bicycle lane or as far right as practicable, which is exactly where the statute told you to be — and that is the point. The case usually turns on the vehicle’s damage pattern and on whether a camera caught the overtake.
The left cross
An oncoming driver turns left across you at an intersection and says you came out of nowhere. The same argument made against motorcyclists, answered the same way: sight lines at the actual intersection, signal phase data from the road authority, and closing speed derived from the physical evidence rather than from the driver’s estimate.
The door
Someone opens a door into you on a downtown street. The duty sits with the person opening it, and the damage pattern settles it quickly. This is also the scenario where the third exception in 316.2065(5)(a) matters most, because riding far enough out to clear the door zone is precisely “avoiding a potential conflict”.
The sideswipe on a rural or coastal road
A driver passes too close on a road with no bicycle lane and catches your elbow or bar end. This is the three-foot case. Mirror fragments, paint transfer on the bike and the position of the debris field do the work, and the statute’s instruction to stay behind where a safe pass is impossible is the legal frame.
How a bicycle case actually proceeds
| First days | Care established inside the 14-day window. The right PIP carrier identified and put on notice. Nearby camera footage requested before it overwrites. The bicycle and helmet preserved. The location photographed as it was, including whatever condition justified your road position |
| First weeks | Crash report obtained, with the 60-day confidentiality in mind. Witnesses located. Every policy identified: yours, a resident relative’s, the driver’s, and any uninsured motorist layer. A reconstruction expert engaged where liability is disputed, and the vehicle’s data preserved |
| Months one to six | Treatment continues to the point where the medical picture is clear. Permanency documented by the treating physicians rather than assumed. PIP and health plan liens identified so they are managed, not discovered at the end |
| Demand | Once future care can be stated rather than guessed at, and the comparative fault picture is as strong as the evidence will make it |
| Suit, if needed | Filing opens formal discovery: the driver’s deposition, the vehicle download, and phone records where distraction is in issue |
| Resolution | Settlement, mediation or trial. Florida requires most cases to be mediated before trial |
Throughout, one attorney handles the file. You are not passed between a signing lawyer, a litigation department and a settlement department.
Common questions
I was on a bike, so I have no insurance. Right?
Usually wrong. Florida PIP reaches anyone struck by a motor vehicle who was not occupying a self-propelled vehicle, and a bicycle is not one. If you own a car, your own PIP pays. If you live with a relative who owns one, theirs generally does. If neither applies and you are a Florida resident struck by the vehicle, the driver’s PIP pays.
Does the 14-day rule apply to cyclists?
Yes, and cyclists miss it more than most. Medical benefits require initial care within 14 days of the crash. A person who got up, wheeled the bike home and stiffened up three days later does not think of themselves as having an insurance deadline. Miss it and the $10,000 is gone entirely.
The driver says I should have been further right. Is that the end of it?
No. Section 316.2065(5)(a) requires riding as close as practicable to the right, then lists three exceptions: overtaking, preparing for a left turn, and when reasonably necessary to avoid any condition or potential conflict. A grate, a pothole, glass, a door about to open or a lane too narrow to share all fall in the third. Photograph the curb line.
How close is a driver allowed to pass me?
Not less than three feet, under section 316.083, whether you are in the travel lane or a bicycle lane. If the driver cannot pass at that distance safely, the statute requires them to stay behind you. That requirement does not apply where you are in a separated bicycle lane.
I was not wearing a helmet. Does that hurt my case?
Florida requires a helmet only for riders under 16. Not wearing one does not cause a collision, so it is not a defense to liability. It could only ever be argued about head injuries, and then only with real causation evidence.
I was riding on the sidewalk. Does that change things?
It changes the analysis. Under section 316.2065(9) a cyclist on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk has all the rights and duties of a pedestrian, so the driver’s pedestrian right-of-way duties apply. You must yield to people on foot and give an audible signal before passing them.
Do I have to prove a permanent injury?
For pain and suffering, yes. The driver’s vehicle carries the security section 627.737(2) keys on, so the threshold is in the case. It is often met on the fractures alone, but the permanency opinion still has to be asked for and documented. Medical bills and lost earnings are never subject to it.
The driver drove off. Do I have anything?
Often yes. Your own uninsured motorist coverage, or a resident relative’s, can respond to a hit-and-run driver. Paint transfer on your bike, mirror fragments, body-shop reporting and nearby cameras identify vehicles more often than people expect, if the footage is preserved in the first days.
What if a child was hurt?
A child cannot be held to an adult’s judgment about traffic, which weakens any comparative fault argument, and the younger the child the weaker it gets. A helmet is required under 16, but not wearing one is a damages argument about head injuries, not a defense to the driver’s negligence. A parent or guardian brings the claim and a court approves certain settlements for a minor.
How long do I have to file?
Two years for a negligence claim that accrued after 24 March 2023, under section 95.11(5)(a). A death claim runs under the Wrongful Death Act, and a claim involving a government vehicle or the road surface itself has notice requirements that can expire far sooner. The evidence disappears long before any of them.
What does it cost to hire a lawyer?
The consultation is free and confidential, with Paul. The firm advances case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fee and no reimbursement of those costs unless it recovers compensation for you.
Related claims
Crashes that follow different rules, handled by the same attorney in the same office. See every practice area
What happens if you call
You speak to Paul, not an intake screener. The consultation is free, and he will tell you honestly whether you need a lawyer at all — some claims do not. If he takes the case, the preservation letters and the notices to the insurers go out that day, and the calls to you stop. You treat; he deals with the other side. Nothing is settled without your decision, and you see the net figure before you sign anything.
Talk to Paul about your crash
Free, confidential, and with the attorney who would handle the case. If you were on a bike, the first questions are which policy pays and whether the camera footage still exists — and both have answers today.
Call (561) 208-5058 Free case review
Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident, 1011 N Olive Ave, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. This page describes Florida law as of 22 October 2026 and applies to claims in Florida. It is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome.