What Is a Personal Injury Claim?

A personal injury claim seeks money from the person or company whose wrongful conduct hurt you, and the money is often paid by their insurance. Most injury claims are based on negligence, which means failing to use reasonable care. To win a negligence claim in Florida, you generally have to prove four things:

1. Duty: The other side owed you a duty of reasonable care. Drivers owe it to others on the road, and stores owe it to their customers.
2. Breach: They did something a reasonably careful person would not do, or failed to do something a reasonably careful person would do, like running a red light or leaving a known spill on a store floor.
3. Causation: Their carelessness caused your injury, or was a substantial part of what caused it.
4. Damages: You suffered real losses, such as medical bills, lost pay, or pain and suffering.

Some claims follow different rules. In a strict liability claim over a defective product, for example, you generally do not have to prove the company was careless.

How a Florida injury claim moves forward

Florida injury claims generally move through these stages:

1. Insurance claim: The claim is reported to the at-fault party's insurer, and an adjuster investigates. Your own insurance may also be involved.
2. Demand: Once your injuries are well understood, a written demand goes to the insurer explaining what happened, why the person it insures is responsible, and what you have lost, backed by records.
3. Negotiation: The insurer may accept the demand, reject it, or make a counteroffer. If it doesn't accept, the two sides negotiate.
4. Lawsuit: If the insurer won't pay a fair amount, or the filing deadline is getting close, a lawsuit is filed against the person or company at fault. Both sides exchange documents and question witnesses under oath in depositions. A judge can also send the case to mediation, where a neutral mediator helps the sides try to settle.
5. Trial: If the case does not settle, a jury, or sometimes a judge, decides who was at fault and how much the injured person should receive.

Cases We Handle

Choose a type of case to learn more:

• Car Accidents →
• Truck Accidents →
• Motorcycle Accidents →
• Pedestrian Accidents →
• Bicycle Accidents →
• Boating Accidents →
• Slip and Fall & Premises Liability →
• Defective Products →
• Birth Injury →
• Brain Injury →
• Spinal Cord Injury →
• Catastrophic Injury →
• Wrongful Death →

We can also review other kinds of injury claims, including:

• Dog bites
• Assaults caused by negligent security
• Nursing home abuse and neglect
• Medical malpractice
• On-the-job injuries caused by an outside party, not your employer or a co-worker, such as another driver or the maker of defective equipment

Not sure where your case fits? Call us. A consultation with us is free, and there is no obligation. If we take your case, you owe no fee and no costs unless we recover money for you.

What to Do After an Injury

1. Get medical care: See a doctor right away, even if you feel fine. Some injuries take time to show up, and medical records tie your injuries to what happened. After a car crash, you generally must get initial medical treatment within 14 days for Florida's personal injury protection (PIP) coverage to pay your medical bills.
2. Report what happened: Call the police after a crash, or tell the manager or owner if you were hurt on someone's property. Write down who you told.
3. Take photos and get names: Photograph the scene and your injuries, and get witnesses' names and phone numbers.
4. Keep everything: Save bills, receipts, and pay stubs. Don't repair or throw away a product that hurt you.
5. Follow your treatment plan: Go to your appointments. Insurers may use gaps in treatment to argue you were not badly hurt.
6. Be careful with insurance companies: Report the injury to your own insurer as your policy requires, but don't give a recorded statement to the other side's insurer or sign anything it sends you before talking to a lawyer. Don't post about the injury online.
7. Call a lawyer early: Video gets recorded over and memories fade. A lawyer can act quickly to preserve evidence.

Florida Injury Law You Should Know

Deadline to file a lawsuit

For injuries caused by negligence that happened after March 24, 2023, Florida generally gives you two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. Injuries on or before that date generally have four years. Other claims, such as medical malpractice, defective product, and wrongful death claims, have their own deadline rules, including when the time starts to run. If you miss the deadline, you can lose your claim entirely. Talking with an insurance company generally does not pause the deadline, so talk to a lawyer as early as possible.

Shared fault

In most negligence cases, Florida uses modified comparative negligence. If you are partly at fault, your recovery is reduced by your share of the blame. If you are found more than 50% at fault, you generally cannot recover anything. That more-than-50% bar does not apply to medical negligence cases. There, a patient's own share of fault reduces the award by that percentage.

Claims against the government

When a government agency or employee causes an injury, such as a crash involving a city vehicle or a dangerous condition on public property, written notice must be given before a lawsuit can be filed, and there are limits on damages. These rules are strict, so call a lawyer quickly.

Car crashes and no-fault insurance

Car crash claims usually also involve Florida's no-fault insurance rules, which affect who pays your first medical bills and when you can recover for pain and suffering; the Car Accidents page listed above explains how they work.

How Contingency Fees Work

We handle injury cases on a contingency fee: a percentage of what we recover for you, set out in a written agreement. If we don't recover money, you owe us no fee and no costs.

The Florida Bar's rules also limit these fees. Under Rule 4-1.5(f)(4)(B) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, unless a court approves the fee in advance, a personal injury contingency fee is presumed, unless rebutted, to be clearly excessive if it is more than:

• 33⅓% of any recovery up to $1 million before an answer is filed or the time to file one runs out, or 40% after that, through judgment
• Plus 30% of any portion between $1 million and $2 million, and 20% of any portion over $2 million
• If all defendants admit liability when they answer and ask for a trial only on damages: 33⅓% up to $1 million, 20% of the portion between $1 million and $2 million, and 15% of any portion over $2 million
• An additional 5% of any recovery after an appeal is filed or if post-judgment action is needed to collect the judgment

In medical malpractice cases, the Florida Constitution also entitles the client to at least 70% of the first $250,000 of damages received and 90% of damages over $250,000, not counting reasonable and customary costs. Under the Bar's rules, a client can give up this right only in a written waiver signed under oath on the form the rule requires.

Before you sign a contingency fee contract, you must receive a written statement of your rights as a client. You can also cancel the contract by written notice within three business days of signing without owing a fee.

What Compensation Can You Recover?

Economic damages

These are money losses proven with bills, pay records, and similar evidence:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Lost earning capacity, if the injury limits what you can earn in the future
• Other out-of-pocket costs caused by the injury
• Damage to your vehicle or other property

Non-economic damages

These are real losses that don't come with a receipt:

• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Disability or physical impairment
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Inconvenience
• Loss of enjoyment of life

A spouse may also have a claim for the loss of companionship and services caused by the injury. In some cases, when clear and convincing evidence shows intentional misconduct or gross negligence, Florida law allows punitive damages, which punish the wrongdoer and deter others. Strict rules and limits apply.

How We Work Your Case

1. Free consultation: Call any time, day or night. We'll tell you plainly whether we think you have a claim.
2. Investigation: We gather reports, photos, video, witness statements, and records, and we ask the other side in writing to preserve evidence it controls.
3. Finding the insurance: We look for every insurance policy that may pay, including the at-fault party's coverage and your own.
4. Documenting your losses: While you focus on treatment, we collect the records, bills, and proof of lost income that support your claim.
5. Demand and negotiation: We present your claim to the insurer and negotiate. We explain every offer and give you our advice, but the decision to settle is yours.
6. Lawsuit and trial if needed: If the insurer won't make a fair offer, we file suit and get your case ready for a jury.