The Florida Car Accident Guide was created by Serrano Law to help residents who have been injured obtain maximum compensation for their claim.
Law Office Located In Lutz
Have you been terribly injured in a car accident? We are very sorry you have had to go through this. Our Florida car accident lawyers are here to help guide you to justice. This is a difficult time for victims and we aim to make it easier for you. Please do not hesitate to call our office today and set up a free initial consultation to get started on building a strong case. We are here to help you get justice.
Get the Help You Deserve
After you are involved in a car accident, you likely have a lot to worry about. You may need to get a surgery, figure out how you are going to provide for yourself if you cannot return to work and sort out your life now that you have this serious injury. The last thing you want to have to worry yourself with is learning how to litigate a car accident claim in Florida.
Hiring Florida car accident lawyers is going to make your life easier. You won’t have to learn the laws and statute regarding Florida car accident litigation. You don’t have to deal with trying to get the insurance company to give you a fair settlement. The lawyers at Serrano Law dedicate their careers to helping victims in their community get the justice they deserve.
The job of a car accident lawyer is to investigate, collect evidence, deal with the insurance company, and prepare the claim for trial so they are ready to go if it comes to that.
During your free first consultation, you will go over the details of your case and figure out what your next step should be in order to get a full and fair result.
It is important that you choose someone you think will represent you well. Don’t just go with some lawyer who your neighbor used for a real estate deal. Hire someone who has proven results with car accident cases specifically and is willing to take your case all the way to trial if it comes to that. That way you can be confident in who will be, essentially, the person who could make or break your case.
Biggest Mistake Car Accident Victims Make
When you are seeking justice, you are essentially asking the insurance company that covers the liable party to give you financial compensation that is full and fair. Your Florida car accident lawyers will fight against them to get you the results you deserve, but understand that the insurance company wants to save themselves money.
They know that you are looking for a result that is nothing short of fair which is going to cost them more than what they want to give you, even though you would deserve it.
The biggest mistake you can make here is letting the insurance company collect a recorded statement from you. They are going to reach out to you very shortly after your car accident to get you to agree to give them a statement. They do this under the guise of a quick and hassle free settlement. However, this is not going to yield a fair result because of how they are trained to ask questions.
They go through specific training to ask you questions that guide you into answers that allow them to reduce or even throw away your claim.
In order to avoid mistakes like this, it is important that you let your Florida car accident lawyers handle communication with the insurance company. This way they can protect your rights to a full and fair result.
Importance of Seeking Medical Attention Right Away
If you have been hurt, you naturally are going to want to get rid of the pain. Getting in front of a doctor for treatment is so important. You need to start treatment so you can start getting better sooner. Without medical care, you risk having long-term effects.
You also put your case at risk when you avoid getting care. A few things need to happen if you want a fair result. First, we need to get an understanding of how your recovery is going to go. You get that by going to the doctor.
We also use your medical records to show the insurance company the proven extent of damage their insured caused you. The sooner you get to a doctor, the better. And make sure you follow their advice.
Choosing The Right Car Accident Attorney
There are so many options out there when it comes to attorneys in the Wesley Chapel area. Clients will often ask how they can know they are hiring the best attorney. One of the things you want to look for is trust. You get trust by communication. If the lawyer is not communicating with you, then that is a signal that maybe you don’t have the best attorney for your case.
Ask questions and get answers. Most attorneys for these personal injury accident cases are going to offer you a free consultation. Just like anytime you’re hiring someone, you want to meet them and see what they say about your case. It’s very difficult to fully evaluate a case at the initial consultation. Certainly, you can get a feel for the type of communication you can expect from your law firm moving forward after that initial consultation. We offer free initial consultations here at Serrano Law. We’d love to look at your case and evaluate it for you. Give us a call.
Car Accident Case Value
Many clients ask about the value of their personal injury case. They were in a car accident, and they want to know how much it’s worth. We had a client in Tampa recently that asked that question at the initial consultation. It’s very difficult to evaluate your claim at the beginning stage in the consultation. The reason is it’s because a lot of times when you come in, your medical treatment isn’t complete. You haven’t reached what’s called maximum medical improvement.
With insurance companies, their job on the other side is to adjust the claims and try to pay out as little as possible and get the case resolved. The real essence of determining the value of the claim involves multiple factors. It’s not just your medical bills. You don’t need to hire an attorney if it’s just a case where you have a few medical bills that you can add up and give out to the insurance carrier. What the insurance carriers will typically not tell you is that there are elements to the claim.
There’s the cost of future medical care that you’re reasonably certain to incur. There’s pain and suffering. There are lost wages, too, to consider. These are matters that go into the valuation of a case.
Just like anything, if you’re evaluating a business or a commercial building, it’s the same concept. You want to be able to evaluate it. A lot of times patience is a virtue, and you need to finish out with your medical treatment. We’d love to evaluate your case and try to determine what the value is. Give us a call.
Lost Wage Reimbursement After a Car Accident
Recently, one of our Tampa clients asked what she can do about the wages that she lost as a result of missing work because of her car accident. You do have personal injury protection coverage, which will cover up to a certain amount of your lost wages. You are also allowed to recover for your lost wages as part of filing a claim. If you have questions about recovering your lost wages or recovering from your medical bills, please give us a call and we can help you.
Car Accident Case Timeline
Recently, during a consultation, our client asked how long it was going to take to resolve her car accident case. It depends on every single case. The most important consideration is that you treat consistently until you feel better or you feel you’re in a spot that you can’t get any better. The reason that you have to wait for that is so that we need to know the full amount of your injuries so that we can appropriately evaluate your case and make sure that you’re adequately compensated. If you’re concerned about how long your injury case is taking or you have questions regarding that, please give us a call and we can help point you in the right direction.
Car Accident Insurance Investigation
We had a potential client call recently and ask if it was okay for her to talk to her insurance company after her car accident. The answer to that is yes, it’s perfectly fine for you to talk to your insurance company after an accident and, in fact, you should as soon as possible. You should, however, be very cautious about talking to the other insurance company for the party that hit you. Under no circumstances should you take a recorded statement. If you have any questions or you want to hire a lawyer to handle the insurance company for you, please give us a call.
Other Driver Doesn’t Have Insurance
One of the most common problems we have with auto insurance policies in the state of Florida is a lot of drivers are driving without bodily injury liability coverage. We had a client in Wesley Chapel recently who, unfortunately, was involved in a very severe accident. The driver that was at fault in the case – a rear-end collision – did not carry bodily injury liability coverage. You might think, “Wait a minute, the guy had insurance at the scene. He presented us with his insurance card.”
Yes, he had the minimum insurance. The minimum insurance is personal injury protection and property damage liability and liability for damage to the car. My client in that particular instance, only had their own personal injury protection available, which is maxed out at the threshold of $10,000, and they did not carry uninsured motorist coverage. Unfortunately, in a case like that, it’s not that we didn’t want the case, but there was no insurance available from the at-fault driver, which makes uninsured motorist coverage of utmost importance in the state of Florida. We’ll be glad to review your insurance policy with you for no charge. Just give us a call, and we will talk about the pros and cons of buying uninsured motorist coverage in the state of Florida.
Personal Injury Protection Insurance
I was recently asked by a client what personal injury protection insurance is. Personal injury protection insurance insures you for damages that you incur as a result of a car accident. That’s why Florida is called a no-fault state, because you are insuring yourself up to $10,000. If you have any questions about personal injury protection coverage, please give us a call and we can explain it to you.
After a Car Accident Injury
There are so many questions from clients about what actions they should take at the scene of an accident once they’re injured. We had a client in Tampa, and she asked me this very question on the phone when she called us. It depends, and that’s a lawyer answer. It depends because, if you’re incapacitated in the accident and you lose your consciousness, you should go to the hospital.
The main thing to realize is you need to seek out treatment. If you’re injured, think about how you’re going to prove your case. You’re going to prove it with medical records. You’re going to prove it with medical bills. Get treated. A lot of times you go to the hospital and maybe you’re just feeling a little ache or pain. As we know, two or three days down the road, that pain will manifest. It will become worse.
Sometimes, it doesn’t. Sometimes, you’re feeling tremendous pain at the scene of the accident, and it goes away within six months. Every case is different. The theme here is what you should do after an auto accident is, if you’re injured, go get treated.
Go to the hospital. Get that first treatment. Find out what’s wrong with you, and then have a trial lawyer evaluate your case. We offer free consultation, and we’d love to evaluate your case for you.
Liability in a Car Accident Case
The insurance laws in the state of Florida are a little bit complicated. It’s easier for us because we do it every day. We had a client recently in Wesley Chapel ask us how they could pay for their bills. They had what was called personal injury protection insurance, which is the no-fault insurance you hear about in the state of Florida. As simple as it gets, there’s $10,000 available. The insurance carriers will typically pay 80% of all submitted bills that are related to the accident up to the $10,000 threshold.
As you know, in today’s world, it is not hard to get to $10,000 pretty quickly when bills pile up. A lot of times, hospitals alone will charge you more than $10,000 at your initial visit. How do you get your bills paid? As soon as you get into an accident, you call your insurance company. It doesn’t matter if you weren’t at fault. You have to call them.
It’s a no-fault state. You’re going to get $10,000 from the personal injury protection coverage. That’s what you pay the premiums for. Make a call to your own insurance company and get that claim, even if you weren’t at fault.
Can you go after the person that was at fault? Absolutely; that is what the importance is of hiring a trial attorney who can evaluate your case and see how much coverage is on the other side, the at-fault party, and see if they can recover some of those moneys back for you. Give us a call. We’d love to evaluate your case. We offer free consultations in Tampa Bay.
Call Our Florida Car Accident Lawyers Today for a Free Consultation
If you have been seriously hurt in a car accident, you likely are looking for answers to how you can get justice. Let our Florida car accident lawyers guide you through the questions you have during a free first consultation. We want to help you get the justice you deserve. It is so important that you reach out as soon as possible to get started right away. Call us today!
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