Florida has thousands of laws, rules and regulations designed to protect you and your family from negligent injury. For example, a motor vehicle is very dangerous instrumentality unless basic traffic laws are followed. Thus, a distracted driver may be negligent if he or she collides with your vehicle when operating a cell phone or rear-ends you while you are stopped at a traffic light. Medical treatment can become extremely dangerous when health care providers deviate from the acceptable standard of care. Thus, a hospital and its staff may be found negligent for failing to recognize the signs and symptoms of a stroke resulting in a patient’s permanent injury or wrongful death. Legal action protects the entire community against negligent rule breakers.

Filing a lawsuit certainly may not be your first-priority following an injury, however evidence and witnesses can quickly disappear.   As such, it is important you consult with an experienced personal attorney without unnecessary delay to allow that person adequate time to complete a thorough investigation and protect your legal rights.   Below is a list of the damages you may be intitled to recover in a personal injury action:

• Past and future medical expense, including any prescribed medication, therapy and surgery
• Past lost wages
• Loss of future lost earning capacity
• Pain, suffering and mental anguish
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of companionship, comfort, affection of a loved one
• Any funeral expenses, loss of support, services and loss of earnings and net accumulations in a wrongful death action

While a personal injury lawsuit cannot bring back a loved one or heal an injury, it can provide the necessary lost economic resources for a family during difficult times following an accident.

The laws which set forth the limitations of time in which you must file a personal injury lawsuit are known as statutes of limitations.  When you are injured, your right to recover money damages can be lost if you fail to bring the claim within the required time frame of the statute, regardless of merit.  In Florida, the statutes of limitations for general negligence actions, such as car accidents and slip and fall claims, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases are outlined in Florida Statute Section 95.11.

At the Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys, our Tampa attorneys have years of experience in calculating these often confusing and detailed statutory deadlines.  Once retained, our lawyers and legal team will investigate your claim quickly and review all the facts to determine the appropriate statute of limitations applicable in your case.  If you or a love one has been injured due to the negligence of another person, business or organization, it is important you contact our Tampa law firm quickly to allow our attorneys adequate time to investigate your claim and protect your legal rights.

The best outcome to a personal injury claim is for the injured person to receive fair compensation for the impacts and expenses incurred because of the injury, regardless of whether that compensation is obtained through the settlement process or by court award. Most personal injury claims begin with settlement negotiations, and the vast majority of cases resolve outside of the courtroom.

Litigation is expensive and time-consuming, but when the at-fault party’s insurance company will not offer a settlement that fairly reflects the financial and emotional impacts of the injury, the experienced lawyers at the Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys are as comfortable and confident pursuing compensation through litigation as they are with settlement negotiations.

Yes! Attorney Jennifer Gentry Fernandez has been earning recognition since she was in law school at Stetson University’s College of Law, where she was a member of the school’s award-winning trial team. Since then, she has been an active member of her local, state, and national bar and trial associations. She was named to the National Register’s “Who’s Who Among Business and Professional Achievers.”

She was also recognized by her peers multiple times with a Top Attorney designation from Tampa Bay Magazine.

Attorney Frank Fernandez is also an active member of local, state, and national bar and trial associations. He was recognized by his professional peers as one of Florida Trend Magazine’s Legal Elite.

Each settlement is a reflection of the unique aspects involved in the specific case. Because of this, there is no average settlement.

Rather, the case factors generally determine a case’s value:

• All of the out-of-pocket expenses that you have incurred because of your injury. This represents the total amount of your economic damage claim.
• The severity of your injuries. Generally, the more severe of injuries that you sustain, the more compensation your claim will warrant. Your non-economic damages will also include other costs of your injuries, such as pain and suffering.
• The total value of your case will amount to your economic damages plus your non-economic damages. Courts rarely award punitive damages, but if punitive damages apply in your case, this could increase your claim’s total value.

Other factors that can affect the value of your case include:

• The at-fault party’s insurance policy. Insurance pays the vast majority of personal injury claims. It is possible to file a lawsuit against an uninsured person and even to obtain a judgment on your behalf. However, collecting your award will likely prove very difficult, as most people do not have the money to pay for another person’s injury expenses out-of-pocket.
• The clarity of liability. In Florida, you can face partial liability for the accident that caused your injury and still file a claim against other at-fault parties. However, your compensation may decrease.
• Your age at the time of the accident. Of course, no one life is worth more than another. However, many of the damage categories involve the amount of income that you earned when someone injured you. Someone in the middle of a lucrative career would receive more compensation for income loss than a young person with little work experience or a retired person.
• Your patience. Settlement negotiations take time. Court scheduling takes time. While you may receive a settlement offer early in the process, obtaining a fair settlement offer is often a different story. Insurance companies often wait to make the fairest offer on a case until just before it goes to trial or after the trial has begun but before the court reaches a decision.

Yes, you can afford our lawyers, and yes, you need to hire a personal injury attorney.

Personal injury cases are complex proceedings that involve the gathering of evidence and a thorough knowledge of court proceedings and requirements. Prior experience working on personal injury cases provides a huge advantage. Many individuals avoid hiring an attorney to save money, but the complexities of their legal claims quickly overwhelm them.

The Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys understands you may worry about the cost of hiring an attorney when facing overwhelming expenses from your injury.

To ensure that anyone who needs our assistance has access to it, we offer:

• A free case evaluation. This is time with the attorney to share details about your case, learn more about the firm, explore your legal options, and get answers to your questions about the process.
• A contingency fee payment plan. This client-friendly service means that you owe nothing for your attorney’s services until you successfully recover compensation for your injuries.

Let an experienced personal injury lawyer from the Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys help you make sense of the legal process of seeking compensation after an injury. For your free case evaluation, contact us online or by calling (813) 278-1032.