Questions To Ask a Lawyer After a Car Accident in Tampa

Florida has a more complex set of injury laws than many other states. These complications primarily come from Florida’s no-fault insurance system. Under this system, an accident victim cannot pursue a car accident claim unless their injuries meet certain criteria.

If you’ve recently been involved in a car accident in Tampa, Florida, you probably have a lot of questions on your mind. You might wonder whether you need to hire an attorney and what your options are for compensation.

At Winters & Yonker Personal Injury Lawyers, we offer a free consultation where you can speak with an attorney about your case at no cost to you at (813) 223-6200. You can contact us today if you’d like to get started.

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How Winters & Yonker Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help You After a Car Crash in Tampa, FL

Winters & Yonker Personal Injury Lawyers is known in Tampa, FL, and across the state as “the aggressive attorneys.” Our personal injury law firm was founded in 2001 and has recovered millions of dollars in injury compensation for accident victims like you. Further, our Tampa car accident lawyers have more than 119 years of experience practicing law.

When you hire us to represent you, we can:

Internally investigate your accident
Collect the necessary evidence to prove your claim
Fully evaluate all of your damages
Demand and negotiate for fair compensation with the opposing party
Hire experts to help strengthen your case as needed
File a lawsuit on your behalf if necessary

A car accident can traumatize you physically and mentally. Learn how you can pursue compensation for this trauma by contacting Winters & Yonker Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation. You can visit our FAQ page for further information.

How Many Car Accidents Happen in Tampa?

Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, is known as one of the most dangerous counties in the country for commuters. Its fatality rate is nearly double that of the counties surrounding Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Houston.

According to statistics from the Florida Crash Dashboard, Hillsborough County had 28,352 traffic accidents in 2022. These accidents included 220 fatal crashes and 12,146 non-fatal injury crashes. In total, 229 people died, and 19,275 people suffered an injury in the county that year.

Tampa had 16,664 of these traffic accidents in 2022. The city saw 61 deaths, thousands of injuries, and millions in property damage due to these crashes.

Information To Gather from a Tampa Car Accident Lawyer

When you have a free consultation with an injury lawyer, you should prepare some questions. If you do this, you will use your time efficiently and learn about all the issues you need to cover. Some questions to ask a lawyer after a car accident in Tampa include:

Can I Assert a Claim Against the Other Driver?

Florida allows you to assert a claim against the at-fault driver only if your:

Medical expenses exceeded your no-fault insurance policy limits
Injuries are significant and permanent

You can pursue a claim if you satisfy either of these. But there is a difference. You can pursue non-economic damages for pain and suffering only if you suffered a significant and permanent injury. If you did not, you can pursue compensation for only your economic damages.

To determine whether you meet the first requirement, you need to add up all your economic losses, including medical bills and lost wages. If your losses exceed $10,000, you can pursue compensation for unreimbursed losses – depending on the terms of your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance policy.

You can pursue both economic and non-economic losses if you suffer significant and permanent:

Scars or disfigurement
Loss of a body function
Injury

If you had any of these injuries, you can pursue a claim against the at-fault driver.

How Do You Prove Liability for Your Injuries?

To prove liability for a car accident, you usually must prove the other driver acted negligently. Negligence happens when a driver fails to exercise reasonable care while driving and, as a result, causes a crash that injures you.

To prove negligence, you must show:

Duty of care
Breach of duty
Causation
Damages

Every driver has a legal duty to drive with reasonable care. This means they must refrain from doing anything that they know or should know to be dangerous.

A driver breaches this duty when they:

Violate a traffic law
Disregard a traffic custom
Act in an unreasonably dangerous way

You must show that the breach caused your injuries. This means the negligent action must fall within the logical sequence of events that ended with your injury. The negligent action must also be the proximate cause of the injury, which means that it was reasonably foreseeable that the negligent act could result in injury.

Finally, you must show damages. If you got injured, you likely suffered damages. These damages usually include economic losses from the financial cost of the injury and non-economic losses due to the impact on your quality of life.

What Damages Can I Recover?

Most lawyers will not predict the damages you will recover beyond a rough estimate. But they will often explain how a claims adjuster or jury will calculate your damages.

If you suffered a significant, permanent injury, you can pursue both economic and non-economic damages. You can estimate your economic losses by adding up all the financial costs of your injury.

Estimating your non-economic losses is more difficult. A claims adjuster or jury will often award an amount they deem fair based on the severity and duration of your injuries.

Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Tampa Car Accident Lawyers

Winning or settling a car accident case requires knowledge, experience, and skill. Contact Winters & Yonker Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to discuss how our experienced Tampa car accident attorneys can help with your case.

Our lawyers handle all auto accidents, including: