At Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys, we treat our clients like family. Our mission is to provide compassionate representation by keeping clients updated at every step and striving for maximum compensation. We’ve been doing exactly that for a quarter of a century now, and we have won millions of dollars for our clients.
With a reputation for fierce advocacy, we offer customized legal strategies for each personal injury case in Bradenton, FL, whether it’s a car accident claim or a defective product claim. If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s actions, we’re here to help. Call our Bradenton personal injury lawyers at (727) 933-0015 or contact us day or night to get started.
How Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys Can Help After an Accident in Bradenton
Here are a few of the actions we can take to maximize your chances of receiving full compensation for your injuries:
- Send a demand package to the party responsible for paying your claim (typically an insurance company).
- Negotiate your claim from start to finish. Insurance adjusters are professional negotiators–but so are we.
- File a lawsuit to expedite settlement negotiations, even if you remain committed to an eventual out-of-court settlement. This will require drafting a formal lawsuit complaint. If your claim is too large for small claims court, a lawyer should draft the complaint for you.
- Handle the pretrial discovery process. Discovery allows you to question the opposing party’s witnesses, send written questions that they must answer under oath, demand access to physical evidence, and copy relevant documents.
- Handle mediation, if you choose to go this route. In mediation, a third-party mediator tries to help the parties work out a settlement. The mediator has no power to force a settlement.
- Draft a settlement agreement. Once you agree on the basis terms of settlement, you might still need some time to dicker over the exact wording of the agreement. Once both parties sign it, it works like a contract.
- Go to trial. Very few personal injury claims make it all the way to trial. If yours does, though, you’re going to need a lawyer to help you.
A skilled Bradenton personal injury lawyer can help you in a hundred other ways–the foregoing list was just the tip of the iceberg. Contact our law offices serving Bradenton, Florida, today to schedule your free case review.
Our Bradenton Personal Injury Law Firm’s Primary Practice Areas
Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys handles just about every subfield of personal injury law except defamation. Following is a brief description of the types of cases that we deal with on a daily basis.
Car Accidents
Car accidents represent the single most common source of personal injury claims. Florida operates a “no-fault” system where you must seek compensation from your own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance in the event of an accident, no matter whose fault the accident was. You cannot exit the no-fault system and file an ordinary personal injury claim unless your injuries cross a certain legally defined threshold of seriousness.
Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcycle accidents result in a high number of fatalities. Due to a motorcycle’s lack of frame protection, an impact that would merely dent an automobile can result in life-threatening injuries to a motorcyclist. Legal complications arise when an unhelmeted motorcycle rider suffers a head injury in a motorcycle accident.
Truck Accidents
Due to the large size of a commercial truck, truck accidents are among the most consistently catastrophic types of accidents that we see. Trucking is a highly regulated industry, however, and there are many ways to seek liability by uncovering regulatory violations. Additionally, commercial truckers are almost never underinsured.
Product Liability
A product liability claim arises when you suffer an injury caused by a defective and unreasonably dangerous product–a contaminated prescription medication such as Valsartan, for example. Typically, most of the controversy in a product liability claim comes from determining whether the product defect in question was “unreasonable.”
Slip & Fall Accidents
Slip and fall accidents hospitalize thousands of Americans every year. A significant number of people die in slip and fall accidents every year as well, most of them being senior citizens or construction workers.
Wrongful Death Claims
Strictly speaking, wrongful death claims are not personal injury claims. Instead, they are what personal injury claims become if the victim dies from their injuries. In Florida, the estate executor (named in the victim’s will or appointed by the probate court) files the wrongful death claim. Nevertheless, survivors get most of the damages.
What Kind of Evidence Do You Need To Win a Personal Injury Claim in Bradenton?
Unfortunately, the truth doesn’t win personal injury cases–only evidence does. Some of the evidence that you might need to gather to win your claim includes:
- Medical records;
- Witness statements;
- Photographs and cell phone videos;
- Employment records, to establish lost earnings;
- Medical bills, to establish medical expenses;
- Prescription records;
- Toxicology reports (establishing a DUI, for example);
- Insurance documents; and
- Incident reports
Sometimes it’s necessary to dig deeper and uncover evidence that most people miss. Such evidence might include:
- The event data recorder or “black box” of a car or a truck, which can provide vital data about an accident;
- Cell phone tower records, to prove that a driver was using their cell phone at the time of the accident;
- Surveillance camera footage, which might have caught the accident on video;
- Electronic Logging Device (ELD) data, which can prove whether a truck driver was fatigued at the time of the accident; and
- Maintenance and inspection records, to determine whether defective equipment caused the accident; and
- Social media posts, to contradict the either side’s version of the accident and its consequences.
Many other types of evidence may be utilized as well, depending on the case.
Damages Available in Bradenton Personal Injury Cases
There are two primary categories of damages available in personal injury cases: economic and non-economic. Examples of them include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Medical expenses;
- Lost earnings;
- Out-of-pocket expenses such as child care and medical equipment;
- Estimated future medical expenses;
- Estimated future diminished earning capacity;
- Property damage;
- Pain and suffering;
- Mental anguish;
- Disfigurement;
- Amputation; and
- Loss of enjoyment of life.
Your damages are not necessarily limited to the foregoing. You should at least try to claim any expense that is reasonable and necessary and arises directly from your injuries. Courts also award punitive damages, but only in rare cases when the defendant’s conduct is outrageous. An intentional road rage accident might justify punitive damages, for example.
What Does It Cost To Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer in Bradenton
Personal injury lawyers don’t work on a “billable hour” basis like most other lawyers do. Instead, they work on a contingency fee basis. Under a contingency fee arrangement, the lawyer charges you a pre-agreed percentage of your total eventual compensation (30% to 40% is typical).
Since you pay nothing upfront, you can afford to hire a lawyer without a dime in your pocket. If your lawyer fails to win your case, your total bill for attorney’s fees will be $0. In other words, your personal injury attorney only gets paid if you do.
The Statute of Limitations in Florida Personal Injury Cases
The default statute of limitations for most personal injury cases in Florida is two years. However,
A four-year statute of limitations deadline applies to personal injury claims that are not based on negligence (product liability claims and intentional torts, to name two types).
It can be complicated to determine the statute of limitations; there are exceptions in some cases. Contacting a lawyer as soon as you can is the best way to preserve your legal rights.
Meet With a Bradenton Personal Injury Lawyer for a Free Case Review
In the midst of the anger, fear, and confusion that is the inevitable aftermath of a serious personal injury, let Lopez Accident Injury Attorneys serve as your beacon of hope.
Schedule a free initial consultation with us, so that our experienced Bradenton personal injury attorneys can listen to your story and advise you of your options. Because we operate on the contingency fee system, we have no motivation to exaggerate the value of your claim or your chances of winning.
