How Can Our Tampa Personal Injury Attorneys Help You?
Personal injury cases are complex and difficult to resolve, especially if you suffered severe injuries and are worried about the financial impact on your life. You need a personal injury law firm that will advocate for you, negotiate with the insurance company, and see your case from start to finish.
At Boohoff Law, every personal injury claim we handle in Tampa starts with a free case consultation. During this consultation, our experienced personal injury lawyer will review the facts of your case—including how it happened, who might be to blame, and the full extent of your injuries. If we believe we can help you obtain compensation, we’ll tell you. If not, we can suggest your next best steps.
If we mutually decide to proceed with your claim, our personal injury lawyers will:
- Gather all pertinent evidence, such as accident/incident reports, medical records, insurance policies, and eyewitness testimonies
- Perform a thorough investigation of your accident and injuries
- Determine all possible sources of compensation
- Determine the total amount of damages you should be entitled to receive
- Deal with the insurance company and adjuster on your behalf
- Hire private investigators and expert witnesses, if necessary, to support your case
- Meet all case and legal deadlines.
- Ensure you receive the medical care you need and deserve
- Set up medical liens with medical providers if necessary
- Attempt settlement negotiations
- Prepare you and your case for litigation, and
- Litigate your personal injury lawsuit if necessary
While doing all of this, we will provide you with the time and space you need to heal from your injuries. Our experienced personal injury attorneys can take much of the logistical stress of your injury off your shoulders.
How Much is My Tampa Personal Injury Claim Worth?
Most Tampa injury victims want to know how much their case is worth. No two accidents are ever quite the same. To determine how much your case is worth, you should contact our personal injury lawyer for a FREE case evaluation.
We need to know the specific details of your accident, including how severe your injuries are and who is responsible for your accident. There are many factors that will ultimately determine the final settlement or verdict amount.
What do you have to lose? When you contact the Tampa personal injury lawyers at Boohoff Law, P.A., you are never under any obligation to hire us. We simply want to talk with you about your injury case and help you explore all your legal options.
If you do choose our Tampa personal injury lawyers to represent you after an accident, you can rest easier knowing you have a team of seasoned negotiators and tenacious litigators in your corner.
Our personal injury law firm will fight aggressively to make sure you have the money you need to pay for:
Medical bills
If you’ve suffered a car accident, a slip-and-fall accident, medical malpractice, or another type of personal injury, you may require immediate attention as well as ongoing treatment. Any medical bills from your hospital stay, medications, surgeries, ongoing medical treatment, and other medical expenses will be carefully factored into your settlement, so you can be confident that you can receive the care you deserve.
Lost wages
If your accident or injury impairs your ability to receive an income, you need to make sure you’re able to support yourself and your family financially while you’re recovering. Your health takes priority when you suffer serious injuries, and your time is better spent healing than it is worrying about your financial recovery.
Future earnings
Unfortunately, accident victims are sometimes left with ongoing complications that prevent them from being able to return to work. If your injuries compromise your future earning potential, your settlement may include payment for lost income in the weeks, months, and even years to come.
Property damage
If your personal property was damaged during the incident that caused your personal injury, you might also be entitled to compensation for lost or damaged belongings, vehicles, or personal property damage.
Pain and suffering
Although harder to quantify, pain and suffering due to the physical impact and emotional strain of a personal injury can leave a lasting mark on victims. Your settlement will take into account factors such as emotional distress, loss of enjoyment, and severe repercussions of the accident, such as loss of companionship or loss of limb.
Boohoff Law stands by injured victims. We use our skills in personal injury law to help you get your life back after a devastating event and achieve the best possible outcome for your case.
What Are The Elements of Negligence in a Personal Injury Claim?
Most personal injury lawsuits involve negligence on the part of another person. Negligence is the failure to behave how another reasonably prudent individual should behave in the same or similar circumstance. A Tampa personal injury lawyer must establish these four elements of negligence to win a personal injury claim:
Duty
The first question you must answer is, did the other party owe you a legal duty of care? Sometimes the nature of the relationship between the two parties creates a legal duty. Such as a doctor who owes a patient a legal duty to provide them with skilled medical care. Or the other party might owe the injured party a legal duty to act with reasonable care in a specific situation—for example, a driver should operate their motor vehicle safely using a certain level of due care.
Breach of Duty
If the other party owed you a duty of care, the next question is—did that party violate or breach their duty of care? Someone breaches a duty by doing (or not doing) something that a “reasonably prudent person” should do in a similar situation. The term “reasonably prudent person” means how the average responsible person should act under certain circumstances. For instance, an average person should stop at a stop sign or keep their dog on a leash in public.
Causation
The next step is to prove that the other party’s negligence caused your injury. Their negligence must connect to your injury somehow. Otherwise, the other party won’t be liable for your injuries.
Suppose a driver was negligently texting and driving. They can’t be blamed for an unrelated fender bender that happened across the street simply because they were driving negligently at the time of the accident if they didn’t cause it.
Another part of the causation element looks at whether the at-fault party should have reasonably foreseen that their actions or inactions might cause an injury. This rarely happens—almost always, someone can prevent an accident.
Damages
The final element of a negligence claim is “damages.” This element requires that the judge or jury compensate the injured party for their injury. Compensation is typically money for expenses such as medical care, property repair, and pain and suffering.
Depending on the case, other monetary damages might include:
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium
- Humiliation
- Mental anguish and emotional distress, including depression and anxiety
If our Tampa personal injury attorneys believe they can prove these elements in your claim, you could recover compensation without even going to court.
Filing a Personal Injury Claim After a Tampa Motor Vehicle Accident
Florida is a risky state for drivers, passengers, and everyone who shares the road with them. According to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department, Hillsborough County reported over 24,000 motor vehicle accidents in 2020. These crashes caused 16,450 injuries and 214 total fatalities. In 2021, there were nearly 30,000 car crashes resulting in 18,685 injuries and 263 deaths.
Common types of accidents in Tampa include:
Auto accidents can lead to personal injury claims if a negligent party caused the accident. Negligence, in a legal sense, is defined as failing to act with reasonable care or prudence toward others.
You can hold drivers liable for their negligence if they drove:
- While distracted
- While drowsy
- While intoxicated
- Without a license
- Without the appropriate type of license or training (such as in CDL drivers)
- A vehicle in poor condition or requiring maintenance to be safe on the road
However, drivers aren’t the only parties whose negligence can lead to accidents. You might also be able to hold employers such as trucking companies or delivery companies liable for causing accidents.
Unfortunately, liability after a car crash or motor vehicle accident isn’t always clear. If multiple parties caused your injuries, you could receive compensation from more than one source.
You may still have a viable claim even if you share some responsibility for the crash. Florida is a pure comparative negligence state, so if you recover damages from the other party, they may be reduced based on your percentage of fault.
These are excellent reasons to reach out to an experienced Tampa personal injury lawyer for help if you suffered injuries in a vehicle accident. Our legal team of seasoned injury attorneys can advocate for you and help ensure that you recover the maximum compensation possible for your personal injury case.
