No one should have to suffer injury for someone else’s poor judgment. However, when you get hurt because of someone else’s negligence, you can pursue compensation through a personal injury claim or lawsuit. Your losses in a personal injury claim can include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages. One of our Tampa personal injury lawyers can help you go after compensation for these losses.
The Dickstein Law Firm can go over your legal options, build a case for you, and be with you through every step of the process. We offer free, confidential consultations to prospective clients where they can get their questions answered and decide what steps to take next.
- You Could Recover the Costs of Your Injury-Related Losses
- How We Determine the Value of Your Damages in a Claim or Lawsuit
- How an Attorney From Our Team Can Handle Your Tampa Personal Injury Case
- We Can Handle the Toughest Parts of an Injury Case
- Why You May Want to Work With The Dickstein Law Firm
- We Handle All Types of Tampa Injury Cases
- What We Have to Prove to Win a Personal Injury Case in Florida
- Liable Parties in a Personal Injury Case
- What You Can Do to Protect Your Case’s Value
- You Can Get a Personal Injury Lawyer on Your Side
For A Free Legal Consultation With A Personal Injury Lawyer Serving Tampa, Call (888) 352-4878
You Could Recover the Costs of Your Injury-Related Losses
Accident victims often ask how much they can receive for their case. In reality, a personal injury case is incredibly dependent on each individual’s experience. We cannot say how much your claim is worth without talking with you and evaluating your case because every situation is different. We make sure to treat our clients as the unique people they are, rather than boiling them down to statistics and averages.
Therefore, what you can recover will depend on the specific facts of your case. Common damages in personal injury cases can include:
- Economic damages
- Non-economic damages
These two categories contain specific types of compensation you can receive, all of which is matched to your experience.
Financial Damages
This form of compensation could be described as more concrete than non-financial damages — it covers losses that directly impact your body and your wallet, including:
- Medical costs, including necessary care in the short and long term: This involves emergency room treatment, physical therapy, surgeries, hospitalizations, medication, visits to a doctor or specialist, in-home care, and more.
- Lost income, if your injuries caused you to miss work: We can help you recover lost wages, tips, commissions, gigs, and other benefits as well.
- Reduced earning capacity, which relates to your future ability to work: If you have to change jobs or work for lower pay because of ongoing incapacitation, this can be part of your case.
- Disability, if your injuries are so significant that you cannot work in the future: Disability may apply for the short term or long term.
That $7,500 bill for a broken leg? The income you would have gotten from being a DoorDash delivery driver? The retraining you need to pursue a new job? Any of those expenses could be covered.
Non-Economic Damages
While economic damages are for concrete losses, non-economic damages are for the personal ones — the ones that affect your quality and enjoyment of life. These damages can include:
- Pain and suffering, if your injuries caused you serious physical pain and other hardships: This is often correlated to the severity of your injuries.
- Scarring and disfigurement, if your appearance changed because of your injuries: You may have permanent scars from burns, lacerations, and other physical trauma.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), if you are facing painful flashbacks and emotional trauma related to the injury or accident: We can prove that you had a diagnosis and that PTSD has impacted your life.
Non-economic damages are subjective for a reason. Your non-economic damages should reflect your unique experience with the pain, frustration, and trauma of being unexpectedly injured.
That doesn’t mean we don’t make use of concrete evidence to support your claim. For instance, as the Cleveland Clinic reports, a PTSD diagnosis requires meeting specific criteria, such as having symptoms for more than a month that disrupt your life. We can work with mental health specialists to demonstrate that you satisfy these criteria as well as specific ways the symptoms have affected your quality of life.
We can also help you seek compensation for losses related to a wrongful death case if you lost a loved one to their injuries. This could help you seek compensation for funeral and burial expenses, loss of income, and more.
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How We Determine the Value of Your Damages in a Claim or Lawsuit
Every case is unique, but there are some standard procedures a personal injury lawyer with our firm uses when addressing the issue of damages. For example, we will gather the documents needed to prove the dollar value of your medical expenses, lost wages, and other tangible losses. A tangible loss is one that usually comes with some type of documentation, like a receipt or an invoice.
For your intangible losses – like pain and suffering, PTSD, and loss of enjoyment of life – we calculate the amount based on your tangible losses and the facts of your claim. You cannot assume that everyone hurt in a personal injury case will get the same amount of money. For instance, two people riding in the same car can have different injuries, resulting in different amounts of compensation.
So, there are typically a few main factors that influence the amount you can seek in a claim or lawsuit, including:
- The severity of your injuries
- The cost of your medical care
- The impact of your injuries on your life and ability to work
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How an Attorney From Our Team Can Handle Your Tampa Personal Injury Case
By getting one of our personal injury lawyers to take care of your claim for damages, you can focus on your health and well-being. Our team can:
- Evaluate your case
- Investigate the facts
- Gather the evidence to prove your claims
- Talk to all parties involved
- Explain terms and deadlines
- Calculate the fair amount of your damages (financial and non-financial)
- Negotiate a fair settlement
- Litigate on your behalf and take your case to trial, if necessary
Our injury lawyers serving Tampa can work directly with the insurance company so that you do not have to. Once you hire our personal injury lawyer to represent you, the insurance company is not supposed to bother you. If an insurance adjuster contacts you, just tell them to talk to your lawyer.
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We Can Handle the Toughest Parts of an Injury Case
Some injury cases may seem more straightforward than others. For instance, if you were hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street, you may think that you will receive a settlement or award easily. Unfortunately, we have seen that even seemingly clear cases for compensation can be challenged or denied.
Nonetheless, we put what we have seen and experienced to work for you. We will deal with all the common complications and tough aspects of a case for you. For instance, we will handle situations where an insurer:
- Offers you a lowball settlement amount: It is common to receive a low initial offer that may not cover all of your costs and losses associated with the injury. We can negotiate for fair compensation.
- Pressures you to accept a settlement soon after the accident: An adjuster may try to sway you with what seems like an attractive initial offer, but this may be before you even know the full consequences of the accident. We can review all offers and take the pressure off of you to decide before you’re ready.
- Claims that you were more at fault than you were: You may face claims that you played more of a role in the incident or accident than the facts indicate. We will prove who was liable based on evidence.
- Claims that your injuries aren’t as severe as they are: Sometimes, even when you have serious injuries, you may have to push back against claims that you don’t require any more treatment or other challenges. We can prove the true nature of your injuries, your prognosis, and your medical needs.
You may deal with other complications beyond these issues, but we have experience with many forms of personal injury claims.
Why You May Want to Work With The Dickstein Law Firm
We are proud to serve victims of injury in Tampa and across Florida. When you work with our team, you can expect the following:
- Your initial consultation with us will be free
- You’ll receive your attorney’s phone number.
- We will respond to all of your questions promptly and keep you in the loop.
- If you need help scheduling medical appointments, we will help.
- If you need assistance with arranging vehicle repairs, we will assist.
- We work based on contingency, meaning you pay nothing up front.
We do not charge our clients anything for us to start on their cases. We want to make it possible for anyone to obtain the legal representation they need to protect their interests, especially after they have wrongfully suffered damages. We also realize that finances are tight after our clients have suffered injuries and damages; our goal is to alleviate financial stress, not contribute to it.
Working on contingency allows us to shoulder the financial risk of fighting on your behalf while you focus on healing from your accident. If we win your case, we recover an agreed-upon percentage of your award. We will explain this payment arrangement at a free consultation.
We Handle All Types of Tampa Injury Cases
We help injured people in many different types of personal injury cases at The Dickstein Law Firm. Here are some examples of cases we have handled:
- Car accidents
- Slip and fall injuries
- Medical malpractice
- Bicycle accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Product liability
- Pool accidents, drownings, and near-drownings
- Boat collisions and other boating accidents
- Nursing home abuse and accidents
- Dog bites
- Wrongful death
- Defective product accidents
- Construction accidents
- Premises liability cases
- Bus, truck, and RV accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
Even if you don’t see your accident type on this list, we may still be able to help, so don’t be discouraged. You can contact our team today to tell us about your situation and learn more about our services.
What We Have to Prove to Win a Personal Injury Case in Florida
To recover compensation, we must prove that the other party was responsible for the accident. That means we have to establish all of the elements of negligence when we go after damages in a personal injury case. Without these elements, it will be challenging to prove that negligence occurred. We must show that the defendant:
- Owed you a duty of care: For example, if we are suing the other driver in a car accident case, we have to show that the law imposes a duty of care on the driver. Everyone who operates a motor vehicle on the streets owes other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and anyone else in harm’s way a duty to drive cautiously and obey the rules of the road.
- Breached the duty of care: It is negligence when someone breaches their duty of care. Let’s say that you were stopped at a red light when a drunk driver plowed into your car. Driving while under the influence of alcohol violates the duty to obey the rules of the road and drive cautiously. As such, the drunk driver breached their duty of care.
- Caused your injuries through negligence: The defendant’s negligence must be the thing that caused the harm. So, if you suffered physical injuries from a collision, the facts of your situation could satisfy the requirement of causation. In the DUI accident example, the defendant’s negligent act of driving while impaired caused the collision that injured you.
- Brought damages upon you when you suffered injuries: You should be compensated for damages that result from a personal injury, such as medical bills and lost income. Your case will determine what kinds of damages you can request from the liable party.
Connecting the Dots of Negligence
Since it’s so crucial to connect someone’s careless action with your injuries, we employ several types of evidence to achieve this goal. That could include:
- Photos of your injuries, the scene, possible causes of the accident or signs of negligence, and context
- Video footage from traffic cameras, security cameras, or bystanders
- Eyewitness reports from strangers, friends, family, and authorities
- Expert testimony from doctors, researchers, economists, actuaries, and other specialists
Some evidence may be specific to your type of personal injury. For instance, medical malpractice cases like surgical errors or birth injuries can depend on expert testimony and second opinions. Dog bite cases may require digging into past complaints about the animal and witnesses to its aggressive behavior. Phone records may play a crucial role in a distracted driving case.
At The Dickstein Law Firm, we obtain evidence that establishes a link between the other person’s negligence and your injuries.
Liable Parties in a Personal Injury Case
You may think you know who caused your accident or injury. However, liability can be complicated in any personal injury case.
- Distinguishing between an at-fault and liable party: There is a difference between the person who directly caused your accident or incident and the person or entity who is responsible for compensating you. For instance, a trucker may have caused your accident, but a trucking company may ultimately be responsible for paying you.
- Multi-party liability: Depending on the details of your case, one or more parties could ultimately be responsible for paying you. We will identify each liable party in your case and request compensation from each after we determine what role they had in your injury case.
These complications can be challenging to handle on your own, but you don’t have to. We will ensure that the appropriate party is held responsible for the injuries and hardships you’ve faced.
When You Share Some Fault for Your Injury
You can still seek compensation from a negligent party even if you share some degree of fault for your injury. As a result, you don’t have to hold back from seeking legal help with your injury case if you think you may have contributed to the incident in some way.
However, per Florida Statutes § 768.81, your compensation could be reduced based on your degree of fault for the incident. For example, if your award is $100,000, but you are found 30% responsible for your role in the incident, your award would be reduced to $70,000.
Again, do not let this dissuade you from pursuing a case. We can help you, working to show that the other party was primarily responsible.
What You Can Do to Protect Your Case’s Value
You can take several steps to protect your right to seek compensation from a negligent party. Consider the following:
Gather Your Own Evidence
You can keep records for your case and then pass this along to your legal team. You may want to collect information such as:
- A car accident report, if you were in a crash (According to the City of Tampa, you can get a digital copy of the report for $2.)
- Witness contact information, if anyone saw the incident that caused your injury
- A pain journal in order to document the course of your injuries
- All receipts, invoices, and records of all accident-related expenses you have paid or are responsible for paying (You will need these to prove your expenses.)
- Photographs, video footage, and other evidence that can help you prove your case
Be Careful About What You Say
Make sure that you do not give the insurance company a recorded statement without the prior approval of your personal injury lawyer. The claims adjuster can twist your words to mean something you never intended, which can decrease the value of your injury claim.
We strongly recommend that you allow our attorney to speak to the insurance company on your behalf. This helps you avoid saying something that could hurt your case. You can contact us right after your accident; there’s no need to wait.
Review Your Case With Our Team
You can learn more about what your case may be worth, what damages you could seek, and what legal options you have available. We can help you understand the potential of your case as a claim or lawsuit.
Act Quickly to Meet Important Deadlines
According to Florida Statutes § 95.11(3)(a), injury victims generally have four years to file a lawsuit for compensation. If you are filing a wrongful death case, you have two years, per Florida Statutes § 95.11(4)(d). The two-year deadline also generally applies to medical malpractice cases in Florida, per § 95.11(4)(b), and nursing home abuse cases (Florida Statutes § 400.0236).
There may be exceptions to these deadlines. Still, if you miss them, you could forfeit your right to recover your losses.
We also advise that you get started early on your case in order to capture important evidence. Certain crucial forms of evidence can disappear soon after the accident, but if you contact our team in time, we can start building the best possible case.
You Can Get a Personal Injury Lawyer on Your Side
A Tampa personal injury lawyer from our team can handle every aspect of a case for you. We can protect you from the insurance company’s tactics and from pressure to settle the case too early. For all these reasons, the sooner you get our lawyer on board to handle your personal injury claim, the sooner you can begin seeking a fair settlement.
You can call The Dickstein Law Firm today at 1-888-352-4878 to get a free consultation with a team member. You don’t have to be alone in your case.