Orlando Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Who Really Listens
I am very different from many other Orlando car accident lawyers. I give every single one of my accident clients gold star treatment. This includes those who have been involved in serious, life-changing car accidents, truck or motorcycle accidents, slip and fall accidents, premises liability, as well as medical malpractice and other victims.
I never leave any of my potential clients wandering in the mystery land of talking to paralegals, “investigators,” or “case managers,” but hearing very little from their Orlando personal injury lawyer. (By the way, “investigator” and “case manager” are code words for untrained persons who have you sign documents.) That is depressingly is common but NOT the way an attorney-client relationship should be! Make no mistake, talking to an actual Orlando personal injury attorney until all of your questions are answered is the best way to get the most money from your car accident or personal injury case value.
Text Or Call 24 Hour Orlando Car Accident Attorney Hotline (407) 803-2139
Orlando Car Accident Lawyer Explains: Best Things To Do After A Florida Car Accident?
If you have just had an accident, the most important things for you to preserve the value of your accident case are:
- Most important point: Do not talk to any insurance adjuster before talking to an Orlando auto accident lawyer. This could make your Orlando personal injury attorney’s job much more difficult later. Insurance companies absolutely want to pay you the least amount of money possible for any injuries resulting from your accident. Many times they will offer to pay only your immediate medical bills (like your ER bills). But they never tell you that you should also get future medical, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
- Insurance adjusters actively seek information from you, or about you, which will lower your injury value. They fish very creatively for this evidence. They do this by asking, in a concerned, friendly way, things like “how are you feeling?,” “what was your treatment,?” “did you have any pain in this area before?,” etc. They sound like very nice people. But those questions are designed so that they get information to lower the value of your accident case. Don’t answer them. I repeat: Do. Not. Answer. Them. Call an Orlando personal injury attorney instead.
- You don’t know what statements can lower your car accident case value! Trust me! You would be shocked at the innocent answers that can and will be twisted and used against you.
- You are allowed to not answer or return the other driver’s adjuster phone calls. In moderate to serious injury accidents, insurance adjusters may also be very aggressive with their phone calls. They leave message after message. But you can freely ignore any calls from the at-fault driver’s auto insurance company, until you have decided what to do. BUT, your own insurance company may have requirements under your policy that you report and assist them, often within 30 days or less in some cases. But those things should be done with the help of an Orlando personal injury attorney. Unless it is your own insurance company, you owe them NADA. Nothing.
- Beware of false “deadlines” created by insurance adjusters to scare you. They make up fantasy deadlines and rules that have no basis in the law. In Florida, you must seek treatment within 14 days from some doctor or chiropractor to get PIP coverage. (You can still recover if you treated after 14 days from bodily injury insurance coverage, which is a different type of coverage than PIP.) Besides that 14 day deadline, the only other important deadline is that auto accident lawsuits must be filed within 4 years. Insurance companies and their stupid “policies” can’t change that reality.
- An Orlando car accident lawyer very often can get you a lot more money, especially if you call them faster. Although there is no legal deadline, a car accident attorney needs to talk to you very quickly to make sure you are preserving all evidence, medical and otherwise. Evidence disappears quickly, plus you need to know how to interact with medical providers to get the most money possible. Lastly, insurance industry statistics have shown that accident victims with lawyers get far more money than those without. If you have a moderate to serious injury or pain, then you are making a very big mistake if you choose not to hire an Orlando personal injury attorney.
- Critical point: Go to the doctor right now. If you haven’t already been, go to the doctor, and call or text me from the waiting room. Ideally you would go to the ER by ambulance right after the accident. Otherwise, you can go to the ER, a walk-in clinic, your primary care, or any other doctor. We absolutely need medical records showing treatment as quickly as possible after any injury causing an accident.
- Take photographs. Take pictures of any vehicles involved, close up and wide angle of any spots showing vehicle damage. If possible, take pictures of the roadway, and any skid marks. Also take pictures of any of your injuries, bruising, medical devices, bloody clothing, etc. Also save any medical devices or bloody or torn clothing, and tell your lawyer you have those things. Basically you want any evidence that shows vehicular damage or injuries to your body. Those pieces of evidence help prove your case.
- Try to get any witness contact information. If there were any witnesses, try to get their full name, phone number, address, and email address.
- Call me. There are a number of other steps involved in preserving evidence for any case involving moderate to serious injuries, or wrongful death caused by car accidents in particular. There are also some pitfalls that you want to avoid, and I explain those, such as not posting anything about your auto accident on social media.
- Read more about how to get the most money from your car accident case.
- Read everything you need to know about how car wreck lawyers handle & evaluate cases.
Text Or Call 24 Hour Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Hotline (407) 803-2139
How Can You Find The Best Orlando Car Accident Lawyer?
Everyone wants to find the best Orlando auto accident lawyer. So how do you make that determination? Reviews are popular in today’s world. But there is absolutely no way for any client to know whether their Orlando car accident lawyer could have done better. If cases don’t settle, juries ultimately decide the value of personal injury lawsuits. Juries place widely varying dollar amounts on verdicts — and 99% of cases settle without a lawsuit — with lawyers on both sides trying to predict what a jury might ultimately award.
I would also avoid being courted by settlement values in other cases. I’ve recently helped clients recover 1M, 2M, and 3M — but I’ve also settled cases for 20K and lots in between (these were totals before deductions for attorneys’ fees, costs, and medical bills). Each case truly is different, plus there is never any way to know whether you could have done better, other than receiving the maximum insurance policy limits in any particular case.
Very generally speaking, more serious accidents, injuries and treatments, and higher lost wages, coupled with higher insurance policies from defendant drivers, equal the highest value cases. Plus, you need an Orlando car accident lawyer who gives your case the proper time and attention, and who knows how to maximize accident case value.
My personal opinion is that you should avoid high volume mill firms (which usually require heavy advertising) like the plague. Beyond that general rule, you need someone who listens to your story directly — not through a “case manager” or “investigator” — and who is smart, caring, and experienced. An Orlando auto accident lawyer’s primary job is to collect evidence, which requires knowing the rules, which types of evidence usually work best, being thorough when gathering evidence, then telling your story to the insurance company adjuster or defense lawyer, mediator, or jury. So I truly believe clients should pick the Orlando auto accident lawyer who feels best to them — because they tell your story! I’d also encourage you to read more about my background and experience here.
Text Or Call 24 Hour Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Hotline (407) 803-2139
Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Explains What You Should Do After ANY Orlando Slip & Fall Accident
- Read car accident victim advice above. The same principles describe above for car accident victims apply to slip and fall victims.
- Get photos. After any accident, it is often very critical to have photos of whatever caused your accident, if at all possible. Try to get those, even if you must send a family member or friend. Photos are often essential in slip and fall cases.
- Do NOT talk to the company about your accident, after you have initially reported it. Often large companies will have “risk management” departments, or insurance adjusters, call you after a serious accident. Do not talk to these people, and do not email them, or otherwise communicate AT ALL in writing or verbally. That being said, it is helpful if you give an initial incident report immediately after the fall. Do not ever give recorded statements. Bad, bad idea.
- Read more about Orlando slip and fall cases.
Orlando Trucking Accidents: How Are They Different Than Car Accidents?
Many truck accident cases are legally the same as car accidents. Specifically, pick-up trucks, along with full-size vans, involve the same laws are car accidents.
However, if a larger truck causes an accident, such as a semi-truck, bus, 18-wheeler, commercial truck, concrete truck, dump truck, or tractor trailer, those have heightened insurance requirements, and much more involved federal laws, requiring the drivers and trucking companies to comply with all sorts of complex rules. Those rules often make it easier to ultimately prove that the trucking company was doing something wrong. The reason is that there are more things they had to do right. So we can gain a lot of ground proving that they violated one or more of the federal trucking regulations, which is common. You might want to read my comprehensive guide to getting the most money from your trucking accident case. Or you might want to read why Florida trucking accidents are often more valuable.
Text Or Call 24 Hour Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Hotline (407) 803-2139
Florida Medical Malpractice: Do You Have A Case?
If you suspect that you, or your loved one, may have been the victim of medical malpractice, either causing personal injury or a fatality, please give me a call.
The unfortunate thing about medical malpractice in Florida is that we must reject 99% of the cases. This is because the Florida legislature has passed statutes that are, in short, extremely anti-victim, and pro-insurance company. Therefore, Orlando medical malpractice lawyers generally can only accept the most catastrophic permanent injury or death medical malpractice cases.
However, if you suspect that your (or your loved one’s) medical provider did something wrong, which you believe caused a very serious, permanent injury, or death, then you may be able to recover a very substantial amount of well-deserved compensation.
(Unfortunately, we cannot even consider less serious or non-permanent injury medical malpractice cases (other types of injury and death cases are totally different). Basically, to pursue a medical malpractice case, your injury MUST be extremely serious, and permanent, or we will unfortunately have no choice but to decline representation.) Viable medical malpractice cases might include things like death, paralysis, blindness, amputations, surgical errors that left you unable to walk, speak, work, or perform other important daily activities, or misdiagnosis, or delayed diagnosis, that caused the same serious outcomes.
But I urge you to give me a call if you think your case might qualify.
You can also read more about medical malpractice basics here.
Text Or Call 24 Hour Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Hotline (407) 803-2139
How Do I Know What Your Relationship With An Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Should Be Like?
Well, you’d have to read more about me to fully understand.
Free Consultations From An Orlando Personal Injury & Car Accident Attorney
You never pay me one red cent until I win or settle your case. Period.