Orlando Car Accident Lawyer & Personal Injury Attorney, Tina Willis
Boutique law firm focused on maintaining a case load that allows me to provide highly personalized service to all of my clients. Former law professor and big defense firm lawyer.
Personal Injury Lawyer Orlando | Car Accident Attorney Florida
HomePersonal Injury Lawyer Orlando | Car Accident Attorney Florida
Personal Injury Lawyer Orlando | Car Accident Attorney Florida
Do you want an award-winning, passionate & aggressive Orlando personal injury lawyer? You probably also want an Orlando car accident attorney who actually cares about her clients, listens to what happened in your case, then gives you tailored advice about how to get the most money possible. Also, if you’ve just been injured, or tragically lost a loved one, you probably want to talk to an actual lawyer (rather than a far less knowledgeable assistant, paralegal, or “investigator”) very quickly.
Who Is The Best Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer?
Many people understandably would like to find the best Orlando personal injury lawyer. But there is no way for Google, or anyone for that matter, to make that determination. How could anyone ever know whether they could have won more in any case? That being said, Ms. Willis is proud to have won industry awards for “best Florida accident & injury lawyer,” have a long list of five star client reviews, and helped her clients recover multi-millions of dollars.
What you should know is that we are very different from many other Orlando car accident lawyers because of our uncommon low volume approach. We give every single one of our 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.
We never leave any of our potential clients wandering in the mysterious 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.
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 an injury caused by 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 on our Orlando car accident lawyer page, including how to get the most money from your case, and how we evaluate & handle auto accident cases, from start-to-finish.
Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Explains What You Should Do After ANY Orlando Slip & Fall Accident
Read car accident victim advice above. The same principles described above for car accident victims apply to slip and fall victims.
Get photos. After an 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 on our Orlando slip and fall attorney page, including why these cases require strong evidence to prove, settlement values, and much more.
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 Orlando trucking accident lawyer.
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.
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.[/vc_column_text]
Do You Want The Best Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer?
Tired of talking to overloaded case managers? Tina hates settlement mills so never handles more cases than she should.
Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Who Gives Tailored Advice
Your accident was unique. So you need an Orlando personal injury attorney to hear what happened & plan a strategy.
Orlando Car Accident Attorney Who Is A Strong Advocate
Tina will learn your story and fight hard for you. She will not rest until the defense or jury understands your suffering.
How Your Actions After Any Auto Accident Greatly Effect Case Value
Many Orlando, Florida auto accident victims can increase or decrease their case value, in the days, weeks, months and even years after the accident. One reason is that medical records, over an extended period of time, are among the most important evidence in your Orlando car accident or personal injury case. Yet those records often vary a great deal, depending on how you interact with your medical providers. So you need an Orlando personal injury attorney who will tell you how and why that happens, which I will.
Finally–An Orlando Car Accident Lawyer Who Will Listen!
There are many other factors that could change your case value after the accident. Problem is, many ordinary consumers have never had the experience of a proper attorney-client relationship. So they have no idea that the bestOrlando auto accident attorneys should tell them how their action, or inaction, could change their case value. Trust me, if the CEO of Coca-Cola were injured in an accident, and found himself unable to speak at length with an actual lawyer, he would be falling over himself in disbelief because he knows what a lawyer-client relationship should feel like.
Why The Best Orlando Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Will Insist On Hearing Your Story
To properly handle any case, the best Orlando personal injury lawyers MUST learn exactly how the auto accident, or slip and fall accident, happened. An Orlando car accident lawyer needs to hear the entire story, sometimes in great detail. I have been shocked to hear other Orlando personal injury lawyers (or their clients) tell me that they only meet with the client to discuss signing the contract. Then their paralegal gives the actual advice if they get any at all. That is outrageous and unacceptable. Paralegals are not lawyers, so do not understand evidence law, or procedural law, or injury law. All of those things are VERY complicated. Run fast if you do not receive a lengthy personal consultation at the beginning of your case from an experienced accident lawyer. That’s when your lawyer should be telling you what to do, to recover the most money from your case.
The best Orlando auto accident lawyers will personally determine how to maximize case value. This is different in EVERY case. That includes determining what evidence should be gathered. So, if I am able to accept your case*, I will spend whatever time is needed to hear your story. We may need witness statements, or certain documentation, to prove that you lost wages, or how your injuries have affected you or your family. I will also explain why and how your medical treatment will impact your final recovery. To get the most money, you absolutely must understand how to interact with your employer, potential witnesses, and doctors, and why, and the most common techniques used by insurance companies to devalue cases.
Also, that lengthy conversation must start QUICKLY. So please call me right away. I try to speak with potential clients immediately if possible, or return their calls as quickly as I can.*
*due to my low volume case approach, I must decline some cases. However, if I believe that another attorney could help you more, then my office will provide a thoughtful referral. Most potential clients cannot easily find the best Orlando personal injury or auto accident lawyer for their particular case without guidance from another lawyer — because we are much more likely to know who is doing the best work, and not a high volume settlement mill law firm, where you’ll be lucky to speak to a lawyer as your case progresses. Reviews aren’t always as helpful because clients may not know whether a result could have been better. Therefore, I have carefully developed my referral list to include only those lawyers who I believe have a similar low volume, client-centered, outcome-maximizing mindset.
Why You Should Not Take Advice From Paralegals, Investigators, Or Case Managers
Paralegals, case managers and investigators VERY OFTEN perform what should be lawyer work in large Orlando car accident law firms. Yet, they do not know evidence law, procedural law, or substantive law. Therefore, they have absolutely no idea what evidence might hurt or help your accident case. Paralegals provide wonderful support, since they are primarily trained to handle document and information collection and organization. But they receive absolutely no training or education about how best to make legal arguments in court, or get documents or witness statements admitted into evidence.
So they should not be handling your case! The reason this happens in some Orlando personal injury law firms is simple. Hiring paralegals to perform intake, then having the paralegal discuss settlement with an insurance company without filing a lawsuit, allows large firms to settle a high volume of cases more efficiently.
How To Get Your Questions Answered: My Injury Blog Posts
You might be experiencing serious pain, along with many scary physical, emotional and financial concerns, which are all common after unexpected accidents & serious injuries. I’m sure you also have many questions. Those usually include things like how to deal with insurance company adjusters, auto accident claim forms, employers, medical care providers, and health insurance companies.
So, just after your accident, the most important thing you need is education about how Orlando car accident lawyers can help you. Therefore, I cannot more strongly urge you to scan through some of my blog posts and read those that seem to apply to your case or potential case (or call or text me).
Orlando Car Accident Lawyer Warns: Delay Will Cost You
Unfortunately, a small number of my clients delay calling an Orlando car accident lawyer because they do not believe their injuries are bad enough. That can be a costly mistake because, best case scenario, you need an Orlando personal injury lawyer guiding you through the process of dealing with medical providers, employers, and insurance companies. For those who wait, we often cannot recover for all of their injuries.
If there are any gaps or delays in treatment, or evidence is lost, or if you gave unhelpful information to insurance companies, recovering the full value for your injuries might be impossible.
Preparation Matters And Takes A LOT of Time
I think my approach is very unusual, so you should speak with me before hiring a bigger firm where each car accident lawyer handles a much higher volume of cases. You absolutely need to understand there are MANY scams in this business. Call me for further explanation.
Because I accept fewer cases, I spend the time necessary to prepare each case thoroughly for trial, to convince insurance companies that my clients will go to trial if needed. My goal is always to uncover every potential legal and factual argument that might help your case. So I spend the time necessary to do my absolute best to make that happen.
You will feel this difference from the first phone call. IF you have the type of case I normally accept, I will speak with you at length (if not, but if you have a case, my staff will refer you to someone good). If I believe you have a potential case after a few preliminary questions, then I will speak with you at length on the phone to answer your questions. We will then schedule an in-person consultation, during which I often spend one to two hours with all of my new clients. Regardless of your experience at other firms, this time is invaluable for helping you understand how to get the highest possible settlement or verdict. Make no mistake, you absolutely can change the value of your case by being proactive! There is no way in the world that speaking with a paralegal or case manager will deliver the same value. Many clients call me after getting the run around from other firms, who put them in call rotations, send “investigators” to initial brief meetings, and very often never allow them to speak with their attorney. Or, if they do speak with an Orlando personal injury attorney, the conversation is generally short (which is often NOT long enough to exchange all of the information needed to help you get the most money). That might be the norm but that absolutely is not what should happen! If that is what happens from the beginning, how often, and how long, do you think you will ever talk to an actual car accident lawyer?
Your highest settlement or recovery will be my top priority.
In the early stages of most injury cases, the difficult aspect is making sure you are receiving the medical care you need, as well as securing evidence. You need to know the specific steps you need to take to get the most money from insurance companies or corporate defendants. One of my most important jobs in the beginning is educating my clients during the first phone call!
Not All Orlando Personal Injury Lawyers File Lawsuits
You absolutely must understand that there are many Orlando car accident lawyers that never file lawsuits. I even discovered one firm that admitted they do not file lawsuits, right in their form retainer agreement! Essentially, case managers, investigators or paralegals from these law firms instruct you to receive medical treatment for a few months, then collect your medical bills, send them to the insurance company, and try to quickly settle your case for as much as they can get.
Sometimes, a pre-suit settlement is the best approach, because a lawsuit is not justified, or fault is questionable. (However, even then you need a car accident lawyer, not paralegal, drafting your demand package.)
Either way, you need an Orlando car accident lawyer to hear your entire story, review all of the evidence once gathered, then explain whatever approach they choose. Very often lawsuits are not filed when they should be. You can read more about this approach in my article discussing settlement mill law firms. Very little attorney time is needed or involved, since simple math is the only skill-set required (and the ability to convince you to take less than your case is worth). But, make no mistake, an Orlando personal injury attorney’s only real power comes from filing a lawsuit whenever justified. A case manager or paralegal cannot handle that work. They also do not know what is needed to maximize litigated case value. There are many situations when a lawsuit makes no sense. These are typically minor injury cases, or those where fault is questionable. However, many Orlando personal injury attorneys settle serious injury / clear liability cases without filing lawsuits way too often.
Assuming Your Car Accident Lawyer Files A Lawsuit, Litigation Strategies Are Critical
During any trial, defense counsel will employ many predictable strategies to undermine your case value. This includes asking you “trick” questions to get you to contradict yourself, or the other evidence in your case. They may file also file motions that can cause the court to dismiss your case without having a jury ever hear your case, deny the admission of critical evidence, change important jury instructions, and alter many other important aspects of your case. These written motions and related hearings involve complex arguments to the court based on the facts and the law.
Lawsuits Are Never Cookie Cutter
Despite the high volume approach of many personal injury practices, the reality is that every case is different, and needs to be individually evaluated. I’ve encountered many paralegals or case managers doing nothing other than adding medical bills, plus or minus depending the type of case, to reach case value. I’ve even seen this in many higher value cases. That approach will get the cases settled quickly, and in high volume. But that will not get the most value from them. Details matter and take time to uncover. When handled correctly, there has never been a lawsuit where a cookie cutter approach would work well. There are many possible strategies when pursuing a serious claim, so you unquestionably need an Orlando personal injury attorney who will carefully consider many different legal arguments on your behalf.
Don’t You Want To Talk To A Former Law Professor About The Law?
A few years after working for those big firms, I was hired as a law professor for Barry University College of Law, teaching Civil Procedure and Advanced Legal Writing. So I am a former law professor who will give you my best assessment of the strengths and any potential weaknesses in your case. I also always do everything within my power to explain my strategy for handling your case in a straightforward manner, so that you can make intelligent settlement decisions in your own case.
You Can Call Me Anytime
If you need an Orlando personal injury attorney, I would be glad to speak with you anytime. I often either take calls from new clients immediately or return their calls quickly. I will personally evaluate your case (not a case manager or paralegal). If I believe that you might have a case that I could possibly accept, based on some preliminary questions, then I will thoroughly probe many different aspects of your case to determine whether I think you should hire an Orlando personal injury attorney.[/hide]
My Website Tells You How To Get The Most Money
If you might be filing a personal injury lawsuit soon, you really should study the extensive information on my website because better prepared and informed clients can help increase the value of their case immensely. Over the last several years, I have personally written every page of this website. I have shared a good deal of information that I share with my own clients. Many law firm websites are filled with spam content, not written by lawyers. So the information on my website can help injury victims a great deal.
Auto accident cases include a variety of different types of vehicular collisions, including motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, commercial or semi-trucks. They may also have been caused by either simple accident, or more reckless things like distracted driving, or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol (which can increase their value). Either way, typically an insurance company pays the bills. Recovery is often impossible if the other party has insufficient insurance coverage, which happens far too often in Florida, where bodily injury coverage is not legally required, even for commercial businesses. When there is good coverage, the insurance company will try to pay as little money as possible, and discourage you from calling a lawyer. To make matters worse, many doctors will not even see auto accident victims. Also, if you do not mention all injuries during your first doctors appointment, you may never be able to recover for them. What you need is legal advice about how to handle these problems, which is what I will give you.
Slip and fall cases are among the most complicated injury cases. Many attorneys refuse to handle them at all. Unfortunately, even I must reject many slip and fall injury cases because Florida’s laws are unfriendly to plaintiffs. Corporate and insurance lobbies have managed to change our laws in ways that hurt injured victims. Still, some slip and fall cases are strong, and detailed factual and legal argument can make a big difference. Many slip and fall cases involve motions to dismiss or motions for summary judgment, which are extremely complicated legal documents that can get your case dismissed with zero recovery. You need a lawyer equipped to give the strongest possible reply to these defense motions.
Medical malpractice is another area that is unfriendly to plaintiffs in many ways, unless they have severe injuries, and the doctor, nurse, or hospital negligence is clear. These cases often require expert evaluation and cost a tremendous amount of money to litigate. That means only the most serious injuries, or deaths, justify filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. Additionally, there are certain categories of claimants who simply cannot recover, because of Florida’s unfair medical malpractice statute.
Unsafe property cases, also known as premises liability cases, are the broader category including slip and fall cases. These are also very complex, similar to slip and fall cases, although some of the rules are slightly different. Many attorneys will not accept these cases, and even I must reject far more than I’d prefer. However, premises liability cases can have a high value, if the defendant clearly was to blame for whatever caused your injuries on their property.
Unsafe products cases, also known as products liability cases, are extremely complex, and involve litigation against large corporations. There are only certain types of products liability cases that make sense to pursue. Often these involve medical devices or drugs that caused serious harm or death.
Unfortunately, a small number of my clients delay calling an Orlando car accident lawyer because they do not believe their injuries are bad enough. That can be a costly mistake because, best case scenario, you need an Orlando personal injury lawyer guiding you through the process of dealing with medical providers, employers, and insurance companies. For those who wait, we often cannot recover for all of their injuries.
You will feel this difference from the first phone call. IF you have the type of case I normally accept, I will speak with you at length (if not, but if you have a case, my staff will refer you to someone good). If I believe you have a potential case after a few preliminary questions, then I will speak with you at length on the phone to answer your questions. We will then schedule an in-person consultation, during which I often spend one to two hours with all of my new clients. Regardless of your experience at other firms, this time is invaluable for helping you understand how to get the highest possible settlement or verdict. Make no mistake, you absolutely can change the value of your case by being proactive! There is no way in the world that speaking with a paralegal or case manager will deliver the same value. Many clients call me after getting the run around from other firms, who put them in call rotations, send “investigators” to initial brief meetings, and very often never allow them to speak with their attorney. Or, if they do speak with an Orlando personal injury attorney, the conversation is generally short (which is often NOT long enough to exchange all of the information needed to help you get the most money). That might be the norm but that absolutely is not what should happen! If that is what happens from the beginning, how often, and how long, do you think you will ever talk to an actual car accident lawyer? 
