Bradenton Personal Injury Attorneys

Throughout the Bradenton, Florida area, our Bradenton personal injury attorneys are there for you when you are injured in a motor vehicle accident or other injury caused by another’s negligence or misconduct. With over 15 years of legal experience, our personal injury attorneys have helped countless injury victims like yourself recover the compensation they need and deserve – including multi-million dollar recoveries – when they have been harmed by another’s wrongful conduct. Simply put, justice demands that someone who injures another person should be held accountable and should be required to compensate the injury victim for his or her medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other legal damages. Our Bradenton personal injury attorneys have the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to give you the level of quality representation you need to be successful in your recovery.

Bradenton Personal Injury FAQs – Florida Negligence Law

If you have been injured due to the negligence or wrongful conduct of another and are trying to get compensation from the negligent party, you may have a lot of questions about how the process works and what your rights are to receive compensation. Below are some of the questions we encounter most frequently at the Romero Law Firm in Bradenton as we help injury victims throughout Florida recover compensation for their injuries. If you have other questions or need help with an injury claim, call (877) ROMERO-1 or contact us online for a free case evaluation.

I just want to settle my case without going to court. Do I really need an attorney?

Absolutely. If you are thinking about negotiating with the insurance company on your own, you need to think about two things. First, their interest is in paying as little as they can to settle the claim. Second, they have people who do nothing all day long except settle insurance claims. Since you don’t handle insurance claims for a living, you don’t have any way of knowing how much your claim is worth, unless you get someone on your side with as much experience in injury cases as the insurance company. When the insurance company makes a settlement offer to an unrepresented person, the only thing you can know for sure is that the amount is far below the actual value of your claim.

If you hire an experienced personal injury attorney to represent you, you will know how much your claim is worth. More importantly, the insurance company knows that you know, and they know that if they don’t deal with you fairly, they could find themselves in court having to pay a much larger jury verdict. The fact is that the vast majority of cases settle outside of court, but if you want a full and fair settlement, you are better off hiring an experienced injury attorney who will get the best settlement for you by preparing the case for trial and litigating as much as necessary to get the best result.

The insurance company says I was partially to blame in causing the accident, and so they won’t pay for all of my expenses. Can they do that?

In Florida, if an injury victim contributed to the accident or injury by his or her own negligence, then the amount of any compensation recovered will be reduced in proportion to the victim’s own negligence. However, don’t take the insurance company’s word for it regarding whether you were negligent or how much comparative fault belongs to you. They may simply be trying to reduce the amount of compensation they have to pay you. Let an experienced personal injury attorney like Rafael Romero evaluate your case. If the insurance company is trying to put blame on you that doesn’t belong there, your lawyer can take the case to court and let a jury decide who caused the accident. The Romero Law Firm puts up a strong case whether negotiating a settlement or litigating the matter in court.

Can dog owners be held liable if their dog bites someone?

Yes. In fact, Florida law follows a rule of strict liability, meaning that you can recover compensation for your injuries from the owner without having to prove that the owner was negligent in keeping the dog or had any prior knowledge that the animal might be dangerous. As long as you were on public property or lawfully on the owner’s private property when you were attacked, you should be able to recover, although the “comparative negligence” rule discussed in the previous FAQ may apply.

Dog owners can protect themselves from liability if they have a “bad dog” posted prominently in their yard and aren’t otherwise negligent in keeping the animal. This exception does not apply if the dog bite victim is less than six years old, though.

Do the Florida courts award punitive damages in personal injury cases?

Typically, the damages awarded in a personal injury case are compensatory damages, meaning they are meant to compensate the injury victim for the harm suffered because of the other person’s negligence. Compensatory damages include items such as medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, etc. Punitive damages, on the other hand, are meant not so much to compensate the victim as to punish the negligent driver or property owner who is responsible for the accident. Under Florida law, punitive damages can only be awarded in cases of intentional misconduct or gross negligence, which must be proven by “clear and convincing evidence,” which is a fairly high standard of proof.

Although it is harder to obtain punitive damages and requires more work, the Romero Law Firm won’t back down from seeking punitive damages in appropriate cases. When you meet with Rafael Romero for your free case evaluation, he may be able to tell you whether punitive damages might be appropriate in your case.

Contact Our Bradenton Personal Injury & Auto Accidents Attorney Today

When you hire the Romero Law Firm, we will meet personally with you to prepare your case. We want to hear your story firsthand.  Our Bradenton personal injury attorneys serve clients throughout Bradenton and across all of Florida. It doesn’t matter where you are in the state, or if you need to meet your lawyer at your home, in the hospital or wherever is most convenient for you. We come to you.

Call us anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are here for you when you need us, and we want to hear from you. We will give you a free case evaluation, and we never charge any fees or costs to you unless and until we make a recovery for you. If we don’t win, you don’t pay. It’s that simple. Call (877) ROMERO-1, to arrange a free, initial consultation with the Romero Law Firm.  We look forward to hearing from you and helping you with your Bradenton personal injury legal needs.