Car Crash Lawyers & Accident Claims

Car wrecks are traumatizing to victims and those who love them. After a car crash, you need help. You need to know who to turn to and what you can do to get your bills paid now and in the future.

If you are like many car crash injury victims, your accident has put you in dire financial straits. We believe that every auto accident victim deserves quality affordable legal representation and we are here to put you in touch with an experienced and affordable car accident attorney.

Please call us at (888) 473-6137 for a free claim evaluation to get started.

Think You Cannot Afford an Auto Accident Lawyer?

In the wake of a car accident, you can face enormous expenses. Medical bills, damage to your vehicle, time off work and paying for help to take care of the tasks you cannot do while you are injured add up fast. You may even be looking at life-long costs that are far greater than the initial costs of your injuries. With all of that hanging over your head, it is easy to assume that you cannot afford legal representation, but the truth is you cannot afford to go without it.

We created My Price Lawyers to connect Florida accident victims like you with experienced, caring and affordable attorneys with extensive experience in specific areas of law, including car crash lawyers.

It costs you nothing to call us and get connected with a car accident attorney in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. Your initial consultation with the lawyer is also free and if you move forward, your attorney will represent you on a contingency fee basis, meaning that the fee is a percentage of the money you win, not an hourly rate, and you only pay if you recover money in a settlement or a judgment against the defendant.

Florida’s No-Fault Insurance Law

Florida has a no-fault auto insurance law that prohibits drivers from suing at-fault drivers unless you suffer serious injuries. It is one of only 12 states that require drivers to carry personal injury protection coverage (PIP) that pays for their own injuries even when another driver caused the accident. PIP coverage is limited, covering up to 80% of your medical expenses and no more than 60% of your lost income, and no more than the policy limits which means no more than $10,000 for those who purchase the minimum amount required by law. PIP does not pay for pain and suffering or other noneconomic damages.

In order to sue the at-fault driver, you must have suffered permanent injuries or significant disfigurement. In that case, you can sue for full compensation which includes your noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering and diminished quality of life. The at-fault driver’s insurance company will try to prove that your injuries do not qualify. Not only do you need an experienced Florida car accident lawyer to win your case, you need one just to prove that you have the right to sue.

My Price Lawyers is here to help.

Driver Negligence in Auto Accidents

Driver negligence is involved in most car wrecks. Negligence does not mean that the at-fault driver intended to cause a crash. Rather it simply means that they did not use a reasonable amount of care and that lack of care led to your injuries. When a negligent driver has caused serious injuries, you can hold the driver financially responsible.

My Price Lawyers will connect you with an experienced car crash attorney to evaluate your case and help ensure that you are not left footing the bill for the negligent actions of another driver.

Examples of driver negligence include:

• Distracted driving including texting, talking on the phone, other device use and traditional distractions such as eating and personal grooming
• Impairment including drunk, drugged and drowsy driving
• Failure to yield
• Unsafe passing
• Failure to use turn signal
• Speeding
• Driving too fast for the conditions
• Driving too slowly
• Following too closely
• Failure to maintain lane
• Driving on the wrong side of the road
• Failure to use headlights at night or in the rain
• Failure to dim headlights
• Inadequately secured cargo
• Inadequately secured trailer
• Illegal passing of school busses
• Failure to use caution in school and construction zones
• Failure to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks
• Aggressive driving

Uninsured Motorists and Hit-and-Run Accidents in Florida

When the driver who hurt you is uninsured or cannot be identified and located, you may feel like your case is hopeless, but it is not. First you can recover some compensation from your own PIP coverage. If your injuries extend beyond what your PIP will pay, you can turn to uninsured motorist (UM) if it is included in your policy.

When PIP and UM do not cover you expenses and losses, there are other potential avenues of compensation. If you were injured by a hit and run driver, one of our experienced Florida car accident attorneys may be able to identify and locate the at-fault driver, even when law enforcement has failed. An experienced and motivated lawyer will often work harder and utilize more resources than the police in pursuing a hit and run driver.

In other cases, accidents are caused, or injuries are made worse, by defective vehicles or defective roadways, meaning that there may be other avenues of compensation that do not rely on the insurance of an at-fault drivers.

Defective Vehicles in Auto Accidents

Defective vehicles are a scourge on our roads. You have probably heard of the big recalls on the news and if none of the headline-making vehicles were involved in your accident, you may believe that defective vehicle is not an element in your case. In reality, many vehicles have defects that never make the news. And a recall is not necessary in order for you to prove that a defect caused your accident or your injuries.

Defects can hurt you in two ways. They can cause accidents, or they can cause your injuries to be worse in accidents with another cause. In either case, you can pursue compensation against the manufacturer under a theory of law known as product liability.

Those who can be held liable for injuries caused by defective vehicles include:

• Auto or parts makers
• Auto or parts sellers
• Others along the supply chain
• Repair shops
• Car rental companies

Defects that can cause accidents include:

• Steering system defects
• Defective door handles
• Faulty suspension
• Defective tires
• Design defects such as those that lead to rollovers
• Defective brakes
• Ignition switch defects
• Sensor defects
• Faulty electrical system
• Malfunctioning electronic stability control (ESC)
• Defective fuel pump
• Defective electronic throttle control (ETC)
• Faulty fuel gauge
• Airbags that deploy inappropriately

Defects that cause injuries to be worse than they should have been in the event of an accident, even though they are not the cause of the collision, are referred to as crashworthiness defects. Crashworthiness defects can be very serious. They can turn what should have been an accident with only minor injuries into a fatal one.

Examples include:

• Faulty airbags
• Collapsing seat backs
• Faulty seat belts
• Defective headrest
• Defective window glazing
• Poor roof crush resistance
• Fuel system flaws leading to fuel-fed fires

Roadway Defects in Car Crashes and Auto Accidents

Roadway defects can cause single vehicle accidents where the driver is presumed to be at fault and on multivehicle accidents they can make it appear as if a driver was at-fault when they were not. Sometimes, there are red flags. For instance, when both drivers claim that the other driver ran a red light, it is quite possible that a malfunctioning traffic light was to blame.

Unfortunately, you cannot rely on law enforcement or insurance adjusters to thoroughly investigate and discover when a roadway defect was behind your accident. An experienced Florida car accident lawyer knows the signs and has the incentive to follow through on the investigation and determine the true underlying causes of your crash.

In defective roadway cases you seek compensation from the government agency responsible for the design, construction and/or maintenance of the roadway. These cases are very different from other types of car crash claims because they pit you again a government entity. That means you face a shorter deadline to give notice of your claim and file your case. It also requires your attorney to follow different rules and procedures.

A history of accidents as a result of the same or similar defects that caused your car wreck may work as evidence in your favor in a defective roadway claim. As with vehicle defects, roadway defects can either cause an accident, make injuries worse in collisions with another cause, or both.

Examples of roadway defects include:

• Missing or malfunctioning street light
• Malfunctioning traffic signal
• Unsignalized intersection with a history of accidents
• Poorly designed intersection
• Missing or obscured stop sign
• Lack of crosswalk or inadequately marked crosswalk
• Improper road design
• Improperly banked curve
• Poor drainage
• Dangerous bus stop design or placement
• Dangerous railroad crossing
• Shoulder drop-off
• Inadequate or insufficient notification of changes in the shoulder
• Inadequate or malfunctioning warning signs or signals for conditions such as curves, dips, and bumps
• Inadequate highway division, line striping and edge lines
• Pothole or improperly filled pothole
• Other road damage that is not marked or repaired in a timely manner
• Excessive oil and/or gravel
• Debris and obstacles which are not removed in a timely fashion
• Improperly marked construction zone
• Improperly marked school zone
• Missing, damaged or defective guardrail
• Lack of or faulty breakaway device on post or pole

Quality Car Accident Representation You Can Afford

So now you may be thinking that even though you know you need a lawyer, you cannot afford to hire one. You can.

My Price Lawyers connects injury victims with experienced and caring auto accident attorneys at an affordable price.

• We do not charge you for our service of connecting you to a lawyer in our network.
• Our accident attorneys offer free claim evaluations
• Our lawyers represent personal injury victims on a contingency fee basis. They will not ask you for a retainer or bill you by the hour for their services. The contingency fee is a percentage of what you win. You only incur attorneys’ fees if you actually win money and then the fees are deducted from the recovery.

Get a Free Lawyer Referral for your Car Accident

If you or someone you love has been hurt in a car crash anywhere in the Tampa-St Petersburg-Lakeland area, please call My Price Lawyers at (888) 473-6137 or contact us online to be connected with an experienced and affordable accident injury lawyer. The referral is free. The first attorney consultation is free. No fees unless you win! Contact us to learn more. We represent clients living in Brandon, Clearwater, Orlando, Sebring and all surrounding areas of Florida.