Personal Injury

A personal injury refers to an act of negligence that causes harm to another person. Negligence occurs when someone breaches a duty of care they owe to another person, and the breach of that duty causes an injury. An example is a motor vehicle accident. Drivers owe a duty to other drivers to operate their vehicles with reasonable skill and care. They breach that duty by distracted driving or drunk driving, speeding, failing to signal or check blind spots before changing lanes, running stops signs or red lights, or driving recklessly. Negligent drivers are responsible for harm to others when their negligent driving causes a crash.

Under Florida personal injury law, the burden falls on the injured victim as the plaintiff to file an insurance claim or bring a lawsuit against the negligent party. It’s the plaintiff’s job to prove that the accident was caused by the defendant’s negligence and that the accident resulted in the plaintiff’s injuries. Defendants, meanwhile, are most often represented by insurance companies that spend every day handling personal injury claims and do their best to limit or avoid their liability to the plaintiff. That’s why you need skilled and experienced legal representation on your side when you have a personal injury claim.

At Greco, Wozniak & Ruiz-Carus, P.A., our Tampa personal injury attorneys have been practicing law for decades and together represent over 100 Years of combined legal experience. We deal with insurance companies all the time and know how to stand up to them and make sure they pay a full and fair amount on a valid injury claim.

Insurance companies are in business to make a profit. Collecting premiums increases their profit, but paying claims makes it go down. That’s why they have a whole bag of tricks to avoid liability or limit what they owe. They will hire accident reconstruction experts and biomechanical engineers to say the accident wasn’t serious enough to cause your severe injuries, and they’ll point to the fact that the cars involved show little damage. Cars are engineered to absorb the impact of a crash with minimal damage, but people aren’t. People inside the car absorb the shock of an impact and suffer greatly. Even a low-speed impact at 20 miles per hour can cause a person’s head and neck to whip back and forth at 60 miles per hour, causing a painful whiplash injury.

Insurance companies will also claim your injuries are caused by a pre-existing chronic, degenerative disease instead of the accident. Even if you have such a condition, it could be aggravated or accelerated by a traffic accident or other personal injury. Florida law recognizes this fact and allows injured plaintiffs to recover. Insurance companies won’t tell you that, hoping you’ll be fooled into dropping your claim or accepting a small payout.

Insurance companies have their experts, including insurance claims adjustors analyzing your vehicle and doctors going over your medical records. You need a team of experts on your side as well. Greco, Wozniak & Ruiz-Carus, P.A. is in your corner fighting for you and ready to go toe to toe with the insurance company when they are being difficult to deal with.