If you’re struggling with serious physical injuries after a car accident in Crestview, Florida, don’t hesitate to call Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers. You may have the opportunity to demand compensation from a negligent motorist, an insurance company, or another liable party. However, getting the win you deserve can be a challenge. Our experienced Crestview car accident lawyers can help you maximize your recovery.
Since 1981, crash victims and families in Crestview have trusted Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers to help them get their lives back on track after life-changing collisions. We’re board-certified, award-winning Florida trial attorneys with over 75 years of collective experience. As tireless advocates for our clients, we’ve successfully recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in jury verdicts and privately negotiated settlements.
Trust our family to fight for yours after a devastating wreck. Contact our law offices serving Crestview, FL, to set a time for a free, no-obligation case assessment today at (850) 407-7726.
How Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers Can Help After a Car Accident in Crestview, FL
You can’t trust the insurance company with your future. It simply won’t put your best interests front and center. If you want to maximize your recovery, you’re going to have to put an experienced legal advocate in your corner.
That’s where our Crestview personal injury lawyers can help.
At Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers, we’re known as hard-hitting litigators who don’t allow clients to be pushed around or manipulated by powerful insurance companies, defense attorneys, government agencies, and employers.
Client-focused legal strategies and an undeniable track record of success have earned us some of the top honors in Florida’s legal community, including board certification in civil trial law, AV Preeminent ratings from Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo’s client choice ratings, and membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
When you ask for our help after a car accident in Crestview, you’ll benefit from the personalized, compassionate representation you deserve and have the full force of our personal injury law firm’s resources behind your fight for compensation.
Count on us to:
- Promptly investigate your auto accident to understand how it happened, how it could have been avoided, and who’s at fault
- Carefully evaluate accident reports, cell phone records, medical records, eyewitness testimony, property damage, photographs of the scene and your injuries, dash cam footage, forensics reports, and other essential pieces of evidence gathered during the discovery process
- Depose other drivers, witnesses, and other parties with insight into your collision
- Bring in medical professionals, accident reconstructionists, rehabilitation specialists, forensics professionals, and other expert witnesses to collaborate with us throughout the claims process
- Assess your damages and determine what your personal injury case is worth
- Keep you updated and informed every step of the way so that you can make informed decisions about the future of your case
- Ensure your claim complies with all of Florida’s procedural requirements
- File your car accident lawsuit with the Okaloosa County court clerk and serve copies of the complaint on the defense
- Actively work to recover a maximum settlement offer during negotiations with the insurance company
- Have one our of respected Florida trial attorneys argue your case in court if the defense won’t accept responsibility for your crash
Don’t hesitate to contact our Crestview car accident attorneys today to discuss the details of your case. We’re always available to help—24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Why Should I Hire a Car Accident Attorney?
You have one shot at getting compensation after your car accident. Hiring an experienced car accident attorney in Crestview, FL, can help you make the most of it.
In fact, research shows that you’re more likely to win your car accident claim and get a higher payout when you have an attorney advocating for you.
Here’s why:
- The insurance company has experts and specialists working for them. So do you when you hire a personal injury law firm to represent you.
- You’ll force the insurance company to handle your personal injury claim in good faith and make genuine attempts to settle
- The insurance company cannot rely on tactics of deceit, manipulation, or fear to get you to accept a lowball offer or give up your right to compensation altogether.
- You’ll be protected from unsupported claims of contributory negligence that would otherwise limit your ability to recover compensation.
Trusting an attorney to handle your legal claim will also give you the time you need to focus on what’s most important: your health, livelihood, and future. You can concentrate on getting better without the stress of a highly-contested insurance claim or lawsuit.
Your choice of legal representation matters. Choosing Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers puts 75 years of experience and trustworthy legal advocates in your corner. Contact us today at our Crestview law office to discover how we can make a difference in your fight for compensation after a wreck.
How Much Is My Car Accident Case Worth?
Even though every car accident case is different, several standard factors will play a part in valuation.
- What types of physical injuries have you suffered?
- What type of car accident were you involved in?
- Were you wearing your seatbelt at the time of the wreck?
- Are you getting blamed for the wreck?
- Can you still work?
- Have your income or earning capacity changed?
- How old are you?
- Are you disabled?
- Has the accident aggravated any pre-existing conditions?
- What’s your life expectancy?
- What costs have you had out-of-pocket?
- Do you need a rental car?
- What steps did you take to mitigate your damages?
- What insurance benefits are available to you?
The more of an impact the collision and your resulting injuries have on your life – physically, emotionally, and financially – the more you can expect to recover in damages from an insurance company or liable party.
While the severity of your injuries might increase the value of your car accident claim, other factors—such as a failure to mitigate damages or shared fault—can limit the amount of money you’ll be able to recover.
Knowledge is power, especially when you’re going toe-to-toe with a tough insurance company. When you know what your car accident case is worth, you’ll be in the driver’s seat when it’s time to negotiate a settlement. You’ll know whether you’re being lowballed or if the insurer is making a genuine attempt to help you cover the costs of your collision.
What Causes Most Car Accidents?
Negligence is the primary cause of action for car accident claims in Crestview, Florida. Most car accidents can be avoided, but they happen because someone is careless or reckless at the wheel.
Some of the most common contributing factors include:
- Speeding
- Distracted driving
- Drowsy driving
- Drunk driving
- Aggressive driving
- Tailgating
- Illegal turns
- Unsafe passing
- Rolling stops
- Running red lights
- Failing to yield the right of way
- Driving on the wrong side of the road
- Vehicle malfunctions due to negligent maintenance
- Vehicle defects
- Road defects
When you choose Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers to represent you, our legal team will promptly and thoroughly investigate your car accident. We’ll dig deep to fully understand how the collision happened and, in turn, who’s ultimately responsible for your resulting trauma.
What Types of Damages Can Be Awarded to Crestview Crash Victims?
Florida law allows crash victims to seek two types of compensatory awards: economic and non-economic. Each award is specifically designed to help offset distinctly different consequences of a collision.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are intended to help you cope with the financial burdens you experience as a crash victim, including:
- Current medical bills
- Costs for reasonably necessary future medical care
- Rehabilitation and therapy
- Diminished earning capacity
- Lost wages
- Temporary and/or permanent disability
- Property damage
- Nursing care
- Costs of a funeral if a Crestview car accident is fatal
When you receive economic awards, you should be made whole. It should be as if the accident didn’t happen at all—at least as far as your bank account is concerned. Note that economic damages are limited to your verified costs and your reasonably projected future losses.
Non-Economic Damages
Not all crash-related consequences come with a price tag. Some are very personal and, in turn, subjective.
Non-economic damages are intended to help you cope with the harder-to-value aspects of your collision, which might include:
- Pain and suffering
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Loss of consortium
- Chronic physical pain
- Disfigurement
- Reduced quality of life
- Emotional distress
- Embarrassment
Since non-economic awards are more difficult to value, it’s critical to have experts weigh in and back your claim. At Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers, we work with trusted experts and specialists in various fields who can help us prove how your life has changed since your accident. With their help, we can craft a compelling claim that forces the insurance company (and other liable parties) to make you a life-changing settlement offer.
Our award-winning Florida litigators will be prepared to take your case to trial if they refuse.
We Handle All Types of Car Accident Claims
The insurance company designed the claims process. Adjusters have extensive experience handling all types of claims. If you want to win, you’ll also need experienced advocates in your corner.
At Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers, we’ve spent decades representing clients who’ve been injured or have lost close family members in all types of car accidents, including:
Rollovers
A vehicle can roll when it makes a sharp turn at high speeds or trips on a defect in the road, such as a pothole or debris. While rollover car accidents only account for about 2.5 percent of all collisions, they are responsible for 30 percent of all crash-related deaths.
Side Impact Collisions
Side impact collisions can include sideswipes, T-bone accidents, and broadside collisions. Since vehicles are designed to absorb shock in the front and rear, side-impact crashes tend to be very serious for vehicle occupants, especially when a car is not equipped with side airbags.
Rear-End Collisions
Rear-end collisions occur when the front of one vehicle crashes into the rear of another vehicle. These accidents, which are frequently seen at intersections and in stop-and-go traffic, can cause serious soft tissue injuries like whiplash.
Frontal Crashes
Frontal crashes, which occur when two vehicles collide head-on, are arguably one of the most serious types of crashes. Since both vehicles are moving toward one another, the force of impact is doubled. If both vehicles are traveling at 20 MPH, the crash is the equivalent of driving 40 MPH into a wall.,
Hit and Run Car Accidents
Even though Florida requires drivers to remain at the scene after an accident, not everyone follows the law. Every year, hundreds of hit and run collisions are reported in Okaloosa County, FL. At least 15 percent of these hit and runs cause an injury or death.
Intersection Accidents
Roughly half of all serious injury collisions happen at or near intersections. Intersections are inherently dangerous because they facilitate many different paths of travel. Crestview is home to many dangerous intersections, including the crossroads of Oak Hill Road and Taylor Road.
How Long Will I Have To Seek Compensation After a Florida Car Accident?
You’ll have a limited time to file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit after a car accident in Crestview. In most cases, a two-year statute of limitations will apply.
There are some exceptions, most notably involving child injury claims or claims for workers’ compensation benefits.
If you miss the filing deadline for your case, you will forfeit the right to seek damages from an insurance company or a negligent party. Contact our lawyers as soon as possible for help.
Can Shared Fault Affect My Florida Car Accident Settlement?
Yes. Florida’s modified comparative negligence statute applies to civil car accident claims.
This means:
- You can’t recover compensation from a third party if you’re primarily responsible (51% or more) for an accident or your resulting injuries.
- You can recover a limited financial award if you share some, but less than 51 percent, of the blame for the wreck.
When you share responsibility for a collision in Crestview, your damages will be reduced based on your role in the accident. For example, if you were 25 percent at fault for a wreck, your settlement or jury award would be reduced by 25 percent to reflect that.
Expect the at-fault dryer, their insurance company, and other parties to blame you for the car accident in Crestview. If you don’t challenge these claims, they will limit how much—if any—compensation you’re able to recover for your medical expenses, loss of income, and distress.
Our Crestview personal injury attorneys will anticipate these tactics and work to devise strategies to limit how much of an impact they have on your car accident case.
Common Car Accident Injuries
Where were you seated in the vehicle? How fast was your car traveling at the time of impact? What type of collision was it? Was your seatbelt engaged? Did the airbags deploy? Did you suffer from any pre-existing medical conditions before the wreck?
These factors will influence the types of injuries you’re most likely to suffer and how serious they might be.
At Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers, we’re here to help you seek compensation for any injuries you’ve sustained in a recent Crestview crash, including:
- Concussion injury
- Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
- Spinal cord injury
- Whiplash injury
- Neck injury
- Back injury
- Facet joint injury
- Paralysis injury
- Nerve damage
- Soft tissue injury
- Thoracic injury
- Chest injury
- Burn injury
- Amputation injury
- Degloving injury
- Crush injury
- Eye injury
- Knee injury
- Broken bones
- Catastrophic injury
- Wrongful death of a loved one
Benefit from 75 years of combined experience and a proven ability to win tough cases. Call our law office in Crestview today to discuss the details of your car accident case. Your first consultation is free.
Will My Car Accident Case Go to Trial?
It’s possible but unlikely. Only a small percentage of civil personal injury lawsuits – including matters related to car accidents – make it to trial.
The vast majority are settled privately before things get that far.
Several factors can influence whether your car accident case settles or goes to a jury:
- How strong is the evidence supporting your case?
- Has the insurance company handled your claim in good faith?
- Has the insurer made any reasonable settlement offer?
- How far apart are the parties in terms of valuation?
One way to leverage a top-dollar settlement early on in the claims process is by hiring an experienced Florida trial attorney to handle your car accident case. Putting a known and respected litigator in your corner shows the insurance company that you won’t be pushed around or manipulated. They’ll know that your attorney won’t hesitate to reject low offers and take a case straight to a jury.
The last thing an insurance company wants is to go up against a seasoned litigator in court, especially in front of a compassionate jury. This can force the adjuster to make you a more substantial settlement offer up front, with the hopes that they can avoid a showdown in court.
Crestview, FL, Car Accident Statistics
Every year, thousands of people are injured and lose loved ones in car accidents in Crestview and other cities in Okaloosa County, Florida.
According to state crash data, 3,298 auto accidents across Okaloosa County, of which 1,421 caused injuries and 26 were fatal.
That year, at least 2,181 crash-related injuries and 28 car accident fatalities were reported.
On average, there are roughly 9 motor vehicle accidents in and around Crestview every day.
What Will It Cost To Hire a Car Accident Attorney in Crestview?
When you trust Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers, you’ll pay nothing out of pocket to hire our law firm after a car accident in Crestview. We are so confident that we’ll be able to win compensation for your claim that we’re willing to stake our fees on it.
Our contingency fee representation means you pay absolutely nothing unless we win your car accident case.
When our car accident attorneys in Crestview recover compensation for you, our fees are dedicated off the top, less any case-related fees or expenses.
The result: you get the top-rated legal representation you deserve without any added financial stress.
Contact our legal team in Crestview to discuss our fees and discover why you’ll want us fighting for you after a car crash.
What Should I Do After a Car Accident in Crestview, Florida?
The steps you decide to take after a car accident in Crestview can have a massive impact on your health and your future.
Here’s what you should (and shouldn’t) do after a wreck:
- Call 911 immediately to report the crash to the Crestview Police Department so officers and other first responders can get to the scene
- Stay near the scene of the accident while you wait for the police
- Exchange insurance information with other drivers
- Determine if other victims need emergency medical attention
- Refuse to take the blame for the crash or accept liability in any way
- Take pictures and document the scene of the crash
- Get to the closest hospital in Crestview for medical treatment as soon as you can after the collision
- Reject the insurance company’s request for a recorded statement unless expressly directed to provide one by your attorney
- Resist the temptation to accept the insurance company’s initial settlement offer, especially if you haven’t consulted with a car accident lawyer near you
Car accidents are complicated and stressful. You don’t have to navigate the aftermath on your own. The sooner you call an experienced Crestview car accident attorney at Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers for help, the better.
Schedule a Free Consultation With an Experienced Crestview Car Accident Lawyer
Don’t settle for less than you deserve after a car crash in Crestview, Florida. Demand the compensation you deserve by trusting Gross & Schuster Injury Lawyers to fight for you.
Our Crestview car accident lawyers have over nine decades of collective experience handling complex personal injury disputes. We’ve led our clients to millions of dollars in insurance settlements, benefits packages, and jury verdicts.
Today, we’re ready to be your most passionate advocate, too. Contact our law office in Crestview to learn more. Your initial case evaluation is free of charge.