Bradenton Car & Truck Accident Lawyers
We represent people hurt in car and truck crashes, from the first call with the insurance adjuster through a settlement or, when it comes to that, a trial.
Free ConsultationCar & Truck Accident Attorneys in Bradenton
A serious car crash can leave someone with a brain injury, a spinal injury, broken bones or nerve damage, and some of that never fully heals. The bills start arriving while you are still out of work, usually around the time the insurance company calls. We take over the insurance side of it and work toward a recovery that covers what the crash actually cost you.
The Podor Law Firm handles car and truck accident cases across Bradenton, Palmetto, Lakewood Ranch and Sarasota, from fender benders where the pain only showed up days later to high-speed crashes on I-75, and we start investigating right away in either case.
Talk to us first
If another driver caused the crash, call a lawyer before you give their insurance company a statement. People make this mistake all the time, which is understandable, because the adjuster who calls is usually polite and says they just need your side of the story.
That adjuster works for the other driver's insurance company, whose goal is to close your claim for as little as possible, and something as ordinary as "I'm fine" can be used later to argue that you were not really hurt. You have no obligation to give them a recorded statement, and you are better off talking to us before agreeing to one.
What We Handle
Many crashes come down to a driver who was texting, speeding, drunk or running a red light. Others involve bad weather or a poorly maintained road. Now and then a defective part on the car is to blame, which brings the manufacturer into the case.
- Rear-end collisions, including chain-reaction crashes in stop-and-go traffic
- T-bone crashes at intersections
- Head-on and wrong-way crashes
- Hit-and-run crashes
- Crashes where the at-fault driver has no insurance, or not enough of it
- Uber and Lyft accidents, where the rideshare company's policy may apply
- Semi-truck and 18-wheeler crashes
- Crashes with delivery vans, box trucks, dump trucks and other work vehicles
A lot of the crashes here happen on the same few roads (Manatee Avenue, Cortez Road, US-41 and I-75 among them), and traffic gets heavier from January through April, when seasonal residents are back and beach traffic backs up toward Anna Maria Island. Depending on where it happened, the crash report may come from the Bradenton police, the Palmetto police, the sheriff's office or the Florida Highway Patrol.
Truck accidents are a different kind of case
Truck crashes tend to cause worse injuries than crashes between two cars, simply because of the weight involved, and the claims are more complicated. Fault can be shared by the driver, the trucking company, whoever loaded the cargo and the shop that maintained the truck, each with its own insurance company and its own lawyers. Federal rules also limit a truck driver's hours and set standards for inspections and repairs, and part of our job is finding out whether those rules were followed.
Most of that proof is kept by the trucking company itself, in the electronic driver logs, maintenance records, the driver's qualification file and the data from the truck's black box. A trucking company only has to keep driver logs for six months, and black box data can be recorded over even sooner, so a preservation letter should go out within days of the crash. Heavy trucks are part of everyday traffic on I-75 and US-41, many of them headed to or from Port Manatee.
What can you recover?
A claim can include your medical bills, both the ones you already have and the treatment you will likely need later, plus the wages you lost while you could not work. Pain and suffering is part of it too, and in a serious case it is often the largest part, even though it is the hardest to put a number on. Damage to your car is usually handled as a separate claim.
Florida being a no-fault state, your own PIP coverage pays first no matter who caused the crash, and PIP pays nothing for pain and suffering. Pain and suffering has to be claimed from the at-fault driver or your own UM coverage, and Florida law generally allows it only when the injury is permanent or causes significant and permanent scarring, so the medical records carry a lot of weight.
Florida Rules That Can Affect Your Claim
| PIP coverage | Pays 80% of medical bills and 60% of lost wages, up to $10,000, no matter who was at fault. If no emergency medical condition is found, medical benefits stop at $2,500. Fla. Stat. 627.736 |
|---|---|
| 14-day rule | Medical care has to start within 14 days of the crash or PIP can deny the medical benefits. Fla. Stat. 627.736 |
| Filing deadline | Two years from the date of the crash for most claims. Crashes before March 24, 2023 had four years. Fla. Stat. 95.11 |
| Shared fault | More than 50% at fault means no recovery at all. At 50% or less, the award is reduced by your percentage. Fla. Stat. 768.81 |
Ohio is not a no-fault state, so a claim there goes straight to the at-fault driver's insurance company, and the deadline to file a lawsuit for an injury is generally two years. Ohio cases are handled through our office in Solon.
How we work a case
On a typical car accident case we get the crash report and any 911 recordings, talk to witnesses while they still remember what they saw, collect every medical record and bill, and bring in an accident reconstruction expert when the facts are disputed. Once we know what the case is worth, we negotiate from that number and not from the insurance company's first offer, and if they won't pay a fair amount, we are prepared to file suit.
Why Choose Podor Law
Decades of Experience
Our founder, Kenny Podor, has been handling personal injury cases since 1978, and in more than 40 years he has dealt with the same insurance companies and the same arguments they use to pay less.
No Fee Unless We Win
Our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you, so if there is no recovery, there is no attorney's fee. With a percentage fee, what the firm is paid goes up or down with what you receive.
Personal Attention
You work directly with an attorney who knows your file, and when you call with a question, you get an answer from someone who is actually involved in your case.
Thorough Investigation
Investigating a crash properly can mean hiring an accident reconstructionist, pulling data from the vehicles' event recorders, getting opinions from the treating doctors or sending an investigator to the scene before it changes.
Trial-Ready Approach
Most cases settle, but we prepare each one as though it will be tried, because insurance companies tend to take a claim more seriously when they think it could end up in front of a jury.
Community Focused
Our main office is on Manatee Avenue West, a short walk from the county courthouse, and our second Florida office is just across the river in Palmetto.
Frequently Asked Questions
How soon after a car accident should I contact an attorney?
As soon as you can, and ideally before you speak with the other driver's insurance company. Adjusters often call within a day or two, and a recorded statement given that early, while you may still be on pain medication or not yet know how badly you were hurt, can be used against you later. Some evidence is also lost in the first weeks after a crash. Skid marks fade, and damaged cars get repaired or sold for scrap. Store and traffic cameras may only keep footage for a few days or weeks, and witnesses start to forget details. Calling early gives us a chance to get to that evidence first.
What if the accident was partially my fault?
You may still have a claim. Florida and Ohio both use comparative fault, which means your compensation is reduced by whatever percentage of the fault is assigned to you. Florida changed its rule in 2023, and a person found more than 50% at fault can no longer recover anything, while at 50% or less you can still recover, minus your share. Ohio's rule is close to Florida's, and under it you can recover as long as your fault is not greater than the combined fault of the others. Fault percentages are disputed in a lot of cases, and insurance companies tend to put as much of the blame on the injured person as they can, which is one reason to have a lawyer answer those arguments.
How much is my car accident case worth?
There is no formula for it, and any number given before someone has looked at your medical records is a guess. The value depends on how badly you were hurt, what your treatment costs now and will likely cost later, how much work you have missed, whether the injury is permanent and how much insurance is available to pay the claim, which in Florida is sometimes less than people assume. We go through all of this during the free consultation and can give you a realistic range once we have the records.
How long will my car accident case take to resolve?
Mostly it depends on your medical treatment. We generally advise against settling before you have finished treating, or at least before your doctors know what the long-term picture looks like, because a settled case cannot be reopened if things turn out worse than expected. A straightforward claim might settle in six to nine months. Cases with serious injuries or a real dispute over fault can take one to three years, and longer if a lawsuit has to be filed. Waiting is hard when the bills keep coming, and in the meantime PIP and your health insurance can usually cover part of the treatment.
What should I do immediately after a car accident?
If you are physically able to, try to do the following.
- Check whether anyone is hurt, and move out of traffic if it is safe to.
- Call 911. Florida requires crashes with injuries to be reported to the police, and that report will matter later.
- Exchange information with the other driver, and get names and phone numbers from any witnesses.
- Take pictures of both vehicles, the road, any skid marks and your injuries.
- See a doctor even if you feel fine. Some injuries take days to show up, and in Florida, PIP only covers your medical care if treatment starts within 14 days.
- Report the crash to your own insurance company, sticking to the basic facts.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurance company.
- Keep every medical bill and record, plus a list of the days you missed work.
- Call us for a free consultation.
What if the driver who hit me doesn't have insurance?
Unfortunately it happens a lot in Florida, because the state does not require most drivers to carry bodily injury liability coverage at all. Your PIP pays first either way. Beyond PIP, the coverage that usually matters is uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM) on your own policy, and UM also applies in many hit-and-run cases. A UM policy belonging to a relative you live with can sometimes cover you as well, which a lot of people don't know to check, so we review every policy that might apply.
Talk to Us Before You Talk to the Insurance Company
The consultation is free, and there is no attorney's fee unless we recover money for you. Fill out the form or call our office, and an attorney will go over what happened and what your options are.
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