25% CONTINGENCY FEES IN ALL CASES

Our fees are reduced from the customary 33-40% charged by most personal injury attorneys.

Personal Injury Fees

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We advance all costs to prosecute your claim. You owe us nothing if we don’t get recovery for you.

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overview

Premises Liability Accidents

Accidents that take place in commercial buildings (stores, banks, offices, gas stations), residences (private homes or rentals), or on public property (parks, streets, or public transportation) due to a defective or dangerous condition are called “premises liability” accidents.

In Florida, property owners are liable for maintaining both the inside and outside of their property. For example, a store owner has a duty to maintain not only the inside of the store, but also the sidewalks, entryways and parking lot outside the store.

The most common conditions that give rise to liability claims brought against business owners include broken or uneven sidewalks, inadequate lighting, collapsed ceiling, obstruction on stairways, in aisles or sidewalks, spilled liquid, slippery surface, broken or missing handrails on stairways, uneven steps or defectively built stairways, malfunctioning doors, dangerously or negligently displayed merchandise, etc.

Dogs also can be considered a dangerous condition on a person’s property and a dog bite or attack can result in a premises liability suit against the animal’s guardian.

Premise liability claims, just like other personal injury claims, are typically brought under a theory of negligence. To prevail in a premises liability claim, an injured person must prove that the property owner or occupier failed to conform his conduct to a standard of conduct imposed by law. For example, a business owner has a legal duty to keep his property in a safe condition and warn business invitees (customers, guests, etc.) of any dangers the owner knows or should know about (this includes the duty to regularly inspect the property). 

On the other hand, a residential property owner or occupier has a legal duty to repair any unsafe conditions or warn his social guests about dangers that exist. However, the residential property owner owes no duty to inspect.

Key Factors

Premises Liability Accidents



The amount of settlement in a premises liability claim turns on the following four factors:

Insurance Coverage

In premises liability claims, a personal injury demand for settlement is made against a property insurance, whether homeowner’s insurance or commercial insurance.

Florida does not require businesses to carry general liability coverage on their commercial property insurance. So, some businesses may not have any coverage.

However, large business establishments, such as stores, gas stations, and restaurants, usually carry general liability coverage with policy limits up to $1,000,000. In addition, property insurance may contain coverage for medical payments anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000, which is paid regardless of fault.

Also, some commercial property policies contain a self-insured retention provision for general liability coverage, which may affect a personal injury settlement. SIR is an amount the insured entity has to pay out-of-pocket before the insurance coverage will be provided.

Liability

In Florida, most premises liability cases turn on liability. The mere existence of a dangerous condition is not enough to prove that the business owner failed to keep its premises in a reasonably safe condition.

In Florida, the injured person must also prove that the property owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the unsafe condition and had failed to remedy it. Constructive knowledge may be proven by circumstantial evidence that the unsafe condition existed for such a length of time that the business owner should have known of it or the condition occurred with regularity and was foreseeable. ​

Also, all people entering another person’s property are required to exercise reasonable care for their own safety. Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence standard, if they fall through their own carelessness, their damages may be reduced by the percentage of their fault or recovery may be barred altogether if the injured party is found to be more than 50% at fault.

Causation

The injured person must prove that but for the accident, the injuries would not have happened.

In premises liability cases, causation may or may not be an issue depending on the nature of the accident.

Some injuries may result in an aggravation of a pre-existing medical condition. In cases with pre-existing medical conditions, the claimant can only recover for the extent of the aggravation of the prior injury, not the entire condition.

Damages

A substantial portion of a personal injury settlement comes from damages for pain and suffering. In fact, the greater the pain and suffering damages, the higher the claimant’s net settlement proceeds will be.

Net settlement proceeds is the amount the claimant walk away with after payment of attorney fees and costs and medical expenses. To be entitled to pain and suffering damages, a claimant does not need to prove that his/her injuries are permanent in a premises liability claim. See What damages can you recover in a personal injury case?

How can we help

What Makes Us Different

In personal injury cases, paying more in attorney fees will not result in more money to the client. Attorneys take a percentage of gross settlement for fees and costs. Then, after paying outstanding medical bills, what’s left is the client’s net settlement proceeds. So, the less you pay in attorney fees, the more money you end up with in your pocket.

The goal of the insurance companies is to pay as little as possible. Personal injury attorneys have no “secret sauce” to make an insurance company pay more than the value of the case. Because personal injury cases are evidence-based, it for the most part, all comes down to proper and thorough documentation of liability, causation and damages.

However, personal injury attorneys are not alike. Some attorneys are passive and take a lackadaisical approach in their cases. They will not go an extra mile for their client. Once they sign up a client, they are entitled to their 33%, even when a “settles itself,” such as in cases with clear liability, great causation and damages. Some attorneys are there only for a client sign up. Once they sign up the client, their active involvement in the case for the most part is done and the handling of the case is passed onto to secretaries and paralegals.

Having started my career as a receptionist, moving up to a paralegal and ultimately becoming a lawyer, I’ve worked with and/or supervised at least a dozen of secretaries/paralegals over the past 17 years, and let me tell you – they can be a mess! My most stressful days usually involved dealing with poor work ethnics and/or utter incompetence of the secretaries. Very often I ended up doing their work, which was sometimes easier and quicker. I’ve also had the pleasure working with excellent paralegals. However, those are hard to find since attorneys hold on to them with iron claws.

I take a proactive approach in personal injury cases and I work all cases to their maximum potential using all available tools to thoroughly document and build up a case. I work with clients hand-in-hand and walk them through every step of the process. I guide them through the claim process to obtain both maximum medical and monetary recovery.

We focus on maximizing the value of each case.

We are a small personal injury firm focusing on quality over quantity. We are able to give personalized and maximum attention to each client and each case. Unlike some firms, we are not all about “high volume” and “quick turnover” to make profit or meet a quota. Our goal is to maximize the value of each case and to maximize our clients’ net recovery.

We spend the necessary time building your case, to document your injuries and to engage in back and forth negotiations with the insurance company for as long as it is necessary to fully compensate you for your damages. We will exhaust all available resources and remedies to secure a fair settlement before we recommend to file suit. Litigation is lengthy, expensive, stressful, and does not always result in a higher settlement or higher net settlement proceeds to a client.

We offer reduced contingency fees of 25% to maximize our clients’ net settlement proceeds.

We have reduced our contingency attorney fees to 25% in all cases. This enables our clients to retain more money from their settlement and helps avoid situations where the attorney gets paid more than the injured client.

In Florida, personal injury cases are handled on a contingency basis, which means that attorneys get a percentage of the client’s settlement. In most cases, personal injury attorneys take 33-40% of the gross settlement amount or a court award. Very often, this results in a client walking away with less than the attorney. For example, if a case settles pre-suit for policy limits of $10,000, a personal injury attorney will take a contractual 33% from the settlement amount, or $3,333.33, and any costs the attorney advanced. After payment of outstanding medical bills from the remainder the settlement funds, there is often less than $3,333.00 left for the client as their net settlement proceeds. So, the client may get less than what the attorney was paid.

We are able to reduce our contingency fees from 33-40% to 25% in all cases because we have low overhead expenses and because we focus on maximizing the value of each case, rather than achieving a quick settlement. After all, the higher the settlement, the higher the attorney fee, even at a reduced 25% rate, and the client is fairly compensated. And as a saying goes, “A happy client is a return client.”

Our clients focus on treatment. We do heavy lifting.

Accidents can completely overwhelm and disrupt your life. We take the burden off our clients’ shoulders by handling all aspects of their personal injury claim so that they can focus on treatment and medical recovery. We handle our clients’ property damage claim to ensure that they receive fair replacement value for their vehicle while maintaining transportation. We ensure that the ongoing wage loss, out-of-pocket medical and travel expenses are promptly submitted against any available insurance benefits. We build all personal injury cases from the ground up by gathering the necessary evidence to meet the burden of proof to be entitled to compensation.

We handle most types of personal injury cases- car accidents, motorcycle accident, trucking accidents, bicycle accidents, ATV accidents, pedestrian accidents, slip and fall, premises liability, dog bites, etc. In all types of personal injury cases, the insurance company’s goal is to pay you as little as possible. Having an experienced attorney representing you in your injury claim can help you recover the maximum value of your claim because the attorney can protect you against the insurance company’s bad faith claim processing and settlement, and build and strengthen your injury claim through the required evidence.

From the onset of representation, we promptly investigate the case to establish liability and all sources of available insurance coverage. We gather medical documentation about our clients’ injuries, causation, and damages and secure any necessary experts to support the damages. Finally, we gather any other supporting documentation to substantiate the demand for settlement.

Call us now for a free non-obligation consultation. 386-248-3000.

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