New Port Richey Car Accident Lawyer
Car accident attorneys 15 minutes from New Port Richey, in the same ZIP code
A car accident in New Port Richey starts two clocks at once: the 14 days you have to see a doctor before your own PIP coverage can be denied, and the hours the other driver’s insurer has already spent building its version of what happened. Kemp Law Group’s car accident attorneys have handled crashes on US-19, State Road 54, Little Road and Ridge Road since 2008 from our office at 11567 Trinity Boulevard, in the 34655 ZIP code that shares New Port Richey’s mailing address, and we know how Pasco County adjusters, officers and juries treat these cases.
The firm has recovered over $400 million in settlements for injured clients, including seven-figure recoveries for Pasco County drivers and passengers. Our attorneys are members of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, our Trinity office holds a 4.9-star rating across more than 900 Google reviews, and every case is prepared as if it will be tried at the West Pasco Judicial Center.
Call or text 727-847-4878 any time for a free consultation. You owe no fees and no costs unless we win, and if you cannot travel, we come to you.
Contact us online or call 727-847-4878. Free consultation, 24/7.
Where New Port Richey car accidents happen
Pasco County averages roughly 100 traffic deaths and more than 1,000 serious injuries a year in the five-year figures the Pasco County MPO reports from FLHSMV data, and the west side of the county, from Holiday to Hudson, produces a large share of them. The crashes that reach our office cluster on a few stretches of road:
- US-19 at Trouble Creek Road, Main Street, Marine Parkway and Ridge Road. Six through lanes, long signal cycles and drivers forcing left turns against oncoming traffic. T-bone and left-turn crashes here produce the fractures and head injuries that become the largest claims.
- State Road 54 at Little Road, Rowan Road and Seven Springs Boulevard. Commuter speed meeting stop-and-go turning traffic; rear-end chains at the Little Road light are a weekly event.
- Little Road from Trinity Boulevard to Ridge Road. Plazas, medical offices and the county government complex on both sides, with constant left turns across the median openings.
- Ridge Road and the Suncoast Parkway interchange. Faster traffic since the extension opened, and more serious crashes at Little Road and Moon Lake Road.
- Downtown, Grand Boulevard and Madison Street. Lower speeds but tight intersections, parked cars and pedestrians, especially on event nights around Sims Park.
- Residential arterials: Trouble Creek Road, Rowan Road, Massachusetts Avenue, Congress Street. Failure-to-yield crashes at stop-controlled side streets and driveways.
If your crash happened on one of these roads, there is a good chance a traffic camera, a business camera or a dash camera recorded it. That footage is kept for days, not months. Contact us the same day if you can.
The New Port Richey car accidents we handle
Rear-end collisions
The most common crash on US-19 and SR 54, and the one insurers fight hardest on injuries, because the damage to the cars can look minor while the neck and back injuries are not. Florida presumes the rear driver at fault; proving the injury is where the case is won.
Left-turn and intersection crashes
A driver turning left across US-19 who misjudges a gap is at fault, but the crash report often says “both drivers claim green.” Signal timing records, camera footage and the vehicles’ own data settle it.
Distracted and speeding drivers
Phone records and event data recorders are available in almost every modern vehicle, and we ask for them early. Distracted driving accidents.
Drunk drivers
Pasco County’s DUI crashes concentrate on US-19 and SR 54 after dark. Beyond the driver, a bar or restaurant that served a visibly intoxicated patron can be liable under Florida’s dram shop statute. Drunk driving accidents.
Hit-and-run and uninsured drivers
Florida does not require drivers to carry bodily injury coverage, and roughly one in five Florida drivers carries no insurance at all. These claims are paid by your own uninsured motorist coverage, which is why we review every policy in your household. Hit-and-run accidents.
Rideshare crashes
Uber and Lyft carry up to $1 million in coverage while a driver is on a trip, with a lower layer when the app is on but no ride accepted. Which layer applies is the first fight. Uber and Lyft accidents.
Commercial vehicles
Delivery vans, work trucks and company cars bring the employer’s policy into the case. Five of the firm’s twenty largest recoveries involved a company vehicle.
Passengers
Passengers almost never share fault and can claim against every driver involved, including the one who was driving them. We represent passengers in the same crash separately from drivers when their interests differ.
For crashes anywhere else in Florida, see our Florida car accident practice page.
How Florida law works in a New Port Richey car accident claim
Step one is your own policy. Florida is a no-fault state. Your personal injury protection coverage pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages, up to $10,000, regardless of who caused the crash, but only if you see a medical provider within 14 days, and only $2,500 of it unless a physician documents an emergency medical condition. Miss the window and your own insurer can refuse to pay. Personal injury protection explains the rules; we handle the PIP paperwork for every client so treatment starts and keeps going.
Step two is the at-fault driver, if your injury is permanent. Medical bills above PIP, lost income and property damage can be claimed against the other driver’s bodily injury coverage. Pain and suffering can be claimed only if a physician finds a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant scarring or disfigurement, or death (Florida Statutes § 627.737). Herniated discs with ongoing symptoms, fractures and concussions with lasting effects usually qualify; the proof comes from your treating doctors and imaging, which is why consistent treatment matters to the claim as much as to your recovery.
Fault is shared, and 51 percent ends the case. Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule (§ 768.81) reduces your recovery by your share of fault and bars it entirely if a jury puts you at 51 percent or more. Adjusters know this and use recorded statements to build your share. Do not give one, to any insurer, before you have counsel.
The other driver may have nothing. Florida requires only $10,000 PIP and $10,000 property damage liability, not bodily injury coverage. In many New Port Richey crashes the largest available source of money is the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy and on the policies of relatives you live with. We read every declarations page in the household before we value a case.
Two years. A negligence claim must be filed within two years of the crash (§ 95.11), the same for wrongful death; claims involving a government vehicle or a road defect carry earlier notice requirements under § 768.28.
What the 2023 reforms changed. Juries now see what was paid or is owed for treatment rather than the billed amounts, letters of protection must be disclosed with the referral behind them, and a bad-faith claim against an insurer requires the insurer to have been given a fair chance to pay. The cases that do well under these rules are the ones built carefully from the first appointment, which is what hiring a lawyer early buys you.
After a car accident in New Port Richey: the first 14 days
- Call 911 and stay at the scene. Inside the city limits the New Port Richey Police Department (6739 Adams Street) responds; in unincorporated Pasco it is the Pasco Sheriff’s Office (headquarters 8700 Citizen Drive, New Port Richey); on US-19, SR 54 and the Suncoast Parkway it is often Florida Highway Patrol Troop C. Make sure a crash report is written; a driver exchange form is not enough.
- Get checked the same day. The nearest emergency departments are BayCare Morton Plant North Bay Hospital (6600 Madison Street, New Port Richey), HCA Florida Trinity Hospital (9330 State Road 54, Trinity), and for the most serious injuries HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital in Hudson, the area’s Level II trauma center. An urgent care visit also satisfies the 14-day PIP rule.
- Photograph the scene, the cars, the road and your injuries, and get names and numbers of witnesses before they leave.
- Report the crash to your own insurer, which your policy requires, but give only the facts of when and where. Decline recorded statements from any insurer until you have talked to us.
- Get your crash report through FLHSMV’s Florida Crash Portal once it is filed, usually within a few days; we pull it for every client, along with any body-camera and dash-camera video.
- Keep everything: discharge papers, bills, prescriptions, the tow and repair estimates, and a note of every day of work missed.
If you were hurt and cannot do any of this, call us and we will.
What a New Port Richey car accident claim can include
Past and future medical expenses, lost wages and lost earning capacity, the cost of replacing or repairing your vehicle and anything in it, out-of-pocket expenses such as mileage to treatment, and, where the injury is permanent, non-economic damages for pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish and the loss of enjoyment of life. A spouse may claim loss of consortium. Florida places no cap on these damages in an ordinary negligence case. When a crash is fatal, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act allows the estate and the surviving family to recover lost support, funeral and medical expenses and the loss of companionship.
Results in car and truck accident cases
Recoveries confirmed from the firm’s case records, with details that could identify a client removed:
- $1,500,000 for a driver rear-ended in stopped traffic by a commercial truck whose driver fell asleep at the wheel
- $1,150,000 for a passenger in a pickup struck by a semi on State Road 56 in Pasco County
- $1,102,000 for a driver hit by a landscaping company’s vehicle, requiring fusions of both sacroiliac joints
- $1,000,000 for a passenger with a traumatic brain injury and a neck fusion after a collision with a business owner’s vehicle
- $975,000 for a passenger in a rental car struck broadside, recovered from the at-fault driver’s policy and a $5 million umbrella
- $900,000 for a child passenger whose vehicle was run off the road by a company vehicle whose insurer denied liability
Kemp Law Group has recovered over $400 million in settlements since 2008. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a particular outcome. See more case results.
Who handles your case
Stacy Kemp Ferrari founded Kemp Law Group in 2008 and owns it today, a Stetson University College of Law graduate admitted to The Florida Bar in 2008. Kelly Cook spent years defending large insurance companies before joining the firm and knows how carriers value Pasco County car accident claims from the other side. Cases that need a courtroom are prepared by the litigation team under managing litigation attorney Ian Boettcher. From your first call, a member of our team takes the time to understand what happened, and an attorney reviews every case and stays involved from intake to resolution.
New Port Richey car accident questions
Do I need a lawyer for a minor car accident in New Port Richey?
If you were not hurt, usually not; your insurer handles the property damage. If you were hurt at all, talk to a lawyer before you talk to the other insurer, because the first weeks decide the PIP claim, the fault finding and the medical record the case will rest on. The consultation is free either way.
The other driver was cited. Does that mean I win?
It helps, but a traffic citation is not admissible as proof of fault in a Florida civil case, and insurers still argue comparative negligence. We build fault from the physical evidence, the witnesses and the vehicles’ data, so the case does not depend on the ticket.
My car was totaled. Who pays for it?
The at-fault driver’s property damage liability coverage, or your own collision coverage if you have it, pays the vehicle’s actual cash value. Property damage has no injury threshold and is usually settled quickly; we handle it alongside the injury claim so the two are not traded against each other.
How long will my case take?
Most New Port Richey cases settle within several months to a year, once treatment has reached the point where the permanent injury can be documented. Cases that go to suit in Pasco County’s Sixth Judicial Circuit take longer, and we tell you at the start which path your case is likely to follow.
What if I was partly at fault?
You can still recover as long as your share is 50 percent or less; your recovery is reduced by that share. At 51 percent or more, Florida bars recovery entirely, which is why we never let an adjuster assign fault without a fight.
Will I have to go to court?
Probably not. Most cases settle without a lawsuit, and most lawsuits settle before trial. We prepare every case as if it will be tried at the West Pasco Judicial Center on Little Road, because that preparation is what produces fair offers.
What does it cost?
Nothing up front. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery, set by Florida Bar rules and explained in writing before you sign, and you owe no fees and no costs unless we win.
Talk to a New Port Richey car accident lawyer today
The other driver’s insurer has adjusters and lawyers on your crash already. Call or text 727-847-4878 or contact us online for a free consultation, 24 hours a day. We will tell you honestly whether you have a case, what it is likely worth, and what happens next, and you owe no fees and no costs unless we win.
Kemp Law Group, 11567 Trinity Boulevard, Trinity, FL 34655. Serving New Port Richey, Port Richey, Trinity, Hudson, Holiday, Odessa and all of Pasco County. For other injury cases in the area, see our New Port Richey personal injury lawyer page.
The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
