Where North Florida’s serious crashes happen
Duval County alone records more than 25,000 crashes and about 180 traffic deaths a year, and Escambia, Leon and Alachua each add thousands of crashes and dozens of deaths; Jacksonville has ranked among the most dangerous large cities in the country for pedestrians for a decade. The corridors that fill our North Florida files:
- I-95, I-295 and I-10 through Jacksonville: the interchanges at the Fuller Warren Bridge, the Buckman Bridge and the I-10 split, with high-speed rear-end chains and the port and rail freight.
- Blanding Boulevard, Beach Boulevard, Atlantic Boulevard, Philips Highway (US-1) and Normandy Boulevard: Jacksonville’s arterials, six lanes of driveways and bus stops with the city’s pedestrian deaths.
- I-10, US-90, Capital Circle, Apalachee Parkway and Tennessee Street in Tallahassee: the state-government and university traffic, with the Capital Circle and Thomasville Road intersections.
- I-10, I-110, US-98, US-29, Nine Mile Road and Davis Highway in Pensacola: the Navy and tourist traffic, the Pensacola Bay Bridge and the beach-road pedestrian crossings.
- I-75, Archer Road, University Avenue, Southwest 13th Street (US-441) and Newberry Road in Gainesville: the university, hospital and game-day traffic, with pedestrians and cyclists on every block.
- US-17, US-301, SR 200 and A1A through Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties: two-lane roads at highway speed carrying the growth of Orange Park, Fernandina Beach and St. Augustine.
If you were hurt on one of these roads, cameras, event data and witnesses exist for days, not months. Contact us as soon as you can so we can preserve them.
Personal injury cases we handle in North Florida
Car accidents
I-95 and I-295 rear-end chains, Blanding and Beach Boulevard left turns, I-10 run-off-road crashes, university-town intersections and uninsured drivers, which in Duval County means roughly one driver in five. Florida’s no-fault rules, the permanent-injury threshold and comparative fault decide these cases, and we explain each below. See the car accident practice page.
Truck and commercial vehicle accidents
The JaxPort and rail freight, the I-10 and I-95 semis, the pulp and timber trucks of the Panhandle and the construction and delivery fleets on every arterial. These cases turn on federal hours-of-service and maintenance records and on reaching the truck’s data before it is overwritten. Truck accidents.
Motorcycle accidents
The Panhandle beaches, the Ocala-to-Jacksonville back roads and the Pensacola and Jacksonville arterials are year-round riding country, and drivers turning across them are the riders’ main danger. Drivers who “didn’t see” a rider are still responsible for the injuries they cause. Motorcycle accidents.
Pedestrian and bicycle accidents
Jacksonville’s arterials, Gainesville’s and Tallahassee’s campus streets and Pensacola’s beach roads put walkers and cyclists in front of fast traffic, with long blocks and few crossings. Pedestrians and cyclists have the same right to recover as anyone else, and your own PIP policy covers you on foot. Pedestrian accidents.
Rideshare, hit-and-run and drunk-driving crashes
Uber and Lyft crashes, hit-and-run claims paid through uninsured motorist coverage, and drunk-driving cases that can include a dram shop claim against the bar.
Slip and fall and premises injuries
The malls and big-box stores, grocery stores, restaurants, hotels and beach resorts, the university housing and apartment complexes, stadiums and parking lots. Florida requires proof the business knew or should have known of the hazard, and surveillance video is overwritten within days. Slip and fall accidents.
Negligent security
Assaults and shootings at apartment complexes, gas stations, bars and motels where the owner ignored known crime and skipped basic lighting, cameras or staffing. Negligent security.
Dog bites
Strict liability for the owner, usually paid by homeowner’s insurance. Dog bites.
Wrongful death
When a crash or a fall takes a family member, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act allows the estate and the surviving spouse, children and parents to recover lost support, funeral and medical expenses and the loss of companionship. Wrongful death.
Insurance and PIP disputes
Carriers that cut off benefits, deny treatment as unrelated or lowball uninsured motorist claims. Insurance claims and personal injury protection.
The Florida law that decides a North Florida injury claim
Two years to file. Florida’s statute of limitations for negligence is two years from the injury (Florida Statutes § 95.11), the same as for wrongful death. Claims against Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau, Alachua, Leon, Escambia or Santa Rosa County, the City of Jacksonville, another city, JTA or another transit agency, a school district, a university or a state agency carry separate notice requirements under § 768.28 and should be opened early.
Modified comparative negligence. Under § 768.81 a jury’s finding that you were 50 percent or less at fault reduces your award by that share; 51 percent or more bars recovery. Insurers build your share in recorded statements. Do not give one without counsel.
No-fault first. Florida requires $10,000 of personal injury protection on every registered car (§ 627.736). It pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages up to that limit, only if you are seen by a medical provider within 14 days, and only $2,500 of it unless a physician documents an emergency medical condition.
Pain and suffering needs a permanent injury. Non-economic damages against the at-fault driver require proof of a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant scarring, or death (§ 627.737). Consistent treatment and imaging supply that proof.
Uninsured drivers. Florida does not require bodily injury coverage and roughly one driver in five carries none. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy, and on the policies of relatives in your household, is often the largest source of recovery in a North Florida crash. We read every policy in the household before we value a case.
Premises and security cases. A business owes its customers reasonable care; for a fall on a transitory substance, § 768.0755 requires proof the business knew or should have known of it, which is why video, inspection logs and incident reports matter. For negligent security, prior crime at and around the property is the evidence, and county public records make it available.
What changed in 2023. Juries now hear what was paid or owed for treatment rather than billed charges; letters of protection are disclosed with the referral; and bad-faith claims against insurers require the insurer to have been given a fair chance to pay. Cases built correctly from the first appointment do well under these rules.
What you can recover. Medical expenses past and future, lost wages and earning capacity, out-of-pocket costs, property damage, and, where the injury is permanent, pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life. Florida places no cap on these damages in an ordinary negligence case. A spouse may claim loss of consortium.
North Florida resources after an accident
In an emergency, call 911. These are the courts, agencies and hospitals a North Florida injury claim runs through.
Courthouses
Duval County cases are filed in the Fourth Judicial Circuit at the Duval County Courthouse, 501 West Adams Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202; Alachua County cases in the Eighth Circuit at the Alachua County Family and Civil Justice Center, 201 East University Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601; Leon County cases in the Second Circuit at the Leon County Courthouse, 301 South Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32301; and Escambia County cases in the First Circuit at the M.C. Blanchard Judicial Building, 190 West Government Street, Pensacola, FL 32502. Most of our cases settle without a lawsuit; the ones that do not are filed in the county where the crash happened.
Crash reports and police
In Jacksonville the consolidated Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigates crashes citywide; elsewhere the city police (Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Orange Park, St. Augustine) inside the city limits and the Alachua, Leon, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Clay, St. Johns and Nassau County Sheriff’s Offices outside them; on the interstates, the Florida Highway Patrol. Reports are available to the people involved through FLHSMV’s Florida Crash Portal within a few days; we obtain them for every client, along with body-camera and dash-camera video.
Trauma centers and hospitals
The region has two Level I trauma centers, UF Health Jacksonville, 655 West 8th Street, Jacksonville, FL 32209, and UF Health Shands Hospital, 1600 Southwest Archer Road, Gainesville, FL 32610; its Level II centers are Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, 1300 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308, and Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, 5151 North 9th Avenue, Pensacola, FL 32504. Other hospitals our clients are treated at include Baptist Medical Center and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, HCA Florida North Florida in Gainesville, HCA Florida Capital in Tallahassee and Baptist Hospital in Pensacola.
If you were treated at any of these facilities after someone else’s negligence, keep every discharge paper and bill; they are the first documents we ask for.
How Kemp Law Group handles North Florida cases
Our office is at 11567 Trinity Boulevard in Trinity, in Tampa Bay, and we have represented clients across Florida from it since 2008. For a North Florida case that means the work you never see happens the same way it does for a client down the street: we open the claim and sign you up by phone, video and e-signature the day you call; we order the crash report, the 911 audio, the body-camera and business video and the medical records from UF Health, Baptist, Tallahassee Memorial, Sacred Heart or whichever hospital treated you; our investigators photograph the scene and find the witnesses; and we negotiate with the same insurers, who are not local either. When a serious injury keeps you at home or in the hospital, we come to you. If your case has to be tried, it is filed in your county and tried there; Florida Bar admission is statewide, and our attorneys appear in every circuit. Most of our clients outside Tampa Bay never make the drive, and nothing about the case requires it.
Results for injured clients across Florida
Kemp Law Group has recovered over $400 million in settlements since 2008. Recoveries confirmed from the firm’s case records include:
- $2,415,000 for a motorcycle rider with a traumatic brain injury struck by a car
- $2,000,000 for the family of a driver killed by a commercial carrier’s truck
- $2,000,000 for a 64-year-old pedestrian struck while crossing the road
- $1,500,000 for a driver rear-ended in stopped traffic by a commercial truck whose driver fell asleep
- $1,250,000 for a motorcyclist hit by a truck that failed to yield
- $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
Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a particular outcome. See more case results.
Who handles your North Florida case
Stacy Kemp Ferrari founded Kemp Law Group in 2008 and owns it today. A graduate of Stetson University College of Law, admitted to The Florida Bar in 2008, she has represented injured people across Florida for her whole career; the firm is based in Tampa Bay and handles cases in every Florida circuit. Florida Bar admission is statewide, so the firm’s attorneys appear in your county’s courts the same as in ours; 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.
The firm’s office holds a 4.9-star rating across more than 900 Google reviews, from clients across Florida.
North Florida personal injury questions
Do you have an office in North Florida?
No. Our office is in Trinity, in Tampa Bay, and we represent clients throughout North Florida from it by phone, video and e-signature, with home and hospital visits for serious injuries; if a case is tried, it is tried in your county, where our attorneys appear the same as in ours. Nothing about a personal injury case requires you to come to us, and none of our North Florida clients pay more because of the distance.
How long do I have to file a claim in Duval, Leon, Escambia or Alachua County?
Two years from the date of injury for negligence and wrongful death claims, anywhere in Florida. Claims against a county, the City of Jacksonville or another city, a transit agency, a university or a state agency have earlier notice deadlines, so call sooner if a government vehicle or property was involved.
What if the insurer says I was partly at fault?
Florida reduces your recovery by your share of fault and bars it entirely at 51 percent or more. Adjusters assign fault to limit payouts; we investigate independently, pull camera footage and vehicle data, and advise clients not to give recorded statements before speaking with us.
The driver who hit me had no insurance.
We look first to the uninsured motorist coverage on your policy and on the policies of relatives you live with, then to any other responsible party: an employer, a vehicle owner, a bar that over-served a drunk driver.
I was hit crossing a Jacksonville road. Is that a case?
Often, yes. Pedestrians have the same right to recover as drivers, the businesses along Blanding, Beach and Atlantic have cameras on their driveways, and your household’s PIP and uninsured motorist coverage can apply even when you were on foot. We send preservation letters the week you call, because that footage is kept for days.
Will I have to travel to Tampa Bay?
No. The consultation, the paperwork, the updates and the settlement are all handled by phone, text, video and e-signature; our investigators and records requests go to your area, not the other way round. If a case is tried, the trial is in your own county.
What does a North Florida personal injury lawyer 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. The consultation is free.
Talk to a North Florida personal injury lawyer today
The insurer already has adjusters, investigators and lawyers on your case. You should have the same. 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 Jacksonville, Orange Park, St. Augustine, Fernandina Beach, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Navarre, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City and all of North Florida and the Panhandle, by phone, video and e-signature, with home and hospital visits for serious injuries.
The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
