Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

A Florida injury firm, founded in 2008, that handles the whole claim

Kemp Law Group represents people hurt by someone else’s negligence across all of Florida, and in Georgia through our Georgia-admitted attorney. Stacy Kemp Ferrari founded the firm in 2008 in Pasco County. Since then it has recovered more than $400 million for injured clients and their families, and it carries a 4.9-star rating across more than 950 Google reviews. The work is almost entirely motor vehicle and premises cases: car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle, bus and rideshare crashes; falls on dangerous property; crimes on property that should have been secured; dog bites; and the wrongful death claims that follow the worst of them.

We do not handle medical malpractice or workers’ compensation; if your injury is one of those, we will say so on the first call and point you to the right kind of lawyer. Family law matters are handled separately by the firm’s family law attorney.

Call (727) 847-4878 or contact us online for a free case review. We answer 24 hours a day, every day, and you pay no fee unless we win.

What we handle

• Car accidents: Florida’s no-fault rules, the permanent-injury threshold, uninsured drivers, and what the first 72 hours decide.
• Truck accidents: federal motor carrier rules, driver logs, the trucking company and its insurer.
• Motorcycle accidents: no PIP for riders, the bias riders face, and the coverage that pays.
• Pedestrian accidents: crosswalk and mid-block crashes on roads like US-19 and I-4.
• Uber and Lyft accidents: the $1 million policy that applies during a ride, and the gaps between rides.
• Bus accidents: transit, school and charter buses, and the sovereign immunity rules for public operators.
• Boat accidents: collisions and injuries on Florida’s waters, including rentals and charters.
• Drunk driving accidents: punitive damages and claims against bars that over-served.
• Hit-and-run accidents: recovering through your own coverage when the driver is never found.
• Distracted driving accidents: proving the phone was in use.
• Slip and fall accidents: Florida’s transitory-substance rule and what a store has to have known.
• Negligent security: shootings, assaults and robberies on property with a known danger, under the 2023 rules.
• Dog bites: Florida’s strict liability statute for owners.
• PIP claims: the $10,000 every crash claim starts with, and what to do when the insurer cuts it.
• Insurance claim disputes: denials, delays and lowball offers on liability and uninsured motorist claims.
• Wrongful death: who can file, what each survivor can recover, and the two-year deadline.

Four Florida rules that shape every injury claim

• Two years to file. For an injury on or after March 24, 2023, a negligence lawsuit must be filed within two years under section 95.11; a wrongful death claim has two years from the death. Claims against a city, county or state agency also require written notice under section 768.28 before suit, and recovery against them is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident unless the Legislature passes a claims bill.
• The 51 percent bar. Under section 768.81, a person found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing, and a smaller share reduces the award by that percentage. Insurers push for fault admissions in the first days after an injury for exactly this reason.
• No-fault and the threshold, in motor vehicle cases. Your own PIP coverage pays the first $10,000 of medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault, if you were seen within 14 days. Pain and suffering from the at-fault driver requires a permanent injury under section 627.737. These two rules decide most car accident claims, and they do not apply to falls, negligent security or dog bites.
• What the 2023 reform changed. Evidence of medical bills is limited to amounts actually paid or owed, and treatment under a letter of protection must be disclosed (section 768.0427). A liability insurer that pays its policy limits within 90 days of notice of a claim, with sufficient supporting evidence, is protected from a bad faith claim (section 624.155), which is why our demand packages are built to start that clock with evidence the insurer cannot dispute. Contingency fees and the right to a jury trial did not change.

What a personal injury claim has to prove

Being hurt is not enough. The person bringing the claim has to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the other party owed a duty of care (to drive lawfully, to keep a store floor safe, to secure a property with a known danger), breached it, and caused the injury, and what the injury cost. Each of those four elements is contested in nearly every case, and each is proven with evidence that has a short life: crash and incident reports, vehicle data, camera footage, witness statements, and medical records that document both the injury and its cause. The firm’s first job is to get that evidence before it is gone, and its second is to present it in a way an adjuster or a jury cannot dismiss.

How a claim moves from the first call to a check

1. The free review. An attorney hears what happened, tells you honestly whether there is a claim, and explains the rules that apply to it. If we take the case, the contract is a contingency fee within the Florida Bar’s maximum percentages, and you pay nothing up front.
2. Investigation and preservation. Representation letters go to every insurer; preservation letters go to anyone holding evidence; reports, footage and records are collected; every policy that could pay is identified.
3. Treatment. You treat with your own doctors or with physicians we help you reach, and we keep the medical record complete, because the claim is worth what the records support. We do not settle before your doctors can say what your future care will be.
4. The demand. When treatment is complete or projected, we send the insurer a demand package: liability, medical proof, economic losses and the law, built to meet the 90-day rule.
5. Negotiation or suit. Most claims settle at this stage. When the offer is not what the case is worth, we file suit in the county where the injury happened or the defendant lives, in county court for claims up to $50,000 and circuit court above that.
6. Mediation and trial. Nearly every Florida circuit requires mediation before trial, and most lawsuits settle there. The ones that don’t are tried to a jury. Insurers know which firms try cases, and they pay accordingly.
7. Settlement and disbursement. Liens from health insurers, Medicare, Medicaid and medical providers are negotiated down, costs and the fee are deducted as the contract states, and you receive a written closing statement with every number on it.

What you can recover

Economic damages cover the measurable losses: emergency and ongoing medical care, future treatment, medication and equipment, lost wages, lost earning capacity, household services and property damage. Non-economic damages compensate pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life, and a spouse may have a claim for loss of consortium. Punitive damages are available for intentional misconduct or gross negligence under section 768.72, with the usual cap lifted for a defendant impaired by alcohol or drugs. Florida has no cap on compensatory damages against a private defendant; the practical limit is the insurance and assets available, which is why the policy search in step two is where much of a claim’s value is found.

Results

Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a future outcome. The firm’s largest recoveries show the kinds of cases it handles:

• $2,415,000 in a motorcycle accident
• $2,000,000 for a family in a wrongful death truck accident
• $2,000,000 for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle
• $1,500,000 in a truck accident
• $1,250,000 in a motorcycle accident
• $1,250,000 in a hit-and-run with an uninsured driver
• $1,150,000 in a truck accident
• $1,102,000 in a commercial vehicle accident

See all case results.

Who handles your case

Stacy Kemp Ferrari founded the firm and leads its Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando and Polk County cases; Kelly Cook leads the Hillsborough County practice; Cantrell “Trey” Chism is admitted in Georgia and leads the firm’s Georgia cases; and a litigation team led by Ian Boettcher tries the cases that do not settle. Every client has an attorney’s name and direct contact from the first week, and a case manager who answers the phone. Meet the attorneys.

Where we practice

Kemp Law Group represents injured people throughout Florida and in Georgia, from its office at 11567 Trinity Boulevard in Trinity, by phone, video and in person wherever the case requires. See our pages for Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties, for South Florida, Central Florida, Southwest Florida and North Florida, for Georgia, and for the cities we serve.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a personal injury lawyer cost in Florida?

Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, a percentage of the recovery set within the Florida Bar’s maximum percentages and paid only if we win. The firm advances the costs of the case. If there is no recovery, you owe no fee.

What is my case worth?

No honest lawyer can answer that on the first call. The value depends on the injury and its permanence, the medical bills actually paid or owed, lost income, the fault allocation, and the insurance available to pay. What we can tell you early is which of those will drive your case and what we need to prove it.

How long will it take?

A claim with clear fault and completed treatment can resolve in a few months. A case with a disputed injury, long treatment or a lawsuit takes a year or more. We do not settle before your doctors can say what your future holds, because a settlement is final.

Will I have to go to court?

Most claims settle without a lawsuit, and most lawsuits settle at mediation. Preparing every case as if it will be tried is what produces those settlements, and when a trial is the right answer, the firm tries the case.

Should I talk to the other side’s insurance company?

No. You have no obligation to give the at-fault party’s insurer a recorded statement, and anything that shifts fault to you reduces your recovery under Florida’s comparative negligence rule. Once we are retained, the insurers talk to us.

What if I was partly at fault?

If your share is 50 percent or less, your recovery is reduced by that percentage. Above 50 percent, Florida law bars recovery. The percentage is decided by evidence, not by the adjuster’s opinion.

What should I have ready for the first call?

The crash or incident report if you have it, the other party’s insurance information, photographs, the names of any witnesses, and the names of the doctors or hospitals you have seen. If you have none of that, call anyway; getting it is our job.

Do you handle cases in Georgia?

Yes. Cantrell Chism is admitted in Georgia and leads the firm’s Georgia personal injury cases, which follow Georgia’s at-fault rules rather than Florida’s no-fault system.

If you were hurt because of someone else’s negligence anywhere in Florida or Georgia, call (727) 847-4878 or request a free case review online. We answer 24 hours a day, and you pay nothing unless we win.