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You shouldn’t have to struggle with the costs and consequences of an unexpected accident or injury on your own – especially when someone else is to blame. Fortunately, you may be able to file an insurance claim or lawsuit and seek compensation for your medical treatment, lost earnings, and suffering. At Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner, our experienced St. Petersburg personal injury lawyers are ready to help you fight to get the compensation you deserve.
At Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner, we’ve dedicated our legal careers to standing up and fighting for victims of devastating car accidents, slip and fall accidents, construction accidents, wrongful death, and other acts of negligence. Our award-winning Florida trial attorneys have 60+ years of combined experience and have successfully won millions of dollars in jury verdicts and settlement awards.
Don’t settle for less than you deserve or give the insurance company an advantage. Get the legal help you need and deserve by calling our law office in St. Petersburg, Florida today. We provide a free consultation and work on contingency – it costs nothing cost to hire our law firm unless we win your personal injury case.
Our team is always standing by to help – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
At Salter, Healy, Rivera, & Heptner, we have helped clients in St. Petersburg and across the state of Florida recover the compensation they need after a serious injury. Some of those include:
Of course, these are just a selection of the many cases that we have handled for clients. Throughout our practice, we have handled cases involving injury in many different ways with many different types of defendants involved. No matter how your injury occurred, we can help. Call today for a free and confidential case evaluation.
It’s true that you don’t have to hire a personal injury lawyer if you’ve recently been in an accident in St. Petersburg, Florida. However, statistically speaking, you are much more likely to win your case and maximize your financial award if you hire an experienced attorney.
Here are just a few of the benefits of working with a top-rated St. Petersburg personal injury attorney:
Ultimately, the last thing an insurance company wants you to do is hire a lawyer. The same goes for negligent parties, hospitals, or corporations who might be responsible for your injuries. Putting an experienced attorney in your corner makes it that much more difficult for them to find a way to sidestep liability and get out of paying you the money you deserve.
At the end of the day, it’s important to know that not all attorneys are created equally. You deserve to work with a law firm that has extensive experience handling cases like yours, the resources needed to win your case, and genuinely cares about the work that it does as it represents its clients.
Your choice of personal injury lawyer matters, which is why Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner should be your first call after an accident in St. Petersburg, Florida.
When you choose Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner, you get a team that includes Board Certified Civil Trial Specialists and former insurance defense attorneys. Plus, together, we have over six decades of experience handling complex personal injury cases like yours.
Ultimately, we want to make a genuine difference in the lives of the clients we represent. We care about your story and are here to help you make the most of your fight for compensation. It’s one of the reasons our client satisfaction is second-to-none.
By choosing our law firm, you’ll have the opportunity to rest and recover while benefiting from our winning approach to personal injury litigation:
At Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner, our injury attorneys are skilled and successful negotiators. However, that doesn’t mean that we would ever sacrifice the quality of your legal representation just to settle your case. We’ll start by preparing your case as if it’s definitely going to trial. This way, we are more than ready to file a lawsuit and fight for maximum compensation in front of a Pinellas County jury.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to our legal team in St. Petersburg if you or a family member has been hurt in an accident. Your first consultation is free, so call now.
Whether you’ve been hurt because of someone else’s negligence or wrongful actions, Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner will be there to help you seek financial justice.
We handle all types of personal injury cases, including:
This is certainly not a complete list of the types of cases that we handle on behalf of clients. Some other common claims that we regularly assist injury victims with include:
Even if you do not see your particular type of case on this page, we encourage you to reach out to a member of our team for a free consultation. Let us help you determine the best steps moving forward for your specific situation. Our team wants to help you get through this difficult time, and we understand how to handle insurance carriers and legal teams.
Seek immediate medical attention after you get hurt in a St. Petersburg accident. If you’re not transported to the hospital by ambulance, make sure you get to the closest emergency room as soon as you can.
Prompt medical treatment can be the difference between life, permanent trauma, and even death, especially when internal injuries are present or adrenaline masks serious symptoms.
Whether you file a claim for insurance benefits or a personal injury lawsuit, you can generally recover economic and non-economic damages for the resulting harm.
Economic awards are issued to make you financially whole after an accident in St. Petersburg. You’ll have to have proof of current expenses or anticipated future costs/losses.
Examples include:
If an accident in St. Petersburg is fatal, families may also be able to secure compensation to cover the cost of a funeral and burial.
For many, the consequences of an accident in St. Petersburg don’t come with a price tag. In these situations, victims can seek non-economic awards for the subjective and personal losses they experience.
Examples include:
Under Florida law, punitive damages can also be awarded in some personal injury cases. However, a jury must find clear and convincing evidence that a defendant acted with gross negligence or intentionally harmed the victim.
If you have the right to pursue compensation, it’s understandable that you’d want to know how much money you can get. While every situation is very different, there are a lot of different factors that will influence the value of your case.
Typically, cases involving catastrophic injuries – like brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and severe burns – are worth more than cases where the physical trauma is less severe. However, never underestimate just how much a seemingly minor injury can affect your life – financially, physically, and psychologically.
To get a clearer picture of what your claim might be worth, speak with a St. Petersburg personal injury at Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner. We’ll walk through the details of your accident, assess your injuries, and evaluate the strength and value of your case.
As long as you’re not entirely at fault, then yes. Florida has pure comparative negligence rules in place. You can recover damages from a third party if you share some responsibility for your accident. However, your damages will be reduced in direct proportion to your degree of fault.
Let’s say your damages totaled $50,000 and you’re assigned 10% of the blame. You’d be able to walk away with a financial award worth $45,000. Why? Your total damages ($50,000) will be adjusted down by 10% ($5,000) to account for your own negligence.
Be ready for insurance companies and liable parties to blame you for your St. Petersburg accident. After all, the more fault you share, the less they’ll be responsible for paying to cover your financial costs and distress. If you don’t fight back – or if you’re unprepared – you could watch valuable compensation disappear.
Don’t let victim-blaming tactics work. Don’t let insurers use their manipulative tactics to get out of paying less than you deserve. Call Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner and have our personal injury attorneys in St. Petersburg represent you.
Our team includes former insurance defense attorneys, so we have first-hand knowledge of the types of hurdles you’ll face in an insurance claim – including (often unsupported) allegations of fault.
You shouldn’t have to worry about the cost of hiring a lawyer after an accident, especially as you’re placed into an increasingly uncomfortable financial situation.
That’s why our St. Petersburg personal injury attorneys represent clients on a contingency fee basis.
There is no upfront cost to hire our personal injury law firm. We front all of the costs and expenses related to litigation. We assume all of the risks. You only pay if we win your case.
Contingent means that there’s no out-of-pocket cost to you. Our fees come directly out of your financial award. Typically, personal injury lawyers in Florida will receive between 33 ⅓ and 40 percent of the money the client wins.
However, this can vary from one case to the next, so it’s important to contact an attorney and discuss their fees before you hire them. Many factors, including their experience and areas of specialization and how difficult your case might be can affect what it will ultimately cost. At the end of the day, an attorney’s fees must be reasonable.
As soon as possible.
A two-year statute of limitations applies to most personal injury lawsuits in the state of Florida. This gives you until the second anniversary of your accident to pursue compensation from liable parties.
If you’ve lost a family member in a fatal accident in St. Petersburg, FL, the statute of limitations is also two years. The clock begins to run on the date of their death.
Missing the deadline imposed by the statute of limitations will mean missing out on the ability to assert your rights and recover compensation.
Facing a procedural deadline isn’t the only reason to call an attorney as soon as you can after your St. Petersburg accident.
A prompt investigation will be critical to the success of your case. Evidence can disappear, get lost, or become damaged over time. Witness memories will begin to change and feed almost immediately. Getting a jumpstart on litigation can help to ensure that your attorney can build the strongest case possible for you.
There are typically three grounds for filing a personal injury lawsuit in the state of Florida: negligence, strict liability, and intentionally harmful actions.
Negligence involves another person’s failure to exercise reasonable care under a situation that, in turn, causes you to get hurt.
In the negligence case, you must prove the defendant owed you a duty of care, breached it, caused your injuries as a result, and that you’ve suffered damages.
Strict liability means that a defendant can be responsible for your injuries regardless of the degree of care they exercised.
Strict liability is most typically seen in cases involving defective products or dog bites.
You can also bring a personal injury action if you got hurt because of someone else’s intentionally harmful actions. In these cases, you must prove that the other person intended to cause harm and that you’ve sustained injuries as a result.
Intentional torts include assault and sexual assault.
Contact Salter, Healy, Rivera & Heptner if you’ve recently been injured or experienced the devastating death of a family member because of an accident in St. Petersburg, Florida. You may have the right to pursue compensation from those responsible, and our St. Petersburg personal injury lawyers are here to help you maximize your financial award.
Benefit from a team of nationally acclaimed litigators with over 60 years of combined experience. To get started, call our law firm in St. Petersburg, FL or reach out to us online. A member of our team is always available to provide the immediate legal assistance you deserve.