Personal injury lawyer in Tampa and the Tampa Bay area

Hurt in the Tampa Bay area: where to start

If you were injured because of someone else's carelessness anywhere around Tampa Bay, our office at 1600 E 8th Ave, Suite A200, Tampa, FL 33605 can meet with you by appointment, in English or Spanish. The first consultation is free and confidential.

This page is about the local side of a claim: the counties we cover, what federal crash records show about the roads, which hospitals treat the most serious injuries, and which courts hear the cases. General rules that apply everywhere in Florida are on our statewide personal injury page.

Short answer: a Tampa-area injury claim is built the same way as any Florida claim: prove a duty, a failure to meet it, and the harm it caused. What changes locally is the evidence, the hospitals that hold your records, and the circuit court where a lawsuit would be filed.

The counties our Tampa office covers

The seven counties below hold about 4,734,037 residents in the 2020 Census. Crash figures come from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for 2019–2023 and count only crashes in which someone died, so they are a lower-bound picture of how often people are hurt.

Across these seven counties, FARS lists 3,582 fatal crashes in that period, with 1,242 involving a pedestrian. About 55% happened in the dark. Those numbers say nothing about any one person's case, but they do show that serious injuries here are not rare, and that a good share of them involve people on foot.

Roads that come up again and again

FARS records the road for each fatal crash. In Hillsborough County, the most frequently named roads are US 41, I-75, SR 60 and US 301. In Pinellas County they are US 19, SR 688, SR 60 and I-275, and in Pasco County US 19, SR 54, SR 52 and US 301. Several of those are long, busy arterials rather than interstates, which matters for injury claims: intersections, driveways, bus stops and crosswalks create many chances for a driver to fail to see a pedestrian or a turning vehicle.

If your injury happened on one of those corridors, the details of the exact location, such as signal timing, lighting and nearby businesses with cameras, can be as important as the injury itself.

Where seriously injured people are treated

Florida's Department of Health lists designated trauma centers by county. In the Tampa-area counties we cover, the state list, last updated July 23, 2026, includes:

Medical records from these hospitals are often the central evidence in a claim. Tell every provider how the injury happened, keep copies of discharge papers, and ask for your billing statements as they arrive. Hernando County has no trauma center on the state list, so people hurt there are often treated elsewhere.

Courts and where a case would be filed

Lawsuits are filed in the circuit that covers the county where the incident happened or the defendant is found. Hillsborough County is in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit; Pinellas and Pasco counties are in the Sixth Judicial Circuit; Polk County is in the Tenth Judicial Circuit. Since January 1, 2023, Florida county courts hear civil claims up to $50,000 and larger claims go to circuit court, so many injury cases with serious medical treatment are circuit court cases.

Questions people in Tampa ask first

Do I need to call the police? If someone is hurt or damage looks significant, yes. A police report is useful evidence, and Florida law requires drivers to report certain crashes. Our car accident page covers the first steps.

What if I was walking or cycling? Pedestrian and cyclist cases are common in the crash records above. Your own auto policy's PIP coverage may apply even if you were not in a car; see our PIP guide.

What if it happened at a store, hotel or apartment? Different rules apply to falls and other hazards on property. See our Tampa slip and fall page.

What if I think I may have partly caused the incident? You may still have a claim. See our comparative fault guide.

Communities nearest our Tampa office

Many clients come from outside the city limits. This table lists the larger communities for which Tampa is the nearest of our three offices. Distances are measured in a straight line from the office address, not by road, so your drive will be longer.

Not seeing your town above? Call us regardless, because the firm takes cases across Florida depending on the case type and venue.

What happens after you call

1. We listen, ask for the basics, and tell you honestly whether we can help. There is no charge for the conversation.
2. If we take your case, we begin gathering records: police reports, medical records, photographs and any video.
3. Your attorney keeps in touch as treatment continues, since a claim should not be valued until your doctors know your outlook.
4. We negotiate with the insurers and, if needed, file suit before the deadline, which is generally two years for incidents after March 24, 2023 (Fla. Stat. § 95.11). See our deadline guide.

Keeping track of what you spend

Out-of-pocket costs add up after an injury: prescriptions, co-pays, parking at the hospital, mileage to physical therapy. Keep receipts and a running list. These costs are part of a claim, and they are easy to forget a year later.

Visit or call

Visits are by appointment. If travel is hard while you are recovering, ask whether we can meet some other way.

General information, not legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship, and every case depends on its own facts. For qualifying personal injury matters the firm works on a contingency-fee basis, so attorney fees are not collected unless there is a recovery. Last updated: 2026-10-16.

View all locations →