Miami Personal Injury Lawyer

Many people feel that they know about personal injury cases from what they see on television or from movies.

While that may give some a glimpse into a small part of what personal injuries are about, much of it is fiction and certainly does not do justice to our mission of providing justice to our clients in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. If you have been injured in Miami in an accident, you will need the help of a skilled Miami personal injury lawyer to get the most out of your case. There is much more to it than just making a claim and settling a case.

Leighton Panoff Law – Miami Personal Injury Attorneys

Make no mistake: personal injury cases are complicated and difficult. The law is not set up to help injured victims of negligence or crime. It takes experience, knowledge, skill and a lot of hard work to bring a personal injury case to a successful conclusion.

At Leighton Panoff Law, our skills have earned us awards including listing in The Best law Firms in America by U.S. News. Mr. Leighton has been selected for The Best Lawyers in America for over a dozen years, as well as selection by Florida SuperLawyers as a Top 100 lawyer in Florida. All firm partners are recognized by Florida SuperLawyers. The firm is also selected by the South Florida Legal Guide as a “Top Firm” and Mr. Leighton has been repeatedly selected as “Florida Legal Elite” by Florida Trend magazine.

Miami Personal Injury Attorney – What is a personal injury case?

The first thing to know is what makes something a personal injury case. There are many types of personal injury cases in Miami and in general. The one thing they all have in common is that they are cases that occur because of an injury of death to someone. It may be caused by negligence (someone made a mistake) or an intentional act (someone e intended to hurt another).

Most of the cases that our personal injury Lawyers in Miami handles fall into one of the following categories:

Car or truck crash

Falls – slip or trip and fall

Medical malpractice:

(where a doctor, hospital or health care provider makes a mistake)

Motorcycle or bicycle crash

Violent crime/negligent security: injured from a criminal act

Resort Tort/Vacation
or travel injuries

(Pleasure boating accidents)
(Parasailing, scuba diving, jet ski accidents)
(Theme park, amusement or carnival accidents)

Cruise Ship injuries

Sex abuse

Defective product

Nursing home abuse or neglect

Construction site accidents

Brain injuries

Wrongful death

(the resulting death from any personal injury incident or accident)

In Miami and South Florida, we see a large number of resort and vacation injuries because we are a vacation and tourist-oriented economy. In fact, The Port of Miami is the largest cruise port in the world. When someone is injured aboard a cruise ship or while on a cruise vacation, by contract most of the cruise lines require that the cases be filed in Miami, Florida (and within one year from the date of the injury).

When should you contact a Miami personal injury attorney?

This is a question we are often asked. The simple answer is “as soon as you can.” You can be sure that the other side, usually an insurance company or large corporation, is a sophisticated business which will use every possible advantage. That means evidence may disappear. Witnesses may be coerced. Video and surveillance may be recorded over or destroyed.

The earlier we are involved the better for our clients. Having practiced exclusively serious personal injury and wrongful death for over 35 years, we are experienced in how to prepare a case, preserve evidence, obtain witness statements, save precious information for use later, and in general handle your case from beginning to end. For all these reasons and more, it is highly recommended you hire a Miami personal injury lawyer to help you manage your case.

We are often hired by other lawyers around the state and around the country to take over their cases. When that happens, we may or may not have the evidence we would ordinarily save. Given the fluid nature of visitors and residents of Miami and South Florida, our investigators work hard to locate witnesses and preserve evidence.

One of the great things about what we do is that it costs nothing for clients to call us and discuss their cases. We do not take any fee unless we win the case. That means we handle the case from beginning to end – whether it is settled or goes to trial – without being paid until our client recovers. If there is no recovery, they do not pay us.

The other thing they don’t show you on TV is that cases and litigation can be quite expensive. We advance the expenses for our clients and, just like our fees, we do not get that back unless we win the case.

The mistake a lot of people make is trying to handle their own personal injury case. That almost never has a happy ending, and usually results in damage to the case in the end. Having an experienced Miami personal injury attorney at your side really makes a difference.

What makes Miami and Fort Lauderdale different from other areas for personal injury cases?

The same things that make South Florida unique and desirable also make it, at times, a dangerous place. Visitors unfamiliar with the roads. Reckless drivers. Vacationers drinking too much. Speeding boaters. Distracted drivers. Cruise lines more concerned with their bottom line than the safety of passengers. Doctors who couldn’t get jobs in other places opening up office in paradise. Massive construction projects seemingly at every corner. An elderly population that is sometimes dependent on nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Massive pleasure boating and jet skiing on the hundreds of miles of waterways and bays. Tourists whose drinks get spiked by predators who then rape or rob them. Slippery walkways at resorts and hotels. Drivers who think that motorcycles and bicycles are invisible.

These are all situations we have seen and cases we handle. Our unique geographic area and culture in Florida makes Miami and Fort Lauderdale a tourist and living destination. But there are many hazards as well. Unfortunately we are involved when things go wrong.

Our goal is to make our community a safer place by bringing important cases that will result in increased safety. We have been instrumental in creating new standards, improving safety at hotels, within businesses, and even police departments.

Bringing cases in Miami and this region includes having the skills to know how to select juries in one of the most culturally and racially diverse areas in the United States. The personal injury lawyer must know how to try a case, not just file a claim.

Get help from our experienced Miami personal injury lawyers?

Our Miami personal injury law office provides the hub for our attorneys and staff. With a dozen professionals working from our Brickell Avenue office overlooking Biscayne Bay, we handle cases throughout Florida.

Leighton Panoff Law has won some of the most significant verdicts and settlements in Florida. We encourage you to review some of our representative verdicts and settlements to get an idea of the types of cases we handle and how our caring for our clients results in outstanding recoveries.

Our concern is our client. Communication between our client and our lawyers and staff is essential for us to understand what our client’s needs and wants are. We can then better work to achieve a great recovery.

Our Miami injury lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants, nurse paralegals, investigators and staff are all based in Miami to provide our South Florida clients the highest quality of representation. While awards and recognition are nice, it is the results we obtain for our clients that really matter.

When you are looking for an attorney after an accident or injury, find out about the qualifications of the lawyer. Most “personal injury” lawyers are not trial lawyers. If someone is not a trial lawyer, that means in all likelihood they are not going to court. If they are inexperienced at trying cases to a jury, that may adversely affect the value of a client’s case. It certainly puts the client at a disadvantage when facing an insurance company.

At Leighton Panoff Law we evaluate every case as if it will end up being tried before a jury. That way we are always assembling evidence and preparing the case for trial. Managing partner John Leighton is a board certified trial lawyer, the highest professional certification available for trial attorneys. He is also the Chairman of the Academy of Trial Advocacy and a Diplomate of the National College of Advocacy. He is often called upon to teach other trial lawyers around the country on topics such as trial skills, jury selection, deposition skills and other substantive areas of the law.

When choosing a Miami personal injury lawyer, beware of lawyers who have not tried and won substantial cases. When you look carefully for the lawyers for your case, you will want someone who uses a team approach and also has the experience of successfully winning cases like yours.

At Leighton Panoff Law, we have always adhered to the idea that we have trademarked: Serious Lawyers for Serious Cases. We always have, and we always will.