Personal Injury Lawyer Orlando FL

We are Leighton Panoff Law and our team of personal injury lawyers in Orlando exist to help people who have suffered the worst loss or injury of their life. We specialize in helping families in serious personal injury and wrongful death cases. It’s all we do, and we have been doing it for over 36 years.

It’s important to understand the difference between personal injury lawyers and personal injury trial lawyers. Any lawyer can claim to be a “personal injury lawyer,” and many do. Many of these lawyers never see the inside of a courtroom. That puts them – and their clients – at a distinct disadvantage.

This is because insurance companies and corporations who cause injuries know who the attorneys are that will try cases. They know who has won verdicts for their clients. The ones who have the skill and resources to take on the most difficult defense attorneys and insurance companies.

Some of the Largest Verdicts & Settlements in Orlando and Central Florida

In Orlando and throughout Central Florida, there is no shortage of lawyers. You can see that just from the billboards, bus benches, taxicab ads and television commercials. But most of these are not trial lawyers with serious track records. When you want the go-to trial lawyers who have won some of the largest verdicts in Orlando, you are in the right place.

Leighton Panoff Law has obtained record-setting awards in serious injury cases throughout the Orlando area. This includes the largest verdict in Seminole County, $24 million for a medical malpractice case (Orlando Business Journal, 6/20/2005). This was followed by Mr. Leighton winning a $24.3 million verdict in Orange County for the family of a police officer killed at a bank ATM. This verdict was recognized by the Daily Business Review awarding Mr. Leighton its “Verdict Hall of Fame” Award for 2015.

We have won other important verdicts for our clients. Like the $7.35 million verdict in Kissimmee for the man who suffered a serious leg injury in a crash with a big rig truck. And $2.8 million for the family of a man killed in a plane crash in Osceola County. In a Citrus County case, we obtained $3 million for the family of a woman killed by a medical mistake.

Mr. Leighton has also recovered a $1.35 million settlement for the family of a teen who was killed in a drunk boating crash in Orlando.

We won $3.5 million for a man injured in a motorcycle crash in Orlando even though the driver of the truck that was the cause only had $50,000 of insurance coverage. Mr.Leighton also won over $1 million for another motorcyclist who was hit by a drunk driver in Kissimmee.

Leighton Panoff Law takes on the biggest and most difficult corporations. Mr. Leighton won a $668,000 verdict for a man injured by a hot coffee spill at a Disney Resort. This is one of many cases we have litigated against Disney and the resorts, hotels, restaurants, malls and businesses in Orlando and Central Florida.

Sometimes our clients are visitors to Orlando who leave with more than just souvenirs. Like the English family who was in a taxicab in Orlando after a theme park visit. The cab made an illegal turn, causing a crash. Leighton Panoff Law recovered $1 million for them for their injuries.

Orlando and the I-4 corridor present lots of dangers on the roadways. In one case, Mr.Leighton obtained $2 million for the parents of a child hit by a truck. In a recent case, Mr.Leighton and Mr. Panoff recovered $6 million for the family of a man struck by a truck that veered out of its lane in Orange County.

There are many other multi-million dollar results we have obtained for our clients in Orlando and Central Florida. For more detailed descriptions of some of our past results, please click here.* But the most important part of any case Leighton Panoff Law takes is the personal attention we give to our clients.

Client-Centered Approach to Personal Injury Cases

We use a client-centered approach to personal injury cases, which separates us from attorneys who do not have the trial experience in litigating serious personal injury cases. That has allowed us to take on the largest corporations and insurance companies…and win. We focus on our clients needs and then map out a strategy to obtain the very best result for them, never losing sight of who they are and what they need.

Personal injury cases are complicated, difficult and expensive. In Florida, there are many laws that we deal with in bringing personal injury cases. None of them were created to help injured Floridians. They are geared to protect business and industry. We use our skill, experience in winning complex cases, and work ethic to the advantage of our clients. So we can beat the insurance companies and big corporations.

Award-winning lawyers

Our success at winning record verdicts and settlements have earned us a lot of recognition. We are regularly referred cases by other lawyers throughout Florida. We have also received awards, including being listed 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 selected by Florida SuperLawyers as a Top 100 lawyer in Florida. He was also selected as “Orlando Legal Elite” by Orlando Style magazine multiple times. All firm partners are recognized by Florida SuperLawyers. Mr. Leighton was once again just chosen by peer review as “Florida Legal Elite” by Florida Trend magazine.

What is an Orlando personal injury case?

Before hiring a personal injury attorney in Orlando it’s important to know is what a personal injury case is. It means that someone has been injured or killed because of a negligent act or because of a crime.

There are several kinds of personal injury cases, but they all have a common thread. They are either caused by negligence, where someone or a business made a mistake, or due to an intentional act, where someone intended to hurt another person. That comes up most often where there is a crime – an attack, sexual assault or abuse.

Most personal injury cases we see can be described in 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, vacation or travel injuries (sometimes known as “Resort Torts”)
  – Pleasure boating accidents
  – Parasailing, scuba diving, jet ski accidents
  – Theme park, amusement or carnival accidents
• Cruise Ship injuries
• Sexual abuse
• Defective product
• Nursing home abuse or neglect
• Construction site accidents
• Brain injuries
• Wrongful death – when someone dies because of any of the things above

In Orlando and the surrounding Central Florida area, we see large numbers of resort and vacation injuries because that’s what our economy is based on. There is no place in America that has theme parks, attractions, lakes and hotels like Orlando and Central Florida. This makes us a destination from everywhere in the world.

When people go on vacation, they leave their cares behind. The problem is that not all resorts or businesses put the proper care in place to protect visitors. We specialize in helping people who have been injured while on vacation in Florida. Click here to see our YouTube video.

When should you contact a personal injury attorney?

Most people don’t think about hiring an attorney right away. That’s a mistake. The reason is that you can be sure that the business, insurance company or person who injured you has gotten a lawyer and their investigators right away. Without your getting a skilled attorney with a team of investigative professionals, evidence may disappear. Witnesses may be coerced into giving statements that are harmful. And even video recordings and surveillance might be recorded over or destroyed.

The sooner we are brought in, the better it is for our clients. As experts in serious personal injury for over 35 years, we know 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.

The best thing about hiring Leighton Panoff Law is that it doesn’t cost our clients anything. We take no fee unless we win a recovery. That means you can hire top notch trial lawyers without paying anything out of your pocket. It costs nothing for clients to call us and discuss their cases. 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 don’t pay us.

Some people make the mistake of 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.

What makes Orlando and Central Florida different from other areas for personal injury cases?

The same things that make Orlando and Central Florida a desirable destination also make it dangerous. Tourists are unfamiliar with our roads. Reckless drivers. Vacationers drinking too much. Speeding boaters. Distracted drivers on their phones. Incompetent or overworked doctors who make mistakes. Huge construction and roadway projects all over Orlando. Theme Parks which are the size of cities. A large number of elderly in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Lots of pleasure boating and jet skiing. Visitors 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 Central Florida makes Orlando, Tampa and the Space Coast a great tourist destination and amazing place to live. But sometimes there are dangers and injuries that follow. When things go wrong and someone is injured or killed, that’s when we help.

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.

What makes Leighton Panoff Law in Orlando the personal law firm to choose?

Bringing serious injury cases in Orlando 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 in Orlando must know how to try a case, not just file a claim.

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

Our concern is for 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.

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 an Orlando 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.

*Disclaimer: The information about past verdicts and settlements of the firm’s cases are based on the unique facts of each case. These amounts reflect the gross recovery in each case (before attorneys fees, expenses and medical costs are deducted). Although these results were obtained by our firm, they may not indicate the success or value of any other case as each case is unique. By clicking on Verdicts and Settlements you are acknowledging that every case is different, and each case must be evaluated on its own merits. The information contained here has not been reviewed or approved by The Florida Bar.