Personal Injury Lawyer Serving Brandon, Florida
Contact me today for your free consultation!
Personal Injury Lawyer Serving Brandon, Florida
Contact me today for your free consultation!
Hurt in Brandon? Do Not Let the Insurance Company Decide What Your Case Is Worth.
The moments after a serious accident are overwhelming. You are in pain, you are worried about your job, and your phone is already ringing with calls from an insurance adjuster who is trying to take your recorded statement before you have had a chance to think clearly. That adjuster does not work for you. Their job is to pay out as little as possible and move on. At Martin J. Hernandez, P.A., our job is the opposite. We fight for injured people in Brandon and throughout Hillsborough County, and we have been doing it since 2001. If you or a family member has been seriously hurt in an accident caused by someone else, call us at 813-755-9500. The consultation is free and you pay nothing unless we win.
About Brandon, Florida
Brandon is one of the largest and most established communities in Hillsborough County, with a population of more than 127,000 residents making it one of the biggest unincorporated communities in the entire state of Florida. Situated just east of Tampa along State Road 60, Brandon has grown steadily over the past several decades into a full-service suburb with its own distinct identity. It is not a bedroom community in the way that phrase is sometimes used dismissively. Brandon has its own commercial corridors, its own schools, its own hospital in Brandon Regional, and its own sense of place that the people who live there take genuine pride in.
The community draws families with good schools in the Hillsborough County system, relatively accessible housing compared to Tampa proper, and a central location that puts major employers, the airport, and downtown Tampa all within reasonable reach. The average commute time for Brandon residents is just over 28 minutes, which means most people here spend real time on the road every day. That daily driving is part of what makes understanding Brandon’s road safety picture so important.
What Makes Brandon Roads So Dangerous
Brandon is a high-traffic community built around a handful of major corridors that were not originally designed for the volume they carry today. The combination of heavy commuter traffic, significant commercial truck movement, and a dense network of intersections creates conditions where serious crashes happen on a routine basis.
State Road 60 (Brandon Boulevard) is the main artery running through the heart of the community, and it is consistently one of the most dangerous roads in all of Hillsborough County. The stretch from Falkenburg Road east to Dover Road has appeared repeatedly on county crash data reports as one of the highest-priority corridors for road safety improvements. The intersections at SR 60 and Grand Regency Boulevard and SR 60 and I-75 have each ranked among the most crash-prone in the entire county in multiple reporting periods, with dozens of collisions recorded in a single month at those locations alone.
Interstate 75 cuts through the eastern edge of Brandon and handles a massive volume of both local commuter traffic and long-haul commercial trucks. The interchanges at SR 60, Causeway Boulevard, and Gibsonton Drive are all points where highway speed traffic meets surface road congestion in ways that produce serious and sometimes fatal crashes. Tractor trailer accidents on this stretch of I-75 happen with troubling regularity.
Falkenburg Road and Parsons Avenue serve as major north-south connectors through Brandon and carry the kind of mixed traffic, retail driveways, and turning movements that create opportunities for T-bone and sideswipe collisions at nearly every major intersection.
The Selmon Expressway connects Brandon to downtown Tampa and is a critical commuter route, but lane changes, merging traffic, and high speeds create real exposure for drivers, particularly during the morning and evening rush.
Adding to all of this is the fact that Hillsborough County as a whole recorded more than 26,000 traffic crashes in 2024, resulting in 17,354 injuries and 181 fatalities. Brandon contributes meaningfully to those numbers, and the people behind those statistics are real members of this community.
Personal Injury Cases We Handle for Brandon Residents
No two accidents are exactly alike, and no two clients come to us in the same situation. What we bring to every case is the same: a thorough investigation, an aggressive pursuit of every dollar of compensation available, and a lawyer who is actually present and accountable to you throughout the process. We handle the following types of cases for Brandon and Hillsborough County residents:
What Sets Martin J. Hernandez Apart from Other Brandon Personal Injury Lawyers
Martin Hernandez has practiced personal injury law in the Tampa Bay area since 2001, which means he has been in Hillsborough County courtrooms long enough to know how judges run their dockets, how local juries think, and how the major insurers operating in this market approach litigation. He is one of a very small number of Florida attorneys who has taken more than 100 cases to a jury trial. That is not a number most lawyers can claim, and it matters in ways that go beyond bragging rights.
Insurance companies have internal systems for evaluating cases and the lawyers on the other side. When they know they are dealing with a lawyer who actually goes to trial, who knows his way around the courtroom, and who has the track record to back it up, the conversation changes. Settlements that might otherwise be lowballed get taken more seriously because the other side knows what happens if they do not.
Beyond the courtroom, Martin runs his practice the way he believes a law firm should be run. He meets personally with clients. He knows their names and their situations. He returns calls. He does not believe that hiring a lawyer should mean being handed off to someone you have never met who has 200 other files on their desk.
Here is what that commitment means in practical terms for Brandon clients:
No Upfront Costs, No Fee Unless We Win. Personal injury cases at our firm are handled on a contingency basis. You do not write us a check to get started. You do not owe us anything along the way. Our fee comes out of the recovery we win for you, and if we do not win, you do not owe us anything.
Every Case Built for Trial. We prepare every file as though it is going to a jury. That approach is what gives us leverage in negotiations and what gets clients better outcomes than they would get from a firm that treats settlement as the only option.
A Lawyer Who Is Actually Accessible. You will have direct access to Martin and his team. Questions get answered. Calls get returned. You will always know where your case stands.
What Can You Recover After a Brandon Accident?
Florida law gives injured accident victims the ability to pursue compensation for both the financial losses they have already suffered and the ones they are likely to face in the future. Depending on the specifics of your case, that can include:
Medical bills that have already been paid and costs of treatment still to come. Lost income from time missed at work during recovery. Reduced earning capacity if your injuries affect your ability to work going forward. Physical pain and suffering. Emotional distress and mental anguish. The cost of long-term rehabilitation, in-home care, or adaptive equipment. Property damage to your vehicle and personal belongings.
One thing worth understanding is that Florida’s Personal Injury Protection insurance, which all Florida drivers are required to carry, covers a portion of your initial medical costs and lost wages regardless of fault. But PIP has limits, and in serious injury cases those limits are exhausted quickly. Once you exceed your PIP coverage and your injuries meet the legal threshold for a serious injury claim, you can pursue compensation directly from the at-fault party. That is where having the right lawyer makes an enormous difference in the outcome.
Do Not Wait to Talk to a Brandon Personal Injury Lawyer
Florida gives most accident victims two years from the date of their injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. For incidents that occurred on or after March 24, 2023, that two-year window is the standard deadline. But waiting is never a good idea, even when you technically have time. Physical evidence gets lost or cleaned up. Surveillance video gets overwritten. Witnesses move, forget details, or become difficult to locate. Insurance companies use delay against you.
The sooner you get a lawyer involved, the better shape your case will be in. Call Martin J. Hernandez, P.A. at 813-755-9500, text us, or send us an email to schedule your free, no-obligation consultation. We are available around the clock, seven days a week, and we serve clients throughout Brandon and all of Hillsborough County.
Frequently Asked Questions: Personal Injury Claims in Brandon, FL
Call 911 and get medical attention even if you feel okay at the scene. Injuries like whiplash, soft tissue damage, and concussions can take hours or days to fully present. Take photos of the vehicles, the road, and any visible injuries. Get the other driver’s name, insurance information, and contact details. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company before you have spoken to an attorney. Then call us.
You are not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer, and doing so before you have legal representation is rarely in your interest. Adjusters are trained to ask questions in ways that can minimize the value of your claim or shift blame in your direction. Let us handle those communications from the start.
This is exactly the kind of situation where having a personal injury attorney working your case matters. We can help coordinate treatment with providers who understand personal injury cases and can often work on a lien basis, meaning you may not have to pay out of pocket while your case is pending. Lost wages are also a recoverable part of your claim.
Florida uses a modified comparative negligence system. If you were partially responsible for the crash, your compensation can be reduced by your percentage of fault. However, if you were found to be more than 50 percent at fault, you lose the right to collect anything. That is exactly why it is so important to have a lawyer who can push back against fault arguments from the insurance company and protect your right to recover.
That depends on a number of factors, including the severity of your injuries, the medical treatment you have needed and will continue to need, the impact on your ability to work, the clarity of the other party’s fault, and the insurance coverage available. We give clients an honest assessment based on the actual facts of their case, not inflated promises designed to get them to sign a retainer.
Yes. We represent clients throughout Hillsborough County regardless of where they live. If your accident happened in Brandon, we can help you.
Serving Brandon and the Surrounding Communities
Our firm serves clients throughout Brandon and the surrounding Hillsborough County communities, including Valrico, Riverview, Seffner, Bloomingdale, Gibsonton, and the Fishhawk Ranch area. We know this part of the county well, and we are ready to put that knowledge to work for you.
We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.