Personal Injury Lawyer Serving Riverview, Florida
Contact me today for your free consultation!
Personal Injury Lawyer Serving Riverview, Florida
Contact me today for your free consultation!
Seriously Injured in Riverview? Get Legal Help Before You Talk to Anyone Else.
If you have been hurt in an accident in Riverview, the clock starts moving the moment it happens. Evidence gets cleared from the scene. Insurance adjusters start working the file. Medical bills begin arriving before you have had a chance to breathe. And if you are like most people, you have no idea what your case is actually worth or what rights you have under Florida law. That is exactly what we are here for. Martin J. Hernandez, P.A. has been representing injured people throughout Hillsborough County since 2001, and we serve the Riverview community from our local office. Call us at 813-755-9500 for a free consultation. You owe us nothing unless we win your case.
About Riverview, Florida
Riverview is one of the most remarkable growth stories in all of Florida. Since 2000, the community’s population has grown by more than 850 percent, making it one of the fastest-growing communities in the entire southeastern United States. What was once a quiet, semi-rural area south of Brandon along the Alafia River has become a thriving community of more than 115,000 residents, with new subdivisions, schools, shopping centers, and medical facilities continuing to come online year after year.
Riverview is unincorporated, meaning it falls entirely under Hillsborough County jurisdiction rather than having its own city government. That distinction matters in more ways than one. It shapes the road infrastructure, the planning decisions, and the pace at which public resources have been able to keep up with the explosive demand placed on them by a population that has essentially multiplied tenfold in a generation. The median household income in Riverview is over $100,000, reflecting a largely professional, family-oriented community. The median age is 36, and a significant portion of the population includes households with children under 18, which gives the community a real stake in the safety of its roads and neighborhoods.
Riverview sits along the Alafia River and borders communities including Gibsonton, Valrico, Bloomingdale, and Apollo Beach. Its central location in southern Hillsborough County puts it squarely in the middle of some of the county’s most heavily traveled transportation corridors.
Why Riverview Roads Demand Your Full Attention
The road infrastructure in Riverview has struggled to keep pace with the community’s growth. Major corridors that were adequate for a fraction of today’s population now carry volumes of traffic they were never designed to handle. The result is a road network where serious crashes are a consistent reality, not a rare event.
US Highway 301 is Riverview’s most dangerous road by nearly any measure. The intersections of US 301 and Big Bend Road and US 301 and Gibsonton Drive have both been identified among the most dangerous intersections in all of Hillsborough County, appearing repeatedly in crash data reports from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. In 2026 crash corridor data, the intersection of US 301 and Big Bend Road recorded 39 accidents in just a four-month window, making it the single highest-crash location in the entire county during that period. Fatal crashes on US 301 in Riverview have involved drivers running red lights, high-speed collisions, and multi-vehicle pileups that have claimed lives and left families devastated.
Big Bend Road has become one of the most important and most dangerous corridors in southern Hillsborough County. Its role as an east-west connector through a densely developing area means it carries a constantly increasing mix of commuter traffic, school traffic, delivery vehicles, and commercial trucks. The crash pattern along Big Bend Road reflects what happens when a road grows functionally without growing physically.
Interstate 75 runs through the heart of Riverview’s geography and connects the community to Tampa to the north and to Sarasota and points south. The interchanges at Gibsonton Drive and Big Bend Road are consistent crash hotspots, with tractor-trailer accidents, motorcycle crashes, and multi-vehicle collisions occurring with troubling regularity. Fatal crashes on I-75 in the Riverview corridor have been reported multiple times in recent years, including a multi-fatality crash on southbound I-75 and a deadly motorcycle crash at the Gibsonton Drive exit where a driver failed to yield to a rider approaching the ramp.
Bloomingdale Avenue and Causeway Boulevard round out the picture of a community where growth has outpaced road safety, and where the consequences fall hardest on the people who live and commute there every day.
Personal Injury Cases We Handle for Riverview Residents
We represent injured people across the full range of personal injury case types. Whatever the circumstances of your accident, we want to hear what happened, review the facts honestly with you, and give you a clear picture of your options.
What It Means to Work with Martin J. Hernandez
Martin has practiced personal injury law in the Tampa Bay area since 2001. He is one of the very few Florida attorneys who has tried more than 100 cases to a jury verdict, which puts him in a position that most personal injury lawyers never reach. That courtroom experience is not just a credential on a wall. It is something the insurance industry tracks and responds to.
When an insurer evaluates a personal injury claim, one of the things they consider is whether the attorney on the other side has actually taken cases to trial and won. A lawyer who always settles is a lawyer whose settlement demands carry a certain ceiling. A lawyer who walks into Hillsborough County courtrooms ready to try cases changes that calculus entirely.
What is equally important, and what Martin takes as seriously as the legal work itself, is how clients are treated throughout the process. He meets personally with clients at the start of their cases. He does not hand files off to paralegals and disappear. He answers questions and returns calls. He runs his practice the way he believes a law firm should be run, because he has seen firsthand how much it matters to people who are going through one of the most difficult periods of their lives.
Contingency Fee Representation. You pay nothing to start and nothing along the way. Our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you. If we do not win, you owe us nothing.
Prepared to Go to Trial. We build every case as though it is heading to a Hillsborough County courtroom, because sometimes it does, and because that preparation is what gets clients better results even when cases settle.
Clear Communication Throughout. You will always know the status of your case. We do not leave clients wondering what is happening.
Local Knowledge That Matters. Riverview is in our backyard. We know the roads, the courts, the judges, and the landscape of personal injury litigation in southern Hillsborough County.
Understanding Your Rights After an Accident in Riverview
Florida is a no-fault auto insurance state, which means after a car accident, your own Personal Injury Protection coverage is the first source of payment for your medical bills and a portion of your lost wages, regardless of who caused the crash. PIP covers 80 percent of reasonable medical expenses and 60 percent of lost wages up to your policy limits, typically $10,000.
The problem is that serious injuries almost always exceed PIP limits quickly. Once you have exhausted your PIP coverage and your injuries meet Florida’s serious injury threshold, you have the right to bring a claim directly against the at-fault driver for your full damages. That includes past and future medical costs, the full scope of your lost income, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and any ongoing care needs tied to your injuries.
Understanding how these layers of coverage interact, and how to position your claim to pursue the maximum available compensation, is exactly what we do. We handle the insurance complexity so you can focus on your recovery.
Time Limits Matter: Do Not Wait to Call a Riverview Personal Injury Lawyer
For most personal injury cases arising from incidents that occurred on or after March 24, 2023, Florida gives you two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. That may sound like a reasonable amount of time, but the practical reality is that the strongest cases are built early, when evidence is fresh, witnesses remember what happened, and the full picture of your injuries is being documented by medical professionals who understand personal injury claims.
Claims involving government-owned vehicles or government-maintained roads can have notice requirements as short as three months from the date of the incident. Waiting, even for a few weeks, can make a meaningful difference in the strength of your case.
Call Martin J. Hernandez, P.A. today at 813-755-9500, text us, or send us an email. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and your first consultation costs you nothing.
Frequently Asked Questions: Personal Injury Claims in Riverview, FL
Yes. Because Riverview is an unincorporated community, all civil cases including personal injury lawsuits fall under Hillsborough County jurisdiction. Martin has extensive experience in the Hillsborough County court system and is well positioned to represent Riverview clients.
Yes, but claims against government entities involve specific notice requirements and shorter deadlines than standard personal injury claims. You may need to file a formal notice of claim within three months of the incident. This is one of the most important reasons to contact an attorney as soon as possible after any accident involving a government vehicle or a roadway defect.
Do not accept that assessment at face value and do not sign anything. Insurance companies routinely minimize injury severity in the early stages of a claim, before the full picture of your medical treatment and recovery is known. Once you accept a settlement and sign a release, you give up the right to pursue additional compensation, even if your condition turns out to be worse than initially understood. Get an attorney involved before you make that decision.
Florida’s modified comparative negligence system means that fault can be divided between the parties to an accident. If you were partially at fault, your compensation is reduced proportionally. If you were more than 50 percent at fault, you lose the right to recover anything. What the other driver says at the scene is not the final word on how fault is assigned. A proper investigation, including traffic camera footage, witness accounts, physical evidence, and expert reconstruction if necessary, tells a more complete story. That is the kind of investigation we conduct.
It depends. Cases where liability is clear and injuries are well documented can sometimes resolve in a matter of months after treatment is complete. Cases with disputed liability, serious injuries requiring surgery or extended care, or commercial vehicle defendants tend to take longer and may require filing a lawsuit to reach a fair outcome. We give every client a realistic assessment at the start and keep them informed as things develop.
A police report is helpful and we always recommend calling 911 after any accident. But it is not the only evidence that matters in a personal injury case, and its absence does not necessarily prevent you from pursuing a claim. We work with what is available and build the strongest possible record from the evidence that exists.
Serving Riverview and Southern Hillsborough County
Our firm represents clients throughout Riverview and the surrounding communities of southern Hillsborough County, including Gibsonton, Bloomingdale, Valrico, Apollo Beach, Ruskin, Sun City Center, and the SouthShore corridor. We are local, we are accessible, and we are ready to fight for you.
We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.