Fort Walton Beach Personal Injury Lawyer

Hiring a lawyer after being hurt in an accident due to someone else’s fault is the best thing you can do. Here’s why:

• You’re More Likely to Maximize Your Financial Recovery. It’s true: hiring a lawyer doesn’t just make you more likely to win; it sets you up to win more money. One study found that people who hire lawyers recover up to 3.5 times as much in damages than those who handle disputes on their own.
• You Deserve the Opportunity to Focus on Your Health. You just won’t have the time you need to focus on your physical and emotional health if you’re trying to navigate a complicated claim after your accident. Hiring a lawyer gives you the opportunity to focus on getting better and puts your case in skilled hands.
• You Don’t Want the Insurance Company to Have an Advantage. As former insurance defense attorneys, we can tell you that insurers love when victims handle cases on their own. Why? It’s new to you. Insurance providers, on the other hand, handle thousands of claims a year. They know every aspect of the claims process and understand how to maximize company profits – at the expense of injury victims like you. Hiring a lawyer takes away their advantage and levels the playing field. Hiring the right lawyer can even shift the balance in your favor.
• You’re Probably Going to be Blamed. Whoever caused you to get hurt won’t want to accept responsibility. Your insurance company isn’t going to want to pay for your injuries when you submit a claim. Instead, they’ll probably try to blame you. If you do nothing, you could lose out on valuable compensation. Hiring a lawyer will help to protect you from these tactics and position you to secure the full value of your award.

It’s not just about hiring any attorney in Fort Walton Beach. It’s about hiring the best attorney for your particular situation.

You might have an injury case if you’ve been hurt or lost a family member because someone else was negligent. You might also have a valid claim for damages if you got hurt while using a defective product, were the victim of an assault, or sustained injuries because someone else’s property was unsafe.

Ultimately, you may have a case if you can prove that you got hurt and someone else is legally responsible under Florida state law.

Brannon & Brannon Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers can help you understand your legal rights and options. Please contact our attorneys to schedule a free consultation. We’ll listen to your story, assess the facts and circumstances, and explain what grounds you might have to file an insurance claim or lawsuit.

Brannon & Brannon Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers has been representing accident victims throughout Northwest Florida for more than 30 years. Since we exclusively handle personal injury cases, we have the knowledge and experience to win your case.

Some cases we handle regularly include:

Car Accidents

Florida has no-fault insurance rules, so you’ll have to seek damages from your own provider after a motor vehicle accident. Just because it’s your provider doesn’t mean that they’ll want to cut you a check. Plus, if your damages exceed your benefits limit, you might be facing off against yet another provider.

Our car accident attorneys have been going toe-to-toe with insurance providers in Florida for decades. We know what steps have to be taken to help you not only win your claim but secure maximum benefits and damages for your crash-related injuries. 

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcyclists are vulnerable to being seriously hurt in a wreck – even when wearing a helmet. It can be critical to recover money from at-fault parties to cover the costs of medical bills and lost wages after your motorcycle accident. Our attorneys can jump into action to investigate your crash, gather relevant evidence, and build a strong and persuasive legal claim for damages on your behalf.

Truck Accidents

Accidents involving large commercial trucks can cause a lot of damage and devastation. Unfortunately, they’re often the result of negligent hiring, distracted driving, and poor truck vehicle maintenance. When you’re the victim of a truck accident, you can count on our legal team to seek damages from all liable parties – from truck drivers to trucking companies to negligent third parties.

Other practice areas include:

• Boating accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Uber & Lyft accidents
• Premises liability, including negligent security and slip and fall accidents
• Bus accidents
• Product liability and defective products
• Medical malpractice
• Nursing home abuse and neglect
• Dog bites
• Traumatic brain injury and other catastrophic injuries
• Construction accidents
• Workplace accidents
• Wrongful death, and more.



Don’t hesitate to reach out to our compassionate and caring legal team if you’ve been involved in an accident in Fort Walton Beach. We’ll help you understand your legal rights and the options that might be available to you.

In 2021, Okaloosa County saw at least 3,415 car accidents on its roads and highways. Those caused no fewer than 2,012 injuries and 41 deaths. That’s about 9 car accidents a day, one more per day than in 2020.



According to preliminary data, we’ve had 94 crashes in Okaloosa County in 2022 (as of 01/20/22), with a total of 55 people injured.

If you got hurt because another person was careless, you should file a personal injury claim. Filing an insurance claim or a lawsuit can force those responsible for your injuries to take accountability for their actions.

This includes the resulting medical bills, loss of income, and other financial catastrophes that can follow. A successful outcome can put much-needed compensation in your pocket and help to set you up for a better future.

By submitting an insurance claim or filing a lawsuit, you can recover compensatory damages, which include economic and non-economic.

Economic damages are awarded to make up for the financial expenses and losses related to an accident, such as:

• Medical costs
• Lost wages and income
• Rehabilitation and therapy
• Nursing care
• Property damage
• Disability, and more.

These awards can help to offset current costs and those you’re likely to have in the future.

Non-economic damages are awarded to help you cope with trauma that doesn’t come with a price tag, such as:

• Pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment or quality of life
• Disfigurement and scarring
• Loss of consortium, and more.

In rare cases, punitive damages – intended to punish the defendant – can be awarded.

You’re asking for the defendant to accept responsibility and pay damages for the harm you’ve suffered. In Florida, these damages can be paid to

• Make you financially whole and
• Compensate for intangible losses related to your accident.

At Brannon & Brannon Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers, we’ll be there to not only identify all of your damages, but work tirelessly to ensure that you get all of the money you deserve.

It depends – ultimately on the extent of your injuries and whether you contributed to your accident in any way.

Things that will factor into the value of your accident claim can include:

• If you’re forced to miss time at work because of your injuries – and for how long
• Whether your injuries result in a disability – whether temporary or permanent
• How long it takes for you to make a full recovery – or if you ever will
• Your out-of-pocket expenses for things like property damage, rehabilitation, medical care, and more
• How you were injured and who is to blame
• The degree to which you share responsibility for getting hurt
• How your accident and resulting injuries have affected you emotionally

An attorney can review your specific situation and help you get a better idea of what your case might be worth. If you hire a lawyer, they’ll be able to turn to local experts in North Central Florida to help them review evidence, analyze information, and ultimately understand what your case is really worth.

Two years. That’s the statute of limitations that applies to most personal injury lawsuits in the Sunshine State.

There are exceptions.

Ultimately, you need to make sure that you file your claim within the statutory window that applies to your case. You’ll lose the right to demand compensation if you miss it.

Negligence is the foundation for most personal injury lawsuits in the state of Florida. It basically means that you’ve been hurt or had other identifiable losses because someone else was careless. If you can prove it, you can win your allegation against them.

There are four elements you have to prove to establish negligence: duty, breach, causation, and damages.

• Duty means that the defendant owed you a duty of care. In other words, they had a responsibility to act in a way that wouldn’t put you at an increased risk of harm.
• Breach means that the defendant failed to uphold the duty of care owed to you. Typically, it’s established by pointing to a way that the defendant’s conduct was unreasonable, under the circumstances.
• Causation means that you got hurt because of the way the defendant acted. Their conduct was the direct and proximate cause of your injuries.
• Damages mean that you’ve suffered in some way – financially, physically, emotionally.

Proving negligence can be challenging – especially when you’re facing resistance from other parties and their insurers. Hiring a lawyer with years of experience handling cases like yours can help to make your pursuit of just compensation a lot easier.

Yes, as long as you’re not assigned most of the blame. The state of Florida operates under a modified comparative fault system. This means that anyone who contributes to an accident shares liability for the consequences – including victims.

When you share partial blame, your ability to recover compensation isn’t lost, but it is affected. Your financial award will be reduced in direct proportion to your degree of fault.

The more fault you share, the lower your financial award will be. Hiring an attorney experienced in Florida personal injury law can help to protect you when other parties begin to point fingers.

Here’s exactly what your lawyer will do after taking your case and how it’ll ultimately help you:

• Listening carefully to your side of the story to assess what happened, why, and what kind of evidence might be particularly helpful in supporting your demand
• Coordinating an investigation into your accident with the help of experts – like accident reconstructionists, appraisers, retired law enforcement officers, and more
• Preparing and filing all necessary documents – whether to an insurance provider or the Okaloosa County court
• Handling all communications with insurance adjusters and other parties involved
• Entering settlement negotiations and using facts, evidence, and strong legal arguments to leverage a full and fair financial award for you
• Taking your case to trial and showing a jury why you should be fully compensated for your losses, if necessary.

This means your lawyer will handle every aspect of your case from start to finish. You won’t have to worry about the legal technicalities, rules, or procedures. You won’t have to worry about being bullied by an insurance provider or whether or not a settlement offer is a good one. Your lawyer will be there to guide you every step of the way and set you up for success.

Nothing upfront. Then, if your lawyer wins your case, you can expect them to be paid between 33% and 40% of your financial award. That’s because most personal injury lawyers in Florida work on a contingency fee basis. Attorney fees depend on the result they’re able to achieve.

If your attorney doesn’t win, they don’t get paid. End of story.

At Brannon & Brannon Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers, we know that money can be tight after an accident. We don’t want you to worry that you can’t afford our help. That’s why we’re ready to assume all of the financial risks associated with your claim. We’re confident that we can win – and win big – for you. Call us to learn more about our legal representation and the services we can provide after you’ve been hurt.

It is ultimately your choice whether you settle or go to court. Not all cases can be settled quickly. Insurers are notorious for denying and undervaluing injury claims. If an adjuster fails to offer you a fair settlement, you might have to initiate a lawsuit to recover the full value of your claim.

A lawsuit will put pressure on the insurer to settle for a higher amount, which it can do any time before trial. After all, most insurers do not want to risk an unpredictable jury verdict. Your injury lawyer will advise you on whether going to court is in your best interest. And they will protect your rights throughout the lawsuit process.