Tampa and Florida car accident guide: what to organize before an intake request

Start with location, because Florida intake is local

Participating lawyers cover different parts of Florida, so the crash location is the single most useful thing in an intake request. County is what matters, and in Tampa Bay the county line is not obvious from the city name:

• Hillsborough County — Tampa, Brandon, Riverview, Plant City, Temple Terrace, Ybor City.
• Pinellas County — St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, Pinellas Park, Dunedin, the beach communities.
• Pasco County — Wesley Chapel, New Port Richey, Land O' Lakes.
• Manatee / Sarasota counties — Bradenton, Palmetto, Sarasota, south of the Skyway.

For crashes on I-275, I-4, I-75, the Selmon Expressway, the Howard Frankland, the Gandy, or the Skyway, a nearby exit number or landmark plus your best guess at the county is plenty. Nobody expects you to be precise about a county line at 65 mph.

The short list worth gathering

• Date and approximate time of the crash.
• County, and city or road where it happened.
• Vehicle types involved — passenger car, motorcycle, pickup, semi or box truck, work or fleet vehicle, rideshare, delivery van, bicycle, pedestrian.
• Whether a report exists and, if you have it, the report or case number. If law enforcement responded but you never received anything, saying so is enough.
• Whether anyone was injured and whether medical care has been received — emergency room, urgent care, a follow-up visit, or none yet.
• Whether insurance information was exchanged or is available. You do not need to share policy numbers.
• Whether you already have a lawyer for this crash.
• How and when to reach you — a phone or email that is realistic for you to answer.

Why commercial and work vehicles get flagged separately

A crash involving a semi, a box truck, a fleet pickup, a landscaping trailer, a shuttle, or a delivery van is a different intake category from a two-car crash, and different participating lawyers handle those matters. So the intake form asks whether a commercial vehicle was involved and accepts "not sure" as an answer. Marked doors, a company name, a DOT number, or a trailer are the usual signs. That is an administrative routing question, not a legal conclusion about who was at fault.

Keep the description short — genuinely short

Two or three sentences is the right length. "Rear-ended on I-275 near Dale Mabry on the 3rd, went to urgent care the next day, other driver had a company van" is a complete and useful description. A long narrative about who did what does not improve intake review, and an intake form is not a confidential lawyer conversation. Detail belongs in a private conversation with a lawyer you choose to speak with.

What we do with the request

We review non-legal intake factors: completeness, Florida geography, general matter type, representation status, contactability, and general timing context. Compliance and eligibility checks follow. Where a participating lawyer lawfully permitted to practice law in Florida is eligible and available for that matter type and region, the request may be introduced to that lawyer, and the lawyer independently decides whether to contact you. Their location is disclosed when a connection is made. The full factor list is on how intake works.

What we do not do

• We do not assess fault, evaluate injuries, interpret insurance coverage, estimate case value, or predict any outcome.
• We do not provide legal advice, calculate legal deadlines, or tell you what a date on a document means.
• We do not contact insurers, adjusters, employers, or law enforcement on your behalf.
• We do not promise that a lawyer will contact you, and submitting a request creates no attorney-client relationship and retains no lawyer.
• We claim no Florida Bar endorsement, and we publish no results, testimonials, rankings, or awards.

If you already have a lawyer

Say so in the request. We do not route a matter a consumer says is already represented, and we will not contact your current lawyer for you. Questions about your representation belong with the lawyer handling your matter.

If you are not ready to submit anything yet

The step-by-step version of this page is the Florida accident action checklist. If your crash involved a commercial vehicle, a motorcycle, a pedestrian or bicycle, or a fatality, the matching situation pages are truck and commercial vehicle, motorcycle, pedestrian and bicycle, and wrongful death.