St. Lucie County Personal Injury Attorney

If you were hurt in a crash or fall anywhere in St. Lucie County, Andrew Sholtes, a St. Lucie County personal injury attorney with Sholtes Law, PLLC, can help you understand what your case is worth and what happens next. Sholtes Law is a St. Lucie personal injury law firm with offices in Fort Pierce, Stuart, and Okeechobee, and whether you searched for a St. Lucie County personal injury lawyer or an attorney, you reach the same team. We represent people injured in car, truck, motorcycle, and bicycle accidents, distracted and drunk driving crashes, uninsured motorist claims, slip and falls, workplace accidents, and wrongful death cases, from Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie to Stuart and Palm City. You work directly with our team, and Attorney Andrew Sholtes — a Stuart native — practices in the same courthouses where cases like yours are typically filed. We handle every case on a contingency fee: you pay no attorney’s fee unless we recover for you, and you owe no costs if there is no recovery. Call 855-534-2509 for a free, confidential consultation. Consultations are available in Spanish.

Communities We Serve

Sholtes Law, PLLC represents injured people throughout the Treasure Coast from three offices, in Fort Pierce, Stuart, and Okeechobee, and Attorney Andrew Sholtes, a Stuart native, practices in the St. Lucie, Martin, and Okeechobee County courts where these cases are typically filed. Wherever your accident happened, you are working with a firm that knows the roads and the courthouse in your area. In St. Lucie County, our office at 309 Orange Ave., Fort Pierce sits minutes from the St. Lucie County Courthouse, where personal injury and wrongful death suits from Fort Pierce are ordinarily filed, and we handle car, truck, motorcycle, and workplace accident claims arising from US-1, I-95, and the Port of Fort Pierce corridor. Port St. Lucie has grown quickly, which means more traffic on Port St. Lucie Blvd, Gatlin Blvd, and Crosstown Parkway and more crashes, and we handle car accident, truck accident, and uninsured motorist claims for residents throughout Tradition and St. Lucie West.

In Martin County, our office at 41 SW Seminole Street in Stuart sits two blocks from the Martin County Courthouse, and we represent clients from every community whose cases are typically filed there: Palm City commuters hurt on SW Martin Highway and the Palm City Bridge; Jensen Beach residents injured between NE Jensen Beach Blvd and the Indian River Lagoon waterfront; Hobe Sound drivers and riders hit along US-1 and Bridge Road; families in the fishing community of Port Salerno, just south of Stuart; and Indiantown residents injured in car, truck, and workplace accidents along SW Warfield Blvd (SR-710). West of the coast, our Okeechobee office at 1132 S Parrott Ave handles car accident, motorcycle accident, and wrongful death claims arising around Lake Okeechobee and US-441, which are typically filed in the 19th Judicial Circuit. Each of those city pages explains the local courts, roads, and claim issues in more detail.

Personal Injury Cases We Handle on the Treasure Coast

Each case type below has its own page explaining the Florida law, the evidence, and the local courts that apply to it, so you can start with the one closest to what happened to you.

We also represent people injured in northern Palm Beach County, where cases are typically filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit. We meet those clients at our Stuart office or by phone or video.

Florida Law That Decides What Your Case Is Worth

Florida law shapes every personal injury claim in ways that are easy to miss if you have never filed one before.

Under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a), you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file a negligence lawsuit — cut down from four years for any cause of action accruing after March 24, 2023, under House Bill 837. Miss that deadline and the courthouse doors close, regardless of how strong your case is.

Florida is a modified comparative negligence state under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6). If you are found more than 50% at fault for your own accident, you recover nothing. Insurance adjusters know this and will push to shift blame onto you early, before you have a lawyer reviewing the evidence.

If your injury came from a car accident, Florida’s no-fault system applies first. Fla. Stat. § 627.736 requires your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage to pay 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost wages, up to $10,000. Medical benefits require initial treatment within 14 days of the crash, and the full $10,000 in medical benefits is available only if a qualified provider makes an “emergency medical condition” finding; without one, medical benefits are limited to $2,500. Miss the 14-day window and PIP can deny medical benefits outright. To recover pain and suffering from the at-fault driver, Fla. Stat. § 627.737 requires your injury to meet a “serious injury” threshold: significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.

If you were hurt on someone else’s property, Fla. Stat. § 768.0755 governs slip-and-fall claims involving a transitory foreign substance in a business establishment. You must show the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the hazard and should have acted to remedy it — a burden many injured people do not realize they carry until it is too late to gather the evidence that proves it.

If your loved one died because of someone else’s negligence, Fla. Stat. §§ 768.16–768.26, the Florida Wrongful Death Act, allows the personal representative of the estate to file on behalf of surviving family members. Our St. Lucie wrongful death lawyer page explains who can file and what each survivor may recover.

If you were hurt on the job by someone other than your employer — in some cases another contractor, a negligent driver, a defective piece of equipment — Chapter 440 workers’ compensation may run alongside a separate third-party injury claim, and the two follow different rules and different deadlines.

None of these statutes are simple, and they are worth knowing before you talk to an insurance adjuster. That is what a St. Lucie County personal injury attorney is for.

What Your Case May Be Worth

Every personal injury case is different, and anyone who quotes you a number before reviewing your medical records and the facts of your accident is guessing. What follows is what Florida law allows you to pursue, not a promise of what you will recover.

Economic damages cover the costs you can put a number on: medical bills already incurred and reasonably certain to be incurred in the future, lost wages, lost earning capacity if your injury affects your ability to work going forward, and property damage.

Non-economic damages cover what a dollar figure cannot fully capture: pain and suffering, physical impairment, disfigurement, and the loss of your ability to enjoy activities you valued before the accident. Under Fla. Stat. § 627.737, you must meet Florida’s serious injury threshold before you can pursue non-economic damages from the at-fault driver in an auto accident case.

In rare cases, Florida law allows punitive damages, intended to punish the at-fault party rather than compensate you, on clear and convincing proof of intentional misconduct or gross negligence under Fla. Stat. § 768.72(2), subject to the caps in § 768.73, which do not apply to a defendant impaired by alcohol or drugs (§ 768.736). Florida courts have long allowed punitive damages against drivers who chose to drive intoxicated (Ingram v. Pettit, 340 So. 2d 922 (Fla. 1976)).

If your case involves a lost family member, Fla. Stat. § 768.21 sets out what survivors and the estate may separately recover, from lost support and companionship to funeral and medical expenses.

What actually determines your case’s value is the strength of the evidence connecting your injuries to the accident, the completeness of your medical treatment, and how clearly liability can be proven against the at-fault party’s insurance policy. That is the work a personal injury attorney does before ever naming a number to an adjuster.

What to Do After an Accident

Get medical care immediately. If you are hurt, go to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce or Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital in Port St. Lucie, or call 911. If your injury is from a car accident, remember the 14-day window under Fla. Stat. § 627.736 — waiting past that deadline can cost you your PIP medical benefits.
Make sure the accident is reported. Depending on where it happened, that may mean the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, the Fort Pierce Police Department, the Port St. Lucie Police Department, or the Florida Highway Patrol. Get the report number before you leave.
Document the scene. Photograph the vehicles, the road conditions, any visible injuries, and anything else relevant — a wet floor, a missing guardrail, a truck’s DOT number. Get names and phone numbers for anyone who saw what happened.
Be careful what you say to insurance adjusters. You are not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer, and anything you say — including “I’m fine” — can be used to minimize your claim later.
Keep every record. Medical bills, missed-work documentation, repair estimates, and photographs all matter later, even ones that seem minor now.
Talk to a St. Lucie County personal injury attorney before you sign anything. If your case proceeds to a lawsuit, it will most likely be filed in the St. Lucie County Courthouse, in the 19th Judicial Circuit — the same courthouse our office is minutes from.

Handling Accident Claims Across St. Lucie County

St. Lucie County is one of the fastest-changing places on Florida’s Treasure Coast, and that growth shows up on its roads. Development along Gatlin Blvd, Crosstown Parkway, and the Tradition area has brought heavier traffic to roads that were not built for it, and construction zones along I-95 and Florida’s Turnpike create their own hazards for drivers passing through St. Lucie West, Becker Road, and Prima Vista Blvd.

Fort Pierce carries a different mix of risk: the Port of Fort Pierce brings commercial truck traffic through downtown and along US-1 and Okeechobee Road (SR-70), and Kings Highway and Virginia Ave see a steady flow of both local and commuter traffic. Older neighborhoods like Lakewood Park and White City combine narrow roads with limited lighting, which factors into how liability gets analyzed in a nighttime crash.

When you are injured in St. Lucie County, you are most likely taken to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital, the county’s Level II trauma center at 1700 S 23rd St in Fort Pierce, or to Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital at 10000 SW Innovation Way in Port St. Lucie. Both hospitals’ records become part of the evidence in your claim.

If your case is not resolved through negotiation, it would usually be filed in the St. Lucie County Courthouse, part of the 19th Judicial Circuit, which also covers Martin, Indian River, and Okeechobee counties. Our office at 309 Orange Ave in Fort Pierce is a short drive from that courthouse.

From Hutchinson Island beach traffic to the Indian River Lagoon waterfront corridor, we take cases arising from every part of the county.

Why St. Lucie County Families Choose Sholtes Law as Their St. Lucie County Personal Injury Lawyer

Attorney Andrew Sholtes is a Stuart native who earned his J.D. magna cum laude from FIU College of Law. He is a member of The Florida Bar. Before founding Sholtes Law, PLLC, he practiced at the Willie Gary Law Group, handling personal injury, wrongful death, and commercial litigation cases.

That background matters because your case is handled by an attorney who has litigated personal injury and wrongful death claims. We are a Treasure Coast firm with offices in Fort Pierce, Stuart, and Okeechobee, and when your case is filed in the St. Lucie County Courthouse, you are working with a firm that already knows the building.

We handle every personal injury case on a contingency fee basis, and your initial consultation is free. Consultations are available in Spanish.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a personal injury lawyer cost here?

Nothing upfront. Sholtes Law, PLLC handles personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis: you pay no attorney’s fee unless we recover for you, and you owe no costs if there is no recovery. Your initial consultation is always free, and there is no obligation to hire us after that conversation. This fee structure exists specifically so the cost of a lawyer never determines whether an injured person gets legal help.

How long do I have to file in Florida?

In most personal injury cases, Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) gives you two years from the date of the accident to file a negligence lawsuit. That deadline was shortened from four years for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023, under House Bill 837. Wrongful death claims run two years from the date of death, not the date of injury, under § 95.11(5)(e). Claims against a government entity follow different rules — written notice to the agency within three years under Fla. Stat. § 768.28(6), and suit generally within four years under § 768.28(14) — so it is worth confirming yours early.

What if I was partly at fault?

Florida follows a modified comparative negligence rule under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(2) and (6). You can still recover compensation as long as you are found 50% or less at fault, though your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover. Because insurance adjusters often try to shift blame onto the injured person early, it helps to have an attorney reviewing the evidence before you give a recorded statement.

Does my PIP cover everything?

No. Florida’s no-fault PIP coverage under Fla. Stat. § 627.736 pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost wages, up to a $10,000 policy limit, and medical benefits require initial treatment within 14 days of the accident. PIP does not cover pain and suffering, and it will not fully cover a serious injury. Once your damages exceed what PIP pays, or if you meet Florida’s serious injury threshold, a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance may be available.

Where will my case be filed?

Most personal injury lawsuits arising in St. Lucie County are filed in the St. Lucie County Courthouse, part of Florida’s 19th Judicial Circuit, which also covers Martin, Indian River, and Okeechobee counties. Exactly where your case is filed can depend on where the accident happened and where the defendant resides or does business.

How long will my case take?

It depends on the severity of your injuries, how long your medical treatment lasts, and whether the insurance company is willing to negotiate a fair settlement or forces the case toward litigation. Many cases resolve within months once treatment is complete and a demand is sent; cases that go to trial can take a year or more. We do not rush your treatment or your settlement to close a file faster.

Do you offer consultations in Spanish?

Yes. Consultations with Sholtes Law, PLLC are available in Spanish as well as English. Call 855-534-2509 to schedule a free, confidential consultation in the language you’re most comfortable with.

Talk to a St. Lucie County Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you or a family member has been hurt anywhere in St. Lucie County — Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, or the surrounding communities — call Sholtes Law, PLLC at 855-534-2509 for a free, confidential consultation. Consultations are available in Spanish. Contact us today to talk with a St. Lucie County personal injury attorney about your case.

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