Port Richey drunk driving accident lawyer

A driver who had too much at a bar on US-19 and then hit you did two things. They committed a crime, and they caused you harm. Florida handles those separately. The State Attorney prosecutes the DUI. You, through a civil claim, pursue compensation for your injuries. Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers handles that second part for people hurt in Port Richey, New Port Richey, Hudson, Holiday and across Pasco County. Our attorney, Clementine L. "CC" Conde, has practiced in Florida courts since 1992. The consultation is free, and there is no attorney's fee unless we win.

Why a drunk driving crash is not an ordinary car accident claim

In most crash cases the fight is over who was at fault. In a drunk driving case fault is usually clear. There is a breath test, a field sobriety test on the shoulder of SR-54, a DUI citation in the FHP crash report. The insurer rarely argues its driver was sober and careful.

The fight is over money instead. A drunk driver in Florida often has little or no liability coverage. Florida does not require bodily injury liability insurance for most private vehicles; the state minimums are $10,000 in personal injury protection and $10,000 in property damage liability. So the person who hurt you may have nothing to pay you with, and the case turns on finding every other source of recovery: the car's owner, an employer, in rare cases a bar, and your own uninsured motorist coverage.

Drunk driving cases also open a door that ordinary negligence cases keep shut. Florida allows punitive damages against a driver whose conduct amounted to gross negligence or intentional misconduct (Fla. Stat. § 768.72). Driving drunk is the textbook example. More on that below.

Where drunk driving crashes happen in Pasco County

US-19 is the spine of west Pasco, and it is lined with bars, sports bars, package stores and waterfront restaurants from Holiday north through Port Richey and Bayonet Point to Hudson. Late on a Friday or Saturday, the stretch between the Pinellas line and SR-52 carries people who should not be driving. A ConsumerAffairs study reported in 2024 named US-19 in Pasco and Pinellas the deadliest road in Florida, with more than 150 deaths since 2020.

Other places we see impaired-driving crashes:

• The waterfront bars along the Cotee River in Port Richey and the restaurants in downtown New Port Richey, and the side streets back to US-19 or Ridge Road.
• SR-54 and SR-52 heading east toward Land O' Lakes and Wesley Chapel, where speeds are higher.
• Little Road and Moon Lake Road, which some drivers use to avoid US-19 patrols.
• I-75 and the Suncoast Parkway, where wrong-way crashes tend to happen after midnight.
• Hudson Beach, Gulf Harbors and the Anclote River boat ramps, where impaired boaters and impaired drivers overlap.

FHP Troop C investigates most crashes in unincorporated Pasco. Inside the city limits, Port Richey PD and New Port Richey PD handle them, and the Pasco Sheriff's Office responds in many areas. Whichever agency responds, the officer's DUI investigation becomes the backbone of your civil case.

The criminal case and your civil claim are two different things

The criminal case is State of Florida v. the driver. The State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, which covers Pasco and Pinellas counties, decides whether to charge DUI under Fla. Stat. § 316.193. The prosecutor's job is to punish and deter. You are the victim and a witness. You are not a party, and nobody in that courtroom is working to pay your medical bills.

The civil claim is yours. You pursue the driver, and whoever else is responsible, for your medical expenses, lost wages, future care and pain and suffering. It proceeds whether or not the driver is ever charged, pleads to a lesser offense, or is acquitted.

What the criminal case does for you

A guilty plea or conviction is strong evidence. The arrest affidavit, the breath or blood result, body-camera footage and the officer's observations are all things we obtain and use. The criminal court can also order restitution, which we explain below.

What it does not do

It does not pay you. It does not stop your two-year deadline. And it does not require you to wait. The criminal case can take a year or more; we build your claim in parallel, because evidence disappears and your bills do not.

The standard of proof is different too. The prosecutor must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. We need only show it is more likely than not that the driver was negligent. If a blood draw is suppressed in criminal court, we can still prove impairment with the bartender's testimony, the receipt, the swerving a witness saw, and the driver's own statements.

How we prove the driver was impaired

Alcohol leaves the body. The officer's breath or blood test is the first thing we preserve, but rarely the only thing. We move quickly to collect:

• The FHP or police crash report and the separate DUI arrest affidavit
• Breath test results, or hospital blood work drawn for treatment
• Body-camera and dash-camera video from the responding agency
• 911 recordings, including calls from other drivers who reported the car before the crash
• Surveillance video and receipts from the bar or restaurant where the driver was drinking
• Phone records and rideshare history
• Statements from passengers, bystanders and first responders

We send preservation letters within days. Bars overwrite video. Agencies purge recordings on a schedule. The sooner you call (240) 421-5511, the more of this evidence still exists.

One more point. If the driver would have been at fault anyway, because they ran the light at US-19 and Ridge Road or crossed the center line on Moon Lake Road, we do not need to prove intoxication to establish liability. Impairment matters most for punitive damages and for showing a jury what kind of conduct this was.

Who can be held responsible besides the driver

Because the driver is so often uninsured or underinsured, we look hard at everyone else.

The owner of the car

Florida's dangerous instrumentality doctrine makes the owner of a vehicle responsible when they let someone else drive it and that person hurts someone. If a friend lent the drunk driver their truck, the friend's policy is in play. For a private owner who lends a car, Fla. Stat. § 324.021(9)(b) limits that exposure, but it can still add real coverage to a case that otherwise has none.

An employer

If the driver was working, making deliveries on SR-54 or driving a company van home from a job in Trinity, the employer may be liable for the employee's negligence, and commercial policies are usually far larger than personal ones. Employers can also be liable for their own negligence in handing keys to someone they knew drank on the job.

A bar or restaurant, in narrow cases

Many states let you sue the bar that overserved a driver. Florida mostly does not. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.125, a business that sells or furnishes alcohol to an adult is not liable for what that adult does afterward, with two exceptions: it willfully and unlawfully served someone under the legal drinking age, or it knowingly served a person habitually addicted to alcohol. Those cases exist, particularly the second one for regulars at neighborhood bars along US-19, but they require proof of what the staff knew. We investigate every drunk driving case for a dram shop claim, and we tell clients honestly when the facts are not there.

An adult who gave alcohol to a minor

The same statute reaches a parent or other adult who willfully and unlawfully furnished alcohol to an underage driver. A house party in Trinity or Wesley Chapel that ends with a 19-year-old crashing on SR-54 may involve a homeowner's policy as well as the driver's.

Punitive damages against a drunk driver

Compensatory damages pay you back. Punitive damages punish. Florida permits them when the defendant's conduct was intentional misconduct or gross negligence, proven by clear and convincing evidence (Fla. Stat. § 768.72). You cannot simply demand them; the court must first find a reasonable basis in the evidence before the claim is added to the lawsuit. A DUI arrest, a high breath-alcohol result, or a bartender who cut the driver off usually gets there.

Two things make punitive damages especially important here. First, Florida's ordinary caps on punitive awards do not apply to a defendant who was impaired, or who had a blood or breath alcohol level of 0.08 or higher, at the time of the crash (Fla. Stat. § 768.736). Second, insurers know this, and the possibility of an uncapped award at trial changes how they value a case long before trial.

Call (240) 421-5511 and we will tell you whether your facts support a punitive claim. We do not promise one. We pursue them when the evidence is there.

The insurance problem: why your own policy may matter most

PIP pays first, and the 14-day rule still applies

Florida is a no-fault state. Even when the other driver was drunk, your own personal injury protection coverage pays the first $10,000 of medical bills and lost wages (Fla. Stat. § 627.736). To keep that coverage you must get medical care within 14 days of the crash. If a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner does not document an emergency medical condition, PIP medical benefits are limited to $2,500. Go to the emergency room at HCA Florida Bayonet Point or Morton Plant North Bay, or see a doctor, within two weeks. A chiropractor cannot make the emergency finding.

Pain and suffering and the permanent-injury threshold

To recover pain and suffering from the driver, Florida requires a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, or death (Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2)). Drunk driving crashes tend to be high-speed and the injuries tend to be serious, but the threshold still has to be documented by your treating doctors. We make sure it is.

UM/UIM coverage

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy (Fla. Stat. § 627.727) steps in when the drunk driver has no bodily injury coverage or not enough. In a Pasco DUI case, UM is frequently the largest source of recovery. Send us your declarations page and we will read it for you. If you were a passenger, the UM on the car you were riding in and on your own household policies may both apply.

Restitution and victim compensation

When a drunk driver is convicted, the criminal court can order restitution to the victim for losses caused by the crime, including medical bills and property damage. We coordinate with the State Attorney's victim advocate so your documented losses are in front of the judge at sentencing. Restitution is paid over time, is limited by what the defendant can pay, and does not include pain and suffering. It supplements your civil claim. It does not replace it.

Florida's crime victim compensation program, run through the Attorney General's office, may also help with certain out-of-pocket medical and funeral costs for crime victims who have no other source of payment. We help clients apply when they qualify.

When a drunk driver kills someone in Pasco County

If your spouse, parent or child died in a drunk driving crash, the claim is brought under the Florida Wrongful Death Act (Fla. Stat. §§ 768.16–768.26) by the personal representative of the estate, for the benefit of the survivors. A spouse may recover lost support and companionship and mental pain and suffering. Minor children, which Florida defines as children under 25, may recover lost parental companionship and guidance along with their own pain and suffering. Each parent of a deceased minor child may recover for mental pain and suffering. The estate recovers medical and funeral expenses and lost future earnings. The deadline is two years (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(e)). See our wrongful death page for how these claims work, or call (240) 421-5511 to talk with Clementine directly.

What to do after a drunk driver hits you

1. Call 911 and tell the dispatcher you believe the other driver is impaired. The officer needs that information to begin a DUI investigation at the scene.
2. Get medical care within 14 days, ideally the same day.
3. Photograph the cars, the road, and the other driver's vehicle and plate. If you can do it safely, note any open containers.
4. Get names and numbers of witnesses. Passengers in the drunk driver's car often know exactly where the drinking happened.
5. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer.
6. Do not post about the crash on social media.
7. Request the crash report through the Florida Crash Portal. It is confidential for 60 days except to the parties and their attorneys (Fla. Stat. § 316.066), and we obtain it for you.
8. Call a lawyer before the first adjuster call.

Most negligence claims in Florida must be filed within two years of the crash (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a)). Florida's comparative-fault rule also matters: if a jury finds you more than 50 percent at fault, you recover nothing (Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6)). Insurers raise comparative fault even against victims of drunk drivers, arguing you were speeding or should have seen the car coming. We answer that early, with the physical evidence.

Talk to a Port Richey drunk driving accident lawyer today

Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers is at 6609 Ridge Road, Suite 4, in Port Richey, between US-19 and Little Road. If you cannot come to us, we come to you, at home or in the hospital, anywhere in Pasco County. Call (240) 421-5511 any time, day or night, or contact us online. The consultation is free. Se habla español. No attorney's fee unless we win.

You may also want to read about car accident claims, motorcycle crashes and brain injuries, or learn more about Clementine Conde and our New Port Richey service area.