$6.6 Million
and his team won a multimillion-dollar car accident trial verdict
against State Farm on
behalf of a client.
$1.9 Million
litigation for $2 million.
High-speed bus crash.
Bus company sued for
wrongful death of a
56-year-old grandmother.
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for us when others said
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words more words."
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Melbourne Car Accident Lawyer
Local auto wreck attorneys representing Brevard County
A crash on Wickham Road is not the same case as a collision on I-95. A wreck at U.S. 1 and U.S. 192 raises different questions than a rear-end crash on Eau Gallie Boulevard or an intersection collision on Sarno Road.
The road, traffic pattern, vehicles and injuries all matter. What happens during the first days after a serious Melbourne car accident can determine what evidence remains available months later, when an insurance company decides it does not want to pay.
The Melbourne car accident lawyers at Couture Law P.A. represent seriously injured people in Melbourne and throughout Brevard County, and handle the full range of Melbourne personal injury cases. We drive these roads, investigate crashes on them and litigate cases arising from them.
If you need a Melbourne car accident lawyer after a serious crash, we look beyond the name of the driver who hit you. We want to know how the collision happened, what the physical and electronic evidence shows, what insurance coverage exists, whether anyone else shares responsibility and what the crash has actually done to your life.
What the Crash Data Says About Melbourne
There are two useful ways to look at Brevard County crash data. Frequency shows where crashes happen most often. Severity shows where people are killed or seriously injured. They do not produce the same map.
The Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization’s current system analysis of 2019 through 2023 intersection data and 2018 through 2022 roadway segment data shows how often several Melbourne-area roads appear among Brevard County’s high-crash locations. Nine of the county’s 25 highest-crash intersections involve Wickham Road. Three involve Eau Gallie Boulevard. U.S. 1 at U.S. 192 averaged 45.6 crashes per year. Nine of the county’s 25 highest-crash roadway segments are on I-95, and two are along U.S. 192.
The TPO’s crash severity analysis asks a different question. Instead of simply counting collisions, it weights crashes by the seriousness of the outcome. Four Melbourne locations placed among the county’s worst. Wickham Road from Lake Washington Road to Parkway Drive scored 849, the fourth-worst pedestrian corridor in Brevard County. U.S. 1 at U.S. 192 scored 306, the county’s worst pedestrian intersection. Sarno Road at Croton Road scored 283, among the five worst intersections for motorcycles. University Boulevard from Babcock Street to U.S. 1 scored 306, among the five worst bicycle corridors.
Those data sets belong together. Crash frequency tells a Melbourne car accident attorney where conflicts repeatedly happen. Severity data identifies locations where the consequences have been especially serious for drivers, pedestrians, motorcyclists and bicyclists.
Neither data set proves who caused a particular crash. Both can tell us where to start looking.
I-95 Is a Different Kind of Melbourne Car Accident Case
I-95 overwhelms the crash data. In the TPO’s earlier severity analysis, four of the five highest-scoring vehicle corridors in Brevard County were stretches of I-95. The agency removed the interstate from its published top-five vehicle corridor list to focus on arterial roads.
Anyone who drives I-95 through Melbourne understands the risk. Traffic can move at highway speed and stop with little warning. Commercial trucks need more room to slow, last-second lane changes create sideswipe and chain-reaction risks, and one collision can trigger several more.
An I-95 accident may require a different investigation from an ordinary city-street wreck. Vehicle electronic data can show speed, braking and throttle activity. Commercial vehicles can bring driver logs, inspection histories and motor-carrier records into the case. Traffic cameras and dash cameras may help establish how traffic was moving before impact. Sometimes a central question is how long traffic had been stopped before the driver who hit you reached it.
Wickham Road, Eau Gallie Boulevard, U.S. 1 and U.S. 192
Melbourne sits at the intersection of very different traffic systems. Wickham Road carries commuters, shoppers and drivers entering countless businesses and side streets. Eau Gallie Boulevard connects I-95, Wickham Road, U.S. 1 and the causeway. U.S. 192 carries traffic between I-95 and the beaches. U.S. 1 combines through traffic with turning vehicles, commercial driveways and frequent intersections.
The City of Melbourne studies signal timing, turning movements and intersection performance. After a wreck, those are not abstract engineering concepts. When the facts justify it, we seek the measurements, timing records, camera footage and other public records that may explain what happened.
The Police Report Is the Start, Not the Investigation
A crash report matters.
It is not the case.
Police officers arrive after the collision. People may be injured, traffic is blocked, witnesses can be confused and vehicles have to be moved. Their job is to address the scene and document what they can. Their job is not to prepare your civil case.
Ours is different. Depending on the circumstances, we may need to investigate:
- surveillance and traffic-camera footage
- vehicle electronic data
- photographs, debris, measurements and final vehicle positions
- cell-phone evidence, eyewitnesses and 911 calls
- signal timing, prior crash history and roadway records
- commercial-driver and motor-carrier records
- every available insurance policy
- whether anyone besides the obvious driver contributed to the crash
The report is one piece of evidence. It does not replace the evidence around it.
One Brevard Car Accident Case Shows Why We Keep Looking
One of Couture Law’s notable car accident cases began on U.S. 1 near the Pineda Causeway. Our client was northbound in the left lane when the at-fault driver, merging onto U.S. 1 north from westbound Pineda Causeway, crossed the traffic lanes to make a quick U-turn. The vehicles collided in the left lane, and our client suffered serious cervical and lumbar spine injuries.
At first, there appeared to be only $50,000 in combined available insurance coverage. That was not where the case ended. Just before a third trial, the case resolved for $725,000 – $675,000 above the policy limit.
The lesson is not simply that the wreck happened on a road Melbourne drivers know. It is that the first number attached to an insurance policy is not always the last question in a serious injury case. We identify every source of insurance, every potentially responsible party and every legal avenue available before a client is told, “That’s all there is.”
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts, evidence, injuries and available coverage.
Insurance Companies Start Building Their Case Immediately
Most injured people have never handled a serious auto claim before. The company on the other side handles them every day. Its adjusters work for the driver who hit you, they know which questions produce answers that shift blame, and they know an injured person will often accept a number before the full extent of the injury is known.
Tara Couture, the firm’s founder, previously served as a Deputy City Attorney in Los Angeles and practiced criminal defense there before moving to Brevard County. The adjuster on the phone may be pleasant. The company paying him is not on your side. A recorded statement can sound like an ordinary conversation about how you feel, how fast you were going or whether you previously hurt the same body part. The answers become evidence, and a casual “fine” can resurface months later when an MRI shows something serious.
Brent Couture describes the insurer’s position as a denial chain. It may deny that the accident happened as described, deny its insured was at fault, deny receiving timely notice of an injury, deny that the crash caused the condition – the argument that decides most head and spine injury claims – and then dispute what the harm is worth. As Brent puts it, “They don’t concede one inch – ever.”
The answer is not to play games with the insurer. It is to build a case.
Nobody Is Going to Usher You Through the Medical System
Many people assume someone in the medical system will tell them what happens next. Often, nobody does.
The emergency room addresses urgent problems. Conservative treatment may follow. Persistent symptoms may lead to imaging, injections or a surgical evaluation. Yet injured people regularly fall through the gaps. The emergency room clears them, pain continues and no one explains what comes next. Months later, the insurer cites the gap in care as evidence that the injury was not serious.
Brent spent years in the medical-device field and worked in operating rooms with orthopedic and spine surgeons before becoming a lawyer. That does not make him a doctor, and Couture Law does not diagnose clients. It does mean the medical side of an injury case is familiar territory.
A Melbourne car accident lawyer has to understand more than who ran the light. The medical record must be read as a chronology: what imaging showed, what treatment preceded the crash, what changed afterward, and what the treating doctors say about causation and permanency. That chronology can separate a supported injury claim from an unsupported complaint.
A Head Injury Can Be Missed at the Scene
Not every serious injury announces itself. A concussion or mild traumatic brain injury frequently goes undiagnosed after a crash, and the reason is built into how emergency care works. The emergency room’s job is to rule out a bleed or a fracture. When the CT comes back clean, the patient is discharged, and a clean scan is often read by everyone involved as proof that nothing happened to the brain.
What follows can be harder to connect to the collision. Headaches that will not resolve. Trouble finding words. Sensitivity to light or noise. Sleep that does not restore anything. Losing patience with family and coworkers over things that never used to matter. Those symptoms arrive over days or weeks, they get attributed to stress or to the disruption of an injury claim, and they do not appear anywhere in the medical record unless someone documents them.
That is the difference between a documented brain injury and a claim an insurer can dismiss. Report the cognitive symptoms to a doctor, and report them by name, even when they seem unrelated to the accident. If the people around you have noticed a change, that observation belongs in the record too.
The Dent Is Not the Injury
Insurance companies like photographs because a small dent invites a simple argument: small damage means small injury. That is not always true.
One Couture Law client was stopped at a red light when a vehicle traveling roughly 15 mph struck him from behind. The damage to the rear of his vehicle was very minor. His injuries were not. He sustained serious and permanent injuries to his low back, upper back, coccyx, shoulder and both knees, requiring surgical repair to his shoulder and left knee.
The insurance argument was predictable. Injuries like that do not come from an impact like that, and the insurer pointed to a long history of injury to the same or similar body parts.
Usually, they do not.
This client did.
Couture Law resolved the case for $125,000. The severity of an injury cannot always be read from a bumper photograph.
A Pre-existing Condition Does Not Erase a Crash Injury
Florida's eggshell-plaintiff doctrine says a negligent driver is responsible for the person he actually hit, not the healthier person he wishes he had hit. A defendant does not receive a discount because the person was unusually vulnerable, and a crash may aggravate a condition that already existed.
Brent explains the human point this way: “We all carry the baggage of our entire life into the moment of the accident. Insurance companies like to treat everybody as if they’re the same. Our job is to point out that we’re not.”
A 77-year-old Couture Law client injured her lumbar spine in a crash and required an anterior lumbar interbody fusion from L2 to S1, followed by a posterior lumbar laminectomy. The insurance companies made no offer, arguing that her injuries were degenerative and pre-existing and that the crash did not necessitate the surgery. Couture Law recovered all available policy limits of $75,000.
Age and degeneration do not end the causation analysis. The evidence still has to show what existed before the crash, what changed and whether the collision caused or aggravated the condition. A person does not lose a valid injury claim because the same body part had already begun to age.
What to Do After a Car Accident in Melbourne
If you are physically able, the first hours after a crash are about protecting your health and preserving facts.
- Call 911. Police, fire and emergency medical records may become important evidence.
- Get medical attention. Walking away does not prove that you escaped injury. Some spinal, neurological and soft-tissue symptoms emerge over time.
- Photograph what you can. Include the vehicles, damage, traffic signals, lane markings, debris, skid marks, sight lines and nearby businesses.
- Get witness information. Names and reliable contact details matter once traffic begins moving again.
- Preserve vehicles and electronic evidence when necessary. A totaled vehicle may contain data relevant to speed, braking or restraint use.
- Be careful with the other insurer. A recorded statement is evidence gathering.
If the injuries are serious, early investigation gives a Melbourne car accident attorney the best opportunity to identify what matters and preserve it.
Florida PIP, the 14-Day Rule and the Serious-Injury Threshold
Florida’s Personal Injury Protection system generally pays 80 percent of qualifying medical expenses and 60 percent of qualifying disability losses, subject to statutory requirements and limits. Initial medical services generally must begin within 14 days after the accident. Medical benefits may reach $10,000 when a qualified provider determines that the injured person had an emergency medical condition. Without that determination, medical benefits are generally limited to $2,500.
That 14-day deadline is one reason not to wait and see. Even the higher limit can disappear quickly after emergency care, imaging and follow-up treatment. PIP is the beginning of the insurance analysis, not necessarily the end.
To recover damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience arising from the use of a motor vehicle, an injured person generally must satisfy Florida’s serious-injury threshold. The statute identifies four categories:
- significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function
- permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement
- significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement
- death.
The threshold is a legal and medical issue. A diagnosis alone may not answer it. The records, opinions and evidence of how the injury has affected the person all matter.
Types of Auto Wrecks
Couture Law has separate articles on the major types of auto accidents handled in Melbourne and throughout Brevard County.
Head-On Collisions
Wrong-way driving, unsafe passing, distraction and crossing a centerline can produce catastrophic head-on injuries or death.
Rollover Accidents
Speed, vehicle design, sudden steering movements and roadway conditions can contribute to rollovers. Ejection and roof intrusion make them especially dangerous.
Rear-End Collisions
“Rear-end” does not mean “minor.” Whiplash and other back, shoulder, neurological and neck injuries can become serious even when the vehicle photographs look unimpressive.
Speeding Accidents
Speed changes stopping distance, reaction time and impact force. Vehicle data, video and reconstruction may establish how fast a driver was traveling.
Intersection Wrecks
Left turns, red-light violations, blocked sight lines, permissive turn movements and drivers misjudging gaps can produce severe T-bone and multi-vehicle crashes.
Parking Lot Accidents
Shopping centers create their own hazards: pedestrians, backing vehicles, blind corners, landscaping, signs and multiple driveways packed into a small area.
Accidents Involving DUIs
An impaired-driving collision can create both a criminal prosecution and a separate civil injury claim. They serve different purposes.
Florida’s Comparative-Fault Rule Can Reduce Recovery to Zero
Florida changed its comparative-fault system in 2023. Under Florida Statute §768.81, fault assigned to an injured plaintiff generally reduces the damages proportionately. In covered negligence actions, however, a party found greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover damages.
That gives insurers an enormous incentive to shift blame. They may argue that you were speeding, changed lanes, were distracted or should have seen the other vehicle. We do not ignore bad facts, but fault is established with evidence – not simply by repeating what the other driver said at the scene.
When a Government Vehicle or Public Entity Is Involved
A Melbourne crash can involve a Brevard school bus, Space Coast Area Transit vehicle, county fleet, municipal vehicle, FDOT operation or roadway condition controlled by government. Florida Statute §768.28 generally limits recovery against the state and its agencies or subdivisions to $200,000 for one person and $300,000 for all claims arising from the same incident, subject to provisions involving insurance and further legislative action.
The notice rules are just as important. A claimant generally must present the claim in writing to the appropriate governmental agency within three years. For many state entities, notice must also be given to the Department of Financial Services, although counties and municipalities are excepted from that additional DFS-presentment requirement. Except where the statute provides otherwise, six months without final disposition is treated as a denial for purposes of proceeding. Wrongful-death claims have different timing provisions. The correct public entity needs to be identified early.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage
A serious Melbourne car accident can become an insurance-coverage case quickly. The person who caused the wreck may have little or no bodily-injury liability insurance. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may be available through the injured person’s policy or, depending on the circumstances, another applicable policy.
When your own insurer becomes responsible for paying part of the loss, it has its own financial interest in the outcome. We read the policies instead of accepting someone else’s statement about how much coverage exists. That review may include bodily-injury, UM/UIM, umbrella and employer coverage, and the commercial policies behind a truck or company vehicle. The first policy disclosed is not automatically the only policy that matters.
The Statute of Limitations Is Two Years. The Evidence Deadline May Be Two Weeks.
Florida Statute §95.11 generally provides two years for negligence actions arising on or after March 24, 2023, and two years for wrongful-death actions. Negligence claims that accrued before March 24, 2023, are generally governed by the prior four-year limitations period. Other deadlines, exceptions and claim-specific rules may apply.
The filing deadline is not a safe waiting period. Video may be overwritten within days, a witness may move, a totaled vehicle may be auctioned, an intersection may be resurfaced, landscaping may change and electronic data may disappear with the vehicle. The legal deadline to file suit is not the practical deadline to investigate the crash.
What If Another Lawyer Is Already Handling My Melbourne Car Accident?
Hiring a lawyer does not prevent you from asking questions later. People contact Couture Law when communication stops, a settlement recommendation does not make sense or they want to know whether the process sounds right.
We look at the case. Not every dissatisfied client should change lawyers. Sometimes the existing Melbourne car accident attorney is doing what needs to be done and has not explained it well. But a serious case is too important for months of uncertainty about whether anyone is paying attention.
How Couture Law Builds a Melbourne Car Accident Case
A serious case is built in layers.
Establish How the Crash Happened
The available proof may include photographs, witnesses, video, vehicle data, police records, measurements, reconstruction, signal timing and roadway records. We follow what the facts require.
Establish What the Crash Caused
We study medical imaging, treatment history, prior conditions, surgical recommendations, work limitations and future-care needs. The insurer will ask whether the crash caused or aggravated the injury, so the evidence must answer that question.
Identify Every Responsible Party
The driver may be responsible. So might an employer, commercial vehicle owner, a manufacturer whose defective part or vehicle component contributed to the crash, a property owner, governmental entity or another driver in a multi-vehicle crash. The point is not to manufacture defendants. It is to avoid missing a responsible party.
Identify Every Source of Insurance and Prepare for Trial
We examine the policies that may apply and prepare the evidence as though the insurer may force the case to trial. Some cases settle, and some require litigation. Preparation changes the conversation because an insurer must understand what happens if it undervalues the case.
Why Retain Couture Law as Your Melbourne Car Accident Attorney?
Couture Law is not a national call center buying Melbourne advertising. Brent and Tara Couture practice here, minutes from many of the roads discussed on this page.
We investigate the collision, learn the medicine, search for coverage and hire qualified experts when the case requires them. We prepare serious cases knowing an insurance company may have to defend its position before a Brevard County jury.
A case is not a claim number. It is someone’s life after something went very wrong.
Talk With a Melbourne Car Accident Lawyer
If you or someone you love suffered a serious injury in a Melbourne car accident, contact Couture Law P.A. at 321-733-5703. Tell us what happened, and we will tell you what we see. If evidence needs to be preserved, coverage needs to be found or an insurer is not paying fairly, we prepare for what comes next.
A few kind words from satisfied clients
How Long Does a Car Accident Case Take in Brevard County?
What Happens if the Insurance Company Sends Me to Its Own Doctor?
Will My Case Have to Go to Mediation?
What if the Driver Who Hit Me Was Working, or Driving Someone Else's Car?
Can I Reopen My Case if My Injuries Get Worse After I Settle?
How Do You Prove Someone Was Texting While Driving?
The investigation starts with timing. Phone records, device evidence, witness testimony, video, admissions and police evidence may all become relevant. No one should accuse a driver of texting simply because the collision looks like distraction. The evidence has to support it.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Melbourne Car Accident Lawyer?
Couture Law handles personal injury matters on a contingency-fee basis. The consultation is free. If the firm accepts your case, the fee is governed by the written contingency-fee agreement and applicable Florida rules.
How Soon Should I Contact a Melbourne Car Accident Attorney?
If the injuries are serious, earlier is usually better. That is not because a lawsuit must be filed immediately. It is because the evidence a case depends on can disappear long before the filing deadline does.