The questions clients ask before they hire us.

Nothing up front, and nothing at all unless we recover for you. Sterling & Reyes works exclusively on contingency. Our fee is 33⅓% of any recovery if we settle before filing suit, 40% if we file suit, and 45% if the case is tried to verdict — the standard Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5(f)(4) schedule. Case costs (filing fees, expert witnesses, depositions, medical records) are advanced by the firm and reimbursed only out of recovery.

Two years for most personal-injury claims arising on or after March 24, 2023 (when Florida HB 837 took effect). Four years for claims arising before that date. Medical-malpractice cases follow a separate Florida Statute 766 pre-suit timeline with a two-year discovery clock and a four-year statute of repose. Wrongful-death actions must be brought within two years of the date of death. If you're close to either deadline, call today — we file emergency tolling demands the same day if needed.

Often, yes — but it depends on the underlying claim. In a typical bodily-injury case (car crash, slip-and-fall, medical malpractice), emotional distress and mental anguish are recoverable as part of pain-and-suffering damages once we prove physical injury. Florida's "impact rule" historically limited stand-alone emotional-distress claims without physical impact, but there are recognized exceptions for things like witnessing the wrongful death of a close family member. We screen this on the intake call.

Pre-suit settlements usually resolve within 3–9 months from the date you hire us. Cases we file in court that settle at mediation typically take 9–18 months. Cases that go to trial run 18–36 months. About 8% of our cases reach a verdict. We tell you on the first call which path your case is most likely on, based on policy limits, liability, and the carrier's history with our firm.

We pursue every layer of coverage available. That can include your own Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) policy (which is stackable in Florida if you have multiple vehicles), the employer of the at-fault driver if they were working, the rideshare platform's $1M liability layer for Uber/Lyft drivers, and any commercial umbrella policy. We also screen for third-party negligence claims (e.g., a defective vehicle component or a property owner whose negligence contributed). In a serious-injury case, we routinely find two to four layers of coverage the client didn't know existed.

Yes — by default. Founding partner David Reyes, Senior Associate Alicia Marrero, and our entire paralegal team are bilingual. Every intake call, every retainer agreement, every mediation, and every deposition prep can be conducted in Spanish at no additional cost. Our written translations are reviewed by a partner before sending, not run through machine translation.

If you have them: the police or incident report, photos of the scene and your injuries, ER or urgent-care discharge papers, your insurance card and the at-fault party's insurance information, names and contact information of any witnesses, and any correspondence you've received from an insurance company. If you don't have most of these — still come. Part of what we do is obtain the records you don't have. Don't sign anything from any insurance company before the first call.

Possibly — but Florida is now a modified-comparative-negligence state. Under HB 837 (effective March 24, 2023), if a court finds you more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover any damages from the other party. If your fault is 50% or less, your recovery is reduced proportionally — so 30% at fault means a 30% reduction in the award. This is a significant change from Florida's prior pure-comparative-fault rule, and it's one of the most important things to discuss honestly on the first call so we can build the case around the right liability theory.