Area served · Hillsborough County
Car accident lawyer serving Town ’n’ Country
Bigger than most Florida cities, and pressed against two different lines
A crash in Town ’n’ Country is a Hillsborough County claim, and the law that decides it is the same as anywhere in Florida — the fourteen-day treatment deadline, the injury threshold, two years to sue. What is unusual here is the map. Town ’n’ Country is bigger than most Florida cities and is not one, it sits against the Tampa city line on its south side and the Pinellas county line on its west, and three different agencies work crashes within a few miles. Getting that wrong is the most common reason one of these claims stalls in its first month. The law is explained in full on the Florida car accident page; what follows is the part specific to here.
01 What a Town ’n’ Country crash usually is
A commercial arterial, a parkway and an expressway in the same few miles
Hillsborough Avenue, State Road 580, runs straight through the community as a heavily traveled commercial arterial. That is the road most of these claims come from, and the collisions it produces are turning movements and rear-end impacts at commercial driveways rather than high-speed crashes.
Memorial Highway, County Road 576, covers about two and a half miles between the Veterans Expressway and Hillsborough Avenue, with Independence Parkway as the faster way in from State Road 60 and Sheldon Road running north toward Citrus Park. Between them they carry the traffic that does not want to sit on the arterial.
The Veterans Expressway, SR 589, is the limited-access route — Memorial Highway at Exit 3, Hillsborough Avenue at Exit 4. It went all-electronic in 2014, so there are no toll booths and nothing slowing traffic at them. That removes one kind of collision and raises the speeds on everything else, which changes the injuries rather than the number of crashes.
And Tampa International is immediately east. Airport traffic, rental cars and drivers who have never been on these roads before mix with local commuters on the same arterial, which is a predictable risk rather than a surprise.
All-electronic tolling removed the queues at the booths. It also removed the thing that was slowing everybody down.
02 The thing nobody tells you about Town ’n’ Country
Not a city, next to a city, next to another county
The 2020 Census counted 85,951 people in Town ’n’ Country. That is larger than most incorporated cities in Florida, and it is not one — it is an unincorporated census-designated place in western Hillsborough County. So there is no Town ’n’ Country police department, no city hall and no city court, and the things people assume follow from the name do not.
Which means it is not Tampa Police. The community borders the City of Tampa on its south side, and people reasonably assume the city department covers it. Crashes on its streets are generally worked by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which polices the unincorporated county, and on the Veterans Expressway by the Florida Highway Patrol. Requesting a report from Tampa Police for a crash that was never theirs is a common way to lose two weeks.
And the western edge is a county line, not just a boundary. Town ’n’ Country is bordered on the west by Oldsmar, which is in Pinellas County. A crash a mile in that direction is a different county, a different sheriff and a different circuit — Pinellas sits in the Sixth Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough in the Thirteenth. Which side of that line a crash happened on decides where the case is filed.
A Hillsborough case goes to the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit at the Hillsborough County Courthouse, 800 East Twiggs Street in downtown Tampa. Most injury claims never reach it, because most resolve with the insurer before a suit is filed.
03 The roads
Where the claims actually come from
Hillsborough Avenue, SR 580, the commercial spine. Turning traffic at driveways, and the heaviest volumes in the community.
Memorial Highway, CR 576, about two and a half miles between the Veterans Expressway and Hillsborough Avenue, carrying through traffic at arterial speeds.
The Veterans Expressway, SR 589, limited access and all-electronic since 2014, with Memorial Highway at Exit 3 and Hillsborough Avenue at Exit 4.
Sheldon Road and Independence Parkway, the north–south and the shortcut from SR 60, both of which absorb overflow when the arterial backs up.
04 What to do now
The things that are only possible in the first two weeks
None of this is advice about a particular case and none of it requires hiring anybody. It is the sequence that protects a claim regardless of who eventually handles it.
Be seen within fourteen days
Personal Injury Protection pays nothing at all unless initial care happens inside fourteen days of the crash — not a reduced amount, nothing. It is the deadline that expires before most people have decided what to do.
Establish which agency and which county
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office across unincorporated Town ’n’ Country, Tampa Police only inside the city limits, Florida Highway Patrol on the Veterans Expressway — and Pinellas agencies if it happened west of the county line. Write down the agency and the report number.
Photograph the scene before anything moves
Both vehicles and their positions, the lane markings, the driveway or ramp involved, and the signal if there was one. On a commercial arterial the question is almost always who was turning.
Get the names at the scene
Hillsborough Avenue and the airport roads carry a lot of people who are not from here, and a witness who was passing through is a witness nobody finds later.
Note whether it was a rental
With Tampa International immediately east, rentals are common. It changes the coverage analysis and takes longer to establish, so the plate and the company are worth capturing.
Pull your own declarations page
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and whether it stacks. Florida requires no bodily injury coverage at all, so your own policy is frequently the ceiling.
Give no recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer
You are not required to. The answer given in week one is quoted for the next two years.
05 The kinds of crash this covers
Same roads, five different claims
Hillsborough County recorded 26,269 traffic crashes in 2024, injuring 17,359 people and killing 180, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. That is a county figure — no published count exists for Town ’n’ Country alone, and anybody quoting one is estimating. What is specific here is which of these roads produce, and the law for each is on the page it links to.
Car accidents
The bulk of it, and here it is the arterial pattern: turning across traffic at commercial driveways, and rear-end impacts in the backups that follow.
The fourteen-day treatment deadline applies to every one of them, whoever was at fault.
Truck accidents
Freight moving between the interstates and the airport district, where a loaded truck at expressway speed is a different injury from a car at the same speed.
A different case as well: a company behind the driver, a USDOT number, and records kept for a defined period and then lawfully destroyed.
Pedestrian accidents
Hillsborough Avenue is wide, fast and crossed on foot between the businesses on either side of it, with long distances between signals.
These turn on how fault is divided, and more than half the fault means no recovery at all.
Uninsured drivers
Florida does not require any driver to carry bodily injury coverage, so the underinsured case — limits lower than the harm done — is the common one rather than the rare one.
The claim moves to your own policy, which makes the declarations page the most important document in the file.
Motorcycle accidents
The turning-traffic pattern that produces a sore neck between two cars puts a rider on the ground, and serious trauma in Hillsborough goes to Tampa General, the county’s only Level I trauma center.
Motorcyclists are not required to carry PIP, which changes the coverage analysis from the first day.
06 Also handled for Town ’n’ Country
The other matters this office takes from this area
Injury work is most of what this office does and it is not all of it. Each of these is handled from the same Tampa office by the same attorney, on its own fee terms, and each has its own page where the law is explained properly.
Immigration
Florida has three immigration courts and none of them is in Tampa. A Tampa-area case is very often controlled by the Orlando court — but not always, and what decides it is not where you live.
A detained case is controlled by the court for the facility where the person is held, which for somebody picked up in Hillsborough can mean Krome in Miami-Dade, four hours away.
Family law
Divorce, time-sharing, child support, alimony, property, paternity, modifications and injunctions for protection, filed in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.
Two statutory deadlines catch people out and neither is local: six months of Florida residency before filing, and the parent education course within forty-five days where there are minor children.
Criminal defense
The first twenty-four hours, bond and the conditions of release, DUI, drug charges, theft, assault and battery, domestic violence and probation violations.
First appearance happens within about a day of arrest, and a DUI arrest starts a separate ten-day clock on the driver license that the criminal court will not mention.
Property insurance claims
A denied, underpaid or delayed claim on a Town ’n’ Country home or business.
Notice of a claim is due within one year of the date of loss, counted from the loss itself rather than from the day the damage became visible — which is what catches damage that shows up months later.
07 How this works
The consultation, the documents, and what it costs
The first conversation is with Jose A. Dapena, not an intake department. On an injury matter it is free and there is no obligation, and it can happen by phone.
The Tampa office is at 4231 N Habana Avenue, east of Town ’n’ Country along Hillsborough Avenue. It is the office that serves all of Hillsborough County.
Bring whatever exists, incomplete rather than not at all. The report or the exchange of information, every medical record and bill, photographs, your own declarations page, and anything the other driver’s insurer has already sent.
Fee terms differ by practice and are stated before anything is signed. Injury work is a contingency fee, generally payable only on recovery, with case expenses governed by the written agreement. Family and immigration are hourly with payment plans available and government fees separate. Criminal is a flat fee set by the charges and the scope, with no payment plans. The free consultation is an injury term and does not apply to the others.
08 Who you work with
Jose A. Dapena
Admitted to The Florida Bar in 1998, Florida Bar number 152358, and admitted to the United States District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida — the Middle District is the federal court covering Hillsborough.
Before representing injured people he was in-house counsel for a Personal Injury Protection carrier, reviewing claims on behalf of the insurer — the same analysis a claim gets now, run from the other side of the file.
You deal with him directly at every stage, not with an intake department or a case manager.
09 The law behind this
- Fla. Stat. § 627.736 Personal Injury Protection
80% of medical expenses and 60% of lost income up to $10,000, and the fourteen-day deadline for initial care.
- Fla. Stat. § 627.737 The injury threshold
What an injury has to amount to before pain and suffering can be claimed from the at-fault driver.
- Fla. Stat. § 768.81 Comparative fault
More than 50% at fault and the claim recovers nothing, which is why apportionment is the whole fight in a pedestrian case.
- Fla. Stat. § 95.11 Time limits
Two years to file suit for most negligence claims accruing on or after March 24, 2023.
10 Official resources
- FLHSMV crash portalWhere a crash report is requested, whichever agency wrote it
- Hillsborough County Sheriff’s OfficeThe agency that polices unincorporated Town ’n’ Country
- Thirteenth Judicial CircuitThe court a Hillsborough case is filed in
- Hillsborough County Clerk of CourtFiling, case search and the forms a self-represented party needs
Questions
Is it Tampa Police or the Sheriff?
The Sheriff, in almost every case. Town ’n’ Country is unincorporated Hillsborough County rather than part of the City of Tampa, so the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office polices it. Tampa Police only covers crashes inside the city limits, and the Florida Highway Patrol works the Veterans Expressway.
Is there an office in Town ’n’ Country?
No. The office is at 4231 N Habana Avenue in Tampa, east along Hillsborough Avenue. It is the office that serves all of Hillsborough County.
My crash was near Oldsmar. Does that change anything?
It can change everything procedurally. Oldsmar is in Pinellas County, which sits in the Sixth Judicial Circuit rather than the Thirteenth, with different agencies and a different clerk. Which side of the county line a crash happened on decides where the case is filed.
Where would my case be heard?
The Thirteenth Judicial Circuit at the Hillsborough County Courthouse, 800 East Twiggs Street in downtown Tampa. Most injury claims resolve without a lawsuit at all.
The crash was on the Veterans Expressway.
Then the Florida Highway Patrol wrote the report, and the speeds involved tend to make the injuries worse. The claim runs on the same rules and is still a Hillsborough case.
My matter is not a car accident. Do you still handle it?
Yes — immigration, family law, criminal defense and property insurance claims are all handled from the Tampa office, each with its own page and its own fee terms. The free consultation is an injury term and does not apply to those.
How long do I have?
Fourteen days to receive initial care for PIP to pay anything at all, and two years to file suit for most negligence claims. The first is the one that runs out before people have decided what to do.
Talk to Jose A. Dapena about a Town ’n’ Country crash
The Tampa office on North Habana Avenue serves all of Hillsborough County, and the first conversation about an injury costs nothing. If the matter is not an injury, the fee terms are set out in writing before any work begins.