Area we serve · Hillsborough County
Car accident lawyer in Wellswood
A quiet 1950s grid with an arterial on two sides of it
A crash in Wellswood is a Hillsborough County claim under the same Florida law as anywhere else: fourteen days to get initial care, the injury threshold, two years to sue. What is local is the shape of the place. Wellswood is a small residential neighborhood inside the City of Tampa, boxed in by Hillsborough Avenue on the north, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the south, Armenia Avenue on the west and the Hillsborough River on the east. Two of those four sides are major arterials, and the collisions here happen where the arterial meets the quiet street. The statutes are on the Florida car accident page. What follows is about this ground.
01 What a crash here actually looks like
Arterials on two sides and a river closing off a third
Hillsborough Avenue runs along the north, wide and signalized, carrying through traffic between the interstate and the airport corridor at speeds that belong to a highway rather than to the neighborhood behind it.
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard runs along the south, past St. Joseph’s Hospital, carrying hospital, commuter and commercial traffic all day.
The Hillsborough River closes the eastern side, which means the street network does not continue. Traffic that would otherwise disperse has to turn back onto the two arterials, and the junctions where it does that carry far more turning movement than their design suggests.
Inside, the streets are 1950s residential — the first house went up in 1950 and the median home here dates to about 1951 — with mature oaks, no through routes and short sight lines. The hazard is the driver using them as a shortcut between the two arterials.
The river means the streets do not continue. Everything has to turn back onto the arterial.
02 The part nobody tells you
A small neighborhood, a big hospital, and housing built before the codes
Wellswood is inside the City of Tampa, so the Tampa Police Department writes the crash report. That distinguishes it from the unincorporated communities a short distance north and west, where the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office responds instead. On Hillsborough Avenue the Florida Highway Patrol may work it.
It is small. The 2000 Census counted 4,126 residents, and the neighborhood holds roughly 833 homes. It took its name from the Wells family, who bought the 640-acre site; it was first called Wells Park and renamed for the pine and oak that covered it. A community center was deeded in 1949.
St. Joseph’s Hospital sits immediately south, at 3001 West Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard — a Level II adult trauma center and a state-designated pediatric trauma center. Almost nowhere in Hillsborough is closer to a trauma center than this, which matters when the fourteen-day treatment deadline is the first thing a claim turns on.
The age of the housing matters for a different claim. A neighborhood whose median home was built around 1951 is a neighborhood of original cast iron drain lines, aging roofs and electrical systems installed under codes that no longer exist. Insurers argue causation on that basis, and those arguments are won with documents rather than with opinions.
A Wellswood case is filed in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, at 800 East Twiggs Street. Most injury claims resolve with the insurer before a suit is filed.
03 The roads
Where the claims actually come from
Hillsborough Avenue, the northern boundary, carrying through traffic at arterial speed past residential entrances.
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the southern boundary, past the hospital and its ambulance traffic.
Armenia Avenue, the western boundary, moving north-south traffic quickly along the edge of the neighborhood.
The interior streets, narrow, tree-lined, with cars at the curb and no through route because the river closes the east side.
The turns back onto the arterials, which is where the traffic that cut through has to rejoin, and where most of these claims begin.
04 What to do now
The things that can only be done in the first two weeks
A checklist rather than advice about your own case. None of it requires hiring anyone.
Get seen within fourteen days
Personal Injury Protection pays nothing at all if the first treatment falls outside fourteen days — not a reduced amount, nothing. With a trauma center on the southern boundary there is no good reason to let this one lapse.
Confirm it was Tampa Police
Inside the city it is the Tampa Police Department. North or west of here it becomes the Sheriff, and on Hillsborough Avenue it may be the Florida Highway Patrol. Note the agency and the report number.
Photograph the sight line from the side street
The pattern here is a car leaving a quiet street for an arterial. What the driver could see of oncoming traffic past a parked car or a tree is the whole argument, and the tree gets trimmed.
Record anything public
A city vehicle, a signal that was dark, a street defect. That moves the claim under § 768.28, which starts with a written notice and runs on different deadlines.
Pull your own declarations page
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and whether it stacks. Florida does not require any driver to carry bodily injury liability, so your own policy is often the ceiling.
Do not give the other insurer a recorded statement
You are not required to. The answer given in the first week gets quoted back for the next two years.
05 The kinds of crash this covers
The same streets, four different claims
Hillsborough County recorded 26,269 traffic crashes in 2024, with 17,359 people injured and 180 killed, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. That is a county figure; no published count exists for Wellswood alone. Which of them a residential pocket between two arterials produces is the local part.
Car accidents
The bulk of it, and here it is the junction rather than the open road: a vehicle leaving a side street, and an arterial moving faster than it looks.
Pedestrian accidents
People walk inside a neighborhood like this and then have to cross an arterial to leave it. These turn on how fault is divided, and more than half the fault means recovering nothing at all.
Bicycle accidents
Quiet interior streets encourage riding; the boundary roads do not accommodate it. A bicycle carries no Personal Injury Protection of its own, so whether a household auto policy reaches the rider is the first question.
Uninsured drivers
Florida requires no driver to carry bodily injury liability coverage at all, so the underinsured case is the common one. The claim moves to your own policy, which makes the declarations page the most important document in the file.
06 Also for Wellswood
The other matters this office takes from here
Injury work is most of this practice. The rest run from the Tampa office just west of here, each with its own page and its own fee terms.
Property insurance claims
The one that comes up most in a neighborhood built in the early 1950s: a denied or underpaid roof, pipe or water claim where the insurer’s argument is the age of the house rather than the event.
Family law
Divorce, time-sharing, support, property and protective orders in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, filed downtown at 800 East Twiggs Street.
Immigration
Removal defense, bond, asylum, family petitions and citizenship. None of Florida’s three immigration courts is in Tampa, so what controls a case is not where you live.
Criminal defense
Bond and release conditions, DUI, drug charges, theft and domestic violence, after an arrest by Tampa Police rather than by the Sheriff.
07 How this works
The consultation, the documents, and what it costs
The first conversation is with Jose A. Dapena, not with an intake department. On an injury matter it is free and commits you to nothing, and it can happen by phone.
The Tampa office is at 4231 N Habana Avenue, a few minutes west of here. It is the office that serves all of Hillsborough County.
Fees differ by practice and are stated before anything is signed. Injury work is contingent, normally payable only if there is a recovery, with costs governed by the written agreement. Family and immigration are hourly, with payment plans and separate government filing fees. 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 travel to the others.
08 Who you deal with
Jose A. Dapena
Admitted to The Florida Bar in 1998, number 152358, and admitted to the United States District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida — the Middle District covers Hillsborough.
Before representing injured people he was in-house counsel for a Personal Injury Protection carrier, reviewing claims on the insurer’s behalf: the same analysis a claim meets now, learned from the other side of the file.
09 The law behind this
- Fla. Stat. § 627.736 Personal Injury Protection
80% of medical expenses and 60% of lost wages up to $10,000, and the fourteen-day deadline for initial care.
- Fla. Stat. § 768.28 Claims against the city
Written notice to the city within three years, six months for it to respond, and caps of $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.
- Fla. Stat. § 768.81 Comparative fault
More than 50% at fault and the claim recovers nothing, which is the whole argument in a pedestrian case.
- Fla. Stat. § 95.11 Deadlines
Two years to sue on 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
- Tampa Police DepartmentThe agency that works crashes inside the city limits
- Thirteenth Judicial CircuitThe court a Hillsborough case is filed in
- Hillsborough Clerk of CourtFiling, case search and the forms a self-represented party needs
Questions
Who writes the crash report in Wellswood?
The Tampa Police Department, because Wellswood is inside the city limits. North or west of the neighborhood it becomes unincorporated county and the report belongs to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and on Hillsborough Avenue the Florida Highway Patrol may work it.
Which hospital would I be taken to?
St. Joseph’s Hospital, immediately south on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard — a Level II adult trauma center and a state-designated pediatric trauma center. Very few places in the county are closer to a trauma center than this neighborhood.
Is there an office in Wellswood?
No. The office is at 4231 N Habana Avenue, a few minutes west, and it serves all of Hillsborough County.
My claim is about my house, not a crash.
That is common here. The neighborhood’s median home dates to about 1951, so a roof, pipe or water claim usually turns into an argument about the age of the house rather than about the event. Notice of the claim is due within one year of the date of loss, counted from the loss rather than from when the damage became visible.
Where would my case be heard?
In the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, at the Hillsborough County Courthouse, 800 East Twiggs Street. Most injury claims are resolved without a lawsuit.
My matter is not a car accident. Do you take those too?
Yes — property insurance claims, family law, immigration and criminal defense 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 get initial care for Personal Injury Protection to pay anything, and two years to sue on most negligence claims. If the city is the defendant, four years to sue but written notice within three.
Talk to Jose A. Dapena about a crash in Wellswood
The Tampa office on North Habana Avenue is a few minutes west and serves all of Hillsborough County. The first conversation about an injury costs nothing.