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St. Pete Beach, Pinellas County
St. Pete Beach personal injury lawyer
Waggener Law’s office is at 1700 66th St N, Suite 203 in St. Petersburg, and the practice covers St. Pete Beach and the rest of Pinellas County. If you were hurt here, the first conversation costs nothing and you will be speaking with the lawyer who would handle the file.
Cases from every one of these communities are handled from the same St. Petersburg office — the office whose trial work includes a $38.5 million jury verdict returned in Pinellas County in 2024.
Past results do not predict or guarantee a similar outcome.
Local, specifically
What being a St. Pete Beach case actually changes
Almost nothing about Florida injury law changes between one Pinellas community and the next — the deadlines, the no-fault rules and the comparative-fault statute are identical in St. Pete Beach and everywhere else in the state. Pretending otherwise would be the easiest lie on this page. What genuinely differs is narrower, and it is worth knowing.
- Who wrote the report decides where you get it. A crash in St. Pete Beach is usually investigated by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office under contract to the city; on the interstates and state roads it is more often the Florida Highway Patrol. Those are separate records systems, and you request the report from whichever agency actually responded. Either way it stays confidential for 60 days, released only to the people involved, their lawyers and their insurers (Fla. Stat. §316.066(2)).
- Two governments, not one. A city vehicle or a city-maintained sidewalk in St. Pete Beach runs against the city; a county road or a sheriff’s vehicle runs against Pinellas County. Both go through Fla. Stat. §768.28, which requires written notice before suit and caps what a government body pays. Getting the right body named is not a formality.
- A lot of the drivers are not from here. On the barrier island a meaningful share of traffic is visitors in rental cars and out-of-state vehicles. That changes the insurance question rather than the liability one: which policy is primary, whether a rental agreement supplies coverage, and whether your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is what actually pays. Send the declarations page.
- Your court is the Sixth Judicial Circuit. Pinellas shares it with Pasco. County court hears civil claims up to $50,000 and circuit court hears everything above (Fla. Stat. §34.01); small claims runs to $8,000. Which one you are in sets the pace and the procedure.
- The roads that generate the cases. In St. Pete Beach that means Gulf Boulevard, Blind Pass Road and the Pinellas Bayway. Knowing the intersection is not legal skill — but knowing which agency patrols it, and who maintains it, is where a claim starts.
The signature of this office
After an accident in St. Pete Beach, in order
Almost every personal injury case in Florida is decided by things that happen — or fail to happen — long before anyone files anything. These are the dates that matter, with the statute beside each one so you can check us.
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Hour 0
Get looked at, and say where it hurts
Adrenaline hides injuries for a day or two. The gap between the crash and the first medical record is the single most common thing an insurer uses to argue you were not really hurt.
Practical, not statutory
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14 days
The Florida rule that ends most PIP claims
Florida’s no-fault statute pays your initial medical benefits only if you get initial services and care within 14 days of the crash. Miss that window and the $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection you paid for is simply not available.
Fla. Stat. §627.736(1)(a)
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30 days
The insurer’s own clock starts
Once a PIP insurer receives written notice of a covered loss, the statute gives it 30 days to pay or to deny. Silence past 30 days is itself a fact worth recording.
Fla. Stat. §627.736(4)(b)
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Weeks 1–8
Evidence that expires
Store and parking-lot video is routinely overwritten in days. Skid marks wash away, a damaged vehicle gets repaired or sold for salvage, and witnesses move. A preservation letter has to go out before any of that happens, not after.
Practical, not statutory
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6 months
If a government vehicle or property is involved
A claim against the state, a county, a city or an agency has its own track: written notice must be presented, and the statute puts limits on what may be recovered from a government body at all.
Fla. Stat. §768.28
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2 years
The deadline that ends the case
For a negligence cause of action accruing on or after 24 March 2023, Florida gives you two years to file suit — not the four years most websites and most people still believe. Wrongful death was already two.
Fla. Stat. §95.11(4)(a), §95.11(4)(e)
General information about Florida law, current as of 2026. Not legal advice, and not a substitute for advice about your own facts.
What this office handles
A short list, on purpose.
Chris Waggener focuses on injury and death cases caused by someone else’s carelessness. Work that falls outside that gets referred out rather than taken on.
Car and truck crashes
No-fault, the 14-day rule, the injury threshold that decides whether you can step outside PIP at all, and why uninsured motorist coverage matters so much in this state.
Slip, trip and fall on someone else’s property
Since 2010 Florida makes the injured person prove the business knew about the spill, or should have. That one statute is why these cases are won or lost in the first week.
Wrongful death
Florida’s Wrongful Death Act runs through the estate, not the family directly. Who may file, who counts as a survivor, and what the two-year deadline does.
Traumatic brain injury, pedestrian and bicycle collisions, and uninsured or underinsured motorist disputes are handled within those three areas.
The rest of the county
Pinellas is small. The office is not far from St. Pete Beach.
From 1700 66th St N, Suite 203 it is a short drive to most of the county, and there is no charge for the first conversation whether you come to the office or not.
Communities served
- St. Petersburg
- Gulfport
- South Pasadena
- Tierra Verde
- Lealman
- Kenneth City
- Bay Pines
- Seminole
- Largo
- Pinellas Park
- Belleair
- Belleair Bluffs
- St. Pete Beach
- Treasure Island
- Madeira Beach
- Redington Shores
- Indian Shores
- Indian Rocks Beach
- Clearwater Beach
- Clearwater
- Dunedin
- Safety Harbor
- Palm Harbor
- Oldsmar
- Tarpon Springs
St. Petersburg personal injury lawyer → (one of 25 communities served)
Free case review
Talk to the lawyer who would handle the case.
Not an intake centre, not a call-screener working from a script. Tell us what happened and you will get a straight answer about whether there is a claim worth bringing.
- Call
- (727) 685-8000
- Office
- 1700 66th St N, Suite 203
St. Petersburg, FL 33710 - Hours
- Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Phones are answered 24 hours a day, every day.
Straight answers
St. Pete Beach questions
Do I have to come to the office to start a St. Pete Beach case?
No. The first conversation is by telephone unless you would rather it not be, and nothing about living in St. Pete Beach rather than St. Petersburg changes how a case is handled. If a meeting helps, the office is on 66th Street North.
I was hurt by a government vehicle or property in St. Pete Beach. Is that different?
It depends which body is responsible. A city vehicle or city-maintained property runs against St. Pete Beach itself; a county road or sheriff’s vehicle runs against Pinellas County. Both go through Fla. Stat. §768.28 and both start with written notice.
How do I get my St. Pete Beach crash report?
From the agency that investigated — usually the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office under contract to the city, or the Florida Highway Patrol on the state roads. Florida holds crash reports confidential for 60 days after filing, releasing them in that window only to those involved, their legal representatives, their insurers and a short statutory list (Fla. Stat. §316.066(2)). You are entitled to your own; a stranger who writes to you is not.
How long do I have to bring a St. Pete Beach injury claim?
Two years from the date of the injury for a negligence action accruing on or after 24 March 2023 (Fla. Stat. §95.11(4)(a)), and two years for wrongful death (§95.11(4)(e)). A claim against a government body adds the separate notice track under §768.28. Because the answer depends on the exact date and the exact defendant, treat any deadline you read online as a reason to call rather than as an answer.
Does the office only take St. Pete Beach cases?
No. The office is in St. Petersburg and the practice covers Pinellas County and Florida generally. If a matter is not one this office should handle, you will be told that on the first call.
How the fee works
The first conversation is free. After that this office works on a contingency fee: an attorney’s fee is charged only out of a recovery, so if there is no recovery there is no attorney’s fee. Case costs and expenses are a separate thing from the fee — filing fees, records, retained witnesses and the like — and how those are handled is set out in the written fee agreement before you sign it. Ask about them on the first call; you should never have to guess.