Florida Injury Attorneys Blog
Dear Injured Client,
We want you to know that we are here for you. We feel your pain from your physical or psychological injury. We feel your anxiety and emotional worry about how you will be able to work. We know you wake up at night worried about how you will take care of your family, yourself, buy goods, pay your bills and recover.
Your injuries may wake you up at night and keep you from sleeping; they may be there when you lash out in anger at your spouse, partner, friend, or child.
You are not alone. The US Dept of Veterans estimated 15 million people suffer from PTSD and emotional injuries this year alone. Post traumatic stress disease dwells in your body and it’s difficult to treat. It is an unseen condition. Fighters who have seen the worst in man, witnessing war, killing and bomb blasts have a difficult time returning to a normal society. It is a disease and it needs to be healed. The medical resources for it are insufficient. You may feel that you are battling alone and that you are out of place in this new world. PTSD is not like an arm wound where you look down and see how it is healing. With PTSD, you have to try to reduce your mental suffering and it’s difficult to figure out if you are succeeding. Know you are not alone.
Our goal: We seek to get your treatment. The treatment can include medication, psychological care, and settlement funds to return you to gainful employment. We apply for benefits for you through filing an LS 203 if your injury is under the Defense Base Act.
Never give up hope. Our prayer for you is that you identify your injuries, know which are physical and which are psychological, acknowledge you need help, find help, get the treatment you need, get better, seek a settlement, use the funds to go proudly forward. Know we are by your side as we lead you through the uncertainty.
The path is strewn with difficulty. The insurance companies may label you a malingerer, they will deny you benefits, they will attack your memory. Do not doubt yourself. We are well positioned to work for you. We fight for you while you focus on your return to health and work.
No one is immune from injuries. We may watch movies about super heroes who are strong and can’t be injured but that is fiction. We may play games where our character defeats others but that is not reality. We are human, we bleed. When we build buildings, create new products defend our country in wars, we are injured both physically and spiritually. We need treatment and we need to be understood. We need to know there is a way out, a way our bodies and minds can be restored. We need to have hope and we certainly appreciate help on our journey. We have assembled a hard working caring group here at Attorneys Jo Ann Hoffman & Associates to give each of you a hand up so that you can continue on your journey.
A special prayer to the children who have lost their parents on the jobs. I remember a worker from Guatemala who lost his life when he fell from the roof of a townhouse his company was building in Tampa. His employer told me he would not even report this accident to his insurance company and he had no intent on paying this man’s three hungry children in Guatemala. We fought for them, obtained the Maximum benefits and today those children are teenagers.
We received a telephone call last year from a prior Florida client. He said “Tell Jo Ann thank you because I was able to put my son through college. He is graduated and making good money. I could never have done it without the settlement you got for me.” We appreciated that he remembered us and let us know this.
Somewhere in Africa there is a village. African people who fought along side our troops in the Iraq war found us and asked for help. When they were injured and discharged, they returned to their village. Could we help them, they asked. For some, we were able to get them medical care and settlements. Let me tell you what they did with their settlement funds. They were able to grow more crops. They were able to put a floor in their homes, they were able to get bicycles. Not only were they grateful but they also contributed a portion of their money to the village to make the village a better place for all. We feel their gratitude. That is why we help. It’s simple, helping the injured is our passion! It is our life work we perform to help people. Thank you for your trust.
Jo Ann Hoffman