AV PREEMINENT® RATED · REPRESENTING FLORIDA INJURY VICTIMS SINCE 1995
More than $250 million recovered for injured Floridians and their families. You pay nothing unless we win your case.
Before we represented injury victims, we defended insurance companies. We know what they look for, because we used to look for it.
Free consultation · No fee unless we win · Se habla español · Home and hospital visits available
Florida now gives most injury victims two years to file. Evidence disappears a lot faster than that.
Car & Truck Collisions
Rear-end, intersection and highway collisions on I-95, Florida’s Turnpike and US-1. The insurer’s first offer is rarely what the claim is actually worth.
The results listed above were obtained in specific cases and depend on the facts, injuries, and insurance coverage involved. Every case is different, and a prospective client may not obtain the same or similar results.
Our Firm
Hughes & Barnard Law Firm, P.A. is a plaintiff-only personal injury law firm with offices in Port St. Lucie and Jupiter, Florida. We represent people injured by someone else’s negligence — in car, truck, and motorcycle crashes, on unsafe property, at work, and through medical mistakes — across St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, and Indian River counties and throughout the state. We do not represent insurance companies, and we never have to ask whose side we are on.
Managing partner Howard M. Hughes has practiced law in Florida since 1995 and holds an AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer-review rating an attorney can receive for legal ability and ethical standards. Partner Cameron Barnard began his career defending hospitals, physicians, and insurers, and has since recovered more than $20 million for individuals in catastrophic injury, wrongful death, medical malpractice, and nursing home abuse cases.
Most of the people we represent come to us through someone we have represented before. Whether you found us that way or at two in the morning from a hospital bed, you get the same thing: a real attorney on the phone, a straight answer about whether you have a case, and a firm small enough that the lawyer who takes your call is the lawyer who handles your file.
Explore our practice
Free Case Review
A few details is all we need to tell you whether you have a claim worth pursuing. No cost, no obligation, and the attorney who reviews it is the attorney who would handle it.
Or call (561) 296-9400Why It Matters
Before law school, Howard Hughes worked as an all-lines insurance adjuster and in claims management. He then spent years representing and defending insurance carriers before switching sides permanently. Cameron Barnard started his career defending hospitals, doctors, and insurers.
That means we know how a claim file gets built, how reserves are set, how adjusters are trained to value an injury, and what actually makes a carrier decide a case is worth paying instead of fighting. Most of the tactics used against injury victims are not improvised. They are procedure, and we learned the procedure from the inside.
Treatment gaps, prior injuries, and recorded statements are the three things carriers use most often to discount a claim. We address them at the start, before they become the reason your offer is low.
Carriers value claims with software and internal guidelines, not intuition. Knowing what drives those numbers is the difference between accepting the first offer and knowing it is not the real one.
A carrier’s evaluation of a claim includes its evaluation of the lawyer on the other side. We build every case as though it will be tried, because that assessment gets made whether or not the case ever reaches a courtroom.
Practice Areas
Rear-end collisions, intersection crashes, and highway wrecks on I-95, Florida’s Turnpike, US-1, and the roads you drive every day.
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Semi-trucks, delivery vans, and box trucks carry commercial policies and corporate defense teams — and evidence that starts disappearing within days.
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Riders take the worst of every impact and get blamed first. We investigate what actually happened before the insurer decides.
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Florida is one of the most dangerous states in the country for people on foot and on bikes, and drivers are rarely the ones telling the story first.
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Property owners owe visitors a reasonably safe premises. Proving they knew about the hazard is where these cases are won or lost.
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Hurt on the job, including construction, warehouse, and back injuries that build up over time rather than happening in one moment.
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Surgical mistakes, missed diagnoses, and medication errors, handled under Florida’s separate and unforgiving malpractice procedures.
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Bedsores, falls, dehydration, and unexplained injuries in facilities that were paid to keep your parent safe.
Falls, struck-by injuries, and equipment failures on job sites, including third-party claims beyond workers’ compensation.
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Defective vehicles, machinery, and consumer products that injured the person using them exactly as intended.
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When negligence takes a family member, Florida law defines who may recover and gives you two years from the date of death.
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Rideshare crashes involve layered commercial policies that change coverage depending on whether the app was on and a passenger was aboard.
Learn moreMore Case Types
If your situation isn’t listed above, it may be here. Not sure where your case fits? Call us and ask — the conversation is free.
Our Commitment to You
The results listed above were obtained in specific cases and depend on the facts, injuries, and insurance coverage involved. Every case is different, and a prospective client may not obtain the same or similar results.
Start Your Claim
How It Works
You tell us what happened. We tell you whether you have a claim worth pursuing, what it likely turns on, and what your deadline is. If you do not have a case, we will say so on that call rather than sign you up and find out later.
Carriers value claims with software and internal guidelines, not intuition. Knowing what drives those numbers is the difference between accepting the first offer and knowing it is not the real one.
Once we are involved, the adjusters call us instead of you. We coordinate with your doctors, document how the injury has changed your life and your ability to work, and present the claim only when your medical picture is clear enough to value it properly.
Most cases settle. When a carrier will not make a fair offer, we file. You decide whether to accept any offer, and you get our honest read on the risks either way — not a push toward whichever outcome is faster.
Our Team
Visit Us
Our Port St. Lucie office handles injury claims across St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River, and Okeechobee counties — We regularly handle crashes on I-95, Florida’s Turnpike, US-1, Crosstown Parkway, Gatlin Boulevard, and Port St. Lucie Boulevard, and we work with clients treating at Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital, and Lawnwood Regional Medical Center.
Serving: Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, Stuart, Jensen Beach, Palm City, Hobe Sound, Vero Beach, Sebastian, and Okeechobee.
Our Jupiter office serves northern Palm Beach County, where cases are filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach. We handle crashes along Indiantown Road, US-1, Military Trail, A1A, and the I-95 corridor through Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens, and we represent clients treating at Jupiter Medical Center and Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.
Serving: Jupiter, Tequesta, Palm Beach Gardens, North Palm Beach, Juno Beach, Riviera Beach, Wellington, and West Palm Beach.
Where We Practice
Two offices, one standard of service. We take cases across Florida’s east coast.
Testimonials
Howard is an insurance hero. He is able to instruct his clients the best and most professional way to gather evidence to use for settlement without the higher costs of filing lawsuits. He is also experienced in settlement negotiations. Picking up the check was absolutely no problem. He got a great final settlement amount…
I reached out to Cameron regarding a accident and was very pleased with his approach, honesty and guidance even though my case did not warrant a layer. It is great to see kind, considerate and compassionate layers out there. God forbid I need him, but I am keeping his number just in case. He makes you feel like a person and not a case number.
Hughes and Barnard Law Firm, PA. Came through for me when I found out the person that causes my auto accident didn’t have coverage. I was able to get treatments and recover some money. Staff was fantastic and attorney Cameron Barnard was very responsive and worked fast to get my case resolved.
Common Questions
Legal Insights
Plain-language guides to the Florida rules that decide injury claims.
Step by step, from the scene to the first call with an adjuster.
Florida’s Personal Injury Statute of LimitationsThe two-year deadline and the narrow exceptions to it.
Comparative Negligence in FloridaHow shared fault changes what you can recover.
What Evidence Is Needed for an Injury ClaimWhat actually moves a claim, and what to preserve now.
What Happens After a Claim Is FiledThe stages of a claim, in plain language.
The 4 Elements of NegligenceThe legal test behind nearly every injury case.
When Medical Bills Exceed Policy LimitsWhere the money comes from when coverage runs out.
How to Report Elder Abuse in FloridaWho to call, and what happens after you do.
Firm News
Hughes and Barnard Law Firm, P.A. is proud to announce that attorney Howard M. Hughes has been named President of the Board of Directors of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Foundation. In this leadership role, Howard will work alongside fellow board members to help guide the Foundation’s mission of supporting the men and women of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office while strengthening programs and initiatives that benefit the greater St. Lucie County community. His appointment reflects a longstanding commitment to service, leadership, and giving back to the community he has proudly served for decades.
Free Consultation
Hughes and Barnard Law Firm, PA. is a Florida personal injury law firm of civil trial attorneys with over 75 years of combined experience in obtaining successful outcomes for injured clients. Our attorneys focus on handling personal injury and wrongful death matters, insurance disputes, and other complex injury litigation throughout the State of Florida. Our team relentlessly pursues justice, collecting over $250 million in settlements for our clients. Choose Hughes and Barnard, because you deserve more.
BECAUSE YOU DESERVE MORE
Start Here
You do not need to know whether you have a case before you call. That is what the consultation is for. Tell us what happened, and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth pursuing, what it would involve, and how long you have to decide.
There is no fee for the conversation and no fee unless we recover money for you.
