Personal Injury Lawyer at
Avera & Smith

Florida

Florida personal injury and commercial lawyer, Mark Avera is the president of Avera & Smith and, together with his brother Lance, manages the firm. Mark primarily handles major injury cases in the areas of medical malpractice and wrongful death. He has obtained some of the largest verdicts in North Florida in medical malpractice and wrongful death cases. In past years, he has been very active in litigating and trying to verdict motor vehicle crashes involving semi tractor trailers. He is one of the few lawyers in Florida to have tried to verdict multiple police pursuit cases involving the serious injury or death of an innocent party. Many of his verdicts have exceeded the amount of available insurance available to the defendants. He has obtained many large verdicts in jury trials across Florida and negotiated even more settlements in the same range. Some of his trial and settlement accomplishments can be found on the firm’s website.

Mark served his community in Alachua County as a sheriff’s deputy during the early 1980’s. He soon became the department’s youngest deputy promoted to the rank of Sergeant. His primary assignments were uniform patrol division, SWAT, and supervising the department’s street crimes unit. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida while working midnight shifts before resigning from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Department to pursue a degree in law at UF.

In 1989, Mark joined his father Bill at the Avera firm and focused his practice primarily in the area of civil trial law.

Mark has previously served on the board of directors for the Florida Justice Association between 1995 and 2001. He has appeared at numerous legal seminars speaking on the subjects of insurance law, jury selection, and numerous other topics.

He served on the Executive Council of the Trial Lawyers Section of the Florida Bar from 2004-2007.

In 2007 he was selected by LawDragon as one of the 500 best plaintiff’s lawyers in America. He is also recognized as one of Florida’s elite lawyers by the publication Super Lawyers.

He has received a rating of AV from Martindale-Hubbell; the highest rating a lawyer may receive from his peers in the areas of legal skill and ethics. He has been board certified in the field of civil trial law since 1998 and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

He is active in his community and in charitable organizations that benefit children. He currently serves on the board of directors for the mid-Florida division of the Children’s Home Society. He previously served on the board of directors of SPARC. He is an Eagle member of the Florida Justice Association and a member of the American Association for Justice. He is admitted to practice in all the state courts of Florida and the Middle and Northern Districts of Florida in federal courts. He and his wife Lee have three girls, Nicole, Alex, and Elle.

To access Mark Avera's Contact Network, Click Here.

To find out more about another one of our lawyers, please click on one of the names below:

• William N. Avera
• Lance F. Avera
• Dawn Vallejos-Nichols
• Rod Smith
• Jennifer Biewend
• Randi E. Dincher