West Palm Beach Brain Injury Lawyers
A car crash, a fall at a store, or a workplace accident can leave you with a brain injury that changes daily life for you and your family. Headaches or trouble concentrating can appear hours or days after the injury and make it hard to work, attend school, or even get out of bed, and recovery can take anywhere from weeks to years. Because the damage may not be visible without a medical diagnosis, the insurance company may dispute how severe the injury is and how much treatment you need.
Lesser Landy Smith & Siegel represents brain injury victims in West Palm Beach and throughout our other Florida offices. We connect you or your loved one with a doctor who specializes in brain injuries, document the cause and extent of the injury, investigate the accident to identify who is responsible, and pursue the care and compensation you deserve, whether through settlement or at trial.
Signs of a Brain Injury After an Accident
Symptoms of a brain injury can appear hours or days after a crash or fall and are easy to attribute to stress or a bad night’s sleep. See a doctor if you notice signs like the following in the days after a blow to the head, according to the CDC:
- Headaches that persist or get worse
- Memory problems, confusion, or trouble concentrating
- Nausea or vomiting
- Sensitivity to light or noise
- Dizziness or vision problems
- Changes in sleep, mood, or irritability
A medical record dated close to the accident connects your symptoms to what happened, and that record becomes the starting point for proving causation later in the case.
What is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?
A traumatic brain injury, sometimes called a TBI, is a broad term used to describe brain damage caused by a blunt-force blow to the skull. It can also be used to describe injuries resulting from an object piercing the skull. In some circumstances, a traumatic brain injury can cause temporary or short-term issues with the victim’s brain functioning, such as problems with how the victim thinks, communicates, and moves. In more severe cases, a traumatic brain injury may lead to a permanent disability or even death.
Primary and Secondary Brain Injuries
A traumatic brain injury may be classified as primary or secondary. Primary traumatic brain injuries describe injuries where the damage suffered is immediate. For secondary traumatic brain injuries, the damage builds up over time after the injury, usually as a result of the brain responding to head trauma.
Penetrating and Non-Penetrating Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries may also be classified as penetrating or non-penetrating. A penetrating traumatic brain injury describes an injury where an object pierces the skull and enters the brain tissue. Penetrating traumatic brain injuries usually result in localized damage to the part of the brain impacted by the object. A non-penetrating traumatic brain injury, or “blunt” traumatic brain injury, is the result of an external force hitting the outside of the skull hard enough that the brain is injured when it moves inside the skull.
Non-Traumatic Brain Injury
Not all brain injuries are the result of physical trauma to the skull. The Brain Injury Association of America uses “acquired brain injury” for any brain injury that happens after birth and is not hereditary, congenital, or degenerative, and divides it into traumatic and non-traumatic. A non-traumatic brain injury occurs when the cells of the brain are damaged from the inside, through oxygen deprivation, pressure, or swelling, rather than by an outside force. Causes can range from:
- Heart attacks
- Strokes
- Substance abuse
- Brain tumors
- Toxic exposure
- Brain aneurysms
- Certain illnesses like meningitis or encephalitis
Whichever type of brain injury you have, your case comes down to proving that someone else’s negligence caused it and what the injury may cost over your lifetime. Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel works with medical specialists, such as neurologists, to document the injury and project your future care, and investigates the crash or fall to identify who is responsible. When the insurance company refuses to pay full compensation, our attorneys are prepared to go to trial and take your case to a jury in Palm Beach County.Â
Types of Brain Injury
Common examples of brain injuries that may be the result of an accident include:
Concussions are among the most common types of brain injury and are often caused by a sudden impact to the skull, violent shaking of the head, or whiplash.
Cerebral contusions are when the brain is bruised from an accident, and treatment may require surgery to relieve pressure inside the skull due to brain swelling.
Skull fractures describe when one or more bones in the skull are cracked or broken and sometimes result in bone fragments being pushed into the brain tissue.
Coup-contrecoup injuries occur when the skull is struck with such force that the brain hits one side of the skull, then bounces back to hit the opposite side of the skull.
Subarachnoid hemorrhage describes cases where torn blood vessels release blood into the space around the brain, which is usually filled with cerebrospinal fluid that cushions the brain from impact.
Subdural hematomas occur when veins located between the brain and its outer protective covering tear and blood collects around the brain.
Diffuse Axonal injuries may result from a violent shaking of the head that causes the brain’s nerve fibers to stretch or tear.
Each of these injuries appears differently in your medical records. A subdural hematoma or skull fracture is visible on a CT scan or MRI, while a concussion may come with normal imaging and get diagnosed from your symptoms and neuropsychological testing. When there is no scan to point to, the adjuster may argue the injury is minor or that your symptoms come from something other than the accident. For any TBI, Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel builds the medical proof the diagnosis requires, whether imaging, testimony from your treating physician, or a specialist evaluation, and ties it to the accident so the insurance company has to answer the evidence rather than question whether you were hurt.
Parties Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Brain Injury
Who you can pursue depends on how the injury happened:
- Driver. A driver who causes a crash can be held liable for injuries beyond what PIP covers, and in certain circumstances the vehicle’s owner can be as well.
- Property owners and businesses. A store, restaurant, or landlord that fails to fix or warn about a hazard that causes a fall can be liable under Florida premises liability law.
- Third parties in a workplace accident. Workers’ compensation is generally your only remedy against your employer under Fla. Stat. 440.11, but a driver, equipment manufacturer, or property owner who caused the injury can be sued separately. On a construction site, another subcontractor working on the same project generally shares your employer’s immunity under Fla. Stat. 440.10 unless its gross negligence was the major contributing cause of your injury.
Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel investigates every potential defendant and the insurance coverage behind each one, since a case with more than one responsible party may recover from more than one policy.
Elements of a Brain Injury Claim
Florida tort laws and state statutes lay out what a victim has to prove to recover damages in a brain injury case. To be successful, the victim usually needs to show the defendant violated the four core elements of a negligence claim.
- Duty of care. The defendant owed the injured party a legal duty to act with reasonable care, like complying with traffic laws or keeping floors dry.
- Breach of duty. The defendant did not meet that standard of reasonable care.
- Causation. The victim has to show the defendant’s action or inaction was a direct cause of their injuries.
- Damages. There has to be actual, measurable losses for the victim, like the cost of medical care, lost wages, or pain and suffering.
A plaintiff in a Florida personal injury case has to prove causation by the “greater weight of the evidence,” meaning it is more likely than not that the defendant’s action or inaction caused the injury. Most brain injury cases settle before trial, and the same standard applies to how the insurance company evaluates the evidence during negotiations, since it is what a jury or judge would apply if the case went to trial. Florida also applies the modified comparative negligence doctrine, which reduces your compensation by your share of fault for the accident and bars recovery altogether if you are found more than 50 percent at fault.
Two Years to Bring a Claim
Florida law requires personal injury lawsuits based on negligence to be filed within two years of the injury. The deadline had been four years, but a 2023 tort reform law reduced it to two years under Florida Statute § 95.11 for injuries that occurred after March 24, 2023. If your injury happened on or before that date, the four-year deadline still applies to your case. A lawsuit filed after the applicable deadline is subject to dismissal regardless of how strong the evidence is.
Fourteen Days to Start Treatment After a Car Accident
If your brain injury came from a car accident, Florida’s no-fault law, Fla. Stat. 627.736, pays PIP medical benefits only if you receive initial medical care within 14 days of the crash. Delayed concussion symptoms make that window easy to miss. The 14-day deadline applies to PIP benefits and not to your negligence case against the at-fault driver, though a gap in treatment can give the adjuster an argument that the injury came from something else.
Be Careful When Talking to Insurance Companies
When a company or person they insure has been involved in an accident resulting in a brain injury, a representative of their insurance company will likely reach out to the victim asking questions about the accident. Be careful when talking to the insurance company because, even if you don’t let them record your conversation, they will be taking careful notes on everything you say.
Your Words Can Be Used Against You
If you are not careful with explaining the accident and how it occurred, you or a family member may end up having your words twisted and used against you in settlement negotiations or in court. For example, if you describe the accident to an insurance adjuster differently than it was documented in the police report, the insurance company may use your words as evidence that you are not being honest about what happened or are filing a false claim. The adjuster may take that position even when you are describing the accident as accurately as you remember it.
Prepare Before You Speak with an Adjuster
Meeting with a Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel attorney who concentrates on brain injury cases can help prepare you for conversations with insurance adjusters and the tactics they use to raise doubt about who was at fault for the accident.
Compensation in a Brain Injury Case
Damages in a Florida brain injury case fall into two categories. Economic damages cover documented losses: past and future medical bills, rehabilitation and therapy, in-home care or equipment, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity if you cannot return to your prior work. Non-economic damages cover pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and mental anguish, and a spouse may recover separately for loss of consortium.
For a lasting injury, Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel retains life care planners and economists to put a dollar figure on decades of future care and lost income, which is the part of the case an adjuster’s first offer tends to leave out.
Don't Settle Before Talking to a Lawyer
Insurance adjusters will sometimes be quick to offer a payout for a brain injury, especially a traumatic one, and the offer usually comes with a statement that the payment is in return for dropping your right to sue. Accepting can be tempting when large doctor and hospital bills are arriving, but a settlement that covers your short-term medical costs may not cover years of future treatment, therapy, or lost income.
The lawyers at Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel are experienced in representing traumatic brain injury victims and can help you understand the short-term and long-term costs you may face after an accident, then pursue compensation that will make you and your loved ones whole.
Still Have Questions? We Can Help
A brain injury can be a life-altering experience for you or a loved one. Fortunately, you don’t need to go through it alone. The attorneys at Lesser Landy Smith & Siegel in West Palm Beach are experienced in representing brain injury victims and fighting for the compensation they deserve. We can help you get the f you deserve and help you move forward with your life following a brain injury. Call us at (561) 655-2028 for a free consultation. If we take your case, you’ll pay nothing unless we recover compensation.
