Suffering from any injury can present many challenges. Depending on the cause and severity of your injury, you may face changes to your lifestyle, miss a lot of work, and miss out on family activities. This can add frustration to your pain and suffering. Some injuries naturally get better on their own, but others might cause life-altering and life-threatening conditions.
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is serious, debilitating, and potentially deadly. A TBI has many causes and comes in different forms. But every TBI is serious and requires medical attention to ensure the victim's health and safety. If you or a loved one has suffered a TBI, the law may entitle you to compensation. To find out, speak with a Dolman Law Group Orlando brain injury attorney who can help you seek every dollar you deserve.
Why Choose Our Orlando Brain Injury Attorneys?
From the start, the Orlando brain injury attorneys at Dolman Law Group will be there to help shoulder the legal burdens for you. While you focus your energy on your recovery, our lawyers will go to work for you. We will negotiate with insurance companies, investigate your case, gather evidence, and find all liable parties. There is a reason we are a national award-winning law firm. Our track record of success speaks volumes about the kind of legal representation we offer our clients.
Here are some of our most notable brain injury case results:
- $3.85 million for a truck accident survivor who suffered a TBI
- $3.2 million for a truck accident survivor who suffered a head injury
- $1.75 million for a semi-truck accident victim who suffered a mild TBI and shoulder injury
- $939,000 for a rideshare accident that resulted in multiple injuries, including a TBI
While past success never guarantees future results, you can take comfort knowing you have an experienced team of Orlando personal injury lawyers on your side. Our office is conveniently located in Orlando at 1701 Park Center Drive, Suite #240-G. We are just a couple of blocks from Park Lake Street. To make things easy for our injured clients, we are happy to meet with you in your home, in your hospital room, or virtually. Simply call our office, and we can come to you!
To learn more about your legal options, you can contact us for a free initial consultation and review. We are here to help!
How Can Our Orlando Brain Injury Lawyers Help Win Your Case?
The Orlando brain injury attorneys at Dolman Law Group have access to some of the best medical experts in Florida to show how your brain injury has affected your ability to work, enjoy life and hobbies, and much more. The medical experts we use for brain injury cases will also help show the types of therapies and treatments you may require down the road.
This is especially important with brain injury cases because treating these injuries can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. For example, your brain injury can involve some of the following issues that require substantial funds to manage effectively:
- Mental impairments, such as memory loss, trouble reasoning, and inability to speak or understand speech
- Motor difficulties, such as partial or total paralysis and weakness or numbness in the limbs
- Sensory and perceptual challenges, including vision problems
- Physical impairments that prevent you from functioning independently, including difficulty eating, dressing, and using the bathroom
- Psychiatric problems, such as anxiety, depression, and even thoughts of suicide
Any of the above issues can happen after a brain injury, and our attorneys will help you seek fair compensation. We will pursue damages based on medical bills and other costs. Some of the information that our Orlando brain injury attorneys may use to prove your brain injury include:
- CT scan: This is one of the most reliable tests to show brain trauma due to swelling or bleeding.
- Glasgow Coma Score: We consult with doctors who will use this system to show how severe your brain injury is.
- Neuropsychological tests: Expert psychologists and psychiatrists will evaluate and interview you to determine how your head injury affects your state of mind.
Common Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries in Orlando
Brain injury causes vary greatly, and some will only cause minor injuries. However, all TBIs are serious. While falling is the leading cause of TBI, other major causes include:
- Car accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Truck accidents
- Sports injuries
- Gunshot wounds
This list is not exhaustive, and you may have suffered a TBI from some other accident or activity. If your TBI resulted from a criminal act, like a mugging, robbery, or battery, the prosecutor may decide to bring criminal charges against the person who harmed you. But to collect compensation for your injuries, you must still file an Orlando traumatic brain injury claim. The criminal charges will do little to provide you with the compensation you need to ensure you do not pay out of pocket.
A common misconception about traumatic brain injuries is that the victim must receive a direct blow to the head. This is inaccurate. For example, in a car accident where another vehicle strikes your car from behind, your body is pushed forward, but your head snaps backward, in the direction of the impact. Your head may not come into contact with any other object. But the sheer force of the movement, often whiplash, can injure your brain.
You must see a doctor if you even suspect you have had a brain injury to receive a proper evaluation and treatment. You may not have obvious, immediate signs of an injury, such as a skull fracture or bleeding from a head injury.
Why Traumatic Brain Injuries Are So Severe
The brain is central to your body functioning properly. Any damage to the brain can cause a change in the way your body operates. That is why traumatic brain injuries often result in life-changing conditions for the victim and their family. If you or a loved one has been involved in an accident or activity which could have caused a brain injury, monitor the victim's behavior. Watch for symptoms like:
- Dizziness
- Blurred vision
- Headaches
- Amnesia
- Disorientation
- Poor concentration
- Sudden change in mood
- Depression
- Sudden change in appetite
- Irritability
If you or a loved one experiences any of these symptoms, you may suffer from a TBI and need to visit a doctor immediately. Your ability to recover from your brain injury depends on the treatment you receive and how quickly after your injury you receive it. Acting fast can play a part in your ability to recover.
Your doctor may ask many questions to evaluate whether you have suffered a TBI and may diagnose you with one of the following conditions:
Concussion
Concussions are the most well-known type of TBI. Concussions are in the news frequently due to their prevalence in contact sports. In fact, 20 percent of high school students who play a contact sport receive a concussion each year. Impact to the head can cause a concussion, as can a non-contact injury, such as whiplash.
The biggest danger to a concussion victim is second impact syndrome. This happens when a concussion victim suffers a second concussion while their brain is still healing from the first. After suffering a concussion, you must adhere to your doctor's orders and not engage in any activity that could put you at risk of another concussion. Your body must rest.
Most victims of concussions recover on their own after confirming with their doctor that the concussion is the only TBI they have suffered. Your doctor may suggest you take pain medication and tell you to rest both physically and mentally. You need to give yourself the best chance of making a full recovery, and that comes from resting.
Contusion
Contusions happen when you suffer an impact directly to your head. This causes severe bruising or bleeding in your brain. Serious contusions may require surgery to relieve pressure on the skull and remove any toxins.
Coup-Contrecoup
A coup-contrecoup injury is two brain injuries in one. This injury occurs when you suffer a blow to the head and your brain impacts the skull with such force that it bounces off and hits the other side of the skull. Because both sides of the brain suffer damage, this injury is serious and must be evaluated quickly by a medical professional.
Diffuse Axonal
When you suffer an injury that puts such force on the body that the brain, sitting in fluid in your skull, lags behind in movement, it can tear parts of the brain or brain stem. This injury usually results in a loss of consciousness immediately and can result in death.
Taking Care of Your Body and Your Mind
While a concussion is considered a mild TBI, do not let that term mislead you. All TBIs are serious and require immediate medical attention. Your ability to recover from your injuries depends on how quickly you get medical help. However, your physical injuries are not the only injuries you will suffer from.
You will also face mental anguish. Depending on the severity of your injuries, you could face a forever-altered life because of your brain injury. You may never return to work, at least not in the same capacity. You may require a lifetime of assistance to do things you could have otherwise done independently.
Unfortunately, all of this may negatively impact your mental state. But do not ignore that pain. To help you get the attention you deserve, speak with an Orlando personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after your accident. Your lawyer can help you chart a path for your physical and mental recovery while working hard to seek fair compensation.
Collecting Damages
Depending on the type of TBI you have suffered, your total treatment costs could exceed $3 million. That astronomical amount of money would leave many TBI victims in financial ruin. It is important to remember that you did not cause your injury, so you should not bear the responsibility of paying those extreme medical costs. Your lawyer may try to get you compensation for:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Lost wages
- Lost earning potential
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of life enjoyment
- Present and future medical payments
- Rehabilitation costs
While you see the medical bills piling up on your kitchen table, you should realize that the bulk of your financial impact may come later. Because of your injury, you may be out of work for an extended time. This could lead to a serious loss of income for your household. That may cause your family to feel pressure to take on extra work to cover the financial loss of you not working. However, that is also not their burden to bear. The financial hardship you face should be the at-fault party's responsibility.
By working with a TBI lawyer in Orlando, you can let go of the legal stress and worry about how you will pay your bills. Place that stress on a trusted legal advisor. When you do, you can focus all of your effort and energy on your physical and mental recovery. This not only gives you the best chance of getting better, but it also gives you the legal guidance to achieve your goal of holding the negligent party liable for your accident and your bills.
Do Not Delay
In Florida, you only have four years from the date of your accident to bring an Orlando traumatic brain injury claim against the at-fault party. Many people think that four years is a long time, but when you think about everything you will need to deal with during that time, it will quickly pass by.
Unfortunately, if you miss this filing deadline, you could miss out on collecting damages from the at-fault party, resulting in you having to pay out of pocket for your medical expenses. Not only that, but you would also have to absorb all of the financial losses from being out of work. By speaking with a TBI lawyer in Orlando as soon as possible after your accident, you can have your lawyer working hard to collect compensation for you while you worry about your health and wellbeing.
Putting off the phone call to a legal advisor only hurts your case and may even prevent you from collecting every dollar you deserve.
Orlando Brain Injury FAQ
There were over 64,000 traumatic brain injury-related deaths in the United States in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This amounts to about 176 deaths every day resulting from a brain injury.
Even though these traumatic brain injuries can occur for several reasons, if you have suffered a brain injury because of another person's wrongful actions, you should pursue justice and compensation for the losses and harm you have sustained. This section goes over what you need to know about brain injuries, specifically answering some of the most frequently asked questions clients often have after a brain injury accident.
With these responses, we hope you have the answers you need to understand the legal remedies you can pursue to seek compensation to cover the full cost of your injury.
1. What does a Severe Brain Injury Entail?
Generally, a severe brain injury occurs when the brain suffers trauma, which leads to physiologic changes to the person's brain.
Usually, these severe injuries fall into four main categories, including:
- Penetrating brain injuries: These brain injuries result when a foreign object enters the brain and causes damage to the brain's neurological structure.
- Closed brain injuries: These injuries occur when the brain tissue strikes the inside of the skull. This impact can result in bleeding, bruising, intracranial pressure, tissue damage, fluid buildup, and neurochemical changes.
- Anoxic brain injuries: Anoxic brain damage occurs when a reduced amount of oxygen goes to the brain and causes the brain cells to die.
- Toxic brain injuries: A toxic brain injury usually results when an individual faces exposure to or ingestion of a toxic chemical agent. Due to this exposure, the chemical will cross the blood-brain barrier and damage or kill the brain cells.
2. What Types of Accidents in Orlando Most Often Cause Brain Injuries?
Although brain injuries usually result from a blow or other traumatic injury to the head, many other types of events can also cause these horrifying injuries, including:
- Motor vehicle crashes, such as collisions involving motorcycles, bicycles, cars, trucks, and pedestrians. These collisions often occur at dangerous Orlando intersections.
- Slips and falls and falls from significant heights
- Sporting injuries from high-impact or extreme sports, such as football, soccer, boxing, hockey, and skateboarding
- Violent acts resulting from abuse, assaults, domestic violence, and gunshot wounds
- Explosive blasts
If you suffered a brain injury from an incident not listed here, you should still reach out to an Orlando brain injury attorney from Dolman Law Group as soon as possible. Our lawyers can review your accident, determine if you have a viable claim, and pursue the damages you need to recover. If another party's negligence caused your incident and injuries, you may have a viable case for compensation.
3. Can Brain Injury Symptoms Take Time to Appear After an Orlando Accident?
According to the CDC, it can take days and even weeks for brain injury symptoms to appear. Even though a person may appear to function normally during this time, these injuries can cause blood vessels in the brain to rupture and cause pressure buildup that can significantly affect the individual over time.
Following an Orlando brain injury accident, you should see a doctor right away to get examined for these hidden and often-deadly injuries. A medical professional can also diagnose or clear you of other serious injuries, treat scrapes and cuts, and take action to prevent serious complications.
4. How Do You Know If You Have a Valid Legal Claim Following an Orlando Brain Injury Accident?
To verify whether you have a valid legal claim following an Orlando brain injury accident, you should reach out to a brain injury attorney as soon as possible. At Dolman Law Group, we provide free consultations. Many different factors will determine whether someone has a viable case, and a lawyer will need to go over these factors to figure out whether you can pursue your claim.
Your lawyer will ask:
- Did you suffer a brain injury following your accident?
- How extensive is your brain injury?
- Do you still have time to file a claim following your brain injury accident?
- Do you have access to insurance coverage following the brain injury accident, or do other financial remedies exist that you can pursue?
Fortunately, when you work with a brain injury lawyer from our team, we can go over every aspect of your accident, review what happened, ask these questions, and help you figure out if you have a viable case.
5. What Types of Compensation Can You Pursue in an Orlando Brain Injury Accident Lawsuit?
If you suffered a brain injury due to another person's wrongful or negligent actions, you may qualify to pursue certain types of compensation. In Florida, this compensation often includes economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages: These damages refer to the actual and verifiable losses that result from an accident, such as:
- Past, current, and future medical bills for your medical treatments, including surgeries, prescription medications, hospital stays, rehabilitative therapy, and emergency services
- Lost wages
- Lost earning capacity
- At-home nursing care
- Replacement services, such as child-care services or cleaning services
- Other out-of-pocket expenses
Non-economic Damages: These damages refer to the subjective losses that result from an accident that are often difficult to quantify. An Orlando personal injury attorney from Dolman Law Group can help. Non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium
- Disfigurement
- Mental anguish
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Scarring
- Loss of reputation
In addition, depending on the situation, the victim may also receive punitive damages. However, unlike the other damages, which compensate victims for their losses following an accident, courts award punitive damages to punish a defendant for particularly egregious actions and to deter others from committing similar acts. Before a court awards these damages, the victim's lawyer will often need to show that the defendant committed gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
6. How Much Time do You Have to Bring a Lawsuit Following Your Orlando Brain Injury Accident?
The statute of limitations dictates the maximum time an individual has to bring a legal claim following an alleged offense. If plaintiffs fail to file their suits within this allotted time, they will likely miss out on their right to pursue compensation for their injuries. Each state sets a statute of limitations for personal injury claims.
According to the Florida statute of limitations, injured individuals have four years from the accident date to file a claim. However, numerous exceptions to this rule exist that can shorten or increase a person's time to file.
For these reasons, following your brain injury accident, you should reach out to an Orlando brain injury attorney right away. A lawyer from Dolman Law Group can verify the time you have to file your case and ensure the proper and timely filing of all necessary legal motions and other documents.
7. How Much Is an Orlando Brain Injury Case Worth?
Because every Orlando brain injury case involves unique facts and circumstances, no attorney can tell you the exact value of your brain injury case. Too many elements can change the amount of compensation you receive, including:
- The extent and the severity of your brain injuries
- The medical treatments required following your brain injury accident
- Whether you will need future medical treatments
- Whether the brain injury results in a permanent disability
- How the brain injury affects your ability to work following the accident
- Whether the brain injury causes disruptions to your everyday activities
- The defendant's culpability for your injury
- The credibility of the evidence and witnesses presented
- Whether you will need replacement services following the brain injury accident
Although no lawyer can tell you exactly how much money you can receive for your brain injury, when you work with a brain injury attorney, they can review all relevant factors, determine how they can influence your claim, and prepare the strongest case in response—fighting for fair compensation on your behalf.
Dolman Law Group knows how to value brain injury cases. We add the costs of treatment and other out-of-pocket expenses, and future care estimates. Then, we consider the client's intangible losses and assign a range of values to them. This allows us to determine about how much the case should be worth and set a goal for settlement negotiations.
Our client—the brain injury victim and their family—has the final say about any settlement or how we approach their case. However, we offer the information and advice they need to decide what is the best for them and their financial future.
8. What Makes It So Difficult to Predict the Outcome of a Brain Injury Case?
Unfortunately, even with advancements in treatments, doctors and scientists still have limited knowledge about the brain's ability to heal itself after an injury. For instance, after a brain injury, the brain may heal, but the functionality of the injured part of the brain may suffer permanent damage.
Consequently, no quick fixes exist when it comes to brain injuries. Rather, these injuries often require extensive medical treatment and specialized rehabilitation programs. The brain can also take months or years to heal. Due to these unknowns, it can prove challenging to predict the extent of a victim's medical expenses resulting from a brain injury accident.
As a result, an Orlando brain injury attorney will have to take on these complex legal claims. Dolman Law Group works with experts, including medical specialists and economists, to understand the client's ongoing and future care needs, lost income, level of impairment, and more.
9. Should You Provide a Statement to the Insurance Company Following Your Orlando Brain Injury Accident?
Following your accident, the other party's insurance company may ask you to provide a recorded statement regarding the accident. When you deal directly with the insurance company, remember that you are dealing with a large, corporate business staffed with specialists trained in techniques to minimize the value of your claim.
Why do insurance companies do this? Because as for-profit businesses, they want to make money. By offering you less, the insurance company increases its profits. Mitigating the damage to their company's bottom line and paying out only what they must is a part of an insurance adjuster's job description. They are not tasked with ensuring you are appropriately compensated or ensuring your financial recovery covers your bills.
Consequently, you should err on the side of caution when speaking to these insurance companies, since the adjusters may try anything to get you to admit to something that can impact your case's value. For these reasons, before you speak with the insurance company, you should contact an Orlando brain injury attorney at Dolman Law Group for a free case evaluation today.
We can help you understand how these insurance companies work and the discussions you should steer away from. A lawyer can also take on these conversations on your behalf, ensuring you do not say anything that can hurt your case while pursuing compensation on your behalf.
10. Why Should You Retain an Attorney Following Your Orlando Brain Injury Accident?
Following a brain injury accident, no amount of money will entirely erase the damages, losses, and pain your accident caused. However, to start rebuilding your life after this catastrophic event, you need compensation to help take care of your astronomical bills, pay for your ongoing medical treatments, and ensure your family's financial future if you cannot return to work because of your brain injury.
Fortunately, with an Orlando brain injury attorney from Dolman Law Group fighting on your side, you can get this legal help plus so much more. We are here to help you and your family get the best possible outcome in your case, including justice and compensation.
Once you retain legal counsel, your attorney can:
- Go over your case, evaluate your legal claim, and determine the legal options you can pursue
- Answer all the questions and concerns you have regarding your brain injury accident and the legal process involved in your case
- Investigate your brain injury accident and secure the evidence needed to show what happened and who caused the accident
- Bring in the experts, such as accident reconstructionists, doctors, and engineers, to help substantiate your claim
- Take on all the discussions and negotiations with the other side, including the insurance companies, and pursue a fair settlement offer
- Take your case to trial if the other side proves unwilling to negotiate fairly and work relentlessly to get a successful resolution
If you or a loved one suffered serious injuries in an Orlando brain injury accident, do not wait any longer to get the legal help you require. Instead, contact our Orlando brain injury lawyers at Dolman Law Group today for a free case evaluation. Let us show you how we can take on your case and fight for fair compensation on your behalf.
During your initial case evaluation, you can discuss the details of your accident and injuries, ask questions about your legal options, and determine your eligibility to pursue compensation that covers the full cost of your injuries, including future care and support costs.
Our lawyers can also explain our contingency fees. We never charge our clients upfront. There is no retainer to pay, and we do not track hourly fees. Instead, our attorneys receive a portion of the compensation they recover on your behalf. We can negotiate this percentage and discuss how this works during your free initial case consultation.
How Our Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyers Can Help You
Many TBI victims mistakenly believe they can get a better settlement offer without a lawyer. However, the insurance company representing the at-fault party in your case is not on your side. Their job may be to settle the case for as little money as possible. They may not care if you pay out of pocket for your medical expenses.
A lawyer from Dolman Law Group, however, is on your side and has your best interests at heart. Your lawyer will aggressively negotiate with the insurance company, showing them why you deserve the compensation you do. A brain injury lawyer in Orlando will also take this time to prepare for trial. While most Orlando traumatic brain injury claims settle out of court, you want a lawyer at your side who has experience at trial, dealing with unreasonable insurance companies.
We know you want to settle your case and put this behind you as soon as possible. But we also do not want to see you settle for less than what your case is worth. Sometimes, insurance companies refuse to settle for a fair amount. When that happens, we are prepared to take your case to trial to get you the compensation you need to recover.
Speak With a Trusted Orlando Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Today
The lawyer you choose to guide you through your TBI claim can make a difference in your ability to recover damages. Not all lawyers have the resources necessary to take on complex Orlando traumatic brain injury cases. A TBI case involves complicated medical issues. At Dolman Law Group, we have the resources and the relationships with medical professionals to make a case.
The lawyer you choose should handle every aspect of your claim. They will need to investigate your accident, speak with witnesses, talk to medical experts, review police and medical records, and negotiate with the insurance company. You deserve a law firm with the resources required to get you every dollar you deserve. You want a lawyer at your side whom you trust to handle your Orlando traumatic brain injury claim.
You want a lawyer who is not afraid to take on the big insurance companies and their team of lawyers. You want an attorney with experience. Dolman Law Group has offices across both Florida coasts, and you can easily reach us online or on the phone. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Orlando Office
1701 Park Center Drive, Suite #240-G
Orlando, FL 32835
Phone: (407) 759-4565
Client Testimonial
“AMAZING and understanding attorneys! Did great on my case and I highly recommend Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA for anyone that has been injured in an accident!" Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Koralis R. Jan 2020 Read more reviews on Google!