Have you suffered a brain injury in Miami, Florida? Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers has represented brain injury victims since 2007. If someone else’s negligence caused your injury, you might be entitled to financial damages for the harm you have suffered.
Contact our law office today at (305) 937-0191 for a free case review with a Miami brain injury lawyer.
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How Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help You After Suffering a Brain Injury in Miami
A brain injury can affect you for the rest of your life. You deserve compensation if someone else caused your injury. However, these claims spell big bucks, which means insurance companies will fight them tooth and nail. You deserve a Miami personal injury attorney who will give you the rigorous legal representation you deserve.
Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers was founded by Sagi Shaked Esq. in 2007 to give injury victims the passionate and tireless representation they deserve.
Our law firm only accepts a limited number of cases to ensure you receive the personal attention you deserve. Our legal team at the Miami-Dade County has over 100 years of combined experience handling complex legal cases and has been featured in the Daily Business Review, Aventura Magazine, and more. We’ve recovered tens of millions of dollars for our clients to date.
We are prepared to help your case by:
- Offering sound legal advice and support
- Investigating your accident to gather evidence and identify avenues for compensation
- Work with top experts in many fields to prove causation and liability
- Build a persuasive case that demonstrates the nature and value of your current and long-term losses
- Negotiate with the insurance company to seek a fair settlement offer
- Take your case before a jury to pursue maximum compensation when necessary
Contact Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers today to schedule your free consultation with a Miami brain injury lawyer. You pay no attorney’s fees unless we recover compensation for you first.
Overview of Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are a common form of injury caused by external trauma to the brain. The severity of a brain injury depends on the type and location of the injury.
Brain injury victims may suffer mild, temporary symptoms or permanent, life-changing consequences.
Types of Brain Injuries
There are many ways to categorize brain injuries, including severity, morphology, and mechanism. However, the broadest classification is acquired brain injury (ABI) or traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Traumatic brain injuries are caused by external trauma. Acquired brain injuries are caused by an internal injury to the brain like near-drowning, aneurysm, stroke, or disease.
Common types of brain injuries include:
- Open brain injuries occur when an object penetrates the skull. A gunshot is a common example.
- Closed brain injuries happen through blunt force trauma that does not penetrate the skull.
- Focal or localized brain injuries occur to a single region of the brain.
- Diffuse brain injuries affect several regions of the brain. Diffuse axonal injuries (DAIs) happen when the brain is injured on both sides as it is twisted, shaken, or rotated in the skull.
- Coup-contrecoup brain injuries affect two areas of the brain on opposite sides.
- Brain contusions are bruises on the brain that cause swelling and bleeding.
- Intracranial hematomas happen when a brain contusion fails to heal or results in a large blot clot. It can also happen as pressure on the brain increases.
Finally, a brain injury may be categorized as either primary or secondary. Primary brain damage happens due to a sudden, profound injury, such as a blow to the head or a penetrating injury. A primary injury causes a cascade of changes in the brain’s blood vessels and tissue, known as “secondary brain damage.” Sometimes, secondary damage is more severe than the primary injury.
Brain Injury Severity
It’s common to hear traumatic brain injury cases classified as mild, moderate, or severe. The severity of brain damage is measured with the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). It scores victims based on consciousness and eye-opening, verbal, and motor responses.
There are three severity levels for brain injuries:
- Mild TBI has a GCS score of 13 to 15 points
- Moderate TBI has a GCS score of 9 to 12 points
- Severe TBI has a GCS score of 3 to 8 points
A score below 3 may mean severe injury, vegetative state, or death.
Signs & Symptoms of Brain Injuries
Brain injury symptoms vary from one person to the next. As a general rule, symptoms depend on the severity of the brain injury and the location of the damage.
With a mild traumatic brain injury, you may experience:
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Tinnitus or ringing in the ears
- Blurry vision
- Sleep problems
- Confusion
- Irritability
- Balance issues
- Memory and concentration problems
A more serious brain injury may result in any of the following:
- Loss of consciousness
- Changes to personality and behavior
- Nausea or vomiting
- Trouble walking or speaking
- Memory problems
- Weakness on one side of the body
- One pupil that is more dilated than the other
- Seizures
Signs and symptoms of TBI are not always immediate. It may be hours or even days before you develop symptoms. This may be due to shock after an accident or even a secondary brain injury that causes more extensive damage.
Long-Term Consequences of a Traumatic Brain Injury
Potential long-term consequences of a brain injury include:
- Changes to behavior, emotions, and personality
- Physical impairment
- Cognitive impairment
- Post-concussion syndrome (PCS)
- Locked-in syndrome
- Disrupted development in children
- Coma or a vegetative state
- Death
Some people make a full recovery from a brain injury with minimal long-term consequences. For others, a brain injury causes permanent impairment.
Brain injury victims can experience improvements in function even after a decade. However, the more serious the injury, the more important it is to seek treatment immediately and commit to long-term rehabilitation and physical therapy.
How Common Are Brain Injuries in Miami, Florida?
Each year, about 1.5 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury in the United States. These injuries cause 230,000 hospitalizations and 56,000 deaths. Children and seniors have the highest risk of traumatic brain injury. TBI is also the leading cause of injury-related disability and death in the U.S.
A 2016 study estimated that there are 1.1 to 1.9 million concussions every year in children. Concussions are a type of mild TBI. In Florida, there were 19,851 TBI hospitalizations and 3,852 fatal TBIs in one recent year alone.
What Causes Most Brain Injuries in Miami?
A traumatic brain injury can result from any blow to the head that causes the brain to strike the inside of the skull.
Leading causes of TBI in Miami include:
- Motor vehicle accidents, such as a car accident, truck accident, or motorcycle accident
- Violence, including assault and gunshots
- Slip and fall accidents
- Sports-related injuries
- Construction accident injuries
These four categories account for most traumatic brain injury cases. However, a brain injury can be the result of other accidents like medical malpractice or a near-drowning.
Violence is the leading cause of fatal TBI. Violence, such as self-inflicted gunshots, homicide, or aggravated assault, causes 12% of all fatal brain injuries.
About half of brain injury-related ER visits are due to a slip, trip, or fall. Among seniors, falls are responsible for 81% of TBIs. They also cause around half of the TBIs in children.
Traffic accidents are the third leading cause of traumatic brain injury. They are also the top cause of ER visits, hospitalization, and brain injury deaths for people between 15 and 34. Car accidents can cause several brain injuries, such as concussions, diffuse axonal injuries, coup-contrecoup injuries, contusions, and open head injuries.
Sports are an increasingly large cause of TBI in Florida. Research indicates that sports-related brain injuries are on the rise, with most TBIs caused by sports-related falls and being kicked during football.
There were 283,000 ER visits for recreation- and sports-related brain injuries in children between 2010 and 2016. About 45% of these TBIs happened during contact sports like football, soccer, wrestling, and hockey.
The highest incidence of brain injury among all contact sports happens in football. Football players of all ages, including high school players, are at high risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated concussions or even sub-concussive head injuries. While it is currently unknown how concussions and CTE can be prevented in football, the University of Florida is using helmet sensors to determine which practice drills and pad configurations increase the risk of concussions.
What is My Brain Injury Case Worth?
A brain injury case can be worth several thousand to several million dollars, depending on the severity of the injury.
Some factors that affect the value of your case include:
- Available insurance coverage
- The circumstances of the accident
- The severity of your injury
- How long it took you to recover
- Whether you can return to your job or any employment
- Whether you need ongoing medical care and rehabilitation
The best way to evaluate the potential value of your brain injury case is to schedule a free consultation with our Miami brain injury attorneys. We will help you explore these factors and more.
What Compensation is Available to Brain Injury Victims in Miami, FL?
After a traumatic brain injury, you are entitled to seek compensation from the at-fault party. A successful personal injury case allows you to recover compensatory damages for your economic and non-economic losses.
Economic damages in a brain injury case include:
- Medical bills you have already incurred
- Anticipated costs of your future medical care
- Acute, subacute, and postacute rehabilitation
- Other financial costs, including home or car modifications, home health care, childcare, and domestic services
- Lost wages after your accident
- Diminished or lost earning capacity or disability
You are also entitled to compensation for your personal losses that do not have a financial value. These damages include pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of consortium, reduced quality of life, and more.
It is not uncommon for brain injury cases to be worth six or seven figures. You can count on the insurance company to fight your claim. Contact Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers today for a free consultation. We will begin building the strongest case possible for all the damages you have incurred.
How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit for a Brain Injury in Florida?
The Florida statute of limitations for personal injury cases is two years. You have two years from the accident or injury date to file a lawsuit.
State law used to give injury victims four years to file lawsuits. However, the law was updated on March 24, 2023, shortening the statutory deadline. If you suffered a brain injury after 3/24/23, you’ll probably be subject to the two-year limit.
If your TBI is related to a medical error, you have two years to file a medical malpractice claim. Wrongful death cases must be filed within two years of the victim’s date of death.
Do not delay. It’s important to be proactive in gathering evidence and building your case. Call Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers as soon as possible to work on your case while you focus on your recovery.
Contact a Miami Brain Injury Lawyer for a Free Consultation
Brain injuries are some of the worst injuries imaginable. They can affect every area of your life, including your ability to earn a living. You deserve elite legal representation to help you pursue compensation from the party who caused your accident.
Contact Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers today to schedule a free case review with a Miami brain injury lawyer. We will fight to recover compensation on your behalf for all the losses you have suffered.
Miami Brain Injury Blog Posts
- What Are the Causes and Effects of Brain Stem Injuries?
- Symptoms of Brain Bleed After a Head Injury
- 4 Types of Brain Injuries and 3 Levels of Severity
Highly Rated Neurologists Near Us
- Gables Neurology: Andrew Lerman, MD – 2601 SW 37th Ave #601, Miami, FL 33133
- First Choice Neurology Miami Midtown Dr. Jeff Gelblum – 3801 Biscayne Blvd STE 140, Miami, FL 33137
- Roberto F Lopez-Alberola, MD – 1601 NW 12th Ave Suite 1044, Miami, FL 33136
- Dr. Alyssa D. Pensirikul, MD – 1150 NW 14th St #309, Miami, FL 33136
*Disclaimer – we do not endorse these companies or profit from having them listed on our website.
Additional Miami Brain Injury Resources
- Florida Brain Injury Support Groups
- Florida Health – Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Program
- Florida Health – Deaths From Traumatic Brain Injuries
- Brain Injury Association of Florida, Inc.
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Visit Our Personal Injury Law Office Serving Miami, FL
Shaked Law Personal Injury Lawyers
20900 NE 30th Avenue, Suite 715,
Aventura, FL 33180
(305) 937-0191