A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the injury insurance companies most like to minimize, because it rarely shows on the outside. The person who walked away from a rear-end collision or a fall on a wet floor can be living, weeks later, with headaches that will not stop, trouble finding words, short-term memory gaps, exhaustion, and a personality their family does not recognize. Scans are often read as normal. Adjusters call it “subjective.”
The Injury Advocates is a Plantation-based personal injury law firm serving Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and South Florida, and brain injuries are at the center of the serious and catastrophic injury cases we handle. Attorney Kweku Darfoor is personally involved in every case from the first meeting through settlement or trial. If a crash, a fall, or someone else’s negligence left you or a family member with a concussion or a more serious brain injury, the consultation is free and you owe no fees or costs unless we win.
A TBI is damage to the brain caused by an external force: a blow to the head, a penetrating injury, or the violent acceleration and deceleration of a crash, which can injure the brain even when the head never strikes anything. Doctors classify severity using the Glasgow Coma Scale, loss of consciousness, and post-traumatic amnesia:
Common symptoms include persistent headaches, dizziness and balance problems, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, blurred vision, sleep changes, trouble concentrating or remembering, slowed thinking, irritability, anxiety, and depression. Some of the most dangerous injuries are delayed: a slow brain bleed (subdural hematoma) can develop hours or days after a fall or crash, especially in older adults and anyone on blood thinners. That is one reason same-day evaluation matters.
When a brain injury is fatal, the family’s claim proceeds under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act.
Emergency rooms order CT scans to find what can kill you in the next few hours: bleeding, swelling, and skull fractures. A CT scan is not designed to show the stretched and torn nerve fibers (diffuse axonal injury) that cause most concussion symptoms, and a standard MRI frequently looks normal in a mild TBI as well. A concussion is diagnosed clinically, from the mechanism of injury, the symptoms, the neurological exam, and how the person functions afterward, not from a picture.
Insurance companies know this and use it anyway. “The scans were negative” is the first sentence in many denial letters. We answer it with the medicine: records from the treating neurologist, neuropsychological testing that measures memory, attention, and processing speed against established norms, vestibular and vision findings, and, where appropriate, advanced imaging such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) or susceptibility-weighted MRI that can detect injury a routine scan misses. Just as important are the people who knew you before: a spouse, a supervisor, or a coworker who can describe the change.
A TBI case is won with documentation that begins on day one and a team assembled for the specific injury. Our work typically includes:
We prepare every case as if it will be tried, which is what produces fair settlements from insurers who would rather pay later than now.
Every case is different. The value of a brain injury claim depends on the severity and permanence of the injury, the medical evidence, the available insurance, and the strength of the proof on fault. See our case results →
Brain injury cases are won on medical proof and early investigation. The Injury Advocates handles them from the first call through settlement or trial, with attorney Kweku Darfoor personally involved in every case. The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we win.
Why Brain Injury Clients Choose The Injury Advocates
Yes. A CT scan looks for bleeding and fractures, and a routine MRI often cannot show the microscopic nerve-fiber damage behind concussion symptoms. A concussion is diagnosed from how the injury happened, your symptoms, and your neurological exam. Normal imaging does not end a claim; it means the proof comes from your treating specialists, neuropsychological testing, and the people who have watched you change.
For most negligence claims arising after March 24, 2023, two years from the date of injury; wrongful death claims also carry a two-year limit. Medical negligence cases and claims against government agencies have additional pre-suit requirements. Because brain injury evidence is time-sensitive, contact a lawyer as early as you can.
You can still have a traumatic brain injury. Most concussions involve no loss of consciousness at all. Confusion, a gap in memory around the event, “seeing stars,” or feeling dazed are all signs of injury, and they should be reported to the first doctor who treats you.
Florida PIP pays 80 percent of reasonable medical expenses up to $10,000 if you are treated within 14 days of the crash. Unless a qualified provider determines that you had an emergency medical condition, benefits are limited to $2,500. Head-injury symptoms documented at the first visit matter for that determination, and PIP is only the starting point of a serious injury claim.
It depends on the severity and permanence of the injury, the cost of past and future care, lost income and earning capacity, the available insurance, and the evidence on fault. Mild TBI cases with full recovery and severe TBI cases requiring lifetime care sit at opposite ends of a very wide range. We can give you an honest assessment after reviewing your records in a free consultation.
Nothing up front. The consultation is free, and injury cases are handled on a contingency fee: our fee is a percentage of what we recover, and if we do not win, you owe no attorney’s fees and no case costs.
