West Palm Beach Brain Injury Lawyer
A brain injury caused by someone else’s negligence can affect nearly every part of your life. Problems with memory, concentration, speech, mobility, personality, or judgment may interfere with your ability to work, maintain relationships, and live independently. The medical care and financial consequences can place enormous pressure on you and your family.
A West Palm Beach brain injury lawyer can help determine who was responsible, document the full extent of the injury, and pursue compensation for the losses it has caused.
At Hollander Law Firm, Gregg Hollander has represented seriously injured people in Florida for over 30 years. He understands that brain injury claims often require much more than proof that an accident occurred. The case may depend on neurological evidence, expert testimony, future care needs, and a careful comparison of who you were before the injury with how you function now.
We offer free consultations to discuss what happened and your legal options.
Give us a call at (561) 347-7770 or send an online message today to get started.
Why Should I Choose Gregg Hollander as My Brain Injury Attorney in West Palm Beach?
A serious brain injury case calls for an attorney who can develop both sides of the claim: what caused the neurological injury and what that injury will mean years from now. Gregg focuses his practice on substantial injury matters where detailed medical and factual analysis can affect the outcome.
He provides his clients with:
- Over 30 years of experience. Gregg has practiced law since 1993 and has experience resolving substantial injury cases through both negotiated settlements and jury verdicts.
- Results in serious neurological cases. Hollander Law Firm Personal Injury & Medical Malpractice Lawyers has recovered millions of dollars for injured clients.
- Contingency fee representation. Our firm handles personal injury matters on a contingency fee basis, so clients do not pay any attorney fees unless we recover compensation for them. If you get nothing, you owe us nothing.
- Local presence. Gregg understands the city, the Palm Beach County court system, and the local procedures that can affect how an injury claim is investigated and litigated. That familiarity helps the firm evaluate a case in its actual local context rather than treat it like a generic Florida claim.
- Courtroom experience. Gregg has handled serious injury cases through trial. That experience matters when a brain injury claim cannot be resolved fairly through settlement, and the medical evidence, causation, and long-term damages must be presented clearly to a jury.
- Free case review. Hollander Law Firm offers a free consultation to discuss how the brain injury occurred, the medical evidence available so far, potential sources of recovery, and whether the case warrants further investigation.
That is where Hollander Law Firm’s approach matters. Gregg focuses on serious, medically complex injury cases. He develops the neurological, functional, and financial evidence needed to show how the brain injury changed the client’s life and what those losses are likely to mean in the future.
Why Is a Brain Injury Serious?
A brain injury can interfere with the systems that allow a person to think, move, communicate, regulate behavior, and live independently. A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, occurs when an external force damages or disrupts normal brain function. Brain injuries can be focal, affecting a particular region, or diffuse, affecting wider neural networks.
The consequences depend on the location and severity of the damage.
A person may experience:
- Memory loss;
- Impaired concentration;
- Difficulty planning and making decisions;
- Depression, anxiety, and other mood changes;
- Weakness;
- Paralysis;
- Impaired coordination;
- Sensory changes;
- Difficulties understanding or producing speech;
- Reduced ability to work, manage finances, drive, care for children, or perform other previously routine tasks;
- Loss of independence and increased reliance on a spouse, parent, child, or professional caregiver; and
- Changes in relationships, recreation, and overall quality of life.
These consequences are also what can make a brain injury claim difficult to prove. The case must connect the injury to the person’s cognitive, physical, behavioral, and functional changes and support those changes with medical evidence showing they were caused by the brain injury.
What Types of Brain Injuries Do We Handle?
Brain injuries can result from direct trauma, rapid movement of the brain inside the skull, penetrating objects, or loss of oxygen.
Hollander Law Firm handles serious claims involving injuries such as:
- Contusion. A contusion is a bruise to the brain caused by trauma, often involving localized bleeding and swelling. The injury may occur where the head was struck or on the opposite side as the brain moves within the skull.
- Diffuse axonal injury. A diffuse axonal injury involves widespread damage to the brain’s white matter. These injuries can disrupt communication between nerve cells.
- Penetrating brain injury. A penetrating brain injury occurs when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. Examples can include bone fragments, shrapnel, or other objects driven into the brain during severe trauma.
- Anoxic brain injury. An anoxic brain injury occurs when the brain is deprived of the oxygen or blood flow it needs to function. These injuries can follow events such as cardiac arrest, asphyxiation, or other interruptions in oxygen delivery.
The type of brain injury can affect both treatment and how the claim must be proven. Medical records, imaging, neurological findings, and expert testimony will be needed to connect the injury to the accident and explain how the damage has affected the person’s ability to function.
What Are Common Causes of a Brain Injury?
Common causes of serious brain injuries include:
- Car accidents. A high-speed, rear-end, side-impact, or rollover crash can cause the head to strike part of the vehicle or force the brain to move violently inside the skull.
- Truck accidents. The size and weight of commercial trucks can produce severe impact forces, increasing the risk of diffuse brain injury, intracranial bleeding, and other catastrophic trauma.
- Motorcycle, bicycle, and pedestrian accidents. Riders and pedestrians have little physical protection from a vehicle impact, which can result in direct head trauma or forceful contact with the roadway.
- Medical negligence. Brain damage can occur when a preventable error causes prolonged oxygen deprivation, such as failures involving anesthesia, airway management, cardiac arrest, or delayed resuscitation.
The cause of the injury determines what evidence matters most. A crash may require vehicle data, surveillance footage, or accident reconstruction, while a medical malpractice case may depend on hospital records, vital signs, and expert analysis.
How Do I Prove a Brain Injury Claim?
A successful brain injury claim requires evidence connecting the defendant’s conduct to the neurological injury and then connecting that injury to its lasting effects.
Duty and Breach
The conduct that must be proven depends on how the injury happened.
A driver may have run a red light or entered an intersection while distracted. A trucking company may have allowed an unsafe commercial vehicle onto the road. A healthcare provider may have departed from the prevailing professional standard of care.
These parties have breached their duty to act and/or perform their duties as a reasonably prudent party in their position would.
Causation
Causation is frequently the central dispute in a brain injury case. The claimant must connect the negligent event to the brain injury and then establish that the neurological impairment being claimed actually resulted from that injury.
That becomes difficult when symptoms such as headaches, impaired concentration, anxiety, memory problems, fatigue, or sleep disturbance could have other explanations. An insurer may point to a prior concussion, migraine history, depression, medication use, aging, or normal acute imaging.
A well-developed case may therefore draw from the following:
- Neurologists and other medical experts’ opinions,
- Rehabilitation physicians,
- Diagnostic testing,
- Employment history, and
- Testimonies of people who knew the injured person before and after the event.
The comparison between pre-injury and post-injury functioning can be especially important when the primary loss involves judgment, executive functioning, memory, or personality changes.
Damages
Compensation may include past and future medical expenses, lost income, diminished future earning capacity, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Serious injuries can require substantially deeper analysis. Future damages may depend on rehabilitation, medication, neurological follow-up, attendant care, home assistance, vocational limitations, and whether a spouse or other relative has assumed responsibilities the injured person previously handled independently.
The long-term prognosis should be reasonably developed before a serious claim is valued. Accepting a settlement while neurological recovery, vocational capacity, or future care needs remain uncertain can leave major losses undocumented.
Expert Review and Presuit Notice
Different procedural rules apply when medical negligence causes a brain injury. Florida requires a medical malpractice claimant to conduct a reasonable presuit investigation and obtain a verified written opinion from a qualifying medical expert supporting reasonable grounds to believe that negligence caused the injury.
The claimant must then provide a presuit notice before filing the lawsuit. Florida law generally provides a 90-day presuit investigation period during which a lawsuit cannot be filed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Do I Have to Bring a Brain Injury Claim?
Florida generally provides two years from the date of the accident to bring an action based on negligence. Missing the applicable filing deadline can bar the claim regardless of how serious the brain injury is.
If the case involves medical malpractice, you have two years from the date of the injury or two years from when you discovered or should have discovered the injury. However, your deadline generally cannot extend beyond four years from the date of the injury.
The legal deadline should not be treated as the target date for beginning an investigation. Vehicle data can be overwritten, surveillance video can disappear, witnesses become harder to locate, and medical evidence becomes more difficult to reconstruct as time passes.
Do I Need a Brain Injury Lawyer?
Florida law does not require you to hire a lawyer to pursue a brain injury claim, but serious brain injury cases are rarely simple.
The insurance company, trucking company, hospital, or other defendant will have lawyers, claims professionals, and experts working to limit its exposure.
Serious cases may require medical specialists, neuropsychological evidence, vocational analysis, life care planning, accident reconstruction, depositions, and other expert testimony.
A West Palm Beach brain injury lawyer can coordinate that evidence, respond to the defense’s arguments, and evaluate any settlement in light of the losses the injury is expected to cause over the person’s lifetime.
How Much Compensation Can I Recover for a Brain Injury?
There is no one-size-fits-all value for a brain injury claim. Compensation depends on the specific medical evidence, the extent of the person’s losses, and the strength of the claim.
Factors that can affect compensation include:
- Severity of the brain injury. More significant neurological damage can lead to greater medical needs and functional limitations.
- Permanence of the impairment. Lasting problems with memory, judgment, speech, mobility, or behavior can substantially affect the claim.
- Future medical and care needs. Ongoing treatment, rehabilitation, therapy, medication, attendant care, and other long-term needs may increase future damages.
- Ability to work. A brain injury may reduce earning capacity or prevent a person from returning to their prior occupation.
- Loss of independence. The need for help with transportation, finances, personal care, household tasks, or supervision can become an important part of the analysis of damages.
- Effect on daily life and relationships. Changes in personality, cognition, communication, and physical ability can interfere with family relationships, hobbies, and normal activities.
- Strength of the liability and causation evidence. A claim is stronger when the evidence clearly shows who caused the injury and connects that event to the neurological damage.
- Available insurance and other sources of recovery. The amount and type of available coverage can affect how much compensation may realistically be recovered.
A brain injury attorney in West Palm Beach can evaluate those factors together and use the evidence to support the full extent of the claim.
Talk with Gregg Hollander About Your Serious Brain Injury Claim
A brain injury case has to explain something that may be difficult for an insurance adjuster or eventual jury to see: how a neurological injury changed the person’s ability to think, work, make decisions, maintain relationships, and live with the same independence they had before.
Hollander Law Firm approaches serious brain injury cases with that problem in mind. We examine the mechanism of injury, acute medical records, imaging, neurological and neuropsychological findings, changes in work and daily functioning, future treatment, and the evidence needed to connect those losses to the defendant’s conduct.
Gregg Hollander has represented injured people in Florida since 1993 and handles substantial personal injury and medical malpractice matters from the firm’s West Palm Beach office.
Contact us online or call (561) 347-7770 today for a free consultation to discuss your potential claim.
Visit Our West Palm Beach Law Office
Hollander Law Firm Personal Injury & Medical Malpractice Lawyers
319 Clematis St #203, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Phone: 561-347-7770
Hours: Open 24 hours daily
Free no-obligation consultation!