Florida Catastrophic Injury Lawyers

Florida negligence law has no single definition, which is why insurers argue about the word. The closest the statutes come is Fla. Stat. 766.118(1)(a), the medical malpractice damages statute, and it is worth knowing because lawyers and adjusters both use it as a yardstick. It lists six categories: spinal cord injury involving severe paralysis of an arm, a leg or the trunk; amputation of an arm, hand, foot or leg involving the effective loss of use of that appendage; severe brain or closed-head injury shown by severe sensory, motor, communication or cerebral function disturbances or severe episodic neurological disorders; second-degree or third-degree burns over 25 percent or more of the body, or third-degree burns over 5 percent or more of the face and hands; blindness, meaning complete and total loss of vision; and loss of reproductive organs resulting in an inability to procreate. If your injury sits in one of those categories, the case is not a bigger version of a normal claim. Most of what you are owed is care you have not had yet.

In a catastrophic case the single most valuable document in the file is usually not a medical record. It is the life care plan: a costed, year-by-year projection of every surgery, therapy session, medication, wheelchair, prosthetic replacement, home modification and hour of attendant care you will need for the rest of your life. A qualified life care planner writes it, your treating doctors support it, and an economist reduces it to present-day dollars. Insurers attack life care plans in predictable ways, by arguing the care is not medically necessary, that replacement cycles are too short, or that a family member will provide attendant care for free. Those arguments are answered by building the plan early, with the treating physicians behind it, rather than assembling it the month before mediation.

Brain injuries run from a concussion that never fully clears to an injury that needs care for life. The hard part is proof. A mild brain injury often looks normal on a CT scan while the person cannot follow a conversation, keep a schedule, or go back to the job they had. We build these cases with neuropsychological testing, the treating neurologist, work records that show the drop-off, and family and coworkers who can say what the person was like before. A catastrophic injury attorney and a catastrophic injury lawyer are the same thing. What matters is whether the office has built a life care plan before, because that document drives the number.

A spinal cord injury lawyer deals with the most predictable future costs in personal injury law, and the largest: daily attendant care, wheelchairs that have to be replaced on a schedule, pressure sore and bladder care, changes to the home and the vehicle, and the health problems that show up years later. Because those costs can be predicted, they can also be proven. A spinal cord injury attorney who does not build that record early is negotiating against a number the defense chose. Paraplegia and tetraplegia claims in particular live or die on the attendant care hours, because that line is the largest one in the plan.

An amputation injury lawyer is really pricing three things at once: the surgeries that follow the amputation, the prosthetic itself, and the decades of replacements after that. A prosthetic limb is not bought once. It is replaced on a cycle, and a high-function limb costs more each time, which is why a claim settled on today's device price falls short within a few years. Add revision surgery, phantom limb pain treatment, and the work you can no longer do. Fla. Stat. 766.118(1)(a) treats amputation of an arm, hand, foot or leg with effective loss of use as catastrophic, and juries understand these injuries without much explanation.

Burn cases are among the most expensive injuries in personal injury law and among the least understood by adjusters. Serious burns mean a burn center transfer, debridement, staged skin grafts over months or years, contracture releases as scar tissue tightens, and pressure garments worn around the clock. Then come the parts nobody puts a number on easily: permanent scarring, heat and sun intolerance, and the psychological injury that follows a disfiguring burn. Florida treats second-degree or third-degree burns over 25 percent of the body, or third-degree burns over 5 percent of the face and hands, as catastrophic under Fla. Stat. 766.118(1)(a). A burn injury lawyer needs the burn surgeon, the reconstructive surgeon and a life care planner working from the same set of facts.

Complete and total loss of vision is catastrophic by statute. Partial vision loss, hearing loss and loss of smell or taste after a head injury are not, but they can end a career just as surely, and they are routinely undervalued because they do not show in a photograph. These claims turn on vocational evidence: what work you could do before, what you can do now, and what the difference is worth over a working life.

In serious cases the first insurance policy anyone finds is rarely enough. We look for extra and excess coverage, employer and business policies, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage across every car in the household, a product claim if a defect played a part, and other at-fault parties such as contractors, property owners or vehicle owners. The difference between a fair recovery and a poor one is usually how many policies get found.

The claim covers care you have already had and care you will need, rehab and attendant care, lost pay and lost future earning power, changes to your home and vehicle, pain and suffering, and, for a husband or wife, the loss of the relationship. Future costs have to be worked out in today's dollars and backed by expert testimony. That is why we bring in your treating doctors, a life care planner and an economist early, instead of at mediation when it is too late to fix gaps in the record.

Go to every appointment and follow the treatment plan, because missed care is the first thing the other side points to. Keep a short daily note of your symptoms and what you can no longer do. Do not give a recorded statement or take an early offer while the doctors still do not know the outcome. Call Templer & Hirsch for a free consultation. If getting to us is hard, we come to the hospital or your home. We take these cases from our Aventura office and across the state, including Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Coral Gables and Cape Coral.