What is a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A forceful blow to the head causes traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). It can result from blunt force (such as hitting the head on the ground) or penetrating trauma (such as a bullet). The strength of the impact can cause the brain to shift and collide with the skull’s inside, causing bruising, bleeding, and swelling. It is common for a victim to have a fractured skull with TBI; however, it does not always fracture. TBI is one of the most common injuries in the United States. In 2014 alone, there were 2.87 million cases of traumatic brain injury, according to the CDC. Of these cases, TBI was a contributing factor to 56,800 deaths. In Florida, that same year, TBI contributed to 3,852 deaths. The severity of a Traumatic Brain Injury is measured by what is called the Glascow Coma Scale. Most cases of TBI are mild cases, such as with a concussion. However, more severe cases are a major contributing factor to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), disabilities, and death. Two of the most common causes of TBI-related deaths are unintentional falls and motor vehicle accidents.

I Was in an Accident in Florida, but Didn’t Receive Medical Care. What are the Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury?

After an accident, the stress of the event can numb us to trauma. It’s possible for trauma symptoms not to begin to appear for days, weeks, or even months. Signs of TBI can include: Memory/Concentration, Foggy feeling or difficulty concentrating; Unable to think or react as quickly as you did before; Difficulty recalling new information, and more. Physical, Headache; Blurred vision; Dizziness or nausea; New sensitivity to light or noise; Problems with maintaining balance; Fatigue and low energy; Slowed reactions; Inability to control muscle movements; Slowed or slurred speech, and more. Emotional/Behavioral, Irritability or frustration; Sadness or depression; Inability to control emotions; Nervousness or anxiety; Worsening of emotional and mental disorders; Lack of impulse control, and more. Sleep, Significant changes to sleeping habits, either much more or much less; Insomnia and difficulty falling asleep; Narcolepsy; Sleep apnea, and more. You may not have noticed some of these symptoms after the accident, thinking it was just stress from recovering. However, with time, the symptoms become more apparent, which can cause more stress. If you were involved in an accident, and now you’re not feeling quite right, you need to immediately seek medical care. The Florida Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Program (BSCIP) can provide resources to help TBI patients recover and lead more productive lives.

How Can I Prove Negligence Contributed to Traumatic Brain Injury in Florida?

In Florida, proving negligence requires an attorney to demonstrate the following elements: Duty of Care, This is the legal obligation for a person or company to exercise reasonable diligence to avoid injuring others. For example, a driver must act responsibly when driving. Similarly, a store owner must maintain walkways free of hazards to prevent people from slipping and falling. Breach of Duty, This is proving the person abandoned the duty of care by acting irresponsibly. For example, a driver is speeding, or the store owner failed to mop up a spill in the aisle. Causation, This element is how the attorney proves that the breach of duty caused another injury. For example, the speeding driver ran a red light and caused an accident, or the store owner failed to mop up the spill, and someone slips, falls and hits their head on a shelf. Damages, The final element must prove that the injury leads to a significant loss for the victim. Damages can be economic or non-economic. Economic damages include medical expenses, lost wages, or damages to property. Non-economic losses include pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress.

What are the Costs Associated with Traumatic Brain Injuries?

Depending on the severity of the TBI, a victim may have life-long medical complications and expenses. Some of the most common costs associated with almost every level of TBI are: Medical expenses such as immediate care Rehabilitation and physical therapy sessions Tests, treatments, and services Multiple surgeries and hospitalizations Medications, ambulatory devices, and other medical supplies For mild brain injuries, the cost for care is estimated to be around $85,000, while severe injuries with life-long effects can top well over $3 million. However, these costs do not include loss of income, emotional distress, and many other traumas that come with such a debilitating injury.

How Much Compensation Can I Seek for a Traumatic Brain Injury in Florida?

The amount of compensation you are entitled to from a negligent Traumatic Brain Injury claim depends on many different factors. After proving negligence, you may be awarded compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, disability, disfigurement, and more. Suppose the failure of the liable party was intentional or particularly egregious. In that case, you may also be awarded punitive damages, which is an amount added on as a punishment to the liable party. You will need an expert Traumatic Brain Injury attorney to help you with your case. While many personal injury attorneys avoid brain injury cases due to a lack of scientific understanding and the subtleties of the physical injuries involved (making them difficult to prove), Darrigo & Diaz Personal Injury Attorneys is committed to representing these patients with our high level of expertise and experience in brain injury cases. Our Tampa brain injury lawyers possess both the current educational background and resources to overcome the serious obstacles present in complex brain injury cases. Not to mention our utmost standard of personal and compassionate service that offers victims an immediate support system.

What Should I Look for in a Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney in Tampa?

Traumatic Brain Injury cases are incredibly complex. They often require the testimony of highly-qualified medical experts, meticulous planning, and flawless evidence. To help you determine if an attorney is qualified to handle your TBI case, ask about the following factors: Experience, TBI cases are difficult to prove due to their highly-complex and scientific nature. It is vital to choose a Traumatic Brain Injury attorney who understands the medical evidence and can present the information to people who are not medical professionals. Resources, An expert Traumatic Brain Injury attorney must have the resources to thoroughly investigate your case by hiring medical experts, interpret medical data, and transform complex information into visual presentations. Diligence and dedication to your case, You need an experienced Traumatic Brain Injury attorney who only represents plaintiffs on your side. If the attorney plays for both teams, the service quality is likely to decline since they’re likely in it for the money and not to fight for you. Results, The TBI attorney you choose should have a proven track record of successfully arguing Traumatic Brain Injury cases. In your case, the defendants will likely include insurance companies or other large corporations, and you need an attorney that doesn’t back down.

Tampa Brain Injury Lawyer

Quick Summary: Tampa Brain Injury Lawyer

Tampa brain injury claims require proof connecting the accident to cognitive or neurological damage.
Florida law generally provides a two-year filing deadline for most negligence-based injury claims.
Neuropsychological testing often provides critical evidence when imaging fails to show injury.
Brain injury symptoms may appear days or weeks after an accident, making early documentation important.

Need immediate help? Contact Darrigo & Diaz Personal Injury Attorneys.

A Tampa brain injury lawyer showing a document to a colleague while pointing at it with a pen

A serious brain injury can affect much more than your physical health. It may cause a lot of problems in your daily life. Some brain injuries improve quickly, while others can last even longer to the point it can affect your relationships with others, and the quality of your life.

Brain injuries can happen in vehicular accidents on I-275, falls along Kennedy Boulevard, or workplace accidents across Tampa. Many people receive emergency care at Tampa General Hospital before returning home, where symptoms may become more noticeable. For Hillsborough County families, these changes can be difficult to understand.

Darrigo & Diaz Personal Injury Attorneys serves Tampa from our North Armenia Avenue office and represents clients in Brandon and Temple Terrace. A Tampa brain injury attorney at our firm can help document your injury, build medical evidence, and explain your legal options.

How TBI Severity Can Affect Your Injury Claim

Most doctors across Tampa classify the severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI) into three ranks based on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score: mild TBI, moderate TBI, and severe TBI. Let’s discuss further how these TBI ranks differ from one another.

Mild TBI

Mild TBI may involve symptoms like memory problems, difficulty concentrating, headaches, or mood changes even when your initial medical scans appear normal. The aforementioned symptoms can continue for months. They may also interfere with your work and much worse with your daily activities. Here, your claim may account for medical expenses, lost wages, and other losses related to the injury.

Moderate TBI

Moderate TBI on the other hand may involve loss of consciousness, prolonged confusion, or more significant cognitive and physical effects. Here, recovery may require ongoing medical care and rehabilitation. That said, your medical expenses may increase more than you can imagine, plus your ongoing medical care may mean more time away from work. If your injury was diagnosed as a moderate TBI and it causes lasting limitations, your claim may also involve diminished earning capacity and future care.

Severe TBI

Severe TBI is the most critical among the three levels of traumatic brain injury. It can involve extended unconsciousness, intensive medical treatment, and even significant long-term cognitive or physical limitations. If you are a patient diagnosed with severe TBI, you will most likely need ongoing rehabilitation and assistance with your daily activities. With a severe injury like this, your claim may involve substantial future medical expenses, lost earning capacity, and other losses tied to long-term change with the quality of life.

Who Might Be Responsible After a Tampa Head Injury

Finding the responsible one in an accident is not like a walk in the park. Meaning, finding the at-fault party is not that easy. Some cases involve only one party, while others involve two or more. Enumerated below are some of those who might be held responsible for an accident:

At-fault driver: A rear-end collision on Dale Mabry Highway may point to only one driver. Even then, fault can be contested if the allegedly at-fault driver claims the other vehicle stopped suddenly without giving any traffic signals.
Multiple parties: A chain-reaction crash on I-275 can involve three or more vehicles. The insurer of each party may argue that someone else caused the accident.
Commercial property owners: A sudden fall accident on a wet floor near Amalie Arena may raise questions about the property owners’ duty of care. Business owners across Brandon and Temple Terrace may also face liability cases when unsafe conditions contribute to an injury.
Unclear responsibility: Sometimes there is no single report that directly points to who is responsible. Aside from that, witnesses provide different accounts about what happened.

A Clean CT Scan Does Not Mean a Clean Bill of Health

Emergency medical imaging can identify a patient’s internal bleeding, swelling, skull fractures, and other signs of a head injury. In brain injury cases, a CT scan is especially useful for detecting serious problems that require immediate treatment.

A closed head injury can affect brain tissue without causing visible bleeding or other abnormalities on a scan. Also, cognitive impairment may affect memory, concentration, or daily activities without appearing on a scan. That’s why aside from a CT scan, an MRI can provide additional detail, but some brain injuries may still not appear on conventional imaging.

A normal scan therefore does not necessarily mean that no brain injury occurred. This can make a Tampa claim more difficult when symptoms continue despite normal imaging.

Regardless of your brain injury case, you don’t need to worry so much. Because a Tampa brain injury lawyer can help and explain how medical findings, symptoms, and their effects on daily life relate to a claim.

Delayed Brain Injury Symptoms Can Affect Your Claim

Some brain injury symptoms only appear a few days or even weeks after the event. For instance, symptoms such as headaches, light sensitivity, irritability, and sleep problems may develop gradually, making it harder to connect them to the original accident. By the time you discover that you sustained brain injuries, a collision on Hillsborough Avenue may feel like old news.

Post-concussion syndrome can follow this pattern, with symptoms continuing after the initial injury. People may return to work and push through their symptoms without telling a doctor about every change they experience. This can create gaps in the medical record that may make a claim more difficult to establish.

A brain injury lawyer can review these gaps and help identify other records that may show how symptoms developed. Family notes, work emails, and school records can document changes that may not appear in medical charts. Consistent follow-up with a treating physician can also help create a clearer record of ongoing symptoms.

How Neuropsychological Testing Can Strengthen Your Tampa Brain Injury Claim

A neuropsychological evaluation measures memory, attention, processing speed, problem-solving, and other cognitive functions. A trained psychologist compares your results with expected performance based on factors such as age and education. The results can help document cognitive changes that may not appear on standard brain imaging.

These evaluations may also include validity measures that assess whether the results accurately reflect your performance. This can provide additional context when there is disagreement about the extent of your symptoms. The findings can be considered alongside your medical history, treatment records, and reported symptoms.

A brain injury attorney can use neuropsychological findings as part of the evidence supporting a claim. Attorney Nadine Diaz is a Board Certified Civil Trial Law Specialist by The Florida Bar. Her board certification reflects a background in civil trial practice relevant to complex injury claims.

Adding Up the Real Cost of a Brain Injury Over a Lifetime

Damages in these cases rarely fit inside a stack of past bills. Many costs arrive years later, after the first recovery period ends. A Tampa brain injury attorney can work with medical and economic professionals to project them.

Ongoing therapy and supervision: Speech, occupational, and cognitive therapy can continue for years. Some clients also need daily help with medication, scheduling, or safety at home.
Future medical expenses: A life care plan prepared by a rehabilitation professional can project these costs. It accounts for care, equipment, and treatment expected over a projected lifespan.
Loss of earning capacity: A person may return to work and still earn far less than before. This measures that gap across a full career, not just a few months.
Household help and lost services: Family members often take on driving, bill paying, and daily supervision. That unpaid daily work can be valued as part of a claim.
Pain and loss of enjoyment of life: Florida law allows recovery for pain, suffering, and lost enjoyment of life. These losses are real, though harder to price than receipts.

Proving a Brain Injury When Nothing Looks Wrong

The hardest brain injury cases involve people who appear perfectly healthy. They walk, talk, and answer questions without obvious trouble. A Tampa brain injury lawyer builds the claim using medical records and observations from people who know the injured person.

Medical Proof From Treating Providers

Emergency room records provide a starting point, even when they are brief. Neurologist reports can track symptoms over time and rule out other explanations. Consistent follow-up can help address arguments that a treatment gap means the person recovered.

Testimony From People Who Knew You Before

People closest to you, especially the coworkers you see at work, including family members you run into every day, can notice changes that medical charts may not capture. A supervisor may describe missed deadlines, while a spouse may notice a shorter temper or a lost sense of direction. Their observations can help show how the injury changed the person’s daily life.

Brain Injury and Catastrophic Injury Claims: What Sets Tampa Cases Apart

Catastrophic injuries such as amputation, paralysis, and severe burns are often immediately visible. A brain injury may be harder to recognize because someone can appear physically healthy while experiencing serious cognitive or emotional changes.

A brain injury claim may rely on symptoms that develop gradually, normal imaging, and changes documented through neuropsychological testing or daily observations. These challenges can make proving the injury different from other Tampa catastrophic injury claims.

Severe TBI can also cause permanent disability and involve significant long-term damages. The key difference is that a brain injury claim often requires establishing the injury and its effects before determining its value.

How Tampa Trauma and Rehabilitation Care Shapes the Medical Record

Tampa General Hospital serves as the region’s Level I trauma center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 214,110 TBI-related hospitalizations nationwide in 2020. Severe head injuries can result from Tampa crashes, including those near Tampa International Airport or Raymond James Stadium, and may require emergency trauma care.

Care often shifts to outpatient providers within weeks. Follow-up with neurology, therapy, and primary care creates a record of symptoms and treatment over time. The University of South Florida also supports medical training and research across the region.

A Hillsborough County brain injury lawyer can review these records as part of a claim. Brief notes about dizziness or word-finding trouble can matter later. Requesting complete records early can help avoid gaps during litigation.

Filing Deadlines, Shared Fault, and Where a Tampa Case Is Heard

A brain injury claim follows the same general negligence framework as other personal injury claims in Tampa. The filing deadline, comparative fault rules, and proper venue can all affect how a case proceeds. Understanding these issues early can help you avoid problems with a claim.

The Two-Year Filing Deadline

For most negligence actions accruing on or after March 24, 2023, Florida law requires a lawsuit to be filed within two years under section 95.11(5)(a). Wrongful death claims generally must also be filed within two years under section 95.11(5)(e). Exceptions can apply, so the deadline for a particular brain injury claim depends on the circumstances.

Shared Fault and the 51% Bar

Under section 768.81(6), a claimant who is more than 50% at fault for their own harm generally cannot recover damages. For example, if you are found 30% responsible for a crash and your damages total $100,000, your recovery would generally be reduced to $70,000.

This rule does not apply to Chapter 766 medical negligence actions, which remain subject to pure comparative negligence.

Where a Tampa Case Is Heard

A Tampa brain injury lawsuit may proceed in Hillsborough County courts when the facts and venue rules support filing there. The Thirteenth Judicial Circuit handles civil matters in Hillsborough County, including proceedings at the George E. Edgecomb Courthouse. The appropriate venue depends on the parties, where the incident occurred, and the applicable venue rules.

Tampa Brain Injury FAQ

How long do I have to file a brain injury lawsuit in Tampa, FL after an accident?

For causes of action accruing on or after March 24, 2023, most negligence claims must be filed within two years. Wrongful death claims generally also have a two-year filing period. Exceptions may apply depending on the circumstances of your case.

What compensation can I recover for a traumatic brain injury in Tampa, FL if I was partially at fault?

Florida’s modified comparative fault rule generally reduces damages based on the claimant’s share of fault when they are 50% or less responsible. For example, someone found 30% at fault would generally have their damages reduced by 30%. A claimant found more than 50% at fault is generally barred from recovering damages under the rule.

How do Tampa brain injury attorneys prove cognitive damage when medical imaging appears normal?

Neuropsychological testing can measure memory, attention, and processing speed that may not appear on standard imaging. Medical records can document symptoms and changes over time. Family members, coworkers, and others who knew you before the injury may also describe changes in your daily functioning.

Talk With Darrigo & Diaz About Your Tampa Head Injury Questions

Timing can affect the evidence available for your claim and the deadlines that apply. Gathering medical records, employment history, and notes about changes in daily life can provide a useful starting point. A conversation with a brain injury lawyer can help you understand your legal options in Tampa, FL.

No two head injury claims follow the same path, and no outcome can be promised. Darrigo & Diaz Personal Injury Attorneys can review your circumstances and discuss possible next steps. Contact us at (813) 774-3341 to discuss your situation.

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As a law firm that Florida has trusted for more than 25 years, we are ready to stand up for your rights and pursue the results you deserve. Put our experience, reputation, and trial-tested advocacy to work for you. We are the attorneys people across Florida turn to time and time again. Whether you’ve been injured in a car accident, truck accident, slip and fall, premises liability incident, or another serious personal injury matter, contact us. The consultation is absolutely free.

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