Seminole Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

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Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney in Seminole, FL

A traumatic brain injury can affect your life significantly, whether it causes headaches, seizures, vertigo, mood swings, confusion, or other consequences that affect your immediate and long-term daily life. When you were hurt because another person or company was careless, you could file a personal injury claim with the help of a Seminole traumatic brain injury lawyer.

These incidents can happen in vehicle collisions caused by reckless drivers or in falls that happen because of a negligent property owner. These parties can be liable for the financial consequences of your injury, from daily treatment to your loss of income.

Traumatic brain injuries can cause invisible injuries that require clear medical documentation, and many insurers try to undermine claims because of that. An attorney helps you protect your ability to file a claim and get the compensation you are owed.

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When you have a severe traumatic brain injury, it can affect your life in many ways, causing you pain and frustration. You should not have to also deal with the stress of a complicated legal claim or an attorney who doesn’t understand the extent of financial damages you deserve.

Ronald Bone, P.A. has more than 30 years of trial experience and has spent nearly 40 years serving the community along the Gulf Coast.

We have significant experience in the courtroom and are willing to advocate for you in court and work for a victory. While settlements can be useful in certain cases, our firm will always fiercely work for the ideal outcome in court when needed.

Our firm is focused on you and the outcome you need. We have secured exceptional results like a $6 million settlement for a brain injury when the insurance policy was for $10,000, and have secured a $2,353,712 verdict in the Circuit Court for Pinellas County after a motorcycle accident.

Because every case is unique, these results cannot guarantee any future outcome. They can show our exceptional experience in and out of court. When you need an attorney who is highly experienced in trial and has extreme competence in traumatic brain injuries, Ronald Bone, P.A. can help.

Understanding Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries occur from external trauma to the head and happen in two primary ways:

  1. Penetrating brain injury. These occur when something penetrates the skull and causes damage to the brain. This might be shrapnel or debris from a car accident, or a bullet in a violent crime.
  2. Non-penetrating brain injury. These injuries happen when a strong force causes the brain to move inside the skull or collide against the inside of the skull.

Certain types of traumatic brain injuries involve both types of injury. Brain injuries can also occur because of a lack of oxygen to the brain, caused by heart attacks, drowning, or poisoning.

These injuries can lead to immediate and long-term consequences on your brain’s ability to function. It can impact your memory, cognitive ability, movement, communication, and personality. Very severe traumatic brain injuries can permanently prevent you from engaging in basic daily tasks without at-home care or even result in a coma.

Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries are incredibly varied and can affect one primary part of the brain or the entire brain. They can lead to bleeding, inflammation, swelling, and other injuries. Some types of traumatic brain injuries include:

  • Concussions, caused by blunt impact or rapid shaking
  • Contusions, caused by small blood vessels bleeding into the brain tissue
  • Skull fractures from blunt force trauma
  • Diffuse axonal injuries, which are damage to a large area of white matter in the brain
  • Hematomas, caused by a burst blood vessel at one of the locations in the brain

What Are the Long-Term Consequences of a Traumatic Brain Injury?

Mild traumatic brain injuries may heal within a few months with minimal long-term consequences. However, even mild injuries can lead to long-term consequences and can also change over time. Severe injuries can permanently affect a person’s ability to function for the rest of their life.

There are many symptoms of traumatic brain injuries, and they can last for years. They can include:

  • Light and sound sensitivity
  • Seizures
  • Blurred vision
  • Slurred speech
  • Interruptions in sleep patterns
  • Difficulty making decisions
  • Ear ringing and hearing issues
  • Loss of coordination
  • Short-term memory loss
  • Disorientation
  • Changes to personality
  • Mood shifts
  • Weakness in limbs or the face
  • Cognitive impairment
  • Light and sound sensitivity
  • Vomiting
  • Loss of consciousness

Traumatic brain injuries and their limitations on a person’s life can also lead to other mental and emotional challenges, including depression and anxiety.

All of these issues can make it much harder for a person to enjoy their hobbies, engage with their family, and complete gainful employment. It can severely affect someone’s quality of life. If someone else was the cause of the injury, they should be held liable for the financial consequences.

How Do Traumatic Brain Injuries Happen in Seminole?

There are many different causes of traumatic brain injuries, with the most common being:

Car and Vehicle Accidents

Car and vehicle accidents cause serious injuries, and traumatic brain injuries are one of the most frequent consequences in everything from fender benders to catastrophic accidents.

In Pinellas County, there were 13,580 vehicle collisions in 2025, leading to 8,253 injuries. There were numerous types of crashes, including:

The accident can knock your brain against the inside of your skull and lead to a concussion just from the whiplash. You may also hit your head against the inside of the vehicle, or even be thrown onto the road. Some accidents also result in penetrating brain injuries.

Accidents that involve vulnerable road users, like pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists, are more likely to result in severe traumatic brain injuries, especially at high speeds. When passenger cars are in collisions with commercial trucks, this also increases the severity of the potential injuries.

After a vehicle collision, you can hold negligent drivers liable in a personal injury claim if your damages exceed your insurance coverage. A driver is the most common at-fault party and might be held accountable for negligent actions like driving distracted, failing to check blind spots, or not stopping at a stop sign.

Sports Accidents

Blunt trauma from many sports accidents can lead to traumatic brain injuries, especially in high-contact sports.

However, while sports accidents are a common reason for traumatic brain injuries, they are not often a cause for personal injury claims. Most injuries in sports are considered an expected risk of engaging in the activity. You may only have a personal injury claim if someone caused you deliberate harm or breached the duty of care they owed you in some other extreme way.

Slip and Falls

Some people think that slip and falls are not very serious injuries. While it’s true that some incidents are not serious, there are many cases where falls can lead to severe and catastrophic injuries, like broken bones and spinal cord damage. Traumatic brain injuries are one of the most common injuries in sudden falls.

In Pinellas County, there were 4,251 hospitalizations from unintentional falls in 2020, and 643 of those cases involved a traumatic brain injury. Unintentional falls were the cause of 62.6% of traumatic brain injury hospitalizations in the county that year.

Severe injuries are more common when the fall is from a higher floor to a lower floor, when the surrounding area is hazardous, or when the victim of the fall is elderly or disabled.

You may have grounds to file a personal injury claim for a fall in specific cases, like if you fell on someone else’s public or private property. When the fall happened because of a dangerous hazard on the property that the property owner should have addressed, you could file a premises liability claim.

Violent Crimes

Acts of violence are another common reason for traumatic brain injuries. Violent assaults, battery, robberies, or sexual assaults can lead to blunt trauma to the head, gunshot wounds, and other injuries leading to traumatic brain injuries.

There were 81 convictions in Pinellas County for aggravated assault with a weapon in 2024, as well as 47 convictions for aggravated battery, 753 convictions for battery, and 45 convictions for simple assault.

When someone commits a crime and you are hurt because of it, you can file a personal injury claim against them and hold them civilly liable, in addition to filing a criminal charge against them. Criminal negligence makes them liable for your injuries, and there is a lower burden of proof in civil court compared to criminal court.

How Can You Prove Liability in a Traumatic Brain Injury Claim?

How you prove liability in a personal injury claim for a traumatic brain injury depends on the kind of accident you were in and how your injury occurred. In general, you have to prove the following elements:

  1. Duty of care. You have to prove that the party owed you a duty of care. For example, drivers on the road owe each other a duty of care to behave with reasonable consideration for the safety of others. A property owner has a duty of care to use reasonable care to maintain their property for legal visitors and prevent any known hazards from causing harm.
  2. Breach of duty. You must show that the party breached their duty of care. Usually, they negligently acted or failed to act. They may have also acted recklessly. In rare cases, the party breaches their duty of care by acting with criminal negligence or malice. A driver breaches their duty of care through negligence by being distracted.
  3. Causation. The party’s breach of their duty of care must be a direct cause of the accident in which you were injured. If the accident would have occurred regardless of the party’s actions, then they cannot be held liable.
  4. Damages. You must also prove the damages you suffered because of the accident. This includes showing the injuries you suffered and that they were a direct result of the accident. Other damages, like property damage or emotional trauma, must also be shown.

When you suffer a traumatic brain injury in a sudden accident, you want to work with an attorney who understands the specific incident you were involved in. That way, they know how to investigate the incident and understand the duty of care that is applicable to your case. Their experience also helps them more easily gather relevant evidence to make your claim stronger.

Why Do You Need to Hire a Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer in Seminole?

You need to hire a traumatic brain injury lawyer in Seminole to improve your chances of a successful personal injury claim, safeguarding your ability to financially provide for yourself and your family. There are many ways that an attorney helps support your case, including:

  • Investigate the accident. Following a traumatic brain injury accident, the evidence you can secure of the collision or other incident is crucial for your case. An attorney investigates the scene to assess how it happened, who is at fault, and collect the relevant evidence for your case. This is especially important in brain injury cases, because you may have limited memory of the incident.
  • Assess your damages. Your attorney can review your injuries and work with medical professionals to determine the real costs of your injury. This includes all of your immediate financial and personal losses, as well as the long-term medical treatment needs and quality of life effects of the traumatic brain injury. When your attorney has handled these cases before, they likely have a deep understanding of the long-term needs of these injuries.
  • Talk with you. A diligent attorney will take the time to get to know you and your family, and the situation you are in. This helps them truly understand and outline how your injury has affected your life. They answer your questions and walk through your concerns so you have more certainty in how the case is handled. This can limit your stress throughout the process and give you the space you need to recover.
  • Use legal knowledge. There are many legal complexities to these cases, including deadlines for filing and the burden of proof for liability. Your attorney understands these and other requirements, both for insurance negotiations and a trial in court. This knowledge greatly benefits your case.

Ronald Bone, P.A. and the team go above and beyond to help you recover the compensation you are owed, and work with doctors who specialize in brain injuries to better support your claim. We negotiate with the insurance company and file your claim in court if these negotiations are not effective at securing your financial recovery.

How Much Is My Claim Worth?

There are several factors that affect how much your claim is worth, including:

  • Injury severity. More serious injuries tend to result in higher financial losses and therefore require larger settlements or verdicts.
  • Partial fault. If you are found partially at fault, this can reduce or eliminate the compensation you recover. However, as long as you are found to be 50% or less responsible, you can still recover compensation.
  • Supporting evidence. Having significant supporting evidence that makes your case stronger also improves the likelihood of recovering the full extent of your damages.
  • Legal support. Working with an attorney can improve your chances of securing more compensation, because an attorney understands insurer tactics and the legal process of a claim.
  • Settlement or verdict. It can affect your final compensation amount whether your case is settled through negotiations outside of a court or resolved through a court-ordered verdict. For some personal injury cases, a verdict in court will secure a much higher amount of compensation.

What Are the Damages in Traumatic Brain Injury Claims in Seminole?

You could recover both economic and non-economic damages in a traumatic brain injury claim in Seminole, which are compensatory damages that make up for a loss. The compensation you recover depends entirely on the damages you suffered in the accident.

Economic damages are direct and long-term financial losses, including:

  • Medical bills. Traumatic brain injuries require extensive and costly medical treatment, from emergency care to the treatment needed for long-term symptoms, including rehabilitative care. If you are disabled by your injury and require at-home and ongoing care, mobility aids, or accommodations in your home and vehicle, these costs can also be recovered.
  • Lost income and benefits. Dealing with a brain injury can prevent you from working as you take time to recover. The claim can recover the income and benefits you should have earned during that time.
  • Lost earning capacity. Your ability to work may be permanently affected by your traumatic brain injury. If you must work reduced hours, have to change to a different job, or cannot work at all, the reduced earning potential of the future income you would have earned should be calculated and included in the claim.
  • Property damage. In some incidents, your personal property was damaged in the incident. This might include damage to your vehicle, a destroyed phone or laptop, or broken prescription glasses. A claim can recover the costs to fix those items or replace them.

Non-economic damages, including pain and suffering damages, are meant to compensate for intangible losses. This can include:

  • Reduced quality of life
  • Physical pain
  • Psychological trauma
  • Emotional trauma
  • Impact on relationships

These damages are harder to calculate, and many individuals dealing with catastrophic injuries don’t realize the extent of noneconomic damages they are owed. Your noneconomic damages tend to increase for more serious injuries that have significant limitations on your life.

An attorney helps you assess both economic and noneconomic damages. They gather all the information needed to assess your damages, including opinions from medical professionals and your bills and receipts. They use this and other information to accurately assess what damages you are owed and advocate for full and fair compensation.

FAQs

What Is the Typical Settlement for a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A typical settlement for a traumatic brain injury entirely depends on the severity of your injury, how much the injury affects your life, whether you hold any partial responsibility for the accident, and the strength of your case. It is more likely that you can recover the entirety of your damages when you have a lot of evidence to back up your case, and working with an attorney makes it easier to secure that evidence and calculate your damages.

Does a TBI Qualify for Disability?

A TBI (traumatic brain injury) may qualify for disability, but it entirely depends on your unique situation and the severity of the injury. If your TBI prevents you from continuing your employment and will not let you complete gainful employment in other fields, you are more likely to qualify for disability.

When you file a personal injury claim, this can help you recover your lost income and lost earning capacity, helping you secure some financial recovery through this avenue.

Does Stress Make a TBI Worse?

Yes, stress can make a TBI worse, as it can limit the brain’s ability to take the time it needs to heal. Even the stress before the injury during the accident can have an effect. However, different forms of stress impact different areas of the brain. If you have suffered a TBI, it’s important to minimize your stressors where possible.

How Do I Know If My TBI Is Getting Worse?

You can know if your TBI is getting worse by keeping an eye on your symptoms and determining if they worsen or not. This includes assessing the severity of symptoms of mild TBIs like nausea, dizziness, irritability, memory loss, headaches, or blurred vision.

It also includes looking out for symptoms of moderate or severe TBIs, like passing out for extended periods of time, balance and coordination issues, difficulty communicating, weakness in your limbs, and difficulty managing your behavior.

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If you or someone you love has suffered a serious traumatic brain injury in an incident in Seminole that was caused by someone else, it’s important to get the help you need. This includes getting medical care, reporting the accident, and keeping track of your medical records and symptoms.

It also includes getting in contact with a dedicated and experienced personal injury attorney who understands traumatic brain injuries. Reach out to Ronald Bone, P.A. today.

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