Boynton Beach Catastrophic Injury Lawyer
An injury this serious does not end when the hospital discharges you. It sets the terms for the rest of your life. We can take it from here. Call 833-370-8692 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our Boynton Beach personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Palm Beach County since 1993.
Catastrophic Injury claims in Boynton Beach
The insurer will make an early offer that looks large next to the bills you have seen so far. Meanwhile nobody has costed the surgeries still ahead, the equipment, the changes the house needs, or the work you will never do again. Putting a real number on decades rather than months is our job, and we start the day you call.
Most of these injuries here happen on I-95 running the length of the city and on the roads feeding it, and a large share happen to people in their seventies and eighties. That changes what is being valued rather than reducing it. There is frequently less lost earning capacity and considerably more care, because somebody who was independent and now needs help with everything needs that help for the rest of their life. Both sides then argue about how long that life is, which is why the level of function has to be documented carefully rather than described. The water adds its own cases: the Intracoastal, the inlet and the canal network behind them.
Boynton Beach catastrophic injury claims are filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, generally at the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach. Most arise on I-95 and the big surface roads, and the county’s older population changes both the outcomes and the arguments.
What to do after a catastrophic injury in Boynton Beach
- Do not let anybody settle anything yet. Offers arrive early in these cases and they arrive while nobody knows the outcome. A spinal cord injury has not declared itself at three weeks, an amputation has not been through revision surgery, and a burn has not been through grafting. A release signed now cannot be reopened when the picture becomes clear, and in this practice the gap between the early number and the real one is the widest on this site.
- Keep every receipt, from the first day. Parking at the hospital, the hotel near it, the flights for family, the wheelchair hired, the ramp built, the door widened, the childcare paid for. These add up to a great deal and almost nobody keeps them, because in the first weeks nobody is thinking about a claim. Start a folder or a photo album on a phone and put everything in it.
- Photograph the home before it is adapted. Steps, doorway widths, the bathroom, the height of everything. Once a house is adapted there is no record of what it was, and the cost of adapting it is part of the claim. The same applies to a vehicle: photograph it before it is replaced.
- Write down what a normal day used to be. What they did for work, what they did on a Saturday, who they cared for, what they had planned. It sounds sentimental and it is evidence: the loss in these cases is measured against a life, and the detail of that life is only available from the people who lived it. Write it down early, because it gets harder to remember accurately as the new normal takes over.
- Get the treating team talking to one another. A catastrophic injury is usually managed by several specialists who do not speak to each other, and the claim needs one coherent picture rather than five partial ones. Somebody has to gather it. That is work a firm does, and starting it early is what makes a life care plan credible later.
Where catastrophic injuries happen in Boynton Beach
What causes these injuries here is the road, and who they happen to changes what the case looks like.
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I-95 and the big surface roads
The interstate runs the length of the city, and those roads feed it.
- Closing speeds on I-95 that leave nothing survivable about an error
- Congress Avenue, Federal Highway and Boynton Beach Boulevard
- Motorcycle and scooter riders struck by drivers who did not see them
- Pedestrians and cyclists on roads with no separation
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An older population
The same collision produces a worse outcome, and the defense will make that an argument.
- Pre-existing conditions that were stable and are now not
- Aggravation, which is compensable under Florida law
- Prior records gathered early so before and after can both be shown
- Life expectancy, contested in any case funding lifetime care
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Falls and building work
Construction and maintenance across a heavily developed area.
- Falls from height on site and from equipment
- Crush injuries from machinery and unsecured loads
- Electrocution and arc flash
- A contractor chain where each link is separately insured
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Water and boating
The Intracoastal, the inlet and the canal network behind them.
- Propeller and crush injuries around vessels
- Near-drowning causing lasting oxygen deprivation injury
- Falls from docks and seawalls
- Vessel owners, operators and liveries as separate defendants
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Somebody who was still working
The assumption that everybody here is retired is wrong, and it costs claims money.
- Semi-retired people working part-time, consulting or running something small
- Income that is real and does not appear on a single employer payslip
- Tax returns, invoices and client records, which is where that earning capacity gets proved
- Unpaid work holding a family together, which has a value and is regularly left out
What causes them
- Falls from height on a construction site, including through an unguarded opening
- Machinery and equipment failures at work and on industrial premises
- Electrocution and arc flash injuries
- Fires, explosions and scalding, including from propane and gas equipment
- Being struck by falling material or a load that was not secured
- Crush injuries between vehicles, machinery or loads
The injuries this practice exists for
Multiple trauma
Several serious injuries at once, where no single one would define the case but the combination ends independence. These are the hardest to value because each specialist reports on their own part, and somebody has to assemble the whole picture before anybody can say what it is worth.
Injuries that end a specific working life
A hand injury to a tradesperson, a back injury to a nurse, a shoulder to somebody who drives for a living. Not catastrophic by a general measure and catastrophic to that person, and the earning capacity analysis is where that gets proved rather than asserted.
Spinal cord injury
The level of the injury decides almost everything about the rest of a life: what movement remains, whether breathing is independent, what equipment is needed and how much care. Those are medical questions with documented answers, and the value of the case follows them rather than the other way round.
What people underestimate is the equipment and the replacement cycle. A power chair, a hoist, an adapted vehicle and a modified bathroom all wear out and are bought again, and a life care plan prices every cycle across a lifetime.
What Florida law requires you to prove
The deadline and the share of the blame
Most claims from an incident on or after March 24, 2023 carry two years under Fla. Stat. § 95.11. Fault is divided under Fla. Stat. § 768.81, and since 2023 somebody found more than half responsible recovers nothing at all. In a case worth this much, a few percentage points of blame is worth a great deal of money, which is why liability is fought as hard as damages.
Finding enough coverage to matter
The defining problem in this practice is not proving the case, it is finding policies large enough to pay it. That means every possible defendant, every layer of excess coverage, and the underinsured motorist coverage on the injured person’s own side. The detail sits on our Florida catastrophic injury page.
The full statutory detail, and the parts that differ by claim type, sit on our statewide catastrophic injury page rather than being restated in every market.
How we prove it in Palm Beach County
The two halves of a Boynton file are the medical picture and the search for coverage, and neither waits for the other.
- The trauma record from the first hours
- Prior medical records, so an aggravation can be shown rather than argued about
- Every possible defendant identified, including employers, owners and manufacturers
- A written coverage disclosure from each, including any excess layer
- Underinsured motorist coverage on your own side
- Photographs of the home and vehicle before either is adapted
- Every receipt from day one, including travel, equipment and paid help
- A written account of what a normal day used to be, taken early
- Tax returns and invoices where somebody was still working in any form
- The care a family member has taken on, hour by hour, which has a value
Write down what a normal day used to be, this month. The loss in these cases is measured against a life, and the detail of that life is only available from the people who lived it, and it fades as the new normal takes over.
Who would handle your case
Being hurt in Boynton Beach is hard enough without working out the legal side on your own. The trial lawyers below have handled catastrophic injury claims across Florida since 1993, and one of them will take yours from the first call to the last check. They will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.
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Brett J. Yonon Senior Trial Attorney Selected to Florida Super Lawyers in 2024 and 2025. Nearly two decades in Florida courts, including a $3.5 million funeral home negligence verdict. Full profile → -
Richard P. Pravato Founding & Managing Attorney Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar since 2004, and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Injury cases exclusively since 1996. Full profile →
What the insurer does in a catastrophic case
A catastrophic claim is handled differently from the first day, because the carrier knows what it is worth before you do.
- Surveillance, and what it is for
- In a case this size there is usually surveillance, and it is looking for one good afternoon to play to a jury. It is not a reason to live smaller than the doctors allow. It is a reason to be exact with every doctor about what you can and cannot do, so the record and the footage tell the same story.
- A share of the blame, argued hard
- Since 2023 a finding above fifty percent ends a claim entirely, so in a case worth millions the fight over a few percentage points is worth fighting properly. It is answered with reconstruction, with records and with the physical evidence rather than with argument.
- The plaintiff has a prior condition
- Florida law takes a person as they are found. A pre-existing condition that was stable and is now not is an aggravation, and an aggravation is compensable. It is proved with the prior records, which is one reason those get gathered early rather than avoided.
What a claim can include
Attendant care, including care given by family
Care a relative provides has a value, and it is claimable. Families routinely leave it out because it does not feel like a cost, and over a lifetime it is one of the biggest.
Pain, suffering and loss of ordinary life
The part with no invoice, and the part an early offer prices at a fraction of what it is.
Scarring and disfigurement
A separate head of loss in Florida rather than something folded into pain and suffering.
Why Wolf & Pravato in Boynton Beach
A Boynton Beach catastrophic injury claim is filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, generally at the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach, and the firm has an office on East Gateway Boulevard rather than a mailing address here. Where a life care plan and a fight about life expectancy decide the value, that work is done locally and slowly enough to be right.
Fewer than one percent of Florida lawyers are Board Certified in Civil Trial law: 861 of them, against a Bar membership over 109,000. Richard Pravato is one, and has been since 2004. Carriers price a claim partly on who is holding it, which is the practical reason that matters to somebody deciding who to call.
A consultation costs nothing, and neither does the case unless we recover money for you. Where we do not believe a claim is worth bringing, we will tell you plainly rather than take it on and let it drift.
Boynton Beach catastrophic injury questions
She is in her seventies. Does that reduce what the claim is worth?
It changes what is being valued rather than reducing the claim. There may be less lost earning capacity and there is frequently far more care, because somebody who was independent and now needs help with everything requires that help for the rest of their life. Both sides will argue about life expectancy, which is why the level of function gets documented carefully rather than described.
Should we accept the offer now? The bills are frightening.
The pressure is real and the answer is still not yet. Offers arrive early precisely because the outcome is unknown, and a release cannot be reopened. There are usually ways to get treatment paid for during a claim, including through health insurance or a letter of protection, and those work far better arranged in the first month than explained a year later.
What counts as a catastrophic injury?
There is no single statutory definition for every purpose, but in practice it means an injury that permanently and substantially changes what a person can do: spinal cord injury and paralysis, amputation, severe burns, serious traumatic brain injury, and injuries requiring lifelong care. What matters legally is the permanence and the scale of future need.
The insurance policy is too small to cover this. Is that the end?
It is the beginning of the search rather than the end. Umbrella and excess layers, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage across household vehicles, commercial policies, and additional responsible parties can all add coverage. In some circumstances an insurer that mishandles a claim exposes itself beyond the policy limit.
The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.
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Tell us what happened
A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. We are at 1375 E Gateway Blvd, Boynton Beach, FL 33426.