Orlando car accident lawyer and Orlando truck accident lawyer Tina Willis, of Tina Willis Law Injury Accident Lawyer, recovered a $1 million settlement for a client injured in a semi-truck accident on South Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando. The settlement — representing the full insurance policy limits — was reached without filing a lawsuit, after Willis and her team uncovered a traumatic brain injury and permanent nerve damage that had gone undiagnosed.
The client was struck by a semi-truck in a sideswipe collision while driving in Orlando. His only visible injury was a facial scar along his jawline. Comparable facial scar cases in Florida typically settle for approximately $11,000. Willis said that the outcome was unacceptable and ordered comprehensive medical evaluations that she believes many personal injury firms would never have pursued.
"Our client mentioned he had a head contusion and facial numbness," Willis said. "Most firms would have treated this as a minor scar case. We sent him to specialists we knew were among the best in the country at identifying traumatic brain injuries — a neurologist, a neurosurgeon, and a neuroradiologist who reviewed advanced imaging that standard emergency rooms never order."
The medical team performed Susceptibility Weighted Imaging (SWI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) scans — advanced neuroimaging far more sensitive than standard MRI. The scans confirmed a traumatic brain injury with clear diagnostic markers. A separate evaluation by a plastic surgeon revealed permanent nerve damage to the trigeminal nerve, which controls facial sensation and movement, causing permanent numbness, drooping, and itching.
Those findings transformed the case. Willis and her co-counsel presented the combined medical evidence to the defendant's insurance company with notice that failure to pay the full policy limits could expose the insurer to a bad faith claim under Florida law. The insurance company paid the full $1 million without litigation.
Because the case was resolved without filing a lawsuit, the client's attorney fee remained at the lower pre-litigation rate — saving the client tens of thousands of dollars. Willis noted that most higher value cases do require litigation because insurance companies refuse to pay fairly, but that the decision to file suit should always be driven by what maximizes the client's recovery, not the firm's fees.
"The difference between $11,000 and $1 million in this case was not luck," Willis said. "It was the decision to listen carefully, recommend the right doctors, and gather the medical evidence needed to prove what this injury was actually worth. That is what we do in every case."
Willis noted that her firm recently evaluated a client from a large Tampa-area injury firm who had a significant traumatic brain injury but had never received advanced neuroimaging — an oversight she said likely costs many brain injury victims tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost settlement value.
Willis graduated second in her class from Florida State University College of Law in 1997 and spent years representing insurance companies and large corporations at major defense firms in multimillion-dollar litigation before switching to plaintiff's personal injury work. Her firm, Tina Willis Law Injury Accident Lawyer, is based in Orlando, Florida, and handles catastrophic injury, semi-truck accident, car accident, medical malpractice, and wrongful death cases throughout the state. You can learn more here.
For more information or to schedule a free consultation, contact Attorney Tina Willis of Tina Willis Law Injury Accident Lawyer at (407) 803-2139 or visit injuryattorneyflorida.com.
###
Media Contact
Tina Willis Law Injury Accident Lawyer
390 N. Orange Avenue, Suite 2310 Orlando, FL 32801
Phone: (407) 803-2139
Website: https://injuryattorneyflorida....
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is unique and depends on its specific circumstances.
Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events and performance could vary materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this press release about expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, forecasts, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "may," "will," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "continuing," "ongoing," "expect," "believe," "intend," "predict," "potential," "opportunity" and similar words or phrases or the negatives of these words or phrases. You should read statements that contain these words carefully.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Various factors could cause actual events, results or performance to differ materially from those predicted in the forward-looking statements, including changes in general economic, business and political conditions, changes in the competitive landscape, regulatory initiatives and compliance with governmental regulations, and other factors not currently known or foreseeable. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this press release if our expectations or situations change, except as may be required by applicable laws.
Please consult Tina Willis Law Injury Accident Lawyer for additional information and disclosures regarding the matters covered in this press release.
