The Alvarez Law Firm
From the Medical-Legal Team

Insights From a Doctor
and a Trial Lawyer

Most personal injury blogs recycle the same generic advice. Ours are written by the people who do the work — Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D., reading the imaging the way a physician reads it, and Alex Alvarez, Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, explaining how that reading actually shapes the case. No SEO filler. No fake case results. Just the medicine and the litigation, in plain English.

Brain Injury · July 11, 2026

Diffuse Axonal Injury — The Catastrophic Brain Injury That Doesn’t Show on a CT Scan

A person can be permanently brain-injured while the emergency-room CT reads as normal. That injury is diffuse axonal injury — microscopic tearing of the brain’s wiring. Why the standard scan misses it, what MRI and DTI actually find, how DAI is graded, and why a “clean” scan becomes an insurance defense.

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Autonomous Vehicles · July 10, 2026

Driverless Truck Crashes — Who Is Liable When an 80,000-Pound Truck Has No Driver?

Autonomous semis are now hauling freight across Texas with no one in the cab. Who is accountable when one causes a catastrophic crash, what Texas law means by “the software is the operator,” the 2026 federal rule changes, and why the case is built on the truck’s own data.

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Truck Crash Liability · July 9, 2026

Freight Broker Liability After a Truck Crash — What the Supreme Court's Montgomery Decision Changed

The unanimous May 2026 ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II: freight brokers can now be sued for negligently hiring unsafe trucking companies. What the FAAAA safety exception means, who the broker is in the chain, and how it adds a defendant to a catastrophic truck case.

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Vehicle Safety Tech · July 8, 2026

Automatic Emergency Braking and Crash Liability — When the System Fails, Misfires, or Was Never There

What the federal FMVSS 127 rule requires; why the 2029 deadline may slip in 2026; how AEB data becomes crash evidence; and the two product-liability tracks — a system that fails to brake, and phantom braking that stops for a hazard that was never there.

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Truck Underride · July 7, 2026

Truck Underride Crashes — Why They Kill at Survivable Speeds and Who Is Liable

Why the injury pattern itself is evidence of underride; the 2022–2024 federal rear-guard rule (FMVSS 223/224); the unclosed side-guard gap; the pending Stop Underrides Act 2.0; and how the trailer manufacturer and motor carrier both end up in the case.

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Autonomous Vehicles · June 23, 2026

Self-Driving Car Crashes — Who Is Responsible When the Computer Was Driving?

The SAE levels in plain English; why Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving are a special category; robotaxi cases with no human driver; the in-vehicle data; and the NHTSA Standing General Order that fuels the litigation.

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Pedestrian Cases · June 15, 2026

Pedestrian Catastrophic Injury Cases — How Severity Patterns and Liability Differ From Vehicle-Occupant Cases

The triangle injury pattern (lower extremity / torso / head + pelvis); the steep impact-speed survival curve; the comparative-fault framework; hit-and-run UM/UIM coverage that pays even when the pedestrian was not in a car.

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Crash Investigation · June 15, 2026

Holiday Weekend Crash Investigations — Why the Evidence Picture Changes

Why holiday weekends produce more crashes AND degraded investigations; the time-sensitive evidence that disappears fastest; dram shop liability and what every plaintiff should do as July 4 approaches.

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Catastrophic Injury · June 4, 2026

Spinal Cord Injury Levels Explained — C1-C7, T1-T12, L1-L5

The cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral regions; what each level means for function; complete vs. incomplete (ASIA A-E); how level and grade drive the damages picture.

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Wrongful Death · June 4, 2026

Wrongful Death Lawsuits — Who Can File Under State Laws

The wrongful-death vs. survival-action distinction, who can file across states, beneficiary hierarchies, what's recoverable, and the filing clock that runs from the date of death.

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Truck Crash Evidence · June 4, 2026

Truck Driver Hours-of-Service Violations and How They Build a Case

Federal FMCSA hours-of-service rules, the ELD mandate, how violations get proven and cross-referenced, and how driver-error cases expand to corporate-negligence cases.

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Motorcycle Law · June 4, 2026

Motorcycle Lane Splitting — State Law, Legality, and Fault

Lane splitting vs. lane filtering, the state-by-state legality picture (CA explicitly legal; UT/AZ/MT/CO lane filtering; most states illegal), and how the law affects fault analysis after a crash.

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Premises Liability · June 4, 2026

Slip and Fall vs. Trip and Fall — Different Cases, Different Proof

The mechanical difference, the common hazards on each side, what both cases have to prove (duty/breach/notice/causation), and the distinct evidence each requires.

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A radiologist reviewing a head CT scan on a workstation.
Brain Injury · May 27, 2026

How an M.D. Reads a Head CT After a Brain Injury

A first-person walk-through from Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. The findings defense radiologists minimize. Why "no acute abnormality" is the start of the analysis, not the end.

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An emergency department hallway at night.
Brain Injury · May 27, 2026

Why a Mild Concussion Is Not Mild

The DOD/CDC severity framework calls a Glasgow Coma Scale of 13–15 "mild." The data on how many of those patients never fully recover tells a different story.

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Attorney reviewing evidence files in an office.
Evidence Preservation · May 27, 2026

The First 24 Hours: Evidence That Disappears Fast

Surveillance video gets overwritten. Vehicle event data gets erased on tow. Witnesses move. What a preservation letter does — and why it has to go out the day of the call.

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A laptop and crash diagrams on a desk.
Auto & Truck · May 27, 2026

What an Event Data Recorder Actually Shows After a Crash

Speed, throttle, brake, steering, seatbelt status, airbag deployment — the five seconds before impact, frozen. Why the federal EDR rule changed everything and how that data gets preserved.

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A hospital corridor with overhead lighting.
Rideshare · May 27, 2026

Uber and Lyft Periods 0–3: Which Insurance Pays

The driver's app status at the moment of impact decides which policy applies. A plain-English walk-through of the four periods and why the wrong theory at filing can kill the case.

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