Three decades of trial experience. A medical doctor on the legal team. A nationwide catastrophic injury practice headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. The story of how this firm was built — and why catastrophic injury clients across the country have made it their first call.
The Alvarez Law Firm was founded on a specific conviction: a catastrophic injury case is, at its core, a medical case. The hospital chart, the imaging studies, the operative reports, the rehabilitation records — that is where the case is won or lost. Most personal injury firms outsource that reading to a paid expert at the end of the case. We decided to build a firm that does it from the first call.
That meant putting a medical doctor on the legal team, not just on the witness list. It meant building every case from the start as if a jury were going to hear it. And it meant declining cases the firm could not handle properly, so the ones we take get the attention they require.
Three decades later, the practice is national. We represent catastrophic injury clients across the United States, working alongside local counsel where required and traveling to courthouses where the case demands. Our headquarters remains in Coral Gables, Florida, where it has always been.
Alex Alvarez is one of fewer than 1% of attorneys nationally to hold Board Certification in Civil Trial Practice from the National Board of Trial Advocacy. The certification recognizes lawyers who have demonstrated a substantial trial record, peer recognition, and ongoing commitment to the discipline of trial work — a credential the defense bar takes seriously because it cannot be earned by simply filing cases.
Before law school, Alex served as a sworn detective with the Miami-Dade Police Department. That experience shaped how he approaches every catastrophic injury case: gather the evidence first, build the timeline minute by minute, identify every responsible party, and prepare the case as if it will be tried — because most of the time, the reason a case resolves favorably is that the defense believes it will.
Over three decades, Alex has handled catastrophic auto and truck collisions, motorcycle and rideshare cases, premises liability with severe injury, defective product matters, and wrongful death claims. He is a member of the Florida Bar, the American Association for Justice, and the Florida Justice Association.
Herb Borroto holds both a medical degree (M.D.) and a law degree (J.D.). The pairing is rare, and it changes what a catastrophic injury case can look like. Where most personal injury firms must hire an outside medical expert to interpret the hospital record, Herb reads it himself — the way a physician reads it — minute by minute. ER notes. Imaging studies. Operative reports. ICU progress notes. Rehabilitation arcs. The medical narrative becomes legal evidence in a form that a jury can follow.
In a brain injury case, Herb looks at CT and MRI imaging for the findings the defense radiologist will try to minimize — microbleeds on susceptibility-weighted sequences, diffuse axonal injury patterns, signal changes that show real damage even when the initial scan reads as normal. In a spinal cord case, he walks through the ASIA examination, the operative timing, the rehabilitation prognosis. In a polytrauma case, he organizes the injuries into a chronology that explains how each one shapes the lifetime cost of care.
The result is a case file that, by the time a defense lawyer sees it, has already been audited by a doctor. That changes the negotiation. It changes the deposition strategy. It changes what insurance carriers are willing to do to resolve the matter.
Throughout our materials, Herb is referenced as “Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D.” with full credentials, or as a “medical-legal expert.” He is not referred to as “Dr.” or as a “Physician-Attorney.” The convention reflects how his role is structured on the legal team.
The medical-legal pairing is not a slogan. Here is what it changes in practice.
A physician reading the ER record from day one identifies the mechanism, the severity, and the long-term prognosis without waiting weeks for an outside expert review.
When the defense neurologist or orthopedic expert is deposed, the questions are written by someone who reads medicine for a living. The cross-examination cuts cleaner.
Knowing the specialty subdisciplines, knowing which clinicians teach the standard of care, and knowing how a jury will react to credentials makes the bench of retained experts stronger.
A physician evaluating the life care plan can spot what is missing — the surgeries the client will need later, the assistive equipment that replaces every five to seven years, the medications that change as the body ages.
Defense lawyers and adjusters see the medical sophistication in the demand package. They know the case has been built by people who understand the record.
If the medicine does not support the case, we say so up front. Families deserve a real answer, not a contingency fee agreement signed in the dark.
Free, confidential consultation. Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D., will read your medical records. Alex Alvarez will tell you whether you have a case worth pursuing.
