One of the biggest conditions that people face, especially after a car accident is a traumatic brain injury.
These injuries often happen whenever a violent blow to the head is experienced, and the brain smashes into the skull. If something penetrates the skull as well, that has been known to cause a traumatic brain injury.
Depending on the type of traumatic brain injury, you might need a lawyer to get all of the compensation that you deserve. Before we get into that, let’s focus on the different types of brain and head injuries and how they can occur.
Types Of Brain and Head Injuries
There are several different types of brain injuries and symptoms that can occur from them, and here are some of the different types. Some of these symptoms can happen at the moment of the accident or impact, and others are more subtle and only happen days after.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Mild traumatic brain injury might result in the death of a few brain cells, and will typically come with the least amount of symptoms. The symptoms can include headaches, nausea, fatigue, and a loss of balance.
You might have a sensitivity to light and sound, as well as feeling confused and dazed. Most of these symptoms will fade away, and eventually you will heal. If these symptoms persist or get worse after a few days, make sure to speak to your doctor.
Moderate to Severe Brain Injuries
These brain injuries mostly happen from massive impacts to the head, and these symptoms will occur a few days after the accident. Whenever you have these symptoms, you need to find a good head injuries attorney.
If you lose consciousness for several minutes or hours, you have a persistent headache, or have weakness in your limbs, you need to see a doctor. Other symptoms can include slurred speech, confusion, slurred speech, and a severe loss of coordination.
Once you get yourself to a doctor, you might want to seek compensation for your head injury. Especially if you know that someone else caused your head injury, such as by an assault or a car accident, you can seek payment. So, how much compensation do you get for a brain injury?
Concussions
Whenever your brain hits the walls of your skull, that can cause a concussion, and it is often caused by an impact. It’s also one of the common brain injuries that you can suffer whenever you deal with a car accident. They are also very common in sports as well.
The Long Term Damage
Even if you deal with the immediate effects of the brain injury, you might find that there is still some serious long term damage to contend with. Some of the side effects of traumatic brain injuries can stay with you for the rest of your life, and can even impact your quality of life.
That’s one of the reasons it is so important to seek out compensation for your injury, so you can continue to be comfortable even if the damage is long term.
What Causes Traumatic Brain Injuries?
Depending on your age, there are two things you need to look out for when it comes to getting a traumatic brain injury. If you are 65 or older, then you need to worry about falls. Falls are the biggest causes of injury to senior citizens, and one bump can easily cause mild brain injuries.
If you are younger than 65, you need to worry about motor vehicle crashes. Getting a traumatic brain injury from a car crash is the most common cause for young adults.
Other traumatic brain injuries can be caused from sports injuries and impacts, and being hit over the head with an object or projectiles. If you get hit in the head a lot, either for your job or as a hazard, you could be at risk for traumatic brain injuries.
Preventing Brain Injuries
Our pa concussion law firm likes getting work, but not at the cost of you getting yourself injured. You should take every single precaution to avoid getting your head and brain injured. Make sure you limit fall hazards in your home, always wear your seatbelt when driving, and make sure to wear a helmet and proper protection while playing sports.
No one can eradicate the risk of head injury completely, but you can do your best to prevent it from happening, and you can also make sure that your head is protected. That’s the best way to make sure that your head, and the brain inside, doesn’t get injured.
The Average Compensation for Traumatic Brain Injuries
While it is very difficult to pin down an exact number for what a court case could get you for your injury, it does give you a large payout. Generally, you need to focus on the facts of the case and what caused your brain injury.
In most cases, the more severe the injury, the bigger payout you will get. Additionally, if you can prove negligence on the court case, you can get paid much more. Negligence is whenever someone has a duty of care, but ignores that duty and someone gets hurt because of it.
For example, a drunk driver has a duty of care to not be on the road when they are too drunk to drive. If they ignore that duty and drive anyway, then crash into your car and cause your traumatic brain injury that can be proven as negligence. Our Pennsylvania brain injury lawyers are trained to help you understand the facts of the case so you can get the most compensation possible.
How Does a TBI Lawyer Help?
Whenever you hire a pa concussion attorney for your traumatic brain injury, then you might be wondering how exactly we can help you out. We are the best pennsylvania concussion lawyers in the state, but that means nothing if we can’t use that knowledge to help you out.
We understand every aspect of the scenario that lead to your brain injury, and we know how to fight for you against insurance companies that don’t want to pay you at all. Our lawyers don’t focus on paying your medical bills and then leaving you there, instead we take a look at you as a whole to get you your compensation.
For example, you might need pain and suffering compensation. If you lose your job due to the traumatic brain injury we can focus on getting you money to cover those lost future earnings. If you need some form of therapy to cope with the traumatic brain injury, then we can get you enough to continue to pay for that.
Finally, if you have lost friends or companionship during the accident that gave you your brain injury, our Pennsylvania concussion lawyers can fight to get you some monetary compensation.
Is Your State Comparative?
Along with the various damages and facts of the case, our team will take the law of Pennsylvania in our hands. Several states follow the comparative fault or comparative negligence rule, which divides payments out due to the fault that both parties are assigned. The amount of compensation you can receive from your state is dependent on what laws they follow.
For a state that has comparative negligence, which Pennsylvania does, it doesn’t just place blame on one party or the other. Instead it deals with the assumption that both the plaintiff and the defendant can be at fault for the accident. It still deals with negligence, and who was more negligent. For example:
If a drunk driver was driving down the road and was struck by a car that was driving 20 miles per hour above the speed limit, judges can make different calls. For example, they could decide that driving drunk was far more negligent than speeding, or vice versa. In that case, when it isn’t sure who caused the accident or it is too close to call, comparative negligence is used
If the plaintiff is found to be at least 50% responsible for the accident, then their personal injury case is thrown out. In other words, if you are found to be responsible for the accident that caused your traumatic brain injury, you won’t get a case!
On the other hand, if the defendant is found to be guilty of negligence by at least 51%, then the negligence is established and the case moves on. So, for our pa concussion lawyers to take your case, and for you to have any chance at compensation, you need to be the least responsible for your accident.
Comparative negligence only comes up whenever negligence is hard to prove, but in most court cases we’ve determined that negligence is mostly easy to determine.
Using Medical Evidence
One of the things that you need to keep in mind for concussion and brain injury cases is that you can only claim damages as part of a personal injury case if your doctor believes the injury is related to the accident. That needs to be written in your medical records, and in 95% of cases that shouldn’t be too hard.
However, while the conditions of a concussion are common, the post concussion effects can be very hard to make clear to the jury. The aftereffects of a concussion are sometimes indistinguishable from real headaches, and that can be confusing to a jury. You and your doctor will work with a concussion attorney pennsylvania to make sure that the concussion and the post-concussion symptoms are explained to the jury effectively.
Even if you don’t have a concussion, a doctor’s testimony will only add credence to your need for compensation, especially if the jury hears how your brain injury has affected your life.
You can use this official documentation of the concussion to prove pain and suffering from the doctor’s testimony. They can talk about your symptoms, the severity of your concussion, and how those disabling symptoms have affected your life since the accident.
What Happens After The Court Case?
Once our brain injury lawyers help you win your court case, you might have to adjust to your new normal post brain injury. If you win the court case, our Pennsylvania concussion law firm will take a percentage of the earnings. Otherwise, you don’t pay unless we win.
Depending on the severity of your brain injury, it might be a while before you are fully back to normal. You might have to remain in the hospital or go to therapy for a while to fully heal.
One of the biggest things to come to terms with can be the emotional changes brought about by the injury. You might have mood swings, become irritable, or have trouble remembering things. These problems can be managed by therapy and by some forms of medication.
Still, there’s nothing about having a traumatic brain injury that prevents you from having a rich and fulfilled life post treatment. You can also use the compensation money to pay for your medical and therapy bills, making sure that you don’t have to add those payments to your list of worries.
Working With Our Team
Our team of Pennsylvania brain injury attorneys is able to help you out with your brain injury case. We have experience with everything from concussions to severe brain injuries, and our team wants to make sure that you get the compensation that you deserve. No matter what, our team will fight for you in court.
Don’t try to take on insurance companies alone, as they know a lot of tricks to ensure that you get far less than what you are owed. Instead, have our team in your corner so you can make sure you are paid fairly. Having a traumatic brain injury is bad enough for most people, and you certainly don’t need to be worrying about your medical bills and lost wages. Let us worry about that while you focus on the task of getting better.