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Some injury victims choose to handle their own insurance claims. While it is your right to do so, there are many reasons why it can be beneficial to have a lawyer on your side. It is especially important to hire a traumatic brain injury lawyer when your case involves a brain injury that requires technical medical information, a complicated recovery, or lengthy rehabilitation services.
Our brain injury lawyers at Arash Law work to help you pursue compensation for all the medical care and related expenses you incurred because of someone else’s negligence. What follows are some reasons to hire a lawyer after an accidental brain injury.
Brain Injuries Are Common
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were approximately 61,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2019 due to traumatic brain injuries. This number does not include the brain injuries that occurred due to medical malpractice, and it also does not include the hundreds of thousands of brain injury victims who survived their injuries.
Here in California, the Department of Public Health reports that more than 32,000 victims were hospitalized due to traumatic brain injuries in 2014. This figure does not include victims who died at the scene of the accident without ever being hospitalized or victims who required outpatient medical treatment, or thousands of other brain injuries, such as those caused by medical malpractice.
The fact of the matter is that thousands of Californians suffer brain injuries every year. If you suffer a brain injury because of someone else’s negligence, you may have grounds to seek compensation for all your injuries and losses.
The losses can be significant. Many brain injuries prevent the victim from ever returning to work. The injury might require costly surgeries or in-home care. All of these costs related to the defendant’s negligence may be included as part of your claim in a personal injury lawsuit.
Understanding The Complex Nature Of Brain Injuries
The brain is arguably the most complex area of the body. It controls the involuntary processes that are necessary to sustain life, such as breathing and keeping your heart beating, as well as the thoughts and actions that define us. There has been no limit to the amount of information that scientists continue to learn about the brain as they research its many possibilities.
Unfortunately, this means that even minor damage to the brain can result in incredibly complex injuries that affect all areas of life. Seeking compensation for a brain injury typically requires demonstrating the nature of your injuries, their impact on your life, and the direct link to the accident. Our experienced brain injury lawyers understand these complex injuries. We work with doctors, scientists, researchers, therapists, and other professionals to help explain your injuries to a claims adjuster or the jury.
Your Symptoms
Right after an accident occurs, you may experience:
- Loss of consciousness
- Headaches
- Confusion
- Lightheadedness
- Dizziness
- Blurred vision or tired eyes
- Ringing in the ears
- Bad taste in the mouth
- Fatigue or lethargy
Because the brain controls every other part of the body, an injury can produce a wide range of symptoms. Certain areas of the body may not function properly if an injury disrupts the transmission of electrical signals from the brain. Neurologists and other professionals are usually required to examine these symptoms further. In addition to your physical symptoms, you may also experience behavioral changes.
You might be more irritable or easily frustrated and feel moodier or have more drastic changes in your mood. You might also experience cognitive symptoms, such as changes in memory or concentration.
These cognitive symptoms can also exacerbate irritability and moodiness in a vicious cycle and are common after a serious brain injury. Depending on the specifics of your case, you may be able to pursue compensation for all necessary mental health treatment, as well as your medical treatments and physical rehabilitation.
The Potential Complications Of A Brain Injury
In addition to these mental health challenges, you may also face medical complications as a result of your brain injury. The Mayo Clinic reports that these complications can include:
- Headaches
- Vertigo
- Seizures
- Infections
- Blood vessel damage (which can lead to strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, muscle infarctions, and other potentially fatal conditions).
- Fluid buildup in the brain (hydrocephalus).
Sometimes, these complications can reduce a brain injury victim’s overall life expectancy. While it may seem difficult to place a value on this loss, attorneys work with expert witnesses to calculate and present evidence for the potential value of lost years of life.
Your Prognosis
The prognosis for brain injuries varies greatly. Your case will be affected by how you were injured, how extensive the damage was, how soon you were able to get medical treatment, and any underlying medical conditions you have that complicate your recovery. Compensation in a brain injury case is specific to each individual injury victim. Everyone will have a different prognosis for recovery, so it is important to work with an experienced brain injury lawyer who works with doctors to explain your injuries and prognosis to evaluate the potential value of your claim.
Brain Injuries Can Happen In Different Ways
There are many ways that a brain injury can occur. Your lawyer can help assess liability and determine who may be at fault for your injury.
What follows are some of the common causes of brain injuries.
Car Accidents
Car accidents involve serious forces that can cause extensive damage. Pedestrians are at a particularly high risk of suffering brain injuries because they have no protection between their heads and the car or road that they are forced against. Bicyclists and motorcycle riders have helmets, though they may not be able to withstand the full force of a collision with a fully loaded vehicle. Vehicle occupants can also suffer brain injuries, even though they are protected by seatbelts and airbags.
Medical Malpractice
Many accidental brain injury cases involve trauma to the head, as in a car accident or sporting injury. Sometimes, however, brain injuries are medical in nature. If, for example, a doctor administered the wrong medication and you stopped breathing, your brain could be deprived of oxygen long enough to sustain damage.
This injury can be potentially traumatic, even if there was no physical blow to your head. If you have suffered a brain injury, you may be able to pursue accountability from the negligent party. Medical malpractice claims may also arise in cases of brain injuries that result from abuse or neglect in nursing homes.
Premises Liability
Nursing homes and care facilities can be held liable for medical malpractice committed by their staff members. They can also be held accountable for dangerous conditions on the property that lead to brain injuries. For example, if an elderly patient has trouble getting around, she might be more likely to slip in a puddle of spilled water. Many of these care facilities are hired for the specific purpose of helping patients with physical limitations.
For this reason, they owe their clients a higher duty of care than other business owners, and it may be more straightforward to establish liability for injuries that occur on their premises. Nursing homes are not, of course, the only business where a customer could suffer a brain injury. Customers may slip and fall in grocery stores, especially in the produce section. Children can be injured while running on the wet sidewalks at a waterpark.
The owners and managers of these facilities have an obligation to actively inspect their premises and make them safe for the customers who are invited onto the property for the owner’s financial benefit. Private homeowners do not have to make their land safe for guests, but they have to warn them of any hidden dangers. Landlords must take necessary steps to keep the common areas safe for residents.
In some cases, a brain injury might be the result of a violent crime. Even if your attacker is not prosecuted, it might be possible to file a personal injury claim against the owner of the property where the crime occurred.
Imagine, for example, that there is a dark stairwell in a parking garage. It is poorly lit and not visible to the security cameras. The garage owner knows that crimes have happened in the stairwell in the past. However, they do not address the issue in the area. A victim who is assaulted in the stairwell may be able to hold the garage owner liable for failing to make the premises safe for guests who park there.
Defective Products
Here in the United States, we are protected by consumer protection laws. Any company that sells or distributes a defective product can be held strictly liable for injuries it causes. Strict liability means that the victim does not have to establish negligence. So long as the product was being used as intended, the manufacturer can be held liable for injuries it causes.
Consider the thousands of consumer products that we use every day, such as soaps, perfumes, shampoo, conditioner, beauty products, towels, clothing, household cleaners, electronics, and children’s toys. Even your vehicle is a consumer product that can injure you. In certain cases, manufacturers will voluntarily pay for costly recalls rather than compensating injury claims after the vehicle’s crash.
Depending on the circumstances of your case, strict liability can be an effective way to hold a manufacturer accountable for your brain injuries. Whether it is a traumatic injury (as in a car wreck) or a medical injury (such as being exposed to a toxic substance), our brain injury lawyers work to help you hold manufacturers accountable for any injuries caused by defective products.
How Our Brain Injury Lawyers Help Protect Your Legal Rights
Your legal rights may be affected from the moment an accident occurs. Insurance companies might use your statements in ways that impact your claim, including things said at the scene. There can be challenges that may arise throughout the personal injury case process. What follows are the key roles of our experienced brain injury lawyers in supporting your case.
- Handle All Communications With the Insurance Company — As soon as the defendant’s insurance company is notified that you have legal counsel, all communications will be directed to your lawyer. This helps prevent misunderstandings and allows your attorney to stay informed about the insurance company’s actions throughout your case.
- Assess All Your Losses — A significant area of compensation in many personal injury cases is pain and suffering. This damage is often difficult to prove because you do not have receipts to show the exact value of your suffering. Insurance companies usually use computer programs to come up with settlement offers. Often, these programs use your medical bills and lost wages as a starting point and apply a multiplier (usually between one and three) to come up with the value of pain and suffering.
This calculation may not account for each person’s individual tolerance for physical pain and emotional state. Brain injuries, in particular, are highly individualized. Your losses can vary greatly, depending on what area of the brain is injured and how severe the injury is.
- Calculate Your Damages — After assessing your losses, our brain injury lawyers work to determine the potential value of your claim. Our personal injury lawyers will advocate for your rights and help you seek compensation that reflects the specific impact of your injury, rather than relying solely on insurance company calculations.
- Build a Well-Supported Case — We collaborate with expert witnesses to explain the impact of your injuries. Testimony from friends and family can also highlight the changes they’ve seen in you since your brain injury. Your own perspective is also important in demonstrating how your injury has affected your life, including your ability to work, sleep, or maintain relationships. Our injury lawyers have experience presenting these losses to a jury in a clear and compelling manner.
- Negotiate With Insurers and Represent You in Court — Our lawyers understand the factors that determine how a local jury will view your case and are focused on advocating for your rights during negotiations.
If a settlement cannot be reached, you may face the decision of accepting a low settlement offer or taking your case to trial. Going to trial often carries certain risks. Your brain injury lawyer will discuss all the risks and benefits with you so that you can make an informed decision. Your lawyer can give an opinion about whether to settle or go to trial, but ultimately, this is your decision to make.
- Develop a Tailored Strategy — Sometimes settlement negotiations are delayed or denied, not over the value of the claim, but simply because the insurance company does not believe you will actually file a lawsuit and take your case to court. In these cases, the mere act of filing a lawsuit may result in an increase in the initial offer. However, it still depends on the specific circumstances of your injury, and outcomes may vary.
This action can be used strategically, but a lawyer must be prepared to back it up with the full litigation process all the way up to trial, if necessary. Our brain injury lawyers at Arash Law have experience using lawsuits strategically and are prepared to see your case through trial when necessary.
- Explain Your Legal Options After a Verdict Is Issued — Unfortunately, not every trial turns out in the injury victim’s favor. There are many reasons why this could happen.
There are many procedures that must be followed before, during, and after the trial. Violations of any one of these procedures can be grounds for appeal. An appeal is not your only option after a bad verdict, either. Our experienced brain injury attorney can explain your options and offer guidance, but the decision to file an appeal is ultimately yours to make.
Common Challenges In Insurance Claims
Insurance companies employ strategies to minimize their financial responsibility, which is typically part of their standard business procedures. What follows are some of the most common challenges you may encounter in pursuing an insurance claim.
- Claims Denial — Your claim can be denied based on assertions of shared fault, third-party involvement, or other factors that invalidate it. Our injury lawyers can use expert witnesses and technical data to demonstrate who was at fault for causing an accident.
If an insurance company denies your claim without a valid reason, you might have an additional claim against the insurance company for bad faith or negligence in its claim handling procedures. The Department of Insurance has strict requirements for its licensees. California insurance companies must accept or deny an insurance claim in a timely manner and act in good faith when doing so.
- Questioning the Severity or Management of Injuries — In some cases, a victim’s medical treatments and decisions may be scrutinized. For example, questions may be raised about the necessity of care, the timeliness of treatment, or whether medical advice was followed. An attorney can counter these claims with evidence of your medical conditions.
- Presenting a Low Initial Offer — Victims who negotiate on their own may receive an initial offer that does not reflect the full value of their injuries. An injury lawyer can provide a fair, impartial assessment of what your case is truly worth based on the available evidence and their knowledge of similar cases and jury verdicts.
The experienced litigators at Arash Law have dealt with many different types of juries throughout the state of California. We know what is likely to happen, and we use this information to help you make informed decisions about your brain injury case.
How To Choose The Right Lawyer For Your Brain Injury Case
If you search for an “accidental brain injury attorney near me,” you will get dozens of options for personal injury lawyers in your area. So how do you know which attorney is right for your case? What follows are some important factors to consider.
Experience
There is simply no substitute for experience. An attorney who has experience taking personal injury claims to a jury will be better equipped to advocate for you. Prior experience in negotiating personal injury claims provides a lawyer with the insight necessary to assess the potential value of your claim and substantiate that figure with supporting evidence during negotiations with claims adjusters.
If the claim is escalated from a claims adjuster to an attorney at the insurance company, your attorney can manage the process and address the challenges that may arise. Not just any experience will do, either. Find an accident lawyer who has experience handling brain injury cases. An injury attorney who understands brain damage cases will know what experts to consult, how to explain technical medical issues to a jury, and what evidence to present to demonstrate the value of your case.
You can interview prospective lawyers about their experience. Ask them about brain injury cases and how they would handle your particular claim. If the lawyer does not appear to be knowledgeable in this area or have a comprehensive strategy to represent your case, they might not be the right accident lawyer for your particular case.
Location
In today’s digital age, the location of an attorney’s physical office is less important than it used to be. Many clients rarely go to their attorney’s office. It is, however, important to know that your attorney understands the local area where the accident occurred. Accident cases that go to trial are heard by jurors who live in the area where the accident occurred.
Your attorney should understand how these jurors are likely to view your case and what they are likely to decide after a trial. This knowledge is important in the settlement process, even if your case never actually goes to trial. Settlement offers are often based on what value a case is likely to be assigned by a jury at trial.
An attorney with local knowledge may be better prepared to negotiate and provide a well-supported estimate of what a jury in your area is likely to award in your particular case after a trial. This strategy can lead to fair settlement offers or simply show that your attorney is prepared for trial.
Language
It’s easy to forget that something as basic as language can be a deal-breaker when hiring an attorney. If you or your injured loved one primarily speaks a language other than English, you would ideally want a bilingual attorney. However, finding such a lawyer is not often possible, especially if your language is less commonly spoken in the California area.
Ask prospective lawyers about any language barriers. Does their staff speak your primary language? Do they have access to interpreters? Is your interpreter able to accurately translate complex legal terms and technical medical procedures? If the attorney does not have a plan to overcome this language barrier, they may not be the right attorney for you.
Reviews
The internet has created a wide array of options for reviewing any type of business, including injury law firms. These reviews can provide helpful information about how a particular attorney has performed in past cases. It is important to use caution when considering online reviews. Some customers are simply unhappy no matter what they are given. Look at any local dining review, and you will find that even the highly rated restaurants have at least some dissatisfied customers.
A single negative review should not necessarily be considered a deal-breaker for a prospective lawyer. If, however, you see a concerning pattern or trend in the reviews, for example, former clients consistently say that the lawyer never called them back, this could be an indication that you may need to find a different brain injury attorney.
Reach Out To Our Experienced Accident Lawyers For Your Brain Injury Case
Our brain injury attorneys have decades of experience, and our skilled legal team has years of experience advocating for the rights of our clients across the Golden State. Our injury lawyers in California serve clients in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Fresno, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, Sherman Oaks, the Bay Area, Napa Valley, Chico, Redding, and throughout the state. Our lawyers also handle a variety of personal injury cases, including car accidents, truck collisions, slip-and-fall incidents, and workers’ compensation claims.
Call (888) 488-1391 or complete our “Do I Have A Case?” form here to schedule your free initial consultation. We are committed to helping you seek compensation for your injuries and losses from the at-fault parties.
