Learn what you should know about a TBI in this article. Then, contact our Orlando traumatic brain injury attorneys for legal assistance today.
1) Mistakes To Avoid After a Traumatic Brain Injury
We’ve had the situation when a client comes in, either them or a loved one, and they’ve had a traumatic brain injury in Orlando, Florida. One of the critical things they do is not hiring an attorney who’s experienced in dealing with these types of cases. One of the biggest mistakes that we see is they just hire someone who’s never handled this type of case before. What that does is it can severely effect and impact your ability to resolve the case in the best way possible.
An attorney has to be experienced in that. They have to have dealt with these cases before. They have to know who the experts are that need to be consulted. If it’s a significant motor vehicle accident, the type of experts that they need to get to secure that, the type of medical experts that they need to guide them through the process, all of this is critical in ensuring that the traumatic brain injury case receives the top value possible.
This is important because oftentimes brain injury claims deal with, the person that’s injured, it deals with the fact that they have changed somehow. They’re not the person that they used to be. This can be significant in terms of getting the justice that you or your loved one deserves. Oftentimes the mistake is just going with the wrong attorney, going with an attorney that’s never handled these cases before.
The other thing that we see is not getting the treatment after the accident. Many times after even a minor accident, some individuals don’t get the medical treatment that they should be getting simply because they aren’t told to or they haven’t spoken with an attorney. They don’t feel like it. Maybe they feel okay after the accident. It’s very important to make sure that you get checked out, that you make sure you let all your medical providers know exactly what’s going on with you, how you’re feeling, and particularly if you’ve hit your head, if you’ve hit it against the dashboard, against the window, if you fall and hit it on the ground.
In any of those circumstances, any time your head is involved, you need to make sure to let the medical providers know, get that medical treatment so that it’s documented. Sometimes these head injuries can manifest later or they can continue in upward trajectory and become more serious than they were initially. Documenting that initial injury and that impact and getting that treatment right away is very important. Oftentimes, if clients don’t do that or if others don’t do that, it’s is detrimental to their case.
It’s very important to make sure to get an attorney that is knowledgeable in handling traumatic brain injury cases. It’s also very important to make sure you get the medical treatment that you need to ensure that you have the best possible outcome. If you have any other questions about traumatic brain injuries and what to avoid, please don’t hesitate to contact our office.
2) TBI Case Timeline
When we were meeting with a client recently, they had come in for an injury that they had suffered, which was a traumatic brain injury. The question that they had asked us is how long is this going to take to resolve? Typically these cases really depend on the unique facts and circumstances of the individual, the injury, the insurance company that you’re dealing with. We’ve had cases where these can get resolved in a short matter of time and some which can take longer than others.
Unfortunately, brain injury, depending on the severity, can be a life-long and significantly permanent and devastating injury. Those types of cases if they’re along that spectrum, that can take a lot longer to resolve. Some are milder traumatic brain injuries, which are called mild TBIs. Those often can come from a concussion or some type of mild injury where the symptoms may or may not resolve shortly or may or may not be significant or permanent in nature.
Those types of cases can be resolved in a short matter of time. This is considering whether the insurance company is willing to work with you in negotiating a proper resolution for your case. Oftentimes, brain injury cases are larger cases in the sense that the medical treatment takes an extended period of time. It can be permanent and continue in the future indefinitely. What this means is that the damages and the amount of recovery and the value of the case is often very high.
What this can mean is the insurance companies will often fight these cases tooth and nail and will drag the case on as long as possible. They will do what they can to deny and weaken your case. That’s why you need an attorney who is experienced in handling these types of cases. They can recognize these tactics, and they can prepare your case to ensure that these tactics won’t work against you and you will get the recovery that you deserve. There are both types of cases.
They all depend on the unique facts and circumstances of your case and the insurance company. Some can take several months to a year. Some could take more than a year and even two or three years to resolve. It really just depends on a host of facts. If you’d like to discuss your particular facts and circumstances with one of our attorneys, please reach out to us so that we can help you.
3) Available Damages for a Traumatic Brain Injury
When we have a client come in and they’ve told us about their accident and how it’s affected their loved one, particularly when it’s a traumatic brain injury, there are many different areas of recovery and damages that can be recovered in this type of case. It really depends on the nature and severity of the traumatic brain injury. If it’s a significant brain injury and one that requires significant amount of care, then there are many different areas of compensation and damages that can be recovered. For the most part, generally we have certain types of damages in Florida that can be recovered.
They begin with what are called special damages or monetary damages in terms of expenses that have been expended already and that may be expended in the future. A big source of that is past medical bills. Have you received a treatment that you need? You’re going to accumulate medical bills and costs for the therapies, for the hospital stays. Any kind of medical treatment and therapies that you need in the future, those can be wide ranging.
If it’s a significant brain injury, you may need to take into consideration that you will need specialized care for the rest of your life. This could mean in-home care. It may be care at a facility, transportation needs. All of those things are put together in the past and future medical costs, which depending on your case, could be significant.
The other type of damage is past, present, and future pain and suffering. Those could be significant in a type of brain injury cases. The reason why is it’s your brain. It’s not a broken bone that’s going to heal right away or going to heal back to 100%. If it’s something that’s affecting your brain, it could affect you personally.
It could affect your personality, which could affect your relationships with your loved ones, with your wife, children, parents. All of this has to do with the compensation in terms of pain and suffering. How have you suffered as an individual? How have you suffered as a changed individual? How have you suffered as a result of this traumatic brain injury?
All of those things are put together to arrive at the collective things that you can claim for damages. Again, you have the monetary damages, which are the medical costs in the past and the future, and there are also the more emotional ones such as the pain and suffering in the past and in the future. Many of these brain injury cases that we’ve dealt with are permanent in nature, so the damages that are recoverable in both the medical field and the emotional side can be significant. It’s very important to get an attorney on your side that is knowledgeable in these types of cases and they know all of these damages and the best way to gather all the evidence and to establish the case for you in terms of setting those damages so that you can recover the best possible outcome. If you have any other questions about traumatic brain injuries and damages, please don’t hesitate to contact our office.
Have you been seriously injured in an accident in Florida and now suffer from a head injury or TBI, also known as a traumatic brain injury and have questions about what you should know about a TBI? Contact our experienced Orlando TBI lawyers today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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