Accidents Such as TBI Require Special Consideration for Maximum Compensation

How do Personal Injury clients pursue maximum financial recovery? Traumatic brain injuries not only cause permanent pain and loss of quality of life, but mental and financial suffering for families. After suffering trauma due to TBI, victims must seek expert legal advice as quickly as possible in order to receive justified compensation for what doctors consider a lifelong impairment.

After suffering an accident as severe as traumatic brain injury, there may be a wide range of reasons a victim can recover compensation. Depending on the severity of the injuries, and the general prognosis made by medical professionals, victims qualify for various routes of compensation. These modes of compensation can be a settlement, various damages, or a verdict during trial. A Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer is the only way for Personal Injury clients to seek out sound legal advice on these matters.

Without an experienced lawyer to represent the best interests of the victim, the ability to recover any compensation successfully is nearly impossible. Economic recovery refers to a wide range of routes to compensation that benefit clients and help aid the process of restoring quality of life both physically and financially.

What information is available to Personal Injury clients?

In this article Shaked Law Firm thoroughly explains the types of economic recovery available to Personal Injury clients who suffer permanent impairment post brain injury. Moreover, we'll discuss how a Personal Injury lawyer recovers compensation from a legal standpoint in these claims. As with any determination of compensation, the judge must have substantial proof of what the case is “worth” to determine a verdict.

Experience. Credibility. Success. Transparency. Dedication. Hallmarks of a personal injury law firm that's on your side. Does your firm check all the boxes? Shaked Law Firm does.

A lawyer with years of trial experience can explain all the options available after an accident (Alternative Dispute Resolution methods may take the place of a trial and have an equally successful outcome). While there is no dollar amount that can replace a lost loved one after a wrongful death or fully restore quality of life to those who have lost a loved one or have become irreparably injured, it's financial compensation after an accident that helps to relieve the burden of post-accident financial strain. It's highly plausible damages are recoverable after an accident due to the negligence or recklessness of another. What's available becomes clear either during mediation, or by taking the case to trial.

How do Personal Injury clients seek financial recovery for permanent pain and suffering?

Personal Injury lawyers use the term “pain and suffering” frequently, though the term is broad and must be clearly defined over the course of the case (mental anguish, physical pain, and PTSD are all forms of "pain and suffering" and must be well established). Pain and suffering is simply a broad legal term that covers many aspects of Personal Injury litigation. However, the meaning of the term has become too often lost on young lawyers lacking experience that attempt to take on cases they're not ready for.

"Pain and suffering" itself can not only be determined by the physical, visible aspect of an accident in which permanent impairment is caused. The "pain", for instance may not be visible. It can be symptoms such as repeated, chronic headaches or vertigo (dizziness) from a TBI, cognitive impairment, or epilepsy. “Suffering” is harder to determine and often requires extensive examinations of the patient to prove the extent. "Suffering" can be PTSD, mental anguish, and the emotional impact of trauma.

For example, a Shaked Law client was recently awarded a $6,000,000 verdict after part of an elevator ceiling crashed down on his head. This left the client with permanent impairment from a traumatic brain injury. The client now has epilepsy, which impairs his life and keeps him from living to the fullest. Not only does he have a physical impairment, but the mental anguish of not being able to live a full life the way he could prior to his accident. It's in such cases the court must also place a financial value on the victim’s mental suffering to determine what the cost of restoring quality of life may be over the course of a lifetime.

To determine damages, the judge takes into consideration the following:

•   The extent of the injury or injuries of the Personal Injury client

•   The likelihood of future pain and suffering

•   Is the pain chronic and lifelong? What is the prognosis for pain and relief and/or recovering?

What is successful financial recovery on the legal side?

After an accident in which a victim sustains a TBI, resulting in permanent brain impairment, medical expenses add up quickly. The cost of adjusting one’s life to physical and mental changes can be more than the victim has available. Thus, Life Care Plans are often enacted by the legal and medical teams. The teams work together to determine what best meets the needs of the patient/client and writes out a descriptive plan to allow a judge to determine a verdict based on those financial needs.

Successful financial recovery can look like medical bills and all future care being compensated. When a law firm chooses to take a case to TBI case to trial, it’s because the insurance is not offering a fair amount of compensation to fully meet the extensive needs of the client. After sustaining an injury as catastrophic as a TBI in which the client is permanent impaired, the financial compensation must match or exceed the needs of the client for the rest of their life.

When does a client receive their compensation?

Clients often pose the question "when will I receive my compensation?" the answer to that is complex on the law firm's side. However, we can break down the answer in a way clients can fully understand, therefore eliminating as much confusion as possible as to potential timelines for financial recovery.

Wait! There's a process to receiving Personal Injury compensation?

The short answer is yes! It's not as simple as the insurance company issuing a check and the client walking out the door. Not even close!

When a Personal Injury law firm agrees on a settlement offer for a client, there's a process to receiving rightful compensation. The same goes for a verdict. In both these cases, the law firm receives the compensation on behalf of the client, but certain expenses must receive attention prior to the client receiving their payout. These expenses are not meant to hurt the client, but to ensure that all services rendered throughout the case receive proper accounting when the case concludes.

What expenses do Personal Injury cases incur?

Legal expenses can vary, depending on the length of the case and whether the claim went to court, trial, or was resolved in Mediation. Not every case settles, and not every case receives a verdict. Sometimes, as with "paper pusher" lawyers, the client never receives any compensation.

Personal Injury lawyers work on contingency. This means if the case doesn't resolve, the client pays nothing. The case ends there, and the client loses no money in a legal sense, although medical bills and lost wages will remain unpaid.

When a case is successful, here's a breakdown of some legal expenses:

•   Paperwork and legal office work

•   Legal experts/expert witnesses

•   Life Care Plans

•   Doctors' fees

•   Demonstrative Aides

•   Economists (more on this in future articles)

•   Deposition and/or trial fees

•   Transportation (if necessary) 

What is the link between mental trauma and financial recovery?

The court always takes mental trauma (PTSD) into consideration when calculating damages in TBI cases. Mental anguish or trauma can include any terror, fear, nightmares, flashbacks, feelings of lost dignity, isolation, and grief. These are common effects of traumatic brain injuries. If such feelings are consistent, permanent, and cause further suffering outside of the physical challenges they present, damages may be available to compensate them for such anguish.

What other forms of compensation are available after an accident in which a client is permanent injured?

There are punitive damages. These are decided by a judge, and are meant to "punish" the business, person, or persons responsible for allowing the accident to occur, in order to teach them a lesson to not allow anyone else to become injured on their watch. Punitive damages are meant to force companies and individuals to follow the rules to avoid tragedy.

What is loss of quality of life for Personal Injury clients?

Loss of quality of life is not only loss of hobbies the victim once enjoyed and can no longer pursue. While this can certainly cause feelings of isolation and take away their quality of life, it includes much more. Losing quality of life means becoming unable to complete Activities of Daily Living. Activities of Daily Living are simple tasks that able-bodied individuals may be unaware are so important. After an accident involving brain or spinal cord injuries, victims may no longer be able to care for themselves. If this is the case, quality of life may be non-existent, and they can find themselves suffering depression, isolation, and PTSD.

A judge will always consider every factor as they pertain to the victim's pain and suffering. Also, any expense a family incurs to seek treatment on behalf of the victim. Financial recovery includes the entire family, not only the party with injuries.

How does going to trial help achieve financial recovery?

Occasionally, clients sustain injuries due to accident or trauma in which they can no longer work or provide for a family as they once did such as in TBI cases in which the outcome is chronic headaches, epilepsy, and dizziness. Not to mention the cognitive impairment that follows a TBI can prevent a person from returning to work. Thus, in these cases, compensation that takes lost wages and the potential for future earnings into consideration is available.

When the case goes to trial, a judge must have certain factors on hand to make his or her determination. The plaintiff and their lawyer hold the "burden of proof" and must prove that their ability to earn future income has been seriously diminished or at the least, drastically impaired by their injuries. The court will take the following very specific factors into consideration.

These factors can include:

•   A plaintiff’s age

•   Life expectancy of a plaintiff (without sustaining injuries; as well as following the accident resulting in injury).

•   Occupation, any special talents the victim had that earns them income. Skills the victim has but can no longer utilize and as such results in financial hardship.

•   The plaintiff’s job experience. What is their specific job training, education, or career path?

How does financial recovery improve quality of life for Personal Injury clients?

Finally, victims often need help around the home or with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) after discharge from the hospital. After an injury such as a TBI or SCI, it’s difficult for victims to get back on their feet quickly. With TBI injuries, a victim may be experiencing dizziness, blurry vision, tremors, frequent and debilitating migraine headaches. These can all be symptoms they never experienced prior to sustaining an injury.

During consultation with a Board Certified Civil Trial lawyer, every aspect of pain and suffering receives thorough evaluation. Your Personal Injury lawyer wants what's best for you! That means achieving the most compensation on the legal side, so that you can recover fully on the medical side.