What’s more, they are often undetectable to the causal observer, and at times, even to the victim.
Traumatic brain injuries are serious conditions that affect millions of accident and assault victims every year. With the ability to affect your work, your family, and your enjoyment of life on a day-to-day basis, these injuries warrant your attention and require prompt medical diagnosis and care. At Malman Law, our Chicago personal injury lawyers are experienced in identifying the causes of traumatic brain injuries and helping victims obtain maximum compensation for their losses.
You’ve suffered a brain injury and have a lot of recovery ahead of you. This makes turning to your trusted brain injury attorney to cover all the following important tasks key:
While you can assist your attorney in building your strongest claim in every way possible, you should rely on them to do the heavy lifting and to get the job done.
Brain injuries are unpredictable and sneaky. They can be difficult to detect early on, and even the victims themselves can have a difficult time identifying their injuries. Our brains are so complicated and delicately wired that even medical professionals with top credentials are sometimes left with nothing but well-informed guesses when it comes to treating brain injuries. It’s important to note, however, that those who treat brain injuries are, nonetheless, held to careful safety and quality standards.
If someone else’s negligence causes you or someone you love to experience a brain injury, it’s time to consult with a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer expert on brain injuries.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that concussions and other traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) directly affect how the brain functions, and they are a primary cause of both death and disability in this country. These brain injuries are often referred to as a silent epidemic because they often fail to present with obvious symptoms or with any physical signs, which leaves victims far more prone to forgo or delay the treatment and care they need.
TBI statistics shared by the CDC include the following:
These astounding numbers fail to account for the many TBI victims who don’t seek treatment or who are seen by their primary doctors, by urgent care, or in the ER.
Further, the five-year outcome for those who suffer serious TBIs and require hospitalization is grim. Consider the following:
No matter your situation, our TBI lawyers can help.
CDC also shares statistics regarding the most common causes of TBIs, which generally involve a blow, bump, or jolt to the head that doesn’t necessarily leave an external mark. Consider the following primary causes:
Each of these represents a common form of personal injury claim because both are often based on the negligence of others – such as the negligence of a commercial property owner or manager in the case of a slip and fall accident and the negligence of another driver in the case of a traffic accident.
Traumatic brain injuries occur when a sudden impact, violent shaking, or penetration of the skull disrupts the functioning of your brain. There are two types of TBI:
Open brain injuries are further classified into “penetrating injuries,” which involve an object such as a knife or metal shard becoming lodged in the brain, and “perforating injuries,” which involve an object like a bullet entering and exiting the skull.
All traumatic brain injuries are classified as either “mild” (e.g., a concussion that does not result in loss of consciousness) or “severe” (e.g., an injury that results in long-term memory loss or permanent brain damage).
Because TBIs are so potentially dangerous and because they are so difficult to detect, you should always seek medical attention whenever you’re in an accident that either involves impact to your head, or that causes your head to shake back and forth on your neck, such as in a rear-end car accident. The threat is simply too great to ignore.
While every TBI is utterly unique, and while you may not even notice any symptoms to begin with – or your symptoms may be difficult to pinpoint – the Mayo Clinic shares that there are symptoms that often accompany these injuries, including the following, which progress from less to more serious:
It’s critical to make the point that even brain injuries labeled as mild are serious injuries that you should never underestimate. The term “mild” is simply used relative to moderate and serious, which are the terms frequently used to indicate life-altering and often-fatal brain injuries.
Malman Law’s founder Attorney Steven Malman has over 30 years of experience handling personal injury, nursing home, medical malpractice, premises liability, construction and workers’ compensation cases.
STEVE J. MALMAN
Founding Attorney
The physical, financial, and emotional losses – or legal damages – that victims of brain injuries face are often so extensive that they’re difficult to exaggerate.
As mentioned, brain injuries have a tendency to go silent until they become far more challenging to treat effectively. The medical expenses associated with these injuries often last a lifetime, and secondary health concerns or complications are common. Those who suffer more serious brain injuries can require long-term assistance with the activities of daily living in addition to a host of other costly expenses that are unique to injuries this disruptive.
A brain injury can affect your ability to do your job, but it can also completely derail your career. The more seriously your career is affected, the greater your financial loss is likely to be. It’s also important to consider that job losses of this nature can also lead to emotional fallout, which makes this component of loss that much more difficult to overcome.
The physical and emotional pain and suffering you experience as a result of a brain injury can be so immense that it’s nearly impossible to adequately assess. Many victims of TBIs describe the effects as disrupting their sense of self, which is obviously a profound loss.
One of your brain injury attorney’s primary tasks is accurately assessing the full scope of your losses, which is paramount to your overall recovery.
In order to bring a successful brain injury claim that fairly compensates you for your losses in their entirety and that paves the way for your most complete recovery, you’ll need to establish four primary elements, including:
A savvy brain injury attorney will build your strongest claim by skillfully highlighting each of these primary elements.
Personal injury claims like head injury claims are based on negligence, which can come in all too many forms. For example, if you suffered a head injury in a traffic accident, common forms of negligence include:
If, instead, you were injured in a slip and fall accident, the commercial property owner or manager will be held to the same duty of care that other property owners and managers are held to in similar situations.
Your brain injury attorney will turn to evidence in defense of your rights and in pursuit of your rightful compensation, and this evidence can take all the following forms:
You’ll likely file your brain injury claim with the at-fault party’s insurance provider, and it’s important to understand that this company is a for-profit enterprise that is in the business of making a lot of money. This means that its focus is always on minimizing settlements like yours. Some common techniques that insurance companies often turn to in their efforts include the following:
Our brain injury attorneys have seen it all before and are well-equipped to take on the insurance company and its overly aggressive tactics. An important point to make here is that if the insurance company makes a settlement offer, accepting before consulting with a seasoned brain injury attorney who is familiar with your claim is a mistake that can leave you without the resources you need to reach your most complete recovery.
Brain injuries are some of the most difficult we encounter in the field of personal injury law, and the related losses tend to be some of the most extensive. While you might be focused on your physical recovery right now, always remember you have limited time to take legal action for your injuries. There are deadlines for filing lawsuits, and evidence can weaken or become more difficult to obtain over time.
Now is the time to begin the legal process. Our compassionate Chicago brain injury lawyers at Malman Law dedicate their impressive practice to helping victims of brain injuries obtain the compensation they need to journey forward toward their most complete recoveries. We’re proud of our two decades of exemplary service and the millions of dollars in compensation we’ve recovered for our valued clients.
For more information about what we can do to help you, please don’t wait to contact us online or call our office today.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by President and Founder, Steven J. Malman who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a personal injury attorney.
Answers to some of the most common Brain Injury questions we’re asked.
Men are three times more likely than women to die from TBI.
Senior citizens (age 65 and older) and young children (age zero to four) are the most likely to suffer TBI in an accident.
Long-term symptoms of brain stem damage may include:
A traumatic brain injury can be caused by a penetrating injury, like a bullet, or a non-penetrating injury, like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat. Falls, sports, car accidents, and medical negligence are common causes of TBI as well.
Every year, more than 2.8 million people in the United States suffer from a traumatic brain injury. What you may not realize is that while some individuals can recover from mild traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, brain stem damage is almost always irreparable.
There is no way to calculate an “average” settlement for a traumatic brain injury. For instance, we recently collected a $6M settlement for a client whose infant suffered irreversible brain damage due to medical negligence. Here at Malman Law we will take all measures to win you the settlement that you deserve.