Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Compensation

Often people do not realize the extent of their head injury. With the right legal and medical help, traumatic brain injury survivors can seek compensation that more accurately reflects the damage that has been done.” – Attorney Fred Pritzker

Money for Traumatic Brain Injury Victims

When our law firm represents traumatic brain injury (TBI) victims, we immediately start working on a strategy for obtaining the best possible compensation package for our client.  We get to know our client and learn how the TBI injuries are affecting his or her life.  Attorneys Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman are two of our top lawyers for these cases.

We know that families of TBI victims often suffer financially. Talk to Eric or Fred about a lawsuit for permanent brain damage seeking compensation for medical expenses, cost of care, lost income, pain and suffering, disability and other damages. If your spouse has been badly hurt, you may also have a claim, meaning you may also have the right to sue for compensation.

Our law firm is on the U.S. News & World ReportBest Law Firms” list. We are not paid unless you win.

TBI Victim Compensation Settlement

After we have determined what your TBI case is worth, we start negotiating for a settlement.  This usually involves sending a settlement demand letter to defendants (parties being sued) and insurance companies.  Most cases settle before going to trial, but we always prepare every case for trial.  We want the defendants and insurance companies to know that we are willing to take the case to a judge and jury if necessary.

Our goal is getting as much money as possible for you.  Our motivations are justice and making sure you and your family do not suffer financially because of your injury.

How Much is My Traumatic Brain Injury Case Worth?

Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman Investigating an Accident
Attorneys Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman inspecting a semi tractor for clients injured when the truck hit their car from behind. The husband suffered severe traumatic brain injury.

Below are some of the areas we will look at to determine what your TBI case is worth.

  • Medical Expenses.  All of your medical expenses are compensable. We hire a medical expert to determine your estimated future medical expenses.  Our goal is to make sure your compensation package fully covers your future medical expenses.
  • Cost of Care.  Cost of care can include people coming to your home to care for you physically and for your other needs.  Again, your compensation package should include amounts for estimated future cost of care.
  • Lost Income.  Any income you are not able to make because of your TBI is compensable.  This can include time off of work, money lost because you need to change jobs and lost opportunities.  This amount is computed based on what income you have lost and what income you will lose in the future.
  • Vocational Rehabilitation.  If you are not able to do what you were trained to do after your TBI, your expenses for retraining may be compensable.
  • Pain and Suffering.  Pain and suffering includes amounts for physical pain, emotional suffering (emotional distress), disability, loss of quality of life and other damages. We hire one or more medical experts to testify about the pain and suffering you have endured and what you will have to endure in the future.  Also, it is our job to get to know you and how your TBI has affected your life.

Your spouse may have a separate claim against the defendants. Our TBI lawyers have recovered money for spouses of TBI victims. If your TBI has affected your marriage, your spouse may have a claim against the defendants for loss of consortium, which includes a loss of comfort, support, services, love, companionship, society, affection, sexual relations and solace.  This money is awarded to your spouse.

What if My Spouse Was in a Crash and is Now in a Coma? Can I Sue?

If your husband or wife is in a coma after a crash, you most likely have the right to sue for compensation. In addition, you may also be able to sue on your spouse’s behalf. There will be issues of timing, including when the “statute of limitations” runs, meaning how long you have to file a lawsuit before it is too late. You will have to decide, with your attorney’s guidance, whether to pursue compensation on your spouse’s behalf or wait for a period of time to see if his or her condition improves. The important thing is to make sure your spouse’s legal rights are protected because your family is going to need financial help, and the people and companies responsible for the head injury need to be held accountable.

What if My Child Was a Passenger in a Vehicle and Injured in a Crash?

Most of the time, when a child is injured in a crash, the at-fault driver was behind the wheel of another vehicle, not one driven by the parent. When that is the case, the parents can sue the at-fault driver and others on behalf of the child. For example, if a trucker rear ends your car and it is the trucker’s fault, you and your child may have the right to sue the truck driver, a trucking company, the company that owned the freight in the semi trailer and others.

“Over the years, I have filed many lawsuits on behalf of children injured in traffic accidents. These are always gut-wrenching cases.”  – Attorney Eric Hageman

Some of our cases have involved an accident where the parent driver was at fault. In these cases, a child is entitled to bring a lawsuit for the child’s pain and suffering, medical expenses, cost of care and other damages, but the child has to, in effect, sue their own parent. Our civil justice system is designed to hold accountable those who have caused harm to another, even if the harm was caused by a parent (or a spouse or a sibling or any type of relative). What families should understand, though, is that in cases like these, the claim is really against the insurance company.  The goal is to obtain the necessary compensation from the insurance company for medical expenses, cost of care, pain and suffering and other damages caused by the accident.

When money is obtained in a settlement or trial verdict, it is generally placed in trust for the child. In many of these cases, the parents have there own “claims” and can sue for money that they will receive and can use as soon as it is available.

Accident Lawyers Truck Inspection
Attorney Eric Hageman inspects a truck that has been in a crash involving a drunk driver. Contact Eric for a free case evaluation.

Types of Injury

  • Concussion – Symptoms include loss of consciousness, confusion, dizziness, ringing in the ears, vomiting, nausea, blurry vision, feeling really tired, headaches.
  • Intracranial hemorrhage – Includes cerebral hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain) and epidural, subdural and subarachnoid (bleeding in the space between the brain tissue and the skull).
  • Cerebral contusion – Signs of cerebral contusion (bruising of the brain) include brain swelling (cerebral edema) and transtentorial herniation (when brain tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood vessels are moved or pressed away from their usual position inside the skull).
  • Diffuse axonal injury – During a whiplash accident, the axons of the brain are damaged.

Brain Swelling

Many of our clients have suffered severe, permanent damage because of brain swelling. We have also represented families in wrongful death lawsuits whose loved ones were in a crash, suffered a head injury and died from brain edema.

“Brain edema leading to an expansion of brain volume has a crucial impact on morbidity and mortality following traumatic brain injury (TBI) as it increases intracranial pressure, impairs cerebral perfusion and oxygenation, and contributes to additional ischemic injuries. Classically, two major types of traumatic brain edema exist: ‘vasogenic’ due to blood–brain barrier (BBB) disruption resulting in extracellular water accumulation and ‘cytotoxic/cellular’ due to sustained intracellular water collection” (Unterberg).

Diagnosing TBI

“The diagnosis of mild TBI can be extremely difficult due to the range of symptoms and lack of an objective diagnostic test. Recently, researchers have discovered several biomarkers that are associated with mTBI. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase isozyme 1 (UCH-L1) are released into the blood stream following an mTBI event. These proteins can be isolated using an ELISA assay and quantified using spectrophotometry. GFAP concentration is directly related to the severity of the concussion, whereas UCH-L1 does not show such a clear relationship” (Castillo).

Our lawyers help clients get top-notch medical care for diagnosis to make sure our clients get full compensation.

Free Consultation with a Lawyer

Our firm is a national law firm that represents survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI) throughout the United States. Our attorneys have recovered millions for TBI victims.

To contact our law firm to find out if you can sue for traumatic brain injury compensation, please do one of the following:

Additional Information

Sources

Castillo, Caitlin, “Blood, Brains, and Biomarkers: A New Test to Diagnose Traumatic Brain Injury” (2016). Academic Excellence Showcase Schedule. 74.
http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/aes_event/2016/all/74

Unterberg, A. W., et al. “Edema and brain trauma.” Neuroscience 129.4 (2004): 1019-1027.