The Brain Injury Association of America reports that 2.8 million Americans suffer brain injuries each year. They can unfortunately seriously harm your quality of life.
Brain injuries can cause a number of significant health risks. These risks include cognitive impairments that affect memory, attention, and learning abilities. They also include the possibility of motor function impairment, including difficulties with movement and coordination, as well as speech and language problems. Emotional and behavioral changes, such as depression, anxiety, and personality alterations, are also common. Seizures, persistent headaches, and sleep disturbances can further contribute to the complex aftermath of a brain injury. Additionally, individuals may experience sensory impairments, increased susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases, and a higher risk of secondary injuries.
The chronic nature of some health issues, including pain and fatigue, underscores the ongoing challenges faced by those with a history of brain injury. Comprehensive medical care and rehabilitative interventions are crucial for managing and mitigating these health risks. Many of these problems can be long-term.
It is important to make sure that you get the care that you need after a brain injury. Unfortunately, it can be hard to afford it sometimes, unless you can file a lawsuit against another party that is responsible for your condition. We talked about how personal injury lawsuits can cover medical bills. This applies to injuries that caused brain injuries as well.
Brain Injury Lawsuits Can Help Cover Medical Bills – But You Have to Win
Brain injury lawsuits can get messy in a hurry. It’s a personal injury lawsuit type that often has major stakes. If a person or entity caused an individual’s brain injury, they might collect millions of dollars, or they may get nothing.
Brain injury lawsuits often become contentious and challenging, so if you’re the victim in one, you need a great lawyer on your side. We’ll dissect these cases now.
The Prosecution and Defense Can Call Doctors and Other Medical Experts
Brain injury lawsuits can become complicated because if you’re going after money from an individual or entity, they will likely hire an attorney, just like you will. If they feel they caused the accident, they may offer you a settlement before the trial ever starts.
This might happen during the discovery process. At that time, both sides must present any paperwork or other documentation they expect they’ll use at trial. They must also list what witnesses they will call.
If someone saw the accident or incident that caused your brain injury, you can call them and have them testify under oath. They can potentially help prove your case. However, the defendant’s lawyer can also ask them questions and possibly discredit them if they feel their testimony isn’t entirely truthful.
You can call expert witnesses as well. You may call doctors who can talk about your brain injury’s severity. However, the defendant’s lawyer can question them too. If they see any possible flaw in a medical professional’s testimony, they can pick it apart or attempt to.
The defense can also call doctors who might dispute what your expert witnesses said. The jury must decide which testimony seems most convincing.
What If Multiple Individuals or Entities Caused Your Brain Injury?
You also need a great lawyer in these cases because you might feel that more than one person or entity caused your brain injury. For instance, maybe you injured your brain in a severe car wreck. However, two cars hit your vehicle instead of one. You may feel both other drivers broke traffic laws or acted recklessly. If so, it makes sense you’ll go after them both.
The two defendants may each have their own council. The jury might hold only one defendant responsible after hearing all the facts and witnesses. The best lawyers can help you get money from both defendants if they both bear some responsibility.
Your Prognosis Isn’t Always Certain
Brain injuries also occupy a strange place in the medical world. You can sometimes recover somewhat if you injure your brain, but not completely. If you do recover, it might happen days, weeks, or months after the accident. In rare cases, you may experience complete recovery or something resembling it, but not till several years pass.
If you can’t work because of the injury in the meantime, though, you can’t necessarily speculate on the future with any accuracy. Even the most experienced brain doctors usually can’t, either. They can mention other cases where people recovered following head trauma, but usually, they can also describe just as many times when the person never regained their faculties.
Your lawyer must navigate these murky legal waters. They can mention precedent, such as past cases where juries awarded the injured party a certain amount. However, there’s no guarantee your brain injury will end up the same way.
Because of these uncertainties, your lawyer must convince the jury you deserve a reasonable amount you can live on until you recover fully if that ever happens. They must also argue that negligence occurred if the party who caused your injury exhibited indifference. This means they acted knowing they could seriously injure someone through their carelessness.
Settlement Offers
You should make sure you hire a competent lawyer for your brain injury case because if the at-fault party offers you a settlement amount, you must decide whether you should take it or not. A settlement offer might not come during discovery, but maybe while the trial goes on, the at-fault party’s lawyer tells them there’s too much evidence against them. If this happens, they may suggest settling, and the at-fault party might sign off on that.
At that point, the trial will halt while the lawyers meet and discuss. Your attorney can bring you back the offer. They can also advise you. They have probably been through similar cases, and they can say whether it’s a good offer or whether you should push forward and continue the trial. Maybe there’s more money on the table if you’re patient, but you risk getting nothing.
In these moments, having the right lawyer really matters. Someone inexperienced in these cases won’t have any practical advice. You’re not well versed in the law, so your own experience presumably won’t help you.
Without the Correct Lawyer, These Cases Can Baffle You
If you injure your brain, then you’re likely in for a long and challenging recovery. You probably have a treatment plan set up, and you must follow your doctor’s orders. Presumably, you aren’t happy about spending time in a courtroom, but it’s your financial future on the line, so you may have little choice.
Without the right lawyer, you probably won’t collect a dime. Your attorney must handle all the trial motions, the discovery process, gathering evidence, finding expert witnesses, and more. They must argue on your behalf eloquently and passionately. You can’t do it on your own, and certainly not during the time when you’re recovering.
That’s why this decision matters so much. You can get an inexperienced attorney or one who costs less, but that likely won’t get you the money you need. Without that fresh cash infusion, you’re on your own, and your medical bills will probably eat up your savings before long.
If you hire the right lawyer and get the money you need, you can hopefully recover and have that cash for the most pressing expenses that come up, including lost wages, medical bills, etc.