Many people who suffer traumatic brain injuries after a serious accident do not fully recover. You might have memory loss, chronic headaches, loss of use of a body part or bodily function, emotional problems, or other serious issues preventing you from enjoying life or working.
If you or a loved one suffered traumatic brain injuries, contact a Minneapolis traumatic brain injury lawyer at Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers for a free case evaluation.
How a Minneapolis Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Can Help
The traumatic brain injury lawyers at Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers have the resources to investigate the accident that caused your injuries and the experience to go up against the insurance company’s attorneys.
We make sure you recover the compensation you deserve, including medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other damages. And we will negotiate with the insurance company’s attorneys or prepare for trial if the insurance company refuses a fair and reasonable settlement.
Why Contact a Minneapolis Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Immediately?
Contact a Minneapolis traumatic brain injury lawyer as soon after the accident as possible for several reasons:
- If you wait too long to contact an attorney, the defendant will argue that your injuries are not that bad.
- Evidence disappears. Whether the weather washes it away, defendants get their vehicles repaired or make repairs to items that caused you to slip and fall, or the police inadvertently destroy evidence when they impound a vehicle. The evidence does disappear or degrade. The sooner you retain a traumatic brain injury attorney, the sooner their investigators can gather evidence from the scene and vehicles.
- You could lose pertinent evidence in the form of medical records.
- You most likely will not remember everything that happened if you wait too long.
- The statute of limitations could run on your case. Once it runs, you will not be able to take legal action or settle a claim.
These are just some reasons you should contact a Minneapolis traumatic brain injury attorney as soon as possible.
Injured in Minneapolis? Get Nicolet.
What is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury is an injury to the brain from a blow to the head. Mild traumatic brain injuries usually have a temporary effect. For example, a mild concussion could leave you with a headache and nausea for a few days.
Severe traumatic brain injuries could affect you for a few months or the rest of your life.
Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Common causes of traumatic brain injuries include:
- Car and truck accidents.
- Motorcycle accidents.
- Pedestrian and bicycle accidents.
- Trip or slip and fall accidents.
- Assaults.
- Sports injuries.
- Penetrating traumas, such as a gunshot wound.
Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Even a mild concussion is considered a traumatic brain injury. and can manifest symptoms anything but mild.
Additional traumatic brain injuries include:
- Closed head injury: A blow hits the head but does not break the skull.
- Penetrating head injury: Something fractures the skull. A piece of the skull or foreign object penetrates the brain tissue.
- Coup-Contrecoup injury: A blow to the head causes the brain to move back and forth against the skull, hitting the skull as it progresses. A rear-end collision could cause a coup-contrecoup injury.
Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries
The symptoms of traumatic brain injury vary depending on the type and severity of the brain injury. Not everyone suffers from all of the symptoms, or even symptoms from all categories.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms
Physical symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury include headache, fatigue, nausea, drowsiness, vomiting, speech issues, loss of balance, and dizziness.
Sensory symptoms a victim might suffer from include:
- Blurred vision.
- A bad taste in the mouth.
- Ringing in the ears.
- Light sensitivity.
- Sound sensitivity.
- Changes to the ability to smell.
Mental, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms include losing consciousness for up to a few minutes, having problems concentrating or remembering, being dizzy or disoriented, mood swings, depression, anxiety, and sleep issues.
Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injuries
While moderate to severe traumatic brain injury victims often have mild traumatic brain injury symptoms, they can also suffer from several more severe symptoms.
Physical symptoms might include loss of consciousness for up to several hours, repeated nausea and vomiting, a persistent headache, seizures, convulsions, dilated pupils, inability to wake up, clear fluid draining from the ears and nose, loss of coordination, and weakness or numbness in the toes and fingers.
Cognitive or mental symptoms include agitation, profound confusion, combativeness, unusual behavior, coma, and slurred speech.
Why You Should Seek Medical Attention Immediately
If you hit your head, you should always seek medical attention immediately. Even if you believe you are “fine,” you might not be—sometimes a brain injury does not manifest until hours or days after the accident.
If you do not receive medical attention for a mild traumatic brain injury, the injury could worsen as time goes on. Additionally, seeking medical attention is one of the first steps in documenting your case to ensure you recover the compensation you deserve.
Recovering Damages After a Minneapolis Traumatic Brain Injury
After an accident that caused traumatic brain injuries, many people want to know how much their accident is worth. The only valid answer to that question is, “It depends.” Several factors determine the amount of compensation you deserve, including whether negligence, gross negligence, or an intentional act caused the injuries. The severity of the injury is one of the most significant factors in determining the compensation you deserve.
Most people will recover economic damages, but those who lost a loved one or have severe injuries that result in permanent disabilities should also receive significant non-economic damages.
Compensatory damages include economic and non-economic damages. These compensatory damages are an attempt to make you whole again. The court only allows punitive damages in certain situations to punish a defendant for intentional actions or gross negligence. While it takes some extra steps to recover punitive damages, it is often worth it if you can prove the defendant’s behavior was grossly negligent or intentional.
Economic Damages
Sometimes referred to as special damages, economic damages have a monetary value and include:
Medical Expenses
You might have a few doctors ‘ appointments if you suffered a mild traumatic brain injury that you were fortunate enough to recover from quickly.
However, if you suffered a severe traumatic brain injury or even a mild traumatic brain injury that caused long-term or permanent disabilities, you could have medical expenses for the rest of your life, including:
- Doctors’ appointments.
- Surgeries and follow-up appointments.
- Cognitive therapy appointments.
- Psychological therapy appointments.
- Physical therapy appointments.
- Occupational therapy appointments.
- Prescriptions and prescribed over-the-counter medications.
- Ambulatory aids.
- Hand controls for a vehicle.
- Updates to your home include wheelchair ramps, grab bars, handrails, and widened doorways.
- Medical equipment, including but not limited to oxygen tanks and machines.
- Expenses for part-time or full-time continuing care.
- Nursing home and rehabilitation facility expenses.
Wages
In addition to recovering the wages you lost from the accident through the time you settle or win a trial award, you could recover the loss of future earning capacity. If the traumatic brain injury prevents you from working, you could recover compensation for what you would have earned had you continued working up to your normal retirement date.
Personal Property
In some instances, such as motor vehicle accidents, you could recover compensation to pay for repairs or replacement to damaged or destroyed personal property, including your vehicle and anything of value in the vehicle or your person.
Death-Related Expenses
If you lost a loved one because of a traumatic brain injury caused by another person's negligence, gross negligence, or intentional actions, you could recover funeral and burial expenses, any medical costs your loved one incurred before death, cremation expenses, and certain probate court expenses.
Non-Economic Damages
Sometimes referred to as general damages, non-economic damages do not have a monetary value, and no amount of money can replace non-economic losses. However, the money can reduce the financial stress of losing your income or the income of a loved one.
Non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering, including emotional distress.
- Loss of quality of life if you have to make significant life changes, such as taking prescriptions for the rest of your life or using ambulatory aids.
- Loss of companionship if you can no longer enjoy spending time with your family or participating in family activities and events.
- Loss of consortium if you can no longer have a physical relationship with your spouse.
- Loss of use of a body part such as an arm or leg.
- Loss of use of a bodily function, such as your eyesight or bladder control
- Inconvenience if you have to hire someone to do the chores you usually do, including but not limited to lawn maintenance, home repair and maintenance, grocery shopping, and cleaning the house.
Though not usually related to traumatic brain injuries, the accident that caused the traumatic brain injury could also cause infections, amputation, excessive scarring, and disfigurement. You can also recover compensation for these types of injuries.
Working With Our Minneapolis Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyers
Traumatic brain injuries are understandably life-changing, whether you or a loved one suffered the injury or you lost a loved one due to a traumatic brain injury. Some people consider negotiating with the defendant’s insurance company instead of retaining a Minneapolis traumatic brain injury attorney.
However, insurance companies do not want to pay the compensation they deserve because it cuts into their bottom lines. At best, they’ll often offer you a discounted attempt at settlement that may not even cover all of your medical expenses, never mind the rest of the damages you deserve.
In some cases, more than one defendant might share liability for the injuries you or your loved one sustained. Your legal team will determine whether more than one defendant is responsible during its investigation.
Concentrate on recovering, not worrying about getting enough money to cover everything, including medical expenses and wages. A Minneapolis traumatic brain injury lawyer can take that stress away by negotiating on your behalf.
If the insurance company and the defendants refuse to come to a fair and reasonable settlement, your attorney has already done most of the investigating and evidence gathering and is ready to go to trial to represent your interests.
No Money Needed to Get Started On Your Case
In many cases, an accident victim believes they have to pay the attorney to represent her. This is not the case. If we do not win your case, you do not pay us. We will go over our contingency contract with you should you decide to retain us. The agreement outlines everything we cover for you, including paying for certain expenses upfront, such as depositions and the expert witnesses you will need to draft reports or testify on your behalf. It also dictates the percentage we get if we win your case.
That money is additional money we ask for as part of a settlement, not to take the money you need for medical expenses and lost wages.
We can even help when doctors and medical facilities want their money before receiving your settlement by forwarding a letter requesting that they wait until compensation.
If you suffered a traumatic brain injury or you lost a loved one because of a traumatic brain injury, contact the experienced brain injury attorneys at Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers. We can provide you with a free, no-obligation case evaluation when you call (612) 446-3999 or contact us through our website.
Minneapolis Office
43 SE Main St
Suite 500
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Phone: (612) 688-4459