Everyone with a brain injury deserves a different amount of compensation. This makes it difficult to definitively answer the question, “How much compensation do you get for a brain injury?” That said, brain injuries can be costly because of the severe physical, cognitive, psychological, emotional, and financial damage they are capable of causing.
The amount of compensation you deserve for a brain injury can depend on several variables, from your symptoms to your career details and the cost of treatment. Calculating the cost of a brain injury often requires complex math and a firm grasp of brain injuries themselves. Allow a brain injury attorney to calculate your case value and demand fair compensation from liable parties.
What Determines the Cost of a Brain Injury (and the Value of a Corresponding Settlement)?
If you’re wondering why brain injuries can be costly, simply review the potential symptoms of a brain injury. Some of the most debilitating brain injury symptoms include:
Cognitive Problems
Those who suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) may:
- Have memory problems
- Have difficulty handling stress
- Struggle to learn new things
- Show impulsivity and poor judgment
- Have difficulty reasoning
These symptoms can be difficult for anyone. The symptoms may be even more difficult for those who are sharp, usually have strong memory, and are used to high-level cognitive functioning.
Mood and Personality Changes
A brain injury can drastically change the victim’s personality. You may:
- Be more prone to depression
- Experience anxiety that you did not before the injury
- Be more prone to emotional outbursts
- Have less tolerance for stressful situations
- Lose positive personality traits, either temporarily or permanently
Our brain is responsible for much of who we are. When the brain is injured, the effect on our mood and personality can be devastating not only for the victim but also for those who care about them.
Severe Headaches
Brain injury-related headaches can:
- Cause severe pain
- Recur frequently
- Cause a sense of impending dread, as the victim does not know when a headache will strike
You may also be sensitive to light and sounds, as these may trigger headaches and other injury-related symptoms.
Coordination Problems
The brain is responsible, at least in part, for normal balance and coordination. A TBI, therefore, can affect your ability to stand upright, get up without feeling dizzy, and complete even the most routine of tasks that require coordination.
Permanent Symptoms
One of the most difficult realities of brain injuries is that your symptoms may be permanent or at least long-lasting. Setbacks are common among those with brain injuries, and recurring symptoms can be psychologically and emotionally devastating to experience.
Circumstances That Can Prompt a Brain Injury Lawsuit
Brain injuries can happen during:
- Falls, which may result from tripping, slipping, work accidents, and other events
- Physical assaults
- Motor vehicle accidents (including truck, car, pedestrian, bicycle, and other collisions involving motor vehicles)
- Sports injuries
- Medical malpractice
- Abuse
The brain is vulnerable, so a brain injury can happen in many circumstances where the body is put under abnormal strain or stress. Many of these circumstances happen because of someone’s negligence—these are the circumstances that typically warrant the victim filing an insurance claim or lawsuit.
Why Brain Injuries Are Often Expensive Ailments
Brain injury symptoms help explain why your claim or lawsuit may be a costly one. These symptoms can cause realities that help further explain the high cost of TBIs.
Those suffering the symptoms of a brain injury may:
Unable to Work for an Extended Period of Time
Most people who suffer brain injuries have financial obligations, and their job is the only way to meet those obligations. A brain injury can:
- Cause a brief absence from work (even a short time away from a job can cause substantial financial harm)
- Cause a long-term work absence
- Permanently prevent the brain injury victim from working
- Require the brain injury victim to reduce their hours, change their role, or change careers to adapt to their symptoms
This is why lost income and other professional damages are typically part of brain injury settlements and verdicts.
Lose Their Quality of Life
The symptoms of a brain injury can interfere with the most vibrant and essential aspects of life, including:
- Exercising
- Socializing
- Engaging in hobbies
- Reading and learning
- Vacationing
A brain injury can require wholesale changes in the victim’s day-to-day routine. Severe brain injuries may even require loved ones to change their schedules and take on caregiver responsibilities.
Struggle to Maintain Relationships
A brain injury can change who someone is, and this may:
- End or diminish romantic relationships
- Prevent them from spending time with friends and loved ones
- Change the way they relate to the world and those they care about
Social and familial relationships are essential to one’s quality of life. Injury-related changes in these relationships, therefore, can pose a catastrophic cost.
Face a High Cost of Care
Medical care for a brain injury can be extensive and ongoing. Having to undergo such consistent care and treatment can be psychologically and emotionally taxing. Just as importantly, care for a brain injury can be financially costly. This expense can increase the general hardship that results from the injury.
Why Hiring a Brain Injury Lawyer Could Lead to the Financial Result You Deserve
A brain injury lawyer’s job is to ensure fair payment for your brain injury. While an honest lawyer never makes guarantees, your attorney will do everything they can to ensure a fair financial outcome.
Some reasons why brain injury victims hire attorneys include:
A Law Firm’s Complete Financial Support
Hiring a skilled personal injury attorney can take the financial pressure off of your shoulders while they handle your case.
Completing successful brain injury claims (and lawsuits) often requires money. Your brain injury lawyer and their firm will cover:
- Any administrative costs associated with your case (like filing fees)
- The cost of reconstructing any auto accident, fall, or other event that caused the brain injury
- The cost of hiring medical experts, mental health experts, and any other experts who can contribute to your case
You don’t need any more financial stress. Allow your law firm to cover costs and fund the strongest case they can.
A Lawyer’s Extensive Experience with Both Brain Injury Insurance Claims and Lawsuits
There is no substitute for actually completing brain injury claims and lawsuits. When someone is experienced in these matters—like brain injury lawyers are—you know that:
- They can form a realistic timeline for your case
- They will not be intimidated by the demands of your case
- They will waste no time resolving the case (because they don’t have to spend time learning the ropes)
- They are prepared for bad-faith tactics by insurers and other potential challenges to your case
Because of their experience, a lawyer can also provide you with sound advice.
The Victim Wants to Focus on Recovery from the Brain Injury
You and your lawyer will be a team. Like all great teams, you will have separate tasks and occasionally collaborate. Your lawyer will be responsible for your case, while you will be responsible for healing. Because of your lawyer’s total ownership of your case, you may:
- Have more time to rest
- Have more time to see your doctors and follow their treatment plan
- Have greater peace of mind because you’re not stressing about the details and demands of your case
- Have more time to spend with loved ones and engage in activities that help you heal
Your lawyer will facilitate your recovery however they can, while you will have a say in critical case-related decisions.
How Brain Injury Attorneys Build Their Cases (and Demand Fair Settlements)
You should know what your lawyer is doing while you recover from your brain injury. Your legal team should provide regular updates, and they will also be hard at work:
Proving Fault and Liability for Your Traumatic Brain Injury
Your attorney will identify whose negligence caused you to suffer a brain injury. Lawyers prove negligence by:
- Establishing that the at-fault party had a duty of care: Those with a duty of care have a responsibility to act reasonably. For instance, an anesthesiologist has a duty to ensure the person under anesthesia does not suffer oxygen deprivation.
- Proving how the at-fault party violated their duty of care: Your attorney will pinpoint specific behaviors that qualify as negligence. For example, if an anesthesiologist did not monitor a patient’s vital signs and caused brain damage as a consequence, they would be negligent.
- Proving that the breach of duty of care caused your TBI: Your attorney may use expert testimony and evidence to prove direct causation between the negligent behavior and your brain injury.
- Highlighting the damages that have resulted from the negligent behavior: Your attorney will provide evidence of the harm you have suffered because of the brain injury—or, more specifically, because of the at-fault party’s negligence.
Brain injury attorneys must always prove negligence when representing clients like you, so they will be skilled in making this case.
Documenting Your Damages and Calculating the Cost of the TBI
Your legal team will secure any evidence of your damages, which may include:
- Medical professionals’ written diagnoses of the brain injury
- Any brain scans showing the injury
- A mental health service provider’s diagnoses of TBI-related symptoms such as depression and anxiety
- Your testimony about any pain, depression, financial challenges, and other challenges caused by the injury
Expert testimony may also serve as compelling proof of your damages.
Preparing Settlement Demands and Negotiating on Your Behalf
Your lawyer will analyze your medical bills, income losses, pain and suffering, and other damages when forming their settlement demands. Experts may play a vital role in calculating these costs, especially if you are projected to experience long-term damages.
Your attorney can then:
- Evaluate any settlement offer you have already received
- Present their settlement demands to liable parties
- Engage in negotiations and work towards an agreement with liable parties
Your brain injury lawyer should go over their demands with you. This way, you can establish your expectations and better evaluate settlement offers.
Analyzing Settlement Offers with You
If and when you receive a settlement offer from liable parties, you will:
- Receive immediate notification of the offer from your attorney
- Discuss with your lawyer the details of the offer
- Determine, along with your lawyer, if the offer is fair
Brain injury victims often receive lowball offers. Liable parties will hope that you will accept the lowball offer, as this will spare them from paying full compensation. Your lawyer will encourage you to let them fight for the entire settlement you deserve.
Helping You Decide Whether to Sue, and Leading the Legal Process If You Do
You may be eligible to file a lawsuit. Your attorney will help you determine whether suing is a logical decision. If any liable insurer does not meet your settlement demands, a conversation about suing may be necessary.
Damages Your Lawyer May Include in Their Brain Injury-Related Settlement Demands
Attorneys can obtain fair compensation through a couple channels, including a settlement and trial verdict. However you and your lawyer decide to pursue fair compensation, your lawyer will demand fair coverage for:
- All medical costs related to the brain injury, including all necessary emergency care, surgery, imaging, and rehabilitation
- The pain and suffering you’ve endured because of the brain injury
- Any lost income and other professional harm related to the TBI
- Any mental health services you decide that you need
Brain injuries cause both economic and non-economic harm. Expect your lawyer to account for all damages caused by the injury and the people responsible for that injury.
Hiring a Brain Injury Lawyer Requires Urgency
Your brain injury case has to be a priority. Your personal injury lawyer will need to prove fault, and evidence of fault may not be available indefinitely. Your legal team will likely also face a deadline for filing a lawsuit on your behalf.
Scour the internet and find the right attorney for your case. Free consultation can serve as a chance for lawyers to audition for you, so take advantage.