Brain Injury Lawyer Orange County
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 176 Americans die due to traumatic brain injuries (TBI) each day. Car accidents are a leading cause of traumatic brain injuries. Brain injury victims can suffer symptoms such as cognitive impairments, memory loss, unusual anger or frustration, sensory issues, fatigue and drowsiness, trouble concentrating, and emotional distress. Medical care and treatment for a traumatic brain injury is costly and often difficult to obtain.
Presenting a brain injury personal injury claim requires having an experienced Orange County brain injury attorney representing the injured person. The injury attorneys at Orange County based Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys have extensive knowledge and experience handling traumatic brain injury cases. Contact us to ensure you recover full compensation for your catastrophic injuries, which includes money for treatment and care as well as the worst harm caused by a brain injury, the loss of enjoyment of your pre-accident life.
Causes Of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries occur when a person suffers a severe blow to the head or the body or a rattling of the brain inside of the skull. The symptoms of a brain injury vary depending upon the severity, force and direction of the blow to the head or movement of the brain. Here are some common causes of traumatic brain injuries:
Falls
Falling from a ladder, down stairs or on a crack in the pavement often results in a person striking their head on the ground and is a common cause of a traumatic brain injury. Slip and fall accidents in public and private property can also cause a brain injury. A property owner may be held responsible for causing a brain injury if they are negligent and allow a dangerous condition to be on their property that causes a slip and fall accident. If you believe that a brain injury you suffered was due to a property owner’s negligence, contact Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys to have experienced slip and fall injury attorneys review your case and evaluate your legal rights.
Vehicular Collisions and Motorcycle Crashes
Car crashes are one of the leading causes of TBIs. A person’s brain can be knocked around during an impact, and though the head is not cut or cracked, the severe jostling of the brain inside the skull can result in a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This can even happen when the head hits the headrest in a rear end collision. Similarly, a motorcyclist who is struck by a truck or car and gets thrown to the ground can suffer a brain injury even while wearing a helmet because the brain is jarred when the helmet impacts the pavement.
Violence from a Battery
When a person is struck in the head by a punch or a thrown object it can cause a brain injury. The person who does this intentionally or negligently can be held criminally liable for battery and civilly liable to pay damages for the brain injury.
Getting Help for Your Brain Injury
Regardless of what causes a traumatic brain injury, the medical bills and the human toll are expensive and debilitating. If you suffered a brain injury because of someone else’s negligence you can make a claim or file a brain injury lawsuit to recover compensation for your losses. You can take the matter to court and ensure that a jury hears your case if the insurance company refuses to pay you the compensation you deserve.
A highly experienced personal injury attorney can help you understand your legal rights and options before deciding how you want to approach the case. They can calculate the total damages you suffered because of the accident, including the medical expenses, lost wages, and earnings you will lose in the future because of a traumatic brain injury. Compensation for a brain injury includes the loss of your social and familial life, and difficulty functioning. Since brain injuries lead to significant and long lasting personal losses, having an attorney knowledgeable in brain injuries is essential to recovering the full damages you’re entitled to.
For an Orange County brain injury lawyer, schedule a free consultation with an attorney at Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys. With integrity and experience we will get you full, fair and complete compensation for your Orange County accident related brian injury.
Complications Associated With Traumatic Brain Injury
Brain injury victims can suffer from a host of complications due to a brain damage that can temporarily, and sometimes permanently, impair living a normal life.
- Severe brain injuries cause altered consciousness and include coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, and brain death. Compensation for this severity of brain injury must include the cost of life-long care which will reach into the millions of dollars.
- Physical symptoms of accident caused brain injuries include seizures, fluid buildup in the brain (called hydrocephalus), infection, damage to blood vessels, headaches, vertigo (spinning sensation) and tinnitus (ringing in the ears). If any specific complication or several complications persist for a long period of time, it is referred to as persistent post-concussive symptoms. Compensation for these symptoms include medical care for treatment and money for the suffering associated with these physical injuries arising from trauma to the brain.
- Diminished mental processing is a real, but often times hard to diagnose, brain injury arising from a traumatic blow to the head. Decision making and memory recall is called executive functioning, and can be impaired when the brain strikes the inside of the skull upon a traumatic impact, resulting in decreased memory, inability to reason, poor judgment, and lack of concentration. Those suffering from impaired executive function caused by a traumatic brain injury have difficulty problem-solving, multi-tasking, organization, planning, and decision-making. Compensation for these brain injury symptoms includes money for psychological and cognitive treatments, money for lost income and money for suffering from decreases in mental sharpness.
- Altered behavior is often a tell-tale sign of a brain injury, and includes irritability, irrational anger, isolation from others, and disassociation from friends and family. Behavioral symptoms greatly impact the family and friends of the person suffering from a traumatic brain injury and these people are best suited to recognize a potential brain injury. Compensation includes money for counseling and for the suffering of not being the same person. Compensation for altered behavior brain injuries can also be sought by spouses of the brain injury victim when the behavioral change is so severe that it affects the marriage.
Choosing the Best Attorney to Recover Compensation For Brain Injury Victims
Serious brain injuries can negatively change a person’s life forever, robbing a person of income, depleting savings for treatment and causing untold suffering in pain and the toll on families.
Recovering compensation for a brain injury allows an injured person to be unburden of the financial stress of treatment and lost income. The attorneys at Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys understand the physical, mental and financial effects a traumatic brain injury can have on a family. But first, it must be determined if a brain injury occurred because often negative imagining or no loss of consciousness leads doctors to initially conclude no brain injury. The attorneys at Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys use their extensive knowledge of brain injuries by talking with family members of an injured person to find out if there are symptoms to suggest that a brain injury has occurred and then help seek medical attention to confirm the existence of a brain injury.
Once we get a brain injury diagnosis from a qualified brain injury specialist, we will present the insurance company with evidence of the injury and the devastating effects it is having on our clients. This may include video testimonials from family members, medical reports and work or school records showing that productivity or grades have dropped after an accident occurred. This helps convince insurance companies to provide settlements that cover lost income, treatment for brain injuries and money for suffering the symptoms and effects of a traumatic brain injury.
Orange County law firm attorneys at Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys will determine the value of a brain injury case and won’t stop pursuing a case until our client gets full and complete compensation for all of their losses and harms. If you have suffered a brain injury in an accident, or you believe your family member has suffered a traumatic brain injury, schedule a consultation with an Orange County attorney knowledgeable in traumatic brain injuries at Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the statute of limitations for brain injuries in California?
Personal Injury Claims: The statute of limitations (deadline) for pursuing a claim for a traumatic brain injury in California is generally two years from the date of the accident, but there are exceptions that SHORTEN the deadline and YOU MUST BE CAREFUL (consult an attorney)!
Those exceptions to the two year rule include:
Medical Malpractice: If the injury was due to medical malpractice the statute of limitations in California is one year from the date of injury. A letter (Notice of Intent to Sue) must be sent to the at-fault medical professional at least 90 days before filing a lawsuit to give him/her warning of your claim)
Injuries Caused by Government: If the injury was caused by a government employee while working, or on government property, then you must file a written claim with the at-fault government within 6 months of the date of injury. This includes ALL government entities such as: cities, school districts, police/fire departments, counties, and the State of California.
If you miss the deadline to file a claim or lawsuit, you will lose the ability to recover any compensation for your injuries. It is VITAL that you contact an attorney immediately after an accident to discuss the statute of limitations.
What is my traumatic brain injury case worth?
The worth of every traumatic brain injury case is different since several variables are involved. Jury Verdict Research shows that when a jury found that a person caused a brain injury, the average personal injury verdict was $1.81 million in California. Contact a Orange County brain injury attorney to review your case and find out how much your case is worth.
Do traumatic brain injuries get worse over time?
In some rare cases the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury can get worse over time. The compensation for lingering or increased symptoms must be included when calculating the proper compensation of a traumatic brain injury case.
How is brain injury severity determined?
Immediately at the scene of a collision, or upon presentation to an ER, medical personnel will perform a series of tests to determine a person’s Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). A score of 15 is the highest and suggests to first responders normal brain activity. The score drops based on impaired responses and altered physical reactions. A 3 is the lowest score and would indicate a person is unconscious.
When there is any indication of head trauma from an accident, even for persons with a 15 GCS, ER doctors will order a CT Scan of the brain to see if there’s any bleeding or swelling.
Even though a person has a high GCS score, or a CT scan indicates no bleeding or swelling, a person can still have a brain injury that results in imperceptible microcosmic changes to the brain that are caused by a coup contrecoup type injury (when the brain is knocked around inside the skull). These type of brain injuries often go undiagnosed except that unexplained behavioral changes, often noted by friends and family, can strongly suggest that a brain injury was suffered. New diagnostic scanning called Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the brain (DTI) looks deeper into the tissues of the brain and can often show physical brain damage that can’t be seen on a CT scan.
The Orange County based attorneys at Roberts | Jeandron Injury Attorneys will determine if a client has suffered an undiagnosed brain injury by facilitating testing and DTI scanning to confirm and document the brain injury in order to ensure an injury victim gets full and complete compensation for their brain injury.
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