Louisville Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly two million Americans sustain traumatic brain injuries every year. Tragically, many of these catastrophic injuries are preventable and are the result of another person’s negligence.

If you or someone you love has suffered a brain injury in a motor vehicle accident, slip and fall, or other personal injury event caused by someone else, you deserve fair compensation. Unfortunately, brain injury cases tend to be some of the most complex and challenging, due to the difficulty of proving symptoms, misconceptions about the science, and other factors.

The Louisville attorneys at the Karl Truman Law Office have extensive experience helping brain injury victims and their families from the Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana, areas recover the financial peace of mind they need when the carelessness of someone else results in harm. For a free consultation, please call (502) 222-2222 or toll-free at 812-282-8500 today.

Traumatic Brain Injury Victims Often Face Legal Obstacles

Brain injury cases are some of the most challenging to litigate. Getting fair compensation for your traumatic brain injury claim—particularly in the case of a mild traumatic brain injuries—will likely require extensive evidence and preparation. There are many reasons why this is the case, including:

• Mild TBIs often go undiagnosed. Many people who suffer a mild TBI or concussion don’t realize it, and don’t seek medical attention right away. But even if you do seek care, emergency departments frequently miss the early signs of a mild TBI, particularly if you have other injuries that require more urgent treatment.
• TBIs are often difficult to prove. Conventional brain scans usually show up normal for a mild TBI, since the damage is too microscopic for an MRI or CT scan to detect. With no “objective” imaging or testing, insurance companies and jurors must rely on the victim’s self-reported symptoms and the word of physicians, friends, co-workers, and others who provided care or knew the victim both before and after the injury. Furthermore, a person suffering from post-concussion syndrome may seem “normal” to an outsider, even though they may be suffering from severe pain, emotional and cognitive effects, or behavioral changes. A typical traumatic brain injury lawsuit requires substantially more medical evidence and witness testimony than most other types of injuries.
• Damages can be tough to calculate. How do you put a price tag on constant anxiety? Embarrassment about forgetting names or faces? Feeling distant and alienated from close friends and loved ones who are important to you? Getting fair compensation for these non-economic, yet very real, damages requires careful, thorough accounting and articulation of what you’ve truly lost.

An Experienced Brain Injury Lawyer Can Help

If you or a loved one are dealing with the effects of a brain injury caused by someone else’s negligence, you don’t have to face an uncertain future alone. The Louisville brain injury attorneys at Karl Truman Law Office can help.

We understand the specific legal challenges associated with winning a traumatic brain injury claim, and we believe you deserve the best legal representation possible. Our brain injury attorneys can help by:

• Ensuring you get high-quality medical care
• Knowing what kind of medical evidence and testing you’ll need to prove your injury
• Getting as many statements as needed from friends, family, colleagues, and others who can speak credibly about the impact your brain injury has had on your daily life
• Working with experts—including doctors, neurologists, life care planners, and more—to provide an accurate picture of your long-term prognosis, future medical bills, future wage losses, and non-economic losses
• Knowing how to counter the tricks and tactics insurance companies use to reduce or deny coverage after a car accident or other personal injury.
• Handling all aspects of your legal case, including negotiating with the insurance company on your behalf, so that you can focus on you and your loved one’s health and recovery

TBI Essentials That Everyone Should Know

What Causes Most Brain Injuries?

Any impact that jars the brain can cause a brain injury. This can include both penetrating brain injuries (in which a foreign object pierces the skull and damages the brain directly) or a closed head injury.

The brain floats freely inside the skull, protected by a layer of fluid. A hard impact, or even a violent whipping or rotation motion to the head, can cause the brain to slam into the inside of the skull, leading to bruising, bleeding, or tearing of brain tissue and nerves.

Brain injuries occur commonly as a result of motor vehicle accidents, but they can also occur in slip-and-fall accidents or on the athletic field. The lawyers at the Karl Truman Law Office are dedicated to representing those who suffered brain injuries due to:

• Car accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Tractor-trailer accidents
• Pedestrian and bicycle accidents
• Workplace accidents

What Are the Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injuries?

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are usually diagnosed as mild, moderate, or severe, based on severity of symptoms in the first few hours to days after the injury.

• Mild traumatic brain injury. A person who suffers a mild TBI will often experience headaches, nausea, confusion, fatigue, dizziness, sensory problems (blurred vision, light sensitivity, etc.) after the accident. They may have lost consciousness for up to 30 minutes. Brain scans via MRI or CT are typically normal.
• Moderate traumatic brain injury. Symptoms are more severe and may include seizures or convulsions and profound confusion, agitation, or slurred speech. Injured individuals may experience loss of consciousness for up to 24 hours, and some post-traumatic amnesia for up to a week. Brain scans may be normal, but often are not.
• Severe traumatic brain injury. Most people with severe brain injuries will be in a coma for at least 24 hours, and suffer from profound physical, emotional, and behavioral impairments.

Do All Brain Injuries Show Up on an MRI?

Mild traumatic brain injuries often involve microscopic damage to brain tissues and nerves. Many MRI and CT machines cannot pick up these subtle injuries—and ER doctors are usually looking for catastrophic damage, like bleeding on the brain.

This is a challenge when someone with a mild brain injury tries to file a personal injury claim. Concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries can cause severe headaches, memory problems, and even mood changes. However, the insurance company might argue that because your MRI is “within normal limits,” you don’t have a problem.

Our TBI lawyers can work closely with your doctors and other medical experts to document your brain injury and its symptoms—and get you the compensation you deserve.

What Is Post-Concussion Syndrome?

Most people with a mild traumatic brain injury will recover within weeks to months. However, a substantial minority of people will develop chronic post-concussive symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, memory and concentration problems, cognitive problems, sleep disorders, mood changes, and more.

These symptoms can be painful, disorienting, disabling, and in some cases life-long. And they can occur in anyone who suffers a brain injury—even those who are diagnosed with “only” a mild TBI and never lost consciousness. This is why the mild, moderate, severe classification system can be misleading. Just because your TBI is classified as “mild” doesn’t mean it isn’t a serious brain injury.

What Are the Costs of a Brain Injury?

The CDC estimates that the cost of caring for a typical survivor of brain injury is $600,000 to $1,875,000 over the course of a lifetime. This cost does not even include immediate medical care, nor does it consider lost wages if you are unable to work.

Perhaps most importantly, it also doesn’t include the severe physical, mental, and emotional pain that can come with living with a brain injury. These are important, life-changing damages to factor into any calculation of full and fair compensation, even though they might be “non-economic” in nature.

After a TBI, Count on the Colonel

If you or a family member sustained a brain injury due to another’s negligence, please contact the Karl Truman Law Office online or call us locally at (502) 222-2222 or toll-free at 812-282-8500 for your free consultation. Our personal injury attorneys welcome clients from the greater Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana, areas.

The content provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject.