Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries
IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE WAS INJURED IN AN ACCIDENT |
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| WHAT TO DO IF YOUR BRAIN INJURY WAS CAUSED MALICIOUSLY | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FAQ’s – Traumatic Brain Injury | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injuries happen far too frequently in Washington, and no one can predict when an accident may occur that leaves you or a loved one dealing with long-term and permanent difficulties. If a brain injury is the result of someone else’s negligence or vicious action, you need the help of a knowledgeable, experienced, and aggressive personal injury attorney.
Premier Law Group’s experienced and aggressive personal injury attorneys have years of experience successfully representing people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries due to someone else’s negligence. We have won millions of dollars for our past clients, and we will do whatever we can to help you recover the maximum possible compensation.
If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury, Premier Law Group can help you no matter where you are in Washington State. We routinely make home and hospital visits. We truly go the extra mile for our clients and we believe our experience, past results, and personal attention make us different from most other Washington attorneys.
Call us today for a free consultation and case evaluation. If we handle your case, you pay absolutely no legal fees unless we win. Premier Law Group is here to make a difference in your life.
IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE WAS INJURED IN AN ACCIDENT
If you are injured in an accident, you must keep two very important goals in mind:
1. You want to increase your chances of a complete recovery from your injury by getting the best medical care possible.
2. You want to recover the most money possible to pay for all your medical care, loss of income, and pain and suffering.
To achieve both of these goals, you have certain duties. There are certain steps that you should take. Your doctor and lawyer can only achieve the best results with your cooperation. The best doctor and the best lawyer in the world will not achieve the maximum result possible unless you take the following steps. So pay very close attention and read this until you have mastered it.
Report complaints thoroughly
Every time you see a doctor, be as thorough as it is possible for you to be. One of the challenges of a brain injury is the fact that memory is often impaired. The ability to communicate can be severely limited.
If you are the loved one of someone who has been injured, you are in a position to be his or her advocate. Begin a journal immediately. Record every detail no matter how insignificant it may seem. In many cases, the victim of a brain injury needs all their energy to deal with the challenges of the brain injury.
Preserve all the evidence
Now is not the time for vanity. Make sure to get photos of wounds, lacerations, bruises, and any other physical evidence that proves you or your loved one were injured. Also, make sure to get photographs of the accident scene immediately. The scene will be cleaned up and most of the evidence will be lost if you don’t act promptly.
Witnesses
When a brain injury is involved, independent witnesses are more likely to make the difference than in any other injury situation. This is because a brain injury victim often has very little memory of the event. It is not unheard of to never recover memories leading up to a traumatic brain injury.
Get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of anybody who witnessed the accident, even if the other person admits at the time that the accident was their fault. Often, the person who caused an accident will change their story later. Having the ability to prove through independent witnesses that an accident happened the way you say it did can be the difference between winning and losing.
Keep a journal
We have mentioned this already, but we want to emphasize this again. Between the day of your accident and the time that you fully recover or your case goes to trial, many important details will be forgotten unless you write them down. If your loved one’s injury has robbed them of the ability to journal, keep a journal from your perspective.
The day that you sat there and tried to balance your checkbook but couldn’t do it yourself because of you couldn’t make sense of the numbers anymore may have faded into the background a significant day in your life. Thanks to your journal that experience may draw a far more compelling picture in the jurors’ minds than any doctor can paint by describing your injury in medical terms.
What do you want to record in the journal? Write your daily experiences, restrictions, and pain in it. Share this information with us so that we may better understand the full extent of your harm. That will enable us to convey it better to the jury or whoever we are settling your case with.
Continue treatment
If you stop going to the doctor for any reason, you make it easy for the jury to assume you were feeling fine and didn’t need any treatment. It will also take longer for you to recover from your injury. Your reasons may seem logical–not having the money, not having a car, not having time, having to go to school, having to take care of the kids, etc. Unfortunately, this logic won’t improve your health, and it will destroy your case. Consistent treatment proves the ongoing nature of your pain and suffering.
If a certain type of treatment is not helping you, talk to your doctor or to us about other methods of treatment. Do not sit and wait for your doctor to refer you out to another specialist. It is quite common for a doctor to have difficulty admitting that his treatment plan isn’t working for you. With a traumatic brain injury, many treatment plans may have to be tried before the right one for your specific injury is found.
As long as your symptoms still exist, you need to consistently see your doctor and medical providers. If no treatment has proven helpful, only show up once a month and tell your doctor about your complaints. Ultimately, the main proof of your injury will be the visit to your doctor’s office.
See the right doctor
If you suffer from a traumatic brain injury, you need to be under the care of a neurologist. Any other physician is not qualified to diagnose and treat brain injuries.
As your treatment plan progresses, you may work with a neuro-psychologist, psychologist, or psychiatrist whose skills can help you deal with the anxiety, depression, withdrawal, fear, phobias, and other behavioral and mood related symptoms that often occur after a traumatic brain injury.
It can hurt your case if you undergo any unnecessary treatment or examinations. Make sure that you are going to the right doctor and that the treatments are doctor approved for your condition. You don’t want to undermine the legitimacy of your claim or end up with unnecessary medical bills that are not compensable.
Talk to an attorney
If you follow these steps, you provide us with all the tools necessary to obtain the absolute maximum recovery possible. At Premier Law Group, we believe you deserve the best outcome. Our attorneys fight aggressively for your rights. If you think that you have a claim, call us today.
WHAT TO DO IF YOUR BRAIN INJURY WAS CAUSED MALICIOUSLY
If a brain injury is caused maliciously, you will have claims in both criminal and civil courts. The attorneys at Premier Law Group do not handle criminal law. What we can do is pursue your civil case.
Complete the steps required for an accident
Follow all the steps we outlined for a traumatic brain injury caused by an accident.
Get police reports
Now, you want to collect some extra information to support your case. Get copies of any police reports that relate to the situation. This will confirm that an injury was inflicted and many details about its apparent extent right at the scene of the crime.
BRAIN INJURY FAQs
Q. WHY DO I NEED AN ATTORNEY IF I HAVE SUFFERED A BRAIN INJURY?
A. For several reasons:
1. Pursuing recovery for injuries is a complicated legal process which requires the expertise and experience of a highly trained injury attorney. Many rules and strategies take years for an attorney to learn and acquire. Therefore, do not ever attempt to handle your legal case on your own. Your recovery will generally be substantially higher, even after all the costs and fees that you incur in hiring legal representation are subtracted.
2. When you have an attorney, you often can seek medical treatment for your injuries through the most competent doctors at no upfront cost. Knowing an attorney has taken your case, will give doctors the security that their bills will be paid once the case settles. This is especially important to those who have no PIP (personal injury protection) or health insurance and cannot afford to pay for the cost of the medical treatment needed.
3. Only an experienced lawyer can assess the value of your case after learning the full nature and extent of your injuries, the value of your claim for pain and suffering, and the cost of future treatment and rehabilitation. Chances are, without an attorney, you will settle your case for much less than it is really worth.
4. Most importantly, you need an attorney because the insurance company will offer you very little money for your injury. Only a competent, aggressive, and experienced lawyer has the means, the knowledge, and the ability to sue the insurance companies and force them to give you the appropriate settlement that you are entitled to. Insurance companies have a duty to protect and defend their own insured (the person who caused the accident). No matter how friendly they appear, the insurance company representatives are not your friends. They have a duty to act in the best interest of their shareholders by saving money. You need someone on your side who has your best interest in mind.
5. Lastly, when you have a lawyer, you don’t deal with any of the hassle, paperwork, headache and worry of dealing with insurance companies. You just sit back, knowing a skilled, competent, experienced lawyer who has your best interest in mind is going to handle your case and deal with the headache.
Q. WHAT IS TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY?
A. Traumatic brain injury results when the head is injured in a forceful way. This can be from the head striking an object, or from a foreign object penetrating the skill. The type of injury sustained can vary considerably. Some injuries affect only one region of the brain. Other injuries are more extensive, involving multiple regions in the brain. The resulting injury may leave permanent damage, though the brain is very adaptable and recovery may occur under proper treatment. Sometimes a traumatic brain injury can result even when the head doesn’t strike anything. The injury is caused by the brain striking the interior of the skull when there is a whiplash type movement.
Q. SHOULD I LET THE INSURANCE COMPANY TAKE MY RECORDED STATEMENT?
A. No. Absolutely not, especially in the case of a traumatic brain injury. No insurance company is on your side…ever…even your own. They are only trying to find an excuse to get away with paying you very little or not paying you at all. Statements made while your brain isn’t functioning at par, could be used against you. Sometimes, you have to provide your own insurance company with a recorded statement because your policy requires it. In that scenario, you should consult with your attorney who will prepare you for the statement.
Q. AM I ENTITLED TO GET MONEY FOR THE TIME I LOST FROM WORK AS A RESULT OF MY BRAIN INJURY?
A. Absolutely. You must first prove that a brain injury occurred and discuss with your physician the nature of your work. If the physician agrees that you will not be able to perform your work as a result of your injuries, and instructs you to take off from work for a certain period of time, you will be entitled to get all the money that you would have earned if you had gone to work in that period of time (even if you wind up getting paid by using sick leave or vacation time). Furthermore, you are entitled to be compensated for loss of income capacity if you are no longer able to perform the same occupation as prior to the injury (i.e. income you would have been able to earn had you not been injured that you are now unable to earn).
Q. HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO PAY TO HIRE AN ATTORNEY?
A. Nothing. You don’t have to pay anything upfront. You hire us on a contingency basis, which means we don’t charge you anything unless we win your case. We even pay for all of the expenses associated with your case out of our own pocket. Also, if for any reason we don’t recover any money (for example if we find out later that the party at fault has no insurance), we still don’t charge you anything. However, when your case settles, we take a percentage of the settlement for our fees and costs. This percentage depends on whether your case resolves before litigation or after trial. Please note, however, that in Washington the law requires that the client ultimately be responsible for reimbursing an attorney for costs advanced, even if the case is unsuccessful. Please contact us so that we can explain how this would work in your case.
Q. CAN I CHANGE MY LAWYERS IF I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THEM? HOW MUCH IS THAT GOING TO COST ME?
A. Fortunately, you can change your lawyer anytime at absolutely no cost to you. All you have to do is call us and let us know. We will immediately send a letter to your former attorney. As soon as they receive our letter, by law they are immediately obligated to forward your file to our office. Also, they are forbidden to contact you. You are not even required to inform them of your decision. Of course, if they have done substantial work in your case, they are entitled to get a portion of our fees for their contribution. This will only affect our fees and will not change your recovery.
Q. HOW MUCH IS MY CASE WORTH?
A. Only an experienced attorney can put a dollar value on your case and that is only after you have been examined by specialized physicians and the full nature and extent of your injuries are precisely determined and the cost of your present and future medical treatments are known. Furthermore, there are other factors that determine the value of your case such as, recent jury verdicts on similar cases in your area, the credibility of all parties involved, the length of time, the frequency, and the intensity of your pain and suffering, etc.
Q. WHAT IS MEANT BY A CAP ON DAMAGES?
A. A cap is the top award for certain types of damages that a state allows. The Washington State Supreme Court ruled that a ceiling on non-economic damages, commonly known as pain and suffering, is not constitutional.
Q. WHAT IS A STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS?
A. A statute of limitations creates a cut-off date after which a suit can no longer be filed.
Q. WHAT IS THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES IN WASHINGTON STATE?
A. In general, an action must be filed within three years of the act that is alleged to have caused the injury. Because there are circumstances that can alter the statute of limitations, it is crucial to speak with an experienced attorney as soon as possible.
