Philadelphia Brain Injuries Lawyer

This question prompts a range of answers, because people can suffer a TBI in a wide range of circumstances.

As a general matter, we say a person has legal liability for causing someone’s injury if that person’s unreasonably dangerous decisions or actions caused the accident or incident in which the other person suffered harm.

Here are three common scenarios in which people may suffer a TBI, and the individuals or entities who might have legal liability to them:

• TBIs in motor vehicle accidents. Drivers owe each other a duty of care to operate their vehicles in a safe and responsible manner. Someone who causes a crash by driving recklessly breaches that duty of care and may have liability to any injured accident victims. Likewise, auto manufacturers have a legal duty not to sell unreasonably dangerous products, and might have liability to a crash victim if a defective car part played a role in causing the accident.
• TBIs in accidental falls. Property owners generally must take reasonable steps to keep visitors to their properties safe from harm. They could face liability for a TBI if, say, they failed to warn visitors about and/or fix a dangerous condition (like a slippery tile floor, or a loose railing in a stairwell).
• TBIs at nursing homes. Elderly people run a particularly high risk of suffering a TBI in a fall. If nursing home staff fail to monitor residents and a resident takes a tumble as a result, then the nursing home operator might face liability for the resident’s injuries.
• TBIs in youth sports. Athletics contribute to a significant number of traumatic brain injuries for young people. Coaches, refs, sports leagues, and school athletic departments that fail to implement concussion protocols and other protections against head injuries may face liability for brain trauma suffered by a youth athlete.

Talk to our experienced Philadelphia brain injury lawyers today to explore who might have legal liability for your brain injury.

If someone has legal liability to you for your TBI, then they may owe you money damages. How much money they might have a legal obligation to pay you will vary based on the circumstances of your injury.

Also, how much money they have the ability to pay you may vary significantly from what the law says you ought to receive. Speak with an experienced Philadelphia brain injury lawyer to discuss the potential range of damages available in your case.

Generally speaking, in a legal action seeking financial compensation for a TBI, the injured person can seek payment for:

• Medical and other expenses. Recovering from a traumatic brain injury can come at an extremely steep medical cost. TBI victims frequently need emergency medical attention. A severe injury might require a long hospital stay. Doctors may also prescribe medication to control symptoms, and extended course of therapy to help the TBI victim cope with, adapt to, and/or overcome the impairments and deficits brought-on by the brain injury. In addition to medical expenses, a TBI can leave a victim and the victim’s family needing extra help with daily activities, at least for a while, and sometimes for the rest of the victim’s life. The expense of living with a TBI often involves paying for services to perform tasks that the injury prevents the victim from doing on his or her own.
• Lost income and wages. Many complications associated with traumatic brain injuries can lead to substantial difficulties and limitations at work. Volatile emotions, for example, may interfere with an individual’s ability to interact with customers. Cognitive impairments may limit a person’s capacity to keep up with creative responsibilities or to focus and concentrate on job duties. Employers may have a legal obligation to make accommodations for brain-injured employees, but in some cases, TBI survivors may struggle to work in their prior job position even with modifications. Any change in an ability to work comes with a loss of income and earning capacity that can inflict severe financial strain.
• Pain, suffering, and diminished quality of life. Life can change drastically, and for the worse, after suffering a TBI. Recovery from a brain injury rarely follows a straight-line path. Victims and their families often endure setbacks and frustrations that cause strain and upset. Relationships can suffer. Victims can fall into depression. Though these difficulties do not come with a price tag attached to them, they are no less real than the out-of-pocket costs that a TBI can impose.

It is possible that not wearing head protection could affect your rights. However, do not let that keep you from speaking with an experienced Philadelphia brain injury attorney.

Helmets, hard hats, and other gear can reduce your risk of suffering a TBI. We strongly encourage all of our readers to wear helmets while riding motorcycles and bikes, for instance, and to follow hard hat rules on construction sites.

Head protection cannot eliminate TBI risk, however, and of course, sometimes people sustain a TBI in circumstances in which no one would reasonably expect them to wear a helmet or similar gear.

In some cases, your lack of headgear may not change your rights at all. In other cases, it may have some impact on the amount of compensation you can receive (if, for example, the injury you suffered was made worse by your decision not to wear protection).

However, no one deserves to get injured because of someone else’s wrongful actions, or while doing their job. Accordingly, you have a good chance to recover compensation for your TBI even if you should have worn a helmet/hard hat, but didn’t.

Maybe. As a Philadelphia construction worker, you likely have the right to receive workers’ compensation benefits to pay for medical and disability-related costs of your injury.

Those benefits typically take the place of a personal injury claim against your employer (if, say, your employer’s dangerous safety practices led to you getting hurt).

However, you may yet have legal rights against someone other than your employer for your injuries. Sometimes, for example, a construction site injury happens because some third party—such as an equipment manufacturer, or another contractor on the job site—acted carelessly or recklessly.

In those cases, you may have the ability to sue that third party for damages related to your TBI, even if you have already received workers’ comp benefits.

Talk to an experienced Philadelphia brain injury attorney today to learn about your potential rights as an injured construction worker.

Not without speaking with our experienced Philadelphia brain injury attorneys first.

Insurance companies that issued policies to the individual or entity with legal liability for your TBI may contact you and offer you a quick settlement of your claim. They may even characterize this offer as a kindness to you, to help you through a difficult time.

View these offers with extreme caution. Unfortunately, out-of-the-blue settlement offers rarely reflect the full value of the compensation you deserve for your TBI. Insurers offer quick money in hopes you will jump at it before realizing it does not begin to provide you with the financial resources you will need over the long term.

Accepting any settlement offer means giving up your legal rights to take legal action against the party with liability to you. Do not let go of those rights on-the-cheap.

Instead, leave any negotiation with someone else’s insurance company to an experienced Philadelphia brain injury lawyer with the skill and experience to calculate the full amount of damages you should receive for your TBI.

It depends on many factors, few of which you control. Sometimes it has taken our firm just a month or two to negotiate a fair and reasonable settlement for a client with a brain injury. In other matters, negotiations have stretched beyond a year.

Plus, of course, some cases do not settle at all. Instead, we have to go to court to try to obtain an award from a Philadelphia jury.

As a general matter, the factors that can affect how long it takes to resolve a legal claim for damages resulting from a brain injury include:

• The amount of money involved. It is not always the case, but generally it can take longer to resolve high-dollar-value claims than claims for lesser amounts.
• The number of parties involved. The saying “too many cooks in the kitchen” can also apply to negotiations over the resolution of a legal claim. The more individuals or entities with potential liability for your injury, the longer it may take to reach an agreement with them.
• The complexity of your injury. Your medical team and lawyer may need time to evaluate the scope of your injury and your financial needs for recovering from and/or adapting to it.
• How long you can hold out. A TBI can put a serious financial strain on victims and their families. They may feel pressure to resolve any potential legal claim for damages quickly, just to stay afloat. If they can hold out financially, however, it may take longer to resolve their claim, but they may recover more compensation, too. While we work on your case, however, our Philadelphia brain injury lawyers can help you keep bill collectors and collection agents at bay.