Brain Injury Settlements Arizona: What Accident Victims Need to Know

Brain injury settlements can be some of the most extreme cases. They can deal with severe and permanent damage that make calculating average settlement costs difficult.

If you’ve suffered a brain injury like this, it’s important you understand what these injuries look like, how to navigate settlement amounts, the types of damages available, and what makes these cases unique.

Understanding Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries are injuries caused by an outside force that disrupts normal mental function. Knowing this, it’s not hard to understand how an auto accident can be responsible for such traumatic injuries.

One of the challenges of these injuries is that their effects aren’t always immediately noticeable. A victim may appear physically unharmed after an auto accident, then traumatic brain injury symptoms may develop hours or days later.

These traumatic brain injury symptoms may manifest as memory issues, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, or headaches. At their most drastic, traumatic brain injuries can cause permanent changes in mood or personality.

More than 1,700 Arizona residents die from traumatic brain injuries every year, and more than 8,000 were hospitalized because of these injuries. 13% of these injuries are caused by motor vehicle accidents. If you’ve been a victim of such an accident, you need to understand what’s behind the settlements for these accidents.

Average Settlement for Traumatic Brain Injury

As with many motor vehicle accidents, when it comes to brain injury settlements, there is no ‘average.’ While brain injuries can be some of the worst consequences a person can suffer from an accident, that’s not always the case.

Sometimes, a concussion with relatively mild symptoms may appear, then go away in a short amount of time. In other brain injury cases, irreparable damage is done to the victim, requiring extensive medical care and resulting in lifelong disability and reduced earning capacity.

When attempting to calculate a mild traumatic brain injury settlement, the following factors are at play:

• The severity and persistence of the injury
• The victim’s age
• Medical expenses incurred
• Future medical and rehabilitation required
• Necessary adjustments to car or home
• Lost wages for treatment and future reduced earning ability
• Pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life

The interplay of these factors is one of the reasons it’s so important to hire an expert law firm with a history of procuring settlements for victims of car accidents. These traumatic brain injury attorneys can help you understand your case and what compensation you can realistically expect to receive.

It’s almost impossible to accurately compare your mild traumatic brain case to anyone else’s. An expert can help you organize the information present and determine what sort of settlement they can get for your TBI case.

Types of Damages Available in Traumatic Brain Injury Cases

Traumatic brain injury cases often involve two kinds of damages: economic and non-economic. Economic damages for an injury include:

• Property damage
• Medical bills
• Future medical expenses
• Lost income
• Reduced earning capacity

This short list can be deceptive, however, as each line can expand into a long list of costs. For example, medical expenses can include hospitalization, x-rays, cat scans, surgery, physical therapy, speech therapy, prescription medication, and home renovation to make living quarters accessible to the victim.

Non-economic damages are much harder to calculate, but can add significantly to brain injury settlements. These accident injuries can profoundly affect independence, memory, personal relationships, and emotional wellbeing for years.

Non-economic damages brain injury victims suffer include:

• Pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Emotional distress

For both types of damages, expert testimony from neurologists and rehabilitation specialists may be needed to demonstrate the full spectrum of financial impact a brain injury may have on a victim.

Why Traumatic Brain Injury Cases Are Unique

Brain injuries are unique because they can change and worsen over time. A victim may seem to recover quickly after an accident, then later struggle with issues related to memory or fatigue. Furthermore, such injuries can affect the way a victim’s brain ages, further changing their functionality far into the future.

Traumatic brain injuries are also unusual in their persistence. A broken limb can have a profound impact on a person’s life, but victims are often able to return to the same career or work in the field in which they are trained.

Brain injuries might require decades of medical treatment and leave the sufferer incapable of returning not only to their specific job, but any job related to their expertise. This is part of why the age of the victim can be relevant to settlement amounts, as lawyers may have to account for the remaining years of their life when calculating injury damages.

Why Insurance Companies Challenge Brain Injury Claims

Insurance companies always seek to pay as little in damages as possible. Because serious brain injuries can result in significant compensation, these head injury claims can be heavily scrutinized.

As stated above, traumatic brain injury cases are unique because they can initially be invisible. Even quality diagnostic imaging may not show the full extent of damage the way it might for something like a broken bone. Cognitive impairment and its costs might only be fully revealed later, leading to insurance companies challenging injury claims.

Adjusters may argue that symptoms predate the accident or question a lawyer’s conclusion about the future of the victim’s capability. Insurance companies may also argue for lower compensation as they contend the victim’s estimated medical requirements and reduced earning capacity.

These factors are all reasons victims of car accidents who may have suffered brain injuries need to hire experts to represent them.

Protection Yourself After Injury

A traumatic brain injury can change your life. Your health, career, family, and finances may be impacted for decades, and it may be very challenging to convince insurers of this fact. Most brain injury cases are too complicated to face alone.

The experts at Gage Mathers can make sure you have professionals in your corner, ready to fight insurance companies and make sure your injuries are taken seriously and every cost is calculated. When it comes to car accidents, the only settlement that matters is the one you deserve.

Reach out today and let us help you get the compensation you need to care for your injuries and live the best life possible.