The average settlement for traumatic brain injury will depend on various factors, such as the type of accident and the long-term effects of the injury on your life. Injury to the brain caused by trauma is a serious and life-threatening injury. A TBI is one of the most dangerous wounds that accident victims can receive. In addition to having a detrimental impact on a person’s lifestyle, the medical expenses incurred while receiving treatment might put someone in financial trouble.
Fortunately, a TBI victim can obtain monetary damages with the aid of a Reno personal injury lawyer.
Traumatic Brain Injury Definition
Traumatic brain injury and head injury are not the same things. Any head injury that only affects the skull and doesn’t reach the brain is the latter. However, a traumatic brain injury, as the name implies, is an injury to the brain. It occurs when the brain is physically harmed.
Per Johns Hopkins Hospital, traumatic brain injuries are one of the most frequent reasons for disability and mortality in adults. Any brain damage is referred to as a TBI under the general heading. The injury might affect multiple areas of the brain or just one. Additionally, this injury’s severity can range from minor—like a concussion—to deadly—like a rip or bleeding that puts a person in a coma or kills them. Even minor brain injuries can lead to major problems.
Traumatic Brain Injury Types
Typically, traumatic brain injuries fall into one of two categories of trauma – closed-head injuries and open-head injuries.
Closed Head Injury occurs when there is non-penetrating brain damage but no skull fracture. It happens when the brain shakes and moves around quickly inside the bony skull, damaging and rupturing blood vessels and sensitive brain tissue. Closed brain injuries are frequent in sports, falls, and commercial vehicle wrecks. This damage can also result from shaking an infant (shaken infant syndrome).
Open Brain Injury develops when the skull is broken, as in the case of a gunshot to the head.
What Are the Effects of TBIs?
Traumatic brain injuries may cause ranging symptoms and effects based on factors such as how severe, moderate, or mild the injury is. Some of the most common symptoms include headache, queasiness or diarrhea, fatigue, difficulty paying attention, sensitivity to sound and light, and seizures or convulsions.
In addition to these common systems, a traumatic brain injury may cause any of the following defects:
- Cognitive impairment (e.g., confusion, coma, memory difficulty, shortened attention span, amnesia, decreased understanding of self and other people, etc.)
- Motor limitations (e.g., immobility or frailty, poor coordination, reduced endurance, tremors, spasticity, etc.)
- Impairments in perception or feeling (e.g., vision issues, changes in hearing, eyesight, taste, smell, communication, loss of feeling or heightened senses in parts of the body, etc.)
- Deficits in language and communication (e.g., agraphia, apraxia, alexia, aphasia, etc.)
- Functional limitations
- Behavioral-related issues, or changes in psychiatry or personality
With the correct medical attention and enough rest, a moderate TBI may go away over time. However, the lasting effects of a traumatic brain injury could leave you permanently disabled.
Long-term rehabilitation or post-injury care may be necessary due to the long-term consequences or permanent damage. An individual may require cognitive, occupational, or physical therapy to regain normal functioning.
What Is the Average Settlement For Traumatic Brain Injury?
There is no average settlement for a traumatic brain injury, since TBI cases vary so significantly. For instance, if your traumatic brain injury caused permanent, severe disability, your case will be worth significantly more than it would be worth if the injury forced you to change your lifestyle and interfered with your ability to work temporarily. The settlement amount could also increase if you sustained other physical injuries in the accident. Cases involving severe, permanent injuries or wrongful death can bring tens of millions in damages; sometimes more.
How Long Does it Take for a TBI Case to Settle?
Personal injury cases are rarely settled right away. In fact, some cases take years to reach a fair settlement agreement. This is especially true in TBI cases involving significant losses for victims. Since the value of these claims is so much higher, insurers will fight harder to avoid paying out. This makes the settlement process take longer.
The debates that your traumatic brain injury attorney will have with the insurance provider center on liability for your accident, and how much pay you ought to receive for your injuries.
Typically, negotiations with the insurance company will go on for as long as the trial does. Once both sides have presented their cases, if an out-of-court settlement agreement has not been reached, the jury will decide on the award amount. The jury’s decision is final and cannot be appealed here. The amount awarded may only be reduced with the presiding judge’s permission.
While six or seven-figure settlements from a traumatic brain injury cases are common, there is no precise average settlement for traumatic brain injury. The extent of the harm, whether a minor brain injury or a severe one, and its impacts on your lifestyle are what matter in these cases.
What Are the Costs of Traumatic Brain Injuries?
TBIs fall under tort or personal injury law. An individual who sustains injuries due to someone else’s negligence is qualified for financial compensation under this law. This compensation frequently includes both economic and non-economic damages, as defined by the law. Examples of losses for which you may seek compensation include medical expenses, income decline, mental suffering, loss of ability to earn, service fees for rehabilitation, and the price of medical supplies or aids.
Punitive damages may be granted to the injured party in a personal injury claim if there is proof of outrageous or grotesque behavior.
The average settlement for traumatic brain injury differs from injury to injury, partly because of the circumstances of each one. Some elements that influence traumatic brain injury lawsuit payouts are below.
Liability
The payout amount would be larger in cases where it is obvious who was to blame for the disaster. When there is disagreement over who is at fault, the defendant is unlikely to make a fair settlement offer. The idea of comparative or contributory negligence in various states also impacts compensation. A victim in a state that uses contributory negligence will not be granted compensation if they are even 1% at blame. In contrast, victims in states with comparative negligence have their payout lowered by the extent of their wrongdoing. Therefore, if your guilt is 20%, you will only receive 80% of the award.
Several Defendants
The settlement amount is impacted if many parties were involved in the initial accident and were each represented by a different insurance company. This is because the amount each defendant should be required to pay would probably become controversial.
The Victim’s Traits
The settlement amount is influenced by the victim’s age, profession, personality, and previous medical history.
The Trial Venue
There are more conservative trail sites than others. Due to this, they might determine a lower settlement amount than jurors in denser urban areas. If the matter goes to court, insurance companies usually keep a lookout for this element.
Defendant’s egregious behavior
Punitive damages are one form of compensation, as was previously indicated. The law created punitive damages to penalize the defendant for egregious behavior; thus, it is not a compensatory judgment. Although you cannot request punitive damages when filing an insurance claim, you could use the potential for punitive damages as leverage when negotiating an insurance settlement.
Reducing Damages
When it is reasonable to do so, the victim must try to minimize or reduce damages. So let’s say you decided to forgo medical care after the injury, and as a result, your injuries got worse. Failure to mitigate would result in a jury or insurance company awarding less money.
What Proof Is Required in a Case of Traumatic Brain Injury?
You must demonstrate that the mishap you were involved in directly caused your TBI, as with all personal injury cases. Therefore, if you were involved in a slip and fall accident, a work-related accident, or an automobile accident, you need to gather proof, such as observer accounts, photographic and visual documentation of the incident, and your medical history.
The final bit of evidence, which demonstrates the severity of the injury, is very important. In a traumatic brain injury case, specific medical proof is required. You may provide records, including diagnosis from a neurologist or emergency department physician, an MRI or CT scan that serves as proof of the wound’s medical condition, or a neuropsychologist examination of cognitive function. You could benefit from having an expert witness testify for you as well.
Additionally, if the damage will necessitate ongoing medical attention, include proof of the associated costs. This typically includes medical supplies, care for the disabled, upcoming surgery, etc.
A TBI attorney can assist you in compiling the necessary evidence and establishing an average settlement for traumatic brain injury in a case like yours.
