Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are life-changing injuries that can permanently impact a person’s cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physical abilities. In many cases, individuals with a TBI also experience significant challenges beyond the condition itself, such as enduring hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses, the need for long-term or even lifelong medical assistance, and difficulty finding work due to the disability.
While a person can sustain a traumatic brain injury in a variety of ways, they primarily derive from a sudden blow to the head or whiplash. As a result, car accidents are one of the most common causes of catastrophic and severe cases of TBI.
Unfortunately, many individuals who develop a catastrophic TBI from a car accident often face difficulty and resistance when they attempt to recover fair compensation for the hardships they’ve endured at the hands of a negligent driver. Below is an overview of how these types of accidents occur and the steps you can take to protect your rights and legal options.
How Car Accidents Cause Traumatic Brain Injuries
Car accidents are one of the leading causes of TBIs because the force of a crash can cause a person’s head to move suddenly and violently. In many cases, these injuries occur when a driver or passenger’s head strikes the steering wheel, dashboard, window, or another object inside the vehicle.
Even without a direct blow, however, the impact of a collision can cause the brain to shift inside the skull. When this happens, the brain can strike the inside of the skull or be injured by the sudden jolt of the crash. This can lead to serious damage, including bleeding in or around the brain, swelling, or tearing of brain tissue.
TBIs are especially common in high-speed collisions, rollovers, and other severe crashes where the force of impact is most significant.
Catastrophic Traumatic Brain Injuries and Their Long-Term Impact
Not every TBI is considered a catastrophic injury. Catastrophic injuries are a specific category of injuries that are defined by long-term or permanent physical and cognitive disability. A person who is burdened by a catastrophic TBI will typically experience severely limiting mobility and coordination issues, memory loss, and emotional and behavioral changes, such as personality shifts, depression, and anxiety. As a result of the catastrophic TBI, they often require long-term medical care and may be unable to work or care for themselves or their families.
What Are Your Legal Options After a Brain Injury From a Car Accident?
Even though they are typically referred to as “accidents,” car crashes are rarely unavoidable or random events. At the heart of most collisions, there is usually some form of negligence that contributed to or caused it to take place. Some of the most common types of negligent actions that lead to a crash include:
- Distracted driving, including texting, cellphone use, or engaging in conversation
- Speeding or aggressive driving, such as tailgating or swerving between lanes
- Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Failure to yield or obey traffic signals and signs
This matters because when someone else’s negligence causes you harm, you have the right to file a personal injury claim against them and potentially recover compensation for the losses you’ve suffered as a result of your injuries. In car accident cases, this compensation typically comes from the at-fault driver’s auto liability insurance.
Types of Compensation Available in a Brain Injury Claim
When it comes to TBI personal injury cases, most victims suffer extensive life-changing difficulties that go well beyond the cost of the initial treatment. The types of compensation you can pursue in a claim depend on how the injury has affected your life; however, some of the most common damages in brain injury claims include:
- Medical expenses such as hospital stays, surgeries, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and prescription medications
- Long-term care, assistive devices, or home modifications
- Lost wages and loss of future earning capacity, with consideration to inflation and potential for promotions or wage increases
- Pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life
In some situations, family members may also be eligible to recover additional damages for the suffering that they’ve endured due to their loved one’s TBI. This may include loss of companionship, financial support, or the inability to work regularly due to working long hours to provide care and support to their injured family member.
Why Catastrophic Traumatic Brain Injury Cases Need Experienced Legal Representation
After a serious car accident, many people assume they can simply file a claim and receive compensation for their injuries. In reality, the process is more complicated. In most cases, compensation is not paid directly by the at-fault driver but through their auto insurance company. To recover damages, you must first show that another party was legally responsible for the crash.
This means you must prove that the other driver acted carelessly (for example, by speeding, driving distracted, or failing to follow traffic laws) and that their actions caused the accident and your injuries. Without clear evidence of fault, an insurance company is unlikely to offer a fair settlement, regardless of how serious the injury may be.
Catastrophic traumatic brain injury cases add another layer of complexity. These claims are not just about current medical bills. They often involve long-term and permanent effects that can impact a person’s ability to work, care for themselves, and function day to day. Accurately measuring these future losses resulting from the TBI is highly complex and often disputed, especially because insurance companies tend to challenge predictions about long-term care needs, cognitive decline, and reduced earning capacity. As a result, the true value of these claims is frequently underestimated.
Building a strong case involves gathering detailed evidence, including medical records, accident reports, and witness statements, as well as working with experts who can explain how the injury occurred and what its long-term impact will be. All this is often too much for individuals and families to handle on their own, especially when dealing with a severe injury.
A traumatic brain injury lawyer can handle every part of this process. This includes investigating the accident, gathering and organizing evidence, working with medical and financial experts, and dealing directly with the insurance company. In short, an experienced attorney can fight back against unfair insurance tactics and give brain injury victims a much stronger chance of recovering full compensation.
If You or a Loved One Suffered a Life-Changing Injury, Contact Power Rogers
As anyone who has suffered a catastrophic TBI or supported a loved one with a TBI knows, these conditions have the capacity to affect a person’s life in practically every possible way. Apart from the initial trauma of the accident, individuals who live with TBI may also struggle with cognition, caring and providing for themselves and their families, and managing the burden of medical expenses, which don’t simply end after initial care.
For over 30 years, Power Rogers has helped victims of negligence across Illinois pursue full and fair compensation for their injuries. Our Chicago brain injury lawyers are skilled negotiators and have helped recover billions on behalf of our clients. To learn more about your legal options and how Power Rogers can help, we encourage you to contact us for a free consultation.
