Los Angeles Brain Injury Lawyer

A brain injury can be devastating to your life. It can impact your ability to work, your ability to enjoy your favorite leisure activities, even your ability to think and be yourself. The challenges of caring for yourself or a loved one after a brain injury can be simply overwhelming. And the cost can be staggering.

You shouldn’t have to pay these costs if your brain injury was due to the negligence or deliberate misconduct of another person. When someone else is responsible for a brain injury, they should pay for the consequences. At Fisher & Talwar, we represent people who have experienced brain injury or other types of injuries. We understand the legal remedies available to you under California law, and we can help you get the compensation you deserve. Please contact us today for a free initial consultation. You will never pay us unless we get money for you. 

Get Compensation for Brain Injuries

Life after a brain injury can be extremely difficult. Your brain injury might make it hard, if not impossible, to work. You might not be able to perform the household tasks that your family counted on you to do. On top of that, you might have excessive medical and therapy bills. These and other expenses for caregivers might be expected to last the rest of your life.

You can get compensation for all expenses and losses associated with your brain injury, which can include:

• Medical bills
• Rehabilitation therapy
• Psychological therapy
• Lost wages and diminished earning capacity
• Costs related to disability, including:
  • Accommodations, including wheelchair ramps and vehicle modification
  • Equipment to help with disability, including wheelchairs and leg braces
  • Daily caretaking
  • Additional help to replace work you did around the home
• Pain and suffering
• Diminished quality of life

The exact compensation available in your case depends on your circumstances. At Fisher & Talwar, we will take the time to get to know your situation so that we can recommend appropriate compensation in your case. 

Brain Injury Cases Are Complex

The brain is a complex organ that is not fully understood, despite all the advances of modern science. Brain injuries are often perplexing and difficult to understand. Some parts of the brain might be badly impacted by your injuries, while other parts not at all.

Insurance companies will hire experts to attempt to prove the case in ways that will help them avoid having to pay for your injuries. Their experts will attempt to claim that you aren’t actually hurt or that your injury is temporary. They may try to highlight the parts of your brain function that are not impacted to make it seem as if you might be faking or are still capable of work. 

You Need Experts on Your Side

What can you do when the insurance company is trying to minimize your injuries and prevent you from getting the compensation you are owed? You need the help of experts on your side. At Fisher & Talwar, we are expert brain injury attorneys with extensive experience helping people get compensation for their injuries.

We know what it takes to get compensation in brain injury cases, including medical examinations, scientific testing, and expert testimony. We can deploy a team of experts to make plain the full extent of your injuries so that everyone can understand what really happened to you. 

We’ll go through some information about traumatic brain injury (TBI) to help you understand the complexity of your case and why you might benefit from help. 

What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) are injuries to the brain caused by traumatic blows, jolts, or penetration. The most common causes of TBI include:

• Falls
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Firearms (including suicide attempts)
• Assault
• Sport accidents, including:
  • Bike accidents
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Soccer

These causes account for almost all traumatic brain injury cases. 

TBIs can lead to significant impairment of brain function. Some common symptoms of TBI include:

• Headache
• Nausea or vomiting
• Changes in eating habits
• Dizziness and loss of balance
• Fatigue and drowsiness
• Muscle weakness
• Feeling confused, disoriented, or dazed
• Sensory problems, including:
  • Ringing in the ears
  • Blurred vision
  • Changes in taste or smell
  • Numbness in fingers or toes
• Loss of consciousness
• Memory problems
• Mood swings
• Anxiety or depression
• Changes in sleeping patterns
• Combativeness
• Unusual behavior, such as sudden impulsiveness
• Changes in speech patterns, including difficulty speaking

Some symptoms of TBI occur immediately after the accident that caused the injury. Loss of consciousness, for example, typically occurs at the time of the trauma, and may last from a few seconds to a few hours. TBI can even trigger a coma. However, sometimes TBI symptoms can take a long time to develop, becoming evident over days, weeks, or even months after the injury.

Types of Brain Injuries

Brain injuries are characterized in two different ways: by the nature of the damage to the head and by the severity of the damage to the brain. 

By the nature of damage to the head, brain injuries are classified as either:

• Closed head injury
• Open head injury (including penetrating brain injury)

In a closed head injury, the skull does not break open as a result of the injury. Sometimes, a closed head injury is not even caused by physical contact to the head–it can be due to a jolt that causes your brain to rebound inside the skull. In a closed head injury, a significant portion of the head injury occurs not because of the original trauma, but because swelling of the brain puts pressure on the brain and may cut off the critical flow of blood. These injuries may manifest symptoms more slowly.

In an open head injury, the trauma cracked or penetrated the skull. This forceful trauma can cause immediate damage to the brain, and these injuries are more likely to manifest symptoms immediately. 

By severity, TBIs are classified into:

• Mild TBI (also called a concussion)
• Moderate TBI
• Severe TBI

Mild TBI may not cause permanent damage to the brain, but it should be evaluated by a doctor to prevent complications. Multiple concussions (especially over a short period of time) can multiply the damage.

Impacts of TBI

Moderate and severe TBI can be difficult for victims and their families. The victim may need ongoing care to help them recover, and the cost of care can be high. According to the CDC, only 26% of people with moderate and severe TBI get better in the five years after their injury. Most commonly, (30%) they get worse, and 22% die – the remaining 22% stay essentially the same. 

In addition, the CDC reports that five years after a moderate to severe TBI:

• 57% are moderately or severely disabled
• 55% of those who were employed at the time of their accident no longer have a job
• 50% return to the hospital at least once
• 33% rely on others for help with everyday activities
• 29% are not satisfied with life
• 29% use illicit drugs or misuse alcohol
• 12% reside in nursing homes or other institutions

Because of these serious, ongoing, and expensive impacts of brain injury, it’s important to view any settlement offer with extreme caution. It might seem generous now, but if you or your loved one survives, you are looking at a lifetime of costs and challenges. If someone else was responsible for your injury, you deserve compensation for the full magnitude of the effects. 

TBI and Auto Accidents

Auto accidents are one of the leading causes of TBI. Even with modern protective equipment, it’s possible to experience TBI in an auto accident. In fact, motor accidents accounted for 32% of all unintentional TBI-related deaths.

Often, people who experience a TBI in an auto accident don’t realize what happened to them. They may not realize that they lost consciousness, and other symptoms of TBI might take time to develop. The risk of TBI in an auto accident might be increased by faulty safety equipment that didn’t deploy or deployed in an unsafe manner. Pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists are even more likely to experience TBI when involved in an accident with a car.

TBI and Slip and Fall Accidents

Falls are the leading cause of TBI in the US, accounting for 55% of all TBI-related deaths. About two-thirds of these deaths occurred in people aged 75 and older. However, falls are estimated to account for more than a million emergency-room visits related to TBI a year, and are relatively common for all age groups. 

If you experienced a TBI in a slip and fall accident as a result of a property owner’s negligence, it’s important to talk to a brain injury lawyer. 

Contact Us for a Free Initial Consultation

Dealing with a brain injury can be scary for you and your family. While you are struggling just to get by in your new circumstances, you are also hit with numerous additional bills and face the loss of your job and the prospect that you might never be able to hold a job again. You need the support of an expert brain injury lawyer to help you get compensation that can make all these challenges a little easier. 

At Fisher & Talwar, we have helped many people get compensation for their brain injuries to pay for medical bills and make up for lost work, as well as diminished earning power in the future. We work on contingency, which means that we don’t get paid unless we get money for you. We also offer a free initial consultation. It’s completely confidential and there’s no obligation–you can get some of your important questions answered for free. Please contact us today. 

Traumatic Brain Injury FAQs