Brain Injury Lawyer Serving Caddo Mills, TX

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can occur for numerous reasons and leave victims to navigate a series of challenges on their road to recovery. When another party’s negligence contributes to the circumstances that led to brain trauma, victims have the right to pursue legal action against them. This can help provide essential compensation for covering medical and other expenses. A brain injury lawyer near Caddo Mills, TX can provide valuable support, insight, and strategies to ensure a favorable outcome.

Smith & Lee Injury Lawyers work diligently throughout your case to make sure you have a voice and that your needs are met. A Caddo Mills personal injury lawyer helps you hold negligent parties accountable for the injustice you have suffered.

The cost of a brain injury over a lifetime can be exorbitant, and our team makes sure that you are equipped to face the future. To request a free consultation with our TBI attorneys, contact our law firm online. You can also call us at (972) 771-2579.

Choose the Team Who Will Not Stop Advocating for You

When you choose a Caddo Mills brain injury attorney from Smith & Lee, we take the time to listen to you, ask and answer questions, and make sure that you understand your rights and options. Our team is your strongest ally, and we advocate for you by word and through action.

When representing you, our firm handles filing required paperwork and meeting applicable deadlines, leveraging our resources and relationships to gather evidence, connecting you with medical care, and negotiating on your behalf with insurance companies or in court before judges. We also customize our strategies to your unique needs.

Brain Injuries and the Extent of Their Impact

Concussions and traumatic brain injuries are common conditions suffered in a variety of accidents. This can have a profound impact on victims, either temporarily or long-term. Vehicle accidents, violence, falls, explosions, work accidents, and sports injuries can cause a variety of head injuries ranging from minor to severe.

These injuries are serious and can cause a host of complications that can impact an individual’s ability to physically or cognitively function.

What Causes Traumatic Brain Injuries?

Brain injuries typically occur when an individual sustains blunt force or penetrating wounds to the head. That can result in swelling, bleeding, rupturing, or tearing of tissues or vessels in the brain. Brain injuries can be unpredictable, so immediate medical care and close monitoring are important during the aftermath of an accident and throughout the recovery process.

How Common Are Traumatic Brain Injuries

Brain injuries affect thousands of people every year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 67,839 individuals died during the most recent full year of data available. Even more suffered injuries that had to be medically treated.

The CDC also provides data on injury economics, which shows that the average cost of medical care for a traumatic brain injury can range from $4,530 to $51,241, with loss of work expenses ranging from $1,500 to $6,110 over the span of a year.

Medical and Legal Help Are Available

This data highlights the considerable strain on victims and their families, especially if they require extensive and long-term care. Because every injury is unique, it’s important to work closely with doctors to create an effective treatment plan customized to your medical needs.

It’s also important to work with a brain injury lawyer near Caddo Mills to ensure that you receive maximum compensation to cover these expenses, as well as your other losses.

Common Symptoms Associated with Brain Injuries

Catching a brain injury early is essential for minimizing the damage from the injury. Because of the brain’s role in the body, these injuries can also affect various functions throughout the body if left unchecked for too long. Medical professionals act quickly to reduce inflammation and swelling, stop bleeding, and so much more to ensure that patients receive the essential and potentially life-saving care they need.

Some common symptoms of brain injuries include:

Nausea and vomiting
Blurred vision
Slurred speech
Dizziness
Confusion
Difficulty focusing
Headaches
Fatigued and lethargic
Neurological and sensory issues
Loss of memory
Losing consciousness
Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
Mood and behavioral fluctuations
Seizures
Ear or sinus discharges

Seek Immediate Medical Help If You Suffer Head Trauma

Whether you feel yourself experiencing these symptoms or notice them in a loved one, seek emergency care immediately. It can be difficult to ascertain the full scope of a brain injury without the proper diagnostic tests, so do not delay when the signs present themselves.

It can also be helpful to be proactive after suffering any kind of accident to receive a full examination to either rule out or discover the presence of a brain injury, even before symptoms appear.

Brain Injuries Can Affect Every Aspect of a Survivor’s Life

Victims of brain injuries may feel the impact of a brain injury in multiple areas of their lives. Because every brain injury is unique, the parts of their life that are affected can vary. Similarly, the degree to which they are impacted can also fluctuate. While a minor brain injury, such as a concussion, can heal up relatively quickly without repercussions, many traumatic brain injuries have a long-term or even permanent effect.

Individuals may have to adjust to new norms in the following aspects of life:

Cognitive Impact: Brain injury victims may struggle with memory, reasoning, judgment, and executive functioning after a brain injury. This can make daily tasks significantly harder or even impossible. Individuals may have to learn and rely on a variety of strategies to offset these difficulties.
Physical Impact: The brain sends messages throughout the body to control, execute, and respond to various stimuli. When brain injuries disrupt or damage parts of the brain, corresponding areas in the body may lose their ability to function properly. Rehabilitative therapies can help improve, relearn, or learn new skills.
Emotional/Behavioral Impact: Mood swings, especially outbursts of anger, are not uncommon after a brain injury. Victims may respond very differently to stimuli, people, and events than they did prior to the accident. These and other emotional and behavioral repercussions can make it difficult to maintain relationships with those a victim is close to.
Psychological Impact: An individual’s diminished quality of life can contribute to an increase in anxiety or feelings of depression. This adds another layer to an already emotional and difficult experience. Mental health professionals can help victims process their feelings and help them develop tools to cope with daily challenges and find a way to move forward.
Social Impact: Individuals who have suffered brain injuries may have a harder time communicating with others or reading social cues. This can lead to misunderstandings and frustration when interacting with others in a personal or professional capacity. For some, these challenges may also extend into the written word.

A traumatic brain injury is often the catalyst that causes a proverbial domino effect on the rest of an individual’s life. Receiving support from loved ones and health professionals can make a considerable difference in improving a victim’s life. Each step forward creates more positive changes that can help victims feel more confident about how they interact with the world around them.

Brain Injuries Can Also Take Their Toll on Family Members

Brain injuries do not just affect the victim. A TBI can also have a significant impact on their families.

The Difficulty of Being a Caregiver

Providing care to an injured loved one can be all-consuming. It can also be difficult to adjust to the changes families see in their loved ones, including watching them deal with the challenges caused by their injuries. Recovery can be a long and arduous journey that can take a toll on families, too, especially for those who are acting as caregivers.

The Emotional Impact of a TBI

The impact of a TBI on family members can be emotional and take time to process. Families may have to learn new methods for communicating with their loved one, as well as how to respond if the injured family member has an outburst or is struggling.

Financial Strain and Other Hardships on a Household

The financial strain on families can create an additional source of stress within the family. It’s important for family members to find ways to process, cope, and reduce their stress so they can prevent burnout as much as possible.

Negligence Must Be Established Before Seeking Compensation

Individuals who have sustained a brain injury because of negligence and accidents can file a personal injury claim against the party responsible. This ensures that they are held liable for their role in your accident. However, the burden is on you and your brain injury lawyer in Caddo Mills to demonstrate their actions before you can receive any compensation from them. Accomplishing this requires you to provide evidence and a strong case that indisputably connects your injury back to the at-fault party.

Establishing Negligence

During your case, your lawyer will take the information gathered in your case to establish that the at-fault party was beholden to you not to do anything that would threaten your safety. However, when they engaged in careless, reckless, or malicious behavior, they disregarded their duty to you and caused an accident that led to your brain injury. Once they’ve been connected to your injuries, the at-fault party must pay for the damages you incurred because of them.

You Can Seek Damages Even If You Are Partly at Fault

It is worth noting, though, that if you contributed to the accident in some small way, you may still be able to recover compensation, albeit reduced.

According to Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33, victims may recover compensation for shared fault if they are 50% or less responsible for the accident. Their total damages will be reduced in proportion to their assigned level of fault. Our brain injury lawyers can help reduce liability in these situations so you can still recover a favorable outcome.

Compensation from a Brain Injury Lawsuit

The financial toll of a brain injury is enormous and can be difficult for many individuals and families to pay for on their own. This is where holding the party that caused your injuries accountable for their actions can allow you to recover your losses. Our brain injury attorneys serving Hunt County calculate the value of your losses and negotiate a settlement package that will reflect your needs after a brain injury.

Some damages you can recover for a brain injury may include:

Emergency and ongoing medical treatments
Rehabilitative services
Medical equipment and home/vehicle accommodations
Temporarily lost wages or long-term lost earning capacity
Reduced quality of life
Pain and suffering
Depression, anxiety, and/or insomnia
Loss of consortium or companionship

Your future medical care costs are just as important as your initial treatment. As such, your lawyer will work with medical experts to develop a life care plan that outlines what you need and how much everything will cost. This provides a clear path forward and becomes an invaluable negotiating tool to help secure your compensation.

At Smith & Lee, our lawyers prioritize your needs when pursuing compensation, so you do not have to bear any more of this burden than you already have.

Two-Year Deadline to File a Brain Injury Lawsuit in Texas

When you want to recover compensation to offset your various expenses and losses, you will need to file your claim before the two-year statute of limitations expires, according to Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003.

Be sure to allow yourself sufficient time to file, build, and resolve your case so you do not absorb the cost of your medical expenses yourself. Because of the many losses that must be calculated, these cases may take longer to settle.

Contact Our Brain Injury Attorneys Near Caddo Mills, TX

Smith & Lee can help you secure the compensation you need to get through this challenging time and have the support you need as you move forward. Our compassionate team of brain injury lawyers helps you navigate the legal process. We are ready to do right by you. To schedule a free consultation with our team, contact our law firm online. You can also call us at (972) 771-2579. Let us do right by you.