If you or someone you care about has suffered a brain injury due to another person’s negligence, you need to seek the help of a lawyer immediately. Call a Houston brain injury lawyer at Waldman Legal Group to 713-688-4878 for a FREE consultation to learn about your options.
When you break a bone, you may experience pain and the inconvenience of wearing a cast and having to hobble around on crutches for a period of time. In most cases, you will heal and move on with your life. The same holds true for many other types of injuries to our bodies.
But what happens when the injured body part is your brain? Your brain is protected by the skull, but it can still suffer severe trauma:
- If you are lucky, your traumatic brain injury (TBI) will be relatively mild and you will be able to make a full recovery.
- If you are not so lucky, you may suffer the consequences of your TBI for months, years, or even the rest of your life. An injury to your brain is unlike any other because your brain is responsible for what makes you you. Your emotions. Your ability to reason and think. Your relationships and interactions with the rest of the world. Your day-to-day decision-making and functioning.
TBIs are extremely tricky to pinpoint and diagnose for a couple of reasons:
- Reason #1: Unlike a broken leg, a traumatic brain injury is invisible. The people around you cannot see that you are suffering. Even worse, they may not believe you. Plus, brain injury symptoms are varied and may differ from person to person.
- Reason #2: Unlike with other traumatic injuries, the victim may not notice that anything is wrong right away. Some symptoms may not show up until weeks or even months after the accident that caused them.
Call a Houston Brain Injury Attorney Today
Traumatic brain injuries can be devastating to victims and their families. You may require expensive medical care and rehabilitation costs. TBIs will take a toll on you and your family both financially and emotionally. You may not be able to work as you recover — or even for the rest of your life.
Do NOT try to navigate the aftermath of your traumatic brain injury alone. If your TBI is the fault of another party, you may receive money to cover the costs of medical bills, pain and suffering, and other damages. The lawyers at Waldman Legal Group are experienced with TBI cases and understand the complexity of brain injuries. They have been doing this for many years and know the long-lasting effects on victims and their families. They will fight to recover the money you need to pay your bills and, hopefully, get better. To book a FREE consultation with a Houston brain injury attorney, call our office at (713) 688-4878.
What Damages Will a Brain Injury Lawyer Help Me Recover?
A brain injury claim is a type of personal injury case. There are two main categories of damages that your Houston brain injury lawyer will help you seek:
- Special damages are also known as economic damages. They are actual economic losses resulting from your injury.
- General damages are also called non-economic damages. While very real, these types of damages don’t have a set dollar amount attached to them.
Special damages include:
- Medical costs – everything you have had to pay for because of your injury. This includes hospital stays, medication, treatment, medical devices and equipment, therapy, and rehabilitation.
- Lost wages – if you have not been able to work during your recovery, you may have missed badly needed paychecks.
- Lost earning capacity – brain injuries are often very serious. Victims may not be able to return to work. In these cases, they may receive damages for money they would have earned if they had not been injured.
- Property damage – if you suffered a head injury in a car accident, for example, your vehicle or personal property that was inside it may need to be repaired or replaced.
- Household help – some people will need help cleaning or performing other tasks because of their injuries.
General damages include:
- Pain and suffering – mental, emotional, and physical
- Loss of quality of life
- Loss of companionship and consortium
A third category of damages exists and it ONLY applies to cases of gross negligence or deliberate action. They are called punitive damages because they are designed to punish the person at fault for the accident also known as the defendant.
Keep in mind that Texas is a modified comparative fault state. What this means is that you may be awarded damages even if you are found to be partially at fault for your accident – and as long as you do not bear 51% of the fault of greater. In other words, in an accident involving only two parties, the other party must be more responsible for the accident than you. The amount you are awarded will be reduced based on the percentage of your responsibility.
How Will My Houston Brain Injury Attorney Determine Liability?
In order for you to win damages for your TBI, another party must be liable for your injuries, and we must be able to prove it. In any brain injury claim, a few facts must be established:
- We must prove that you have suffered actual damages because of the accident.
- We must prove that another person or entity had a legal duty to exercise reasonable care in keeping you safe.
- We must prove that the person or entity failed in their duty to exercise reasonable care.
- We must prove that that failure resulted in your injuries.
There are many circumstances in which a party may be found liable. Here are a few examples:
- A driver who is texting or otherwise distracted and hits another car may be liable for the other driver’s head injury.
- An employer who fails to maintain equipment, resulting in a worker’s head injury, may be liable.
- A store owner who doesn’t post a warning sign to notify customers of a slippery spot on the floor may be found liable for a resulting head injury.
- The manufacturer of a defective product that causes a head injury may be liable.
Figuring out liability is not always easy. In some cases, more than one party may share responsibility. An experienced brain injury lawyer will dig deep to uncover the facts of the case and make sure the right people are held accountable.
Can a Houston Brain Injury Lawyer Help if My Loved One Has Suffered a Fatal Brain Injury?
The brain is an extremely delicate organ. A TBI that is severe enough will cause death, and an unexpected death can throw a family into chaos. Not only are they grieving, but they may find themselves facing an uncertain financial future. If your relative has died from a brain injury due to someone else’s negligence, a brain injury lawyer in Houston can help you file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Not just anyone can bring a wrongful death lawsuit. In order to be eligible, you must be a spouse, parent, or child of the deceased. Siblings, cousins, and other relatives may not file. The types of damages we typically seek in these lawsuits include:
- Hospital and medical bills stemming from the accident, before death;
- Funeral and related expenses;
- Loss of the loved one’s income;
- Loss of benefits — e.g. medical insurance;
- Loss of inheritance — this is what the deceased would have left to the family after a full lifetime of working;
- Loss of goods and services the deceased provided the family;
- Survivors’ pain and suffering from the loss of their loved one;
- Loss of love, companionship, and society; and
- Loss of consortium for spouses.
Why Do I Need a Brain Injury Attorney in Houston?
If you are suffering through the trauma of a brain injury due to someone else’s negligence, don’t allow yourself to be victimized again. It is important to hire our brain injury lawyers in Houston to represent your interests.
- After your accident, an insurance company may try to pressure you to take a settlement. While such an offer is tempting in a difficult time, it will not account for all of your losses and to accept it is shooting yourself in the foot. Our brain injury lawyers will carefully calculate the full scope of your losses to make sure you receive all the money your injuries call for — including future expenses.
- Our attorneys will do all the work for you. This includes research, communicating with other parties, negotiating with insurance companies, filing paperwork, and more. We will also help you take the other side to court if necessary. This means you can focus on the most important thing: healing.
Call Waldman Legal Group to Speak with a Brain Injury Lawyer in Houston
Do NOT delay in calling our brain injury attorneys in Houston. These cases have a statute of limitations, and may involve other critical deadlines, e.g. notice requirements. This means we must get the ball rolling as soon as possible – to ensure we have plenty of time to do this. The attorneys at the Waldman Legal Group have years of experience standing up for our clients. We are knowledgeable about the law and responsive to our clients’ questions and concerns. We are tough negotiators and can help you take your case to court if necessary. To schedule a consultation to discuss the details of your case, contact our Houston office at (713) 688-4878. You have absolutely nothing to lose by giving us a call, as initial consultations are free.
