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A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most serious possible effects of any accident. Not only could your life be permanently disrupted, but you also face substantial treatment bills.

For a brain injury victim or their loved ones, financial compensation is available when a plaintiff can prove that someone else was to blame for the accident. Perhaps the most crucial action you can take now after a serious head injury is to get the legal help you need to maximize compensation.

Contact our brain injury lawyer in Charleston, SC at The Hartman Law Firm, LLC. Learn more about your legal rights today.

Common Causes of Brain Injuries

One moment is all it takes to change your life or that of a loved one forever. A sudden impact, violent motion, or brief loss of oxygen to the brain can result in permanent and irreversible damage.

Types of incidents that can cause brain injuries include:

No matter how the brain injury occurs, it is always serious, and you need immediate medical treatment.

Types of Brain Injuries

Any type of brain injury needs careful monitoring and diagnosis from healthcare professionals. Types of TBIs all have the potential to cause long-term health effects and disruption to your life.

You may suffer the following types of brain injuries in an accident:

  • Concussions: A concussion is when a bump, jolt, or sudden movement of the brain causes chemical changes. Concussions are considered to be mild brain injuries, but serious trauma could cause lingering effects in the long term.
  • Diffuse axonal injuries: A violent rotational force can damage the brain’s gray matter and cause lesions in various parts of the brain. A sudden movement like whiplash in a car accident is a common cause of a diffuse axonal injury.
  • Coup-contrecoup injuries: When your brain strikes an object, the trauma can damage both sides of the brain. The initial impact will harm one side, and the other one will also be injured when it strikes against the skull.
  • Hematomas: The trauma can cause a broken blood vessel, which will result in bleeding in the brain. Bleeding for a prolonged period can lead to the death of brain cells that cannot be regenerated.

Living with a Brain Injury

In the short term after a brain injury, a victim needs extensive medical treatment to give them a chance at the best possible recovery. In the long term, brain injury victims may never regain certain functions that they lost.

The impacts of a brain injury include:

  • The loss of movement in certain parts of your body
  • An inability to work or to perform the job duties that you did before your injury
  • Changes to your mood
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • The loss of speech

Each of these can have a far-reaching impact on your individual life, your family, and your career.

Medical Treatment for a Brain Injury

In the immediate aftermath of a TBI, a brain injury victim may need surgery to stop bleeding and relieve the pressure on the skull. The longer a brain injury goes untreated, the more likely it is that the individual suffers permanent damage.

No surgery can conclusively repair brain damage. Once brain cells and tissue die, they do not regenerate or repair themselves. However, continued medical treatment can still result in an improvement in your condition. You can still learn to live with your brain injury to the fullest extent possible, retraining yourself and learning crucial functions.

Your doctor may recommend the following for your care:

  • Physical therapy
  • Occupational therapy
  • Speech and language therapists
  • Recreational therapy
  • Vocational therapy

A physiatrist may oversee your case. They would manage your overall rehabilitation process, coordinating the various types of therapy that you need.

The one certainty is that your medical costs will escalate quickly. It is crucial that you know today how much care you may need in the future, and that’s because you will only have one chance to negotiate or win compensation for your brain injury. Attorney Frank Hartman is a Charleston brain injury lawyer who knows what’s at stake for your health and financial well-being. If you work with The Hartman Law Firm, LLC, you will have a legal representative working his hardest for you.

Damages for Your Brain Injury Case

Since brain injuries tend to be more severe, and they could remain with you for the rest of your life, your case may be worth more than other types of personal injury claims. However, it is impossible to say how much your case may be worth without extensively reviewing your situation first.

You must consult with an experienced brain injury attorney to know how much you should seek and compensation. Otherwise, you may be vulnerable to accepting a settlement that does not make sense and does not fairly compensate you.

You are entitled to be paid for the following:

  • Medical expenses
  • The cost of care and help with your daily activities
  • Medical equipment and retrofitting your home
  • Lost wages
  • Pain and suffering
  • Embarrassment and humiliation
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of enjoyment of life

What you can control is how hard you fight to get every dollar you deserve that is available. It may require extensive negotiation, and perhaps litigation, but Frank Hartman is committed to getting you the most out of your brain injury claim.

How Much Does a Brain Injury Lawyer Cost?

You do not have to pay anything upfront to hire a brain injury lawyer. To be clear, brain injury lawyers are paid, but only if and when you win your case. You do not owe your attorney any money if, for some reason, you do not win your case.

In addition, your attorney will not send you bills while your case is pending. They are paid from the proceeds of your case, but only if you receive money.

Contact a Charleston Brain Injury Lawyer Today

Attorney Frank Hartman is a proven fighter who wakes up each morning driven to pursue justice and accountability for his clients. We take the time to listen and will walk with you at every step of your recovery, all so that we can understand what you are going through and effectively advocate for you.

Begin the legal process today when you call Frank to schedule a free initial consultation for your brain injury case. He’ll carefully review your case and explain the path forward. To speak with Frank, you can send us a message through our website or call us today at 843.300.7600.

Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney FAQs

What should I do first if I suspect I have a traumatic brain injury after an accident?

Any time you have symptoms of a head injury after an accident you should seek medical attention right away–even if you don’t suspect that you have a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Symptoms that may seem relatively minor at first, such as a headache or dizziness, can be a sign of a serious head injury such as a TBI or bleeding in the brain. Delaying treatment can be dangerous in some cases, so you will want to be assessed by a medical professional as soon as possible.

When should I contact a brain trauma attorney after a head injury?

When you’ve suffered a head injury, it is generally in your best interest to talk to an experienced local TBI attorney right away. The extent of the injury and the need for future treatment is often unclear in the early days after a head injury, and many insurance companies will look for an opportunity to weaken your case or get you to agree to a lowball settlement before you know how seriously injured you are.

Proving damages in a TBI case can be very complicated, so it’s important to work with a brain trauma attorney who understands the issues and knows how to work with medical experts to demonstrate the extent of your injuries.

How can a TBI attorney help me prove that someone else caused my brain injury?

The best approach to proving negligence and causation in any Charleston personal injury case depends on the specifics of the case, including how the injury occurred. For example, if your injury was sustained in a motor vehicle accident, your TBI attorney will be looking for evidence that the other driver was negligent, including whether traffic tickets were issued, what witnesses observed, and whether there is video of the crash available. On the other hand, if the brain injury occurred in a fall, your attorney may start by assessing the condition of the premises where you fell.

When you schedule a free consultation with a local brain trauma attorney, the attorney can describe the options in your specific case in greater detail.

What types of accidents most commonly lead to traumatic brain injury?

Any blow to the head, penetrating head wound, or even jarring that causes your head to jerk abruptly can cause a traumatic brain injury. Some of the most common include motor vehicle accidents, falls, intentional violence and contact sports injuries.

How do doctors diagnose a TBI, and why does that matter for my legal case?

There is no single, clear test for TBI. Doctors use a combination of information, including testing like CT scans and MRIs, observation and reported symptoms. Some of the signs a medical professional considers in assessing a brain injury include balance, mood changes, cognitive changes, and changes in vision or hearing.

Because there isn’t one clear test, and because the functions assessed in this process may never have been assessed in that patient before the injury, establishing that you have suffered a TBI can be difficult. That’s one reason it’s important to work with an experienced brain trauma attorney.

What compensation can I recover in a brain injury claim?

Compensation in a brain injury case depends in large part on the extent of the injury and whether the damage is expected to be temporary or permanent. Common damages include payment of medical bills, physical therapy bills, counseling costs and other direct costs of treating the condition, along with income lost due to the injury. Many injury victims also recover compensation for non-monetary losses like loss of quality of life.

If the injury is ongoing or expected to be permanent, you may also be entitled to the projected cost of future medical care and accommodations, as well as lost earning capacity.

How long do I have to file a brain injury lawsuit in South Carolina?

The statute of limitations for most injury cases in South Carolina is three years. However, there are some exceptions. For example, some claims against governmental entities, including entities such as schools, mass transit agencies and state medical facilities, have shorter limitations periods.

The best way to protect your claim is to talk to a Charleston TBI attorney as soon as possible after your accident.

What if my symptoms didn’t appear until days or weeks after the accident?

It is not uncommon for TBI symptoms to first emerge days or even weeks after the accident. In other cases, there may be initial symptoms, but they worsen over time. The insurance company will likely try to use any gap between the accident and seeking medical treatment to argue that the accident wasn’t the cause of the injury. However, medical professionals know that symptoms don’t always show up right away. See a doctor or go to the emergency room right away when you start to experience symptoms.

How does a brain injury attorney calculate future medical needs and long-term care costs?

An experienced TBI attorney typically works with both medical experts and economic experts to first project likely future medical care and progression of the injury and then to assign a monetary value to those future costs and ongoing losses.

How much does it cost to hire a TBI attorney, and do I owe anything up front?

If you’ve suffered a TBI and you are facing big medical bills and time off work, it’s natural that you would be concerned about the cost of a brain trauma attorney. Fortunately, injury lawyers understand that obstacle.

Most TBI lawyers–including The Hartman Law Firm–work on a contingency fee basis. That means you pay the law firm a percentage of your settlement or jury verdict. You don’t pay anything at all in advance, and you don’t pay attorney fees unless the law firm gets compensation for you.

When you retain an injury lawyer, you will receive a written contract that explains in detail how fees work, what percentage you can expect to pay, and what if any costs of litigation you may be responsible for.

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