When a Brain Injury Upends Your Life, Attorney Frank Hartman Fights for Your Future
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) doesn’t just cause physical pain—it completely upends your life, your family, and your financial security in a single second. When you are dealing with escalating medical bills and an altered future, you cannot afford to rely on a generic, hands-off law firm. You need Attorney Frank Hartman.
Known throughout Charleston as a no-nonsense advocate, Frank is driven to shoulder the legal burden for TBI victims and force insurance companies to pay every dollar they owe. Don’t go up against corporate insurance adjusters alone while you are trying to heal. Put a proven, relentless fighter in your corner and let Frank secure the maximum compensation your recovery depends on.
Fighting the Insurance Companies’ Invisible Injuries Defense
TBI cases can be difficult because the injuries aren’t always measurable. Some types of brain injuries show up on a CT or MRI, making it easier to connect your symptoms to a head injury sustained in the accident. But sometimes those tests show nothing at all. In other cases, there may be signs of swelling, bleeding on the brain or other injury shortly after the accident, but those physical signals resolve.
Insurance companies know that juries like hard evidence, and they’ll take full advantage of the fact that your injury “doesn’t photograph.”
An experienced traumatic brain injury lawyer like Frank Hartman can help you overcome that obstacle with other evidence such as:
- Medical records documenting your symptoms, along with any measurable medical impact
- Prior medical records demonstrating that the TBI symptoms were new after the injury
- Expert witnesses to testify to the connection between the symptoms you are experiencing and the type of injury you sustained
- An expert witness to explain how common it is for your type of injury to be “invisible” and why you may still be experiencing symptoms when no brain damage is visible
As with every area of your case, the exact strategy will depend on specifics such as how you were injured, what types of symptoms you are suffering and what medical documentation is available.
Proving Liability in a North Charleston Brain Injury Case
When your brain injury is caused by someone else’s negligence, such as a car accident that was someone else’s fault or a fall due to poorly maintained property, you may be entitled to compensation. It will be up to you and your brain injury attorney to prove that the other party was at fault for the accident. You’ll also have to prove the extent of your damages, and that your injuries occurred because of the accident.
The exact evidence required to prove negligence will depend on the specifics of your case. For example, another driver may be found negligent if the accident occurred because they were speeding, texting while driving, or operating under the influence. But if the injury occurred in a fall on someone else’s property, the duty the property owner owed you depends on the reason you were on the property. The basis of the claim is typically that they failed to maintain the property in safe condition or failed to warn you of an unsafe condition.
Your North Charleston brain injury attorney can investigate your case to identify all possible responsible parties and determine who may be held liable for your injuries.
How We Investigate the Root Cause of Your Brain Injury
One obstacle in determining exactly how a traumatic brain injury occurred and proving liability is that the injured person can’t always recall what happened. Some people who suffer traumatic brain injuries lose consciousness. Even if you haven’t lost consciousness, the combination of fast-moving trauma and injury to your brain may mean blank spots in your memory.
At The Hartman Law Firm, we’re prepared to investigate the details through a variety of channels, such as:
- Seeking out witnesses to the event
- Obtaining footage from any security cameras or other cameras that may have captured the accident
- Reconstructing elements of the accident using experts who may examine the scene, the condition of the vehicles after the crash, or other physical evidence
Success Stories from Our Clients
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:
- Car accidents
- Slip and falls
- Pedestrian accidents
- Truck accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Work-related accidents
- Swimming pool accidents
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 may be entitled to compensation for losses such as:
- 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
After a brain injury or any serious injury, you may feel like life is spiraling out of control. What you can control is how hard you fight to get every dollar you deserve. It may require extensive negotiation, and perhaps litigation, but Frank Hartman is committed to getting you the most out of your brain injury claim.
Calculating the True Financial Impact of a TBI
If you’ve suffered a TBI, you may be surprised to find that the insurance company is offering a quick settlement–especially now that you understand the challenges of proving the extent of a traumatic brain injury. You shouldn’t be surprised, but you should be very cautious. In fact, it’s usually best that you don’t talk to the insurance company at all. Instead, let your brain injury lawyer handle those interactions.
Often, an early settlement offer means the insurance company is worried about the extent of your damages. If they can get you to sign a settlement agreement before you know the full extent of your injuries and the associated costs, they can often minimize their costs. Unfortunately, that also means minimizing your compensation.
If you settle your case and later realize that you need ongoing medical care or are unable to return to your previous profession, you won’t be able to go back for more. You could end up with big medical bills or significantly reduced income due to lost earning capacity. That’s different from lost wages. Lost wages only covers earnings you have already missed out on. Lost earning capacity is projected. That is, it’s an estimate of the income you will lose due to the injury in the long term.
Depending on your age, your prior earnings and anticipated trajectory and the degree to which your ability to work is impaired, lost earning capacity can be significant. Establishing lost earning capacity often requires the assistance of an economic expert, since there are many factors to consider in combination.
Another reason you are unlikely to get a fair settlement offer directly from the insurance company is that they will almost certainly downplay–or completely ignore–non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are losses like pain and suffering that don’t have a clear dollar value attached. An experienced North Charleston brain injury lawyer can explain in greater detail what types of non-economic damages may be available in your case and how they are calculated.
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, a Charleston personal injury lawyer, 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.