How Are TBI Settlements Calculated?
If you sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) with financial losses and a significant impact on quality of life, you may be wondering, “How are TBI settlements calculated?” There are several factors considered before determining the value of a traumatic brain injury claim or lawsuit, such as the severity of the TBI and long-term care needs. An experienced traumatic brain injury lawyer evaluating your case provides a better opportunity to secure a substantially higher TBI settlement. They understand how much these injuries are worth, how to maximize damages for larger TBI settlements, and how to negotiate for reasonable compensation. Schedule a free case consultation to evaluate the damages in your traumatic brain injury claim.
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What is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an injury to your brain caused by an external force, like a violent bump, blow, or jolt, to the head or body, causing damage to the brain cells and disrupting their normal functioning. Common types of TBIs include contusions, hemorrhages, fractures, concussions, and diffuse axonal injuries (DAI).
TBIs may have physical and psychological effects on an accident victim. Symptoms may be immediate. However, many symptoms of traumatic brain injuries may take days or weeks to appear. People at higher risk of TBI include children (especially newborns to four years of age), young adults aged 15-24, adults aged 60 and over, and men in any age group.
Personal Injury Accidents Resulting in TBI Settlements
When people sustain a traumatic brain injury in a personal injury accident, they may be entitled to secure a TBI settlement for their compensatory damages and permanent impairment or disability. Accidents that cause traumatic brain injuries and warrant the need for a personal injury attorney involve negligence on the part of another. Examples of TBI-causing accidents that an attorney can help you with include:
People who sustain traumatic brain injuries while performing the duties of their job may be eligible to file a workers’ compensation claim to pursue a TBI settlement for their damages. Personal injury lawyers practice in various areas of tort law. It’s vital for you to retain an attorney with experience handling cases with circumstances similar to yours. For example, if your TBI resulted from an accident at work, you want a lawyer with experience and success handling workers’ comp claims. Ask prospective lawyers to clarify their personal injury practice areas before hiring legal counsel.
Factors Influencing TBI Settlement Calculations
Insurance policy limits significantly impact how much compensation you receive for a traumatic brain injury. While your attorney may calculate damages higher than policy limits, an insurer is not liable to pay anything more than the maximum limits. It’s worth noting that filing a claim doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be awarded the maximum policy limits in your TBI settlement. You can potentially sue the negligent party personally to recover the difference. However, there’s no guarantee they will have the assets to compensate your damages.
The severity of your traumatic brain injury and other injuries heavily influences how TBI settlements are calculated. Injury severity determines how it impacts daily life and the need for future medical care costs. Before your personal injury lawyer can calculate your TBI settlement, there are many factors to consider, including the following:
- Medical Expenses: The total healthcare costs of treating a traumatic brain injury greatly impact compensation. Medical expenses include emergency services, surgeries, treatments, therapy, and rehabilitation. Additional costs, like copays and deductibles, are also factored in.
- Future or Long-Term Medical Care: The anticipated ongoing medical needs, such as future treatments, procedures, rehabilitations, and prescription medications, can influence how TBI settlements are calculated. Your lawyer may work with a life care planner to project long-term care needs and associated expenses.
- Lost Income: Your lost earnings are economic damages considered when calculating TBI settlements. Depending on the nature of your profession, other income losses may include overtime, sick pay, vacation time, tips, commissions, bonuses, and lost health and retirement benefits.
- Diminished Earning Capacity: The loss of future income due to injury can be calculated in a TBI settlement. Diminished earning capacity occurs when you can no longer work in your current job or pursue future career goals. Attorneys often work with economists and other vocational experts to calculate the loss of future income.
- Pain and Suffering: The extent of an injured party’s physical and emotional suffering is factored into how TBI settlements are calculated. Pain and suffering can include acute and chronic pain conditions, sleep disturbances, mental anguish, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression.
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life: A loss of enjoyment of life refers to a dramatic reduction in one’s ability to participate in activities and experiences one previously enjoyed due to a TBI, such as going to the gym, dancing, hobbies, and social interactions. Examples include a hiker who can no longer walk or a professional athlete who can no longer play their sport.
- Decreased Quality of Life: A traumatic brain injury can significantly decrease the quality of life. TBIs can create challenges with daily tasks like eating, cleaning, or driving. They can cause memory, concentration, and other cognitive issues, decreasing quality of life. Unfavorable changes in self-image and self-esteem may also affect self-perception.
- Loss of Consortium: A loss of consortium entails the impairment or loss of the intangible benefits of a relationship. It’s a legal claim, usually made by a spouse, child, or parent of the TBI victim—seeking compensation for the loss of companionship, affection, emotional support, and guidance. Spouses and domestic partners (in some states) may file for a loss of consortium when there is a loss of physical intimacy due to the changes in the TBI victim’s behavior, personality, and cognitive abilities.
Expert statements and testimonies from healthcare professionals, vocational experts, and other specialists increase the likelihood of substantially higher TBI settlements. Legal representation also significantly impacts the value of your claim because they know how TBI settlements are calculated to ensure maximum worth. Securing reasonable compensation for traumatic brain injuries requires a comprehensive understanding of these factors and the ability to build and present a strong case.
How Are Damages Calculated in TBI Settlements?
The economic damages in your case are the monetary losses demonstrated by receipts, bills, and estimates, such as medical and rehabilitation expenses, income losses, property damage repairs, and estimates for modifications. These can include in-home modifications for mobility and disability, such as making doorways wider, installing low-pile carpets and ramps for wheelchairs, and adding grab bars around the house and in the bathroom. After calculating economic damage, personal injury lawyers will typically use one of two methods to calculate the non-economic damages in TBI settlements:
- Per Diem Method: This method assigns a daily dollar amount for your pain and suffering based on the severity of your TBI. You then multiply the designated dollar amount by the number of days you experience or are projected to experience pain and suffering.
- Multiplier Method: The method assigns a multiplier number, ranging between 1.5 and 5, to your total economic damages based on the severity of your traumatic brain injury and its impact on daily and quality of life. Multiplier numbers are usually higher with more severe injuries like traumatic brain injuries, meaning they substantially increase TBI settlements.
The latter is more commonly used because pain and suffering levels fluctuate, making assigning a daily monetary value more challenging. However, sometimes, lawyers and insurance companies combine the two methods. Other times, insurers use computer software programs to calculate TBI settlements. A disagreement about the value of a claim will require negotiations and, in rare cases, litigation to secure reasonable compensation.
How You Can Maximize TBI Settlements
Building a strong case with solid evidence, such as police or incident reports, detailed medical documentation, and photos of the accident scene and your injuries, is essential for maximizing TBI settlements. Video evidence can be especially helpful in proving negligence. Key steps to take to ensure maximum compensation for a traumatic brain injury are as follows:
- Seeking Immediate Medical Care: Receiving prompt medical care for your traumatic brain injury is critical for your health and for properly documenting a TBI for insurance claims or lawsuits. While symptoms can show up immediately, TBIs can have delayed symptoms, making a medical evaluation pertinent following a personal injury accident. A medical professional can check for TBI symptoms and advise you on what to be aware of when a TBI may present in the next few days or weeks.
- Following Medical Treatment Plans: Injured parties must follow medical treatment plans for optimal health. Treatments, procedures, surgeries, and rehabilitation for TBIs are prescribed to help you achieve maximum medical improvement (MMI)—when injuries stop responding to treatment. Failure to make and keep appointments and follow-ups looks suspicious to insurance companies, providing the opportunity to suggest you’re healed from or faking injuries. Gaps in treatment may result in lower TBI settlements. Follow your medical treatment plan.
- Keep Detailed Records: Stay organized and keep detailed records of all monetary losses suffered because of your traumatic brain injury. You’ll want to provide copies of invoices, bills, lost-wage statements, pay stubs verifying income losses, and receipts for out-of-pocket expenses to your lawyer. Failure to do so may result in your absorbing financial costs that aren’t yours to bear, especially when the accident wasn’t your fault.
- Documenting TBI Impact on Daily Life: Keep a written accounting of how the TBI affects your daily life in a journal that can be used to demonstrate the severity of your non-economic damages and the need to compensate for them. Include details about physical pain, including frequency, location, and duration—as well as your pain levels on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst). Document emotional distress and how your TBI limits your ability to perform daily tasks or hobbies you previously enjoyed before being injured. Note functional limitations or restrictions your TBI imposes on work-related activities or working altogether.
Work with a personal injury attorney experienced with traumatic brain injuries to secure compensation. They understand the value of your claim and will ensure maximum TBI settlements calculated after a personal injury accident. Traumatic brain injury claims can be complex, especially when determining future medical costs and diminished earning capacity. Speak to a local TBI lawyer before filing a claim or accepting a lowball first settlement offer.
How a Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Can Help
A traumatic brain injury lawyer can explain complex legal matters and guide you through the insurance claims and legal processes. Most offer contingent fee arrangements so that you can retain their services without paying anything upfront or out-of-pocket. Contingency means they don’t get paid unless you do, making winning your case a top priority. Other ways an experienced attorney can help secure higher TBI settlements include:
- Investigating the Accident: Your lawyer will thoroughly investigate the incident or accident that resulted in your TBI, including causes and liability. Investigation can involve gathering evidence, locating and interviewing witnesses, and recreating accidents with accident reconstruction specialists.
- Working With Experts: Depending on the nature of your case, TBI lawyers consult experts who can review medical records, assess injuries and potential long-term impacts, and calculate damages. These experts often include neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, vocational rehabilitation specialists, certified life care planners, and economists.
- Calculating Damages: It significantly benefits your TBI settlement calculations to have an experienced attorney value your claim. They will tally economic damages before employing one or both methods to determine a value for non-economic damages associated with your TBI.
- Negotiating With Insurers: Lawyers will handle all communications and negotiations with liable insurance companies. That means demanding a fair settlement that covers the full extent of your damages. Negotiations can take a few rounds of offers and counteroffers before settling a TBI claim.
A TBI Attorney is Standing By
A traumatic brain injury attorney will represent your case in court if it requires litigation. However, most personal injury claims are settled between insurance companies and attorneys without going to trial. Both parties want to avoid taking a claim to court due to the addition of excessive time and costs. Schedule a free consultation with a Altoona personal injury attorney experienced in maximizing TBI settlements.
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