- Past and future medical expenses
- Past and future lost income and benefits
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Permanent disability
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Legal Issues In a TBI Case
Individuals who suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in accidents often face significant financial and intangible losses. Fortunately, the law gives a brain injury victim the right to recover for these losses by filing a civil court claim for personal injury. The lawsuit process is very specific and is governed by many different and complicated procedural rules.[1] In addition, the party against whom you file the lawsuit will expectedly do anything in their power to avoid liability for your losses. For these reasons and more, it is highly important to seek assistance from an attorney if you want to pursue a legal claim.
Every personal injury case is different and claims stemming from traumatic brain injuries can involve many unique legal issues. Therefore, when you are choosing an attorney for your case, you should make sure that the attorney has specific experience in handling brain injury cases. The following are a few examples of legal issues that may arise in a personal injury claim involving a TBI.
Proving negligence
For anyone to obtain compensation in a personal injury case, they are required to sufficiently demonstrate that another party acted in a negligent manner and that negligence caused or contributed to the accident that resulted in the injury. Courts will not simply take your word for it when you state your belief that the party was negligent, but instead courts require you to present specific types of evidence in a particular manner as permitted by strict legal rules.[2]
Before you can present evidence, however, you must gather it. Finding proof that a party's negligence caused your traumatic brain injury is often far from simple and the evidence will vary substantially depending on the type of accident that occurred. In many cases, a thorough investigation must be conducted regarding the circumstances of your accident, including witness interviews, obtaining documents such as police reports and other records, obtaining analysis and opinions from various experts, and much more. For this reason, you want to have an attorney with the resources necessary to gather the evidence needed to prove negligence.
Comparative fault claims
In many traumatic brain injury cases, the negligent party tries to limit their liability by claiming that you were partially responsible for the accident and your TBI. An experienced attorney will know how to defend against these claims of comparative fault. Fortunately, Florida law[3] allows TBI victims partially recover even if they were partially responsible, however, defending against comparative fault claims can maximize the recovery you can receive. If the other party proves comparative fault, your recovery will be reduced by the percentage of fault apportioned to you.
Calculating damages
Another issue faced by brain injury victims is proving the amount of losses you suffered to show that you deserve the damages you are seeking. Damages may be for many types of losses, including: