If you suffered a head injury in an accident someone else caused, you may wonder how much a head injury claim is worth. Compensation for a head injury depends on many factors, and it’s hard to determine how much you could receive from your claim without a thorough review of your case.
To better understand how much your head injury claim is worth, consult a personal injury attorney in your area. A lawyer can review your claim for free and determine whether you have a valid claim. If so, they can assess your claim and provide a realistic and objective opinion as to how much compensation you could receive.
Read on to learn more about how much you could get from a head injury claim and the factors affecting your compensation. Also, contact an experienced personal injury attorney near you for specific advice regarding your rights and options to pursue compensation.
Types of Head Injuries
People can sustain various head injuries in many accidents and incidents.
Some types of head injuries include:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs): Traumatic brain injuries result from a blow to the head or an object penetrating the skull. TBIs can result from car accidents, falls, workplace accidents, sporting events, and assaults. They can range in severity and cause long-term complications that require ongoing medical treatment, rehabilitation, and physical therapy.
- Concussions: A concussion is a TBI that can cause momentary blackouts, headaches, and cognitive issues. Your head doesn’t have to hit anything—the rapid back-and-forth movement of your head in a car accident, for instance, is enough to cause a concussion.
- Skull fractures: If you sustain a violent blow to the head, such as in a car accident, fall, or assault, the force of the impact could fracture your skull. Skull fractures require immediate medical attention and may damage the brain.
- Intracranial hematomas (ICH): Some head injuries cause bleeding in or around the brain, leading to intracranial hematomas or blood clots. These potentially fatal injuries can range from hematomas underneath the skulls but above the brain to hematomas in the brain itself.
- Deep cuts or degloving injuries: Head injuries can also include deep lacerations in the scalp or degloving of the skin covering the head. These injuries can require emergency medical care and stitches to repair.
What Are Common Causes of Head Injuries?
Head injuries can result from:
- Falls: Falls are among the leading causes of head injuries overall. You could slip and fall in a store aisle, on a flight of stairs, or on a slippery sidewalk and strike your head on the ground. Construction workers, roofers, and utility workers can fall from heights and suffer severe head injuries.
- Motor vehicle accidents: Motor vehicle accidents, like car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, and even pedestrian and bicycle accidents, also cause head injuries. You could strike your head on the dash or window, and even the violent jerking motion of your head in a car accident can cause a concussion or other traumatic brain injury. Also, broken glass and other flying debris could penetrate your skull or cause deep cuts and lacerations on your head.
- Sports: Contact sports like football can cause concussions if players strike their heads on the ground. Head injuries could also arise from getting hit with a ball or falling to the turf. Sports like boxing and MMA cause many sport-related head injuries, but even skiing, snowboarding, and skateboarding can cause head injuries if you fall or collide with a fixed object.
- Workplace accidents: You could suffer a head injury on a construction site or in an industrial setting. Aside from falls, an object or large equipment could strike you. Working around heavy machinery, at heights, or in closed spaces can increase your risk of a head injury.
- Medical procedures: Some head injuries can result from medical negligence or surgical errors, such as anesthesia complications and childbirth injuries.
- Boating accidents: Boating accidents can result in head injuries if two watercraft collide or if an accident throws someone from the boat or they strike an object.
- Defective products: Defective products can also cause head injuries. Even though helmets and hard hats protect the head, these devices can fail or not work as intended.
- Pedestrian and bicycle accidents: Pedestrians and bicyclists can suffer severe head injuries and TBIs from colliding with a vehicle or object or striking their head during the crash.
- Assaults and acts of violence: Intentional acts of violence cause many head injuries through blows, getting shot or stabbed, or getting knocked down during an altercation.
- Explosions and blasts: Explosions can cause severe head injuries. First responders, military and law enforcement, and people working in industries that use explosives are most at risk for head injuries due to an explosion. The shockwave alone can cause a brain injury.
This is not an exhaustive list of the possible causes of head injuries, and you risk sustaining a head injury in many different ways.
Contact an experienced head injury attorney in your area if another party or circumstances beyond your control caused your head injury. A lawyer can evaluate your situation and advise whether you can pursue a claim. They can also file your claim and represent you throughout the process.
What Factors Can Influence My Head Injury Claim’s Worth?
In determining how much your head injury claim is worth, you must ask:
- How severe are your injuries? The severity of your injuries will play a key role in determining the value of your head injury claim. The more severe the injury, the more likely you will receive more compensation.
- How much treatment do you require? The extent of your medical treatment will also factor into the value of your claim. If you need intensive medical treatment, including surgery, you will incur more medical costs than if you only suffered a minor head injury and the hospital did not admit you. Your attorney will also need to factor the length of your treatment and any future medical treatment, therapy, or rehabilitation you need into your claim.
- How much time did you miss from work? If you have to miss considerable time from work, your attorney will factor that into your claim. Your lawyer can also include loss of future earning capacity if your head injury resulted in a permanent disability that prevents you from working at all or in the same capacity.
- Did you experience ongoing pain and suffering? Your attorney could include non-economic damages in your claim if your injury caused you ongoing adverse effects. These can include emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, scarring and disfigurement, and psychological issues, such as depression and PTSD.
- Did a close family member die because of a head injury? If you lost a loved one, you may qualify to receive compensation through a wrongful death claim. Your attorney can review your options with you and help you pursue recovery of funeral and burial costs and other end-of-life expenses. Compensation can even include the loss of income the decedent provided your household.
Factors That Can Hurt Your Claim’s Worth
Just as several factors can increase the worth of your head injury claim, other factors can reduce the compensation you could get.
These include:
- Liability disputes: All personal injury claims rely on establishing liability to the at-fault party. If the insurance company or opposing legal counsel disputes liability or responsibility for your injuries, it can affect your claim’s worth.
- Contributory fault: All states follow some contributory negligence or comparative fault rules when determining compensation in personal injury claims. For example, Nebraska follows a modified comparative negligence rule. This means you can recover compensation if you were not more than 50 percent responsible for your injuries. You cannot recover damages if you were more than 50 percent liable. Also, any damages you receive will decrease by your level of fault. For instance, if the court finds you 20 percent responsible, you will only receive 80 percent of the total damages.
- Preexisting conditions: The at-fault party’s insurance company or lawyer may point to your preexisting condition as the primary cause of your head injury and dispute your claim. That’s not to say you can’t recover compensation if you have a preexisting condition, but you need an attorney to review your case and advise you accordingly.
- Your age and life expectancy: The younger you are, the more likely you will receive a higher claim. Younger people may live through a longer period of future expenses and losses associated with their injuries, especially if their head injury results in a disability that affects their work.
- Insurance coverage: An at-fault party’s low insurance policy limits can also hurt your claim.
- Location and jurisdiction: Where your head injury happened can also affect your compensation. States have different personal injury laws, and many states cap certain personal injury claims. You need a head injury attorney near you to review your claim and explain your area’s laws that may affect your claim’s potential value.
Other factors can influence the amount of compensation you could receive from your head injury claim as well. For more information on the factors that could affect your claim, talk with an experienced, local head injury attorney for advice and guidance.
Berry Law’s Team Provides You With Multiple Attorney Perspectives
Can I Get More Money by Taking My Head Injury Case to Court?
It depends. Most personal injury claims resolve outside of court through settlement negotiations.
Choose an attorney with extensive experience negotiating favorable settlements for clients, as they can fight with the insurance company to get them to honor your claim and pay you the money you deserve.
Still, you may need to take your case to court if the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement or denies your valid claim without proper cause.
Dealing with difficult or unresponsive insurance companies can present challenges, but simply filing a lawsuit can spur them into action so that they offer you a fair settlement.
Regardless, discuss with your attorney the possibility of taking your case to court and follow their recommendations.
Whether you can get more money by going to court depends on:
- Your case’s strength: If you have a strong case with clear liability, you stand a better chance of the court siding in your favor and awarding you the full compensation you need.
- Insurance policy limits: If the at-fault party’s insurance policy limits are too low to cover your injuries and losses, you may need to take your case to court to seek additional compensation.
- Disputes about your claim: If the insurance company or opposing legal counsel disputes liability or refutes the severity of your injuries and refuses to pay or negotiate, your attorney may advise taking them to court.
- Severity of your injuries: If you have severe injuries, you may get more money by taking your case to court.
- Complexity of your case: If your case involves multiple at-fault parties, significant amounts of compensation, or other complexities, it may behoove you to take your case to trial. You may increase your chances the court finds a more favorable resolution for you.
Trials are expensive, and you will incur more in court costs and attorney fees. Also, trials usually take considerable time, as you have to wait on court scheduling, and the trial process takes time.
You also can’t guarantee how the court will rule. There’s no guarantee the court will side with you, and even if your attorney wins your case, there’s no guarantee the court will award you substantially more than you would get in a settlement.
How Long Do I Have to Take My Head Injury Case to Court?
Every state has a statute of limitations on when injured parties can file a personal injury lawsuit in civil court. For example, Nebraska allows you four years from your injury to file. If you don’t file your lawsuit within that time, you won’t recover compensation for your head injury. Therefore, contact an attorney immediately to learn your options and start the process.
Contact an Experienced Head Injury Attorney Today
Head injuries can significantly affect every aspect of your life and well-being. Whether you suffered a TBI or a skull fracture, bleeding in the brain, or severe lacerations to the scalp, you deserve compensation for your injuries and losses.
First, get a complete medical evaluation. As soon as possible after getting medical treatment and documentation regarding your head injury, speak with an attorney at Berry Law for help.
At Berry Law, we have decades of collective experience helping clients recover maximum compensation for their head injuries and other personal injury claims throughout Nebraska and Iowa.
Contact us today for a no-cost, no-obligation of your claim and learn how we can assist you. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you won’t pay us anything upfront to represent you. We only accept a fee if we recover compensation on your behalf. Otherwise, you owe us nothing.
