Charlotte Brain Injury Lawyer

A brain injury can have devastating and long-lasting effects. Unfortunately, some people who have suffered brain injuries while on the job or in motor vehicle accidents do not get all of the medical care and rehabilitation services they need. For example, they may not get a thorough neurological examination that definitively identifies the nature and extent of the injury. Others may be receiving pain medications that mask the effects of the brain injury.

Injuries to the brain are common and may be especially serious. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1.7 million people suffer from traumatic brain injuries each year. These injuries can occur from unexpected accidents, and it is sometimes unclear whether anyone in particular is to blame for causing a brain injury. However, if you or a loved one recently sustained a brain injury of any kind due to the actions of another party, it is essential to know your rights when it comes to holding them accountable for the injury and its effects.

If a loved one has suffered a brain injury, he or she deserves quality medical care. You may need the services of an experienced Charlotte brain injury lawyer to obtain that care as well as compensation for other economic and noneconomic losses.

Why You Need Legal Representation For A Brain Injury in Charlotte, NC

When most people imagine hiring legal counsel, they immediately think that an attorney would be too expensive for them. Some individuals will attempt to manage their personal injury claims on their own. While it is technically possible to file a personal injury case and even win without an attorney, doing so is incredibly difficult. If you do not have any formal legal training or experience with the civil court system, you will be likely to make significant errors that may jeopardize your ability to recover damages. You would also be forced to meet your case’s procedural requirements while simultaneously managing the aftermath of your injury.

Many brain injury victims will be forced to rely on their family to assist them with their personal injury claims. Whatever your situation may entail, the attorneys at Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler can provide the compassionate legal counsel you need during this challenging ordeal. We understand that you may be hesitant about the potential cost of your legal fees, but we make our services accessible by offering contingency fee billing. This means you pay nothing upfront for our services and only pay legal fees when we win your case. Your fee comes out of your total case award as a predetermined percentage, ensuring you can have the legal representation you need to secure appropriate compensation for your losses.

Working with a Charlotte brain injury lawyer not only makes it easier to handle your case proceedings, but also significantly increases your chances of success with the case. Your legal team can help you determine the full scope of your claimable damages by working with expert witnesses and your medical providers. They will also assist you in gathering the evidence you need to firmly establish the defendant’s liability for your TBI.

Common Causes And Symptoms Of A TBI

The most reported causes of TBI are falls and motor vehicle collisions. Other causes include:

• Being struck with an object on a construction site: Work-related TBIs can lead to workers’ compensation claims, and North Carolina enforces robust workers’ compensation laws designed to ensure injured workers receive fair compensation after sustaining injuries on the job. However, depending on how your head injury occurred at work, you may have grounds for legal action outside of the workers’ compensation system. You may also encounter issues with your workers’ compensation claim that will demand the assistance of an experienced lawyer.
• Hitting your head on an object at work: Head injuries can occur in the workplace for many reasons. If you unintentionally hit your head at work, you still have the right to claim workers’ compensation even if you caused the injury yourself. However, if another party caused you to hit your head in any way, it’s vital to discuss this with your legal team to determine if you can take legal action beyond workers’ compensation to secure more compensation for your damages.
• Criminal assault: Unfortunately, many people are victims of violent crimes throughout the U.S., and sometimes these incidents result in traumatic brain injuries. If someone intentionally harmed you and caused a TBI, they are not only liable for your civil damages but will also face criminal prosecution. Depending on the nature of your injury and the defendant’s behavior, you may secure punitive damages in your civil case or be awarded restitution in the defendant’s criminal sentencing.
• Accidents involving sports or other activities: Athletes who play contact sports like football and ice hockey often sustain head injuries. In fact, most professional football players in the U.S. have sustained at least one concussion during their career. When sports-related accidents occur, the victim should consult an attorney to determine their best options for legal recourse.

Symptoms associated with TBIs depend on the area of the brain that suffered the blow. You may experience problems with your senses, thought processes, emotions, or motor skills.

Potential Complications From A Charlotte Brain Injury

One of the most difficult aspects of TBIs is the fact that every TBI is unique. Two people could suffer what appear to be identical brain injuries and have completely different recovery experiences. One may appear to make a complete recovery within a few months while the other is left profoundly disabled for years or even permanently. Some of the most commonly reported short-term symptoms of traumatic brain injuries include:

• Headaches and migraines
• Sensitivity to light and sound
• Sensory disruption, such as minor hearing loss and blurry vision
• Mood swings, agitation, and confusion
• Memory loss

This is not an exhaustive list, and every person who experiences a TBI will have different symptoms. In some cases, symptoms may begin at severe levels and then gradually improve. In other cases, seemingly mild symptoms will gradually worsen. It’s also possible for symptoms to appear weeks or even months after the initial injury. When TBIs result in long-term or permanent symptoms, these typically include:

• Memory impairment: The victim may require ongoing memory care and other assistance if they have trouble forming new memories or remembering important information.
• Sensory loss: Some TBIs can result in full or partial blindness, permanent hearing loss, and other disruptions to sensory functions.
• Chronic migraines and cluster headaches: Migraines caused by head injuries can be excruciating, and they are often very difficult to treat.
• Personality changes: Many people who sustain brain injuries will experience significant shifts in their personality. This can strain relationships with friends and family and make it difficult for them to process certain social situations.
• Physical impairment: The brain controls the rest of the body, and disruptions to brain functions can cause the victim to experience a wide range of physical symptoms. They must lose coordination, experience diminished flexibility and range of motion, or struggle with fine motor skills. Some brain injuries may even result in loss of the ability to walk or maintain balance.

It’s important to understand that the long-term effects of a brain injury can be psychologically damaging as well as physically debilitating. It can be incredibly distressing to realize that another party’s actions have left you or a loved one permanently disabled. This may interfere with the ability to work and earn a living or even prevent the victim from living independently. A Charlotte brain injury attorney can help their client examine the full scope of claimable damages in a TBI claim to ensure the fullest possible recovery.

Damages And Compensation In Brain Injury Cases in Charlotte, NC

Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler is a team of attorneys with a great deal of experience in cases involving concussions and traumatic brain injuries. We understand how to interact with brain injury specialists to make sure that our clients receive the best possible treatment, including neuropsychological treatment that is often denied by insurance companies. Our firm has the medical resources and advocacy skills needed to obtain results in these cases, and we are committed to obtaining medical care and full compensation for every client.

Once you and your legal team have firmly established the defendant’s liability for the TBI in question, the next phase of your case requires you to prove the full extent of the damages resulting from the defendant’s actions. North Carolina law allows a personal injury plaintiff to seek compensation for any and all damages caused by a defendant. Due to the severe nature of most TBIs, plaintiffs in these claims can potentially secure substantial compensation for both immediate and anticipated future damages:

• The plaintiff in a personal injury case has the right to seek compensation for all medical treatment they require due to the defendant’s actions. TBIs typically require intensive immediate treatment as well as ongoing care. The victim may need to undergo various forms of rehabilitation, from physical therapy and occupational therapy to memory care, and they may require in-home medical assistance after a severe TBI. Your Charlotte brain injury lawyer will help you gather documentation proving the full scope of the medical expenses you incurred from your injury.
• Plaintiffs in personal injury cases also have the right to seek compensation for lost income from defendants. Your TBI may prevent you from working for a long time, and the defendant is responsible for the income you lose during your recovery. Additionally, the defendant may also be liable for lost future earning capacity. If you develop a permanent disability of any kind that prevents you from working, the defendant is responsible for the future income you would have reasonably expected to earn had your injury not occurred.
• Personal injury claims also allow plaintiffs to recover compensation for property losses. If the defendant damaged any of your personal property when they caused the TBI in question, you can hold them accountable for repair or replacement costs in your personal injury claim.

When you calculate the total amount of economic damages you can seek in your TBI claim, you may be surprised to learn that your case is worth much more than you initially expected. However, in most brain injury cases, plaintiffs recover more in noneconomic damages than they do for their economic damages. Noneconomic damages are typically referred to as “pain and suffering.” Economic damages are typically easy to calculate with documentation, but noneconomic damages are more challenging.

Your Charlotte brain injury lawyer can assist you in determining a fair amount of pain and suffering compensation to seek in your claim, based on the severity of your injury. North Carolina does not impose any limits or caps on the amount of pain and suffering a plaintiff can seek, with the sole exception of medical malpractice claims. If you are suing a medical professional or hospital for a TBI they caused, the most you can secure in pain and suffering compensation under North  Carolina law is $500,000.

If the defendant in your claim is not a doctor, hospital, or other medical provider, your attorney can help you determine a fair amount of pain and suffering to include in your claim using various  methods. The most commonly used method is a simple lump sum calculation. Your attorney will multiply your claimed medical expenses by a factor of two to five to reflect the severity of your injury. For example, if you incurred $200,000 in medical bills for a severe TBI that caused a permanent disability, your attorney could multiply this amount by five to reflect the severity of the situation and seek $1 million or more in pain and suffering compensation. Extreme cases involving chronic pain, permanent disability, inability to work, and diminished quality of life may justify seeking even more substantial pain and suffering damages.

Attorneys may also use “per diem” calculations that award a set amount per day until the victim reaches maximum medical improvement, but this method is typically reserved for when a victim is likely to make a full recovery in a relatively short time. Pain and suffering is likely to be the most substantial form of compensation you secure from a successful TBI claim in North Carolina.

Why Establishing TBI Is A Complex Undertaking

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are a common outcome of auto accidents, slip-and-falls and other hazardous scenarios. In many cases, those who suffer TBI will find that their lives change drastically. They may endure migraines or lose their ability to concentrate. In more serious cases, one’s cognitive function and ability to carry out day-to-day tasks may be greatly impaired.

Unfortunately, it can be incredibly difficult for victims to prove that a brain injury even exists. The effects of TBI may not be immediately apparent — symptoms can take days, months and even years to manifest. What this means is that in many cases injury victims are unable to obtain the compensation they need to pay for their medical costs, exposing them to financial hardship.

Medical imaging technologies are advancing at a rapid pace. This can be of benefit to TBI victims involved in personal injury matters, but it can also hurt their case. Namely, modalities like MRI scans and CT scans are able, in many situations, to reliably establish the presence of a brain injury. They can show definitively abnormal patterns of brain activity or blood flow.

However, these tests are not yet sophisticated enough to detect more subtle forms of TBI or predict when a brain injury’s latent symptoms will begin to manifest — no tests are able to do so. As a result, it is difficult to establish reliable evidence of many brain injuries. As such, insurance companies are able to challenge injury claims, calling into question the severity of the damage done to the victim.

This is where the assistance of a qualified Charlotte Brain Injury attorney is crucial. At Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler, we collaborate with a range of medical professionals, helping our clients receive much-needed cognitive testing, and then appropriately documenting the extent of the injuries they’ve suffered.

Proving Liability For Your Brain Injury

If you believe another party is directly responsible for causing a brain injury to you or a loved one, a personal injury claim can enable you to hold them responsible for the damages they caused. Your successful civil claim can potentially yield substantial compensation for immediate and future damages, both economic and noneconomic. However, the first step toward recovery from a brain injury is proving fault.

You must identify the party or parties responsible for causing your TBI and prove their actions directly caused your claimed damages. Depending on the nature of the incident that caused your brain injury, you may need to prove that the defendant lacked reasonable care in the situation or that they engaged in willful misconduct that resulted in the injury in question. Your attorney can help you gather evidence that helps you establish the defendant’s liability. This may include physical evidence from the scene of the accident, witness testimony from parties who saw the incident occur, and your own recollection of events.

Due to the complex nature of most brain injuries, your Charlotte Brain Injury Lawyer may seek to consult with expert witnesses who can support your case. For example, you may need to consult various medical experts who can testify as to the full extent of the symptoms you are likely to experience in the short term and long term following the incident.

When it comes to establishing fault for a TBI in North Carolina, it’s vital for the plaintiff to understand the state’s contributory negligence law. This law states that if a plaintiff is in any way responsible for causing their claimed damages, they cannot recover compensation through a personal injury claim. It’s common for defendants in personal injury suits to assert comparative negligence to deflect liability for plaintiffs’ damages. If you have any concerns about any contributory negligence you might bear in your case, it’s vital to consult your Charlotte brain injury lawyer as soon as possible.

Experienced Advocates For Brain Injury Victims in North Carolina

For people who suffer a TBI, it is important to work with a lawyer who understands that there are long-term factors to consider. Injuries to the brain have been shown to increase people’s risk for dementia and other diseases as they age. Additionally, new symptoms or complications may develop, rendering someone permanently disabled.

From a legal point of view, there are significant differences in the procedures used to obtain results in a personal injury, workers’ compensation or Social Security Disability case. Each of our three attorneys focuses his energies on these respective areas. This is important because some brain injury cases in Charlotte, NC can involve a workers’ compensation claim, a third-party personal injury claim and eventually, a Social Security Disability claim.

Whatever the nature of your case, Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler has the resources and advocacy skills you need.

Free Consultation With A Charlotte Brain Injury Lawyer

The right attorney can make a tremendous difference in the outcome of a complex personal injury case. Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler have extensive experience handling difficult civil claims, including those involving complex brain injuries and substantial damages. We know that receiving compensation makes all the difference in recovering from or living with a serious injury. Our law firm has a reputation for obtaining results.

Contact Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler to learn more about our services and how we can help you obtain the medical care and compensation you deserve.