Asheville Brain Injury Lawyer

What to Do After a Brain Injury in North Carolina

There Are Clear Steps to Take When Your TBI or Brain Injury Is Someone Else’s Fault

When your brain injury is caused by someone else’s negligence, such as a car accident, slip and fall, or something falling on you, you should take the following steps.

1. Get medical care right away. Go to the emergency room or an urgent care facility immediately if you suspect any kind of head injury. This is critical to ensure you are safe and treated properly for any injuries you may have, but it is also important for your legal case. When you have a brain injury, your thinking can be affected, and you may tend to underestimate the severity of your injury for the first few days. Don’t risk waiting to get treatment — get checked out immediately.

2. Contact a brain injury lawyer as soon as possible. Our skilled TBI lawyer will guide you through getting the proper medical treatment and ensuring the responsible party pays for everything.

3. Don’t talk to the insurance company if they call. You should never talk to an insurance company about your brain injury without first talking to a lawyer. This is especially true if you have a brain injury that affects your thinking and ability to concentrate. Insurance companies are for-profit corporations that make billions of dollars each year by paying as little as possible on injury claims like yours. They don’t need to get any actual information from you – they can get all the same information from a police report of their insured. The only reason they would call you after you’ve been injured is to get you to say something that would justify their offering you less money – or no money at all.

4. Consistently follow up with medical treatment. Follow your doctor’s advice closely, and don’t go too long without seeing a doctor to report your symptoms. As long as you are experiencing symptoms, don’t go more than a week or two without seeing a doctor of some kind.

5. Keep a journal of your brain injury symptoms. Because there are various brain injury symptoms, it can help to keep a journal of everything you’re experiencing. Write down when you are nauseous, dizzy, or have blurred vision. Write down when you have nightmares or depression that are any different from what you experienced before the injury. This will be a good record to reflect exactly what you went through when it’s time for you and your brain injury attorney to prove your case.

What Compensation Can You Recover for a Traumatic Brain Injury?

Seeking fair compensation for a brain injury involves both economic and non-economic damages. Our Asheville personal injury lawyer will explain what damages you can expect in your case. You can start your discussion with Lakota in a free initial consultation.

Economic damages are for your calculable costs, such as:

• Medical, rehabilitation, and continuing care costs
• Property damage
• Lost wages and income

Non-economic damages are restitutions for things that are difficult to put a dollar value on but negatively affect your life, such as:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress and mental anguish
• Loss of enjoyment of life and consortium

In some rare cases where the defendant acted in a way that was malicious, willful, or especially egregious (such as car accidents involving an incredibly reckless driver), you may also receive punitive damages.

Amounts of damage awards vary greatly, depending on facts such as the extent of the brain damage, the costs involved, whether you need continuing care, whether you can go back to work, and your age, earning ability, and family situation.

Your attorney’s skill to negotiate with insurance and argue your case in front of a judge or jury is an important element of the total compensation you can obtain.

Whether you suffered a TBI or another serious brain injury that was caused by someone’s negligence, find out how we can help you. Give our team a call today at 828-333-5996 to get help with your brain injury case.

How a Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Can Get You the Compensation You Deserve>

Our Dedicated TBI Lawyer in Asheville, NC, Will Fight Tenaciously for You

Our team knows the devastation a TBI can cause in your life. That’s why our Asheville traumatic brain injury lawyer is so dedicated to delivering high-quality legal representation and pursuing maximum compensation in your case. Traumatic brain injuries are some of the most serious injuries anyone can experience. Your brain is the most important organ in your body. Anything that harms your brain will have a significant impact on your life. If the injury is severe, it can lead to paralysis, inability to communicate, changes in personality, coma, or death. Victims may be unable to work and need extremely expensive services and support. Those responsible for these unexpected and drastic changes in your life should pay for their negligence.

Work with Lakota, and you’ll have a steadfast, dedicated brain injury attorney on your side at every step of the legal process. While no amount of money can make up for a life-changing catastrophic injury, a settlement can help by easing your financial burdens and paying for rehabilitation and care. If a settlement offer is too low, Lakota will discuss your options for taking your brain injury case to court.

We offer a free consultation to discuss the circumstances of your brain injury, so call us today to get started working for the benefits you deserve.

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How to Prove Negligence in a TBI Case

To win your lawsuit, we would have to prove that the defendant in the case was legally negligent by showing the following elements:

• Duty: The defendant had a duty of care not to cause harm.
• Breach: The defendant breached this duty by acting or failing to act.
• Cause: This wrongful act, neglect, or default caused the accident that led to your injuries.
• Damages: You suffered damages as a result.

For example, if a truck driver sped through a red light and crashed into your vehicle:  the driver owed you a duty to drive carefully but failed to do so, and the resulting accident caused your brain injury and damages such as medical costs and loss of wages.

In some cases, there may be multiple parties responsible who could be found liable.  For example, the truck driver, truck owner, owner of the trucking company, the company responsible for truck maintenance and repair, the company that loaded the cargo, and the manufacturer of a defective part that failed could be held liable in this case, depending on what caused the accident.  These parties may all have insurance and assets that could go toward a settlement, and we would look to name them all in a brain injury lawsuit.

Our Brain Injury Lawyer Knows What It Takes to Prove Another Party Was at Fault

In a legal setting, where you need to recover compensation to pay medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering, brain injuries require more specific medical documentation than other kinds of injuries. The difference is that a brain injury can often not be seen on any diagnostic image, such as a CT scan or MRI. Because these injuries are “invisible” on imaging, they are almost entirely based on your subjective experience of how they’re feeling. Good medical documentation is critical for a brain injury.

Insurance companies and juries are the people who will evaluate your legal claim to recover from a brain injury. They are skeptical about people who have injuries they cannot see with their own eyes. Therefore, good medical documentation from a neurologist is critical to proving that your brain injury is real. Reporting your brain injury symptoms to your doctor consistently over time is essential to prove your case because your symptoms are likely the only way to know that you actually have a brain injury.

To succeed with your case, your attorney would have to prove the extent of your injuries and collect evidence to show that another party or entity was negligent and, therefore, liable for the damages you received.

Client Testimonial

”I was referred to Lakota after being involved in a multiple vehicle car accident. Lakota and Jenny were both great to work with, they both were very caring and offered the best advice for my situation. Before speaking with them I was confused about the whole process and what was supposed to happen, Lakota went over each step of the process with me and made sure all of my questions were answered and I understood before I left. I left their office much more confident than I was when I walked in. They are wonderful to work with and I will not hesitate to call them in the future if needed.” – Caroline Truesdale (Google Review)

Lakota R. Denton, P.A. – Asheville Office

36 Orchard St, Asheville, NC 28801

P: (828) 333-5996