Maison Law can help you if you’ve been injured in a car accident in Manhattan Beach. There’s a lot of different injuries that can happen to you in a car accident, and unfortunately, some are more serious than others. None are more serious than a traumatic brain injury (TBI), but our team can help you through it. Set up a free consultation today.
When a Lawyer Makes Sense After a TBI
You don’t have to hire a lawyer after a car accident that leaves you with a traumatic brain injury. But that doesn’t mean you have to handle everything on your own, either. A TBI can make an already difficult situation even harder, as the Cleveland Clinic points out. They frequently cause symptoms and effects that make it difficult for you to:
- Remember what happened in the accident
- Keep up with doctor visits, treatment, and medical bills
- Deal with questions and issues from the insurance company
- Get back to work or have trouble doing the things you normally do
- Figure out the potential long-term effects
If that’s what you’re facing, it’s pretty easy to see why it makes sense to talk to our team. When you do, we can:
- Look into how the accident happened
- Figure out who might be responsible
- Pull together your medical records and other evidence
- Handle the back-and-forth with the insurance companies
You already have enough to worry about while you’re recovering. Our job is to handle the legal side of your claim so you and your family can focus on getting better and figuring out what comes next. That starts with getting enough information after the accident happens.
What Information Can Help My Car Accident Claim?
Most people have never been through a serious car accident before, so it’s completely normal not to know what to do next. But when there’s the possibility of a TBI, the first step needs to be:
- Calling 911 and reporting the accident. This should get police and EMTs to the scene, and EMTs can help you if you’re experiencing confusion, a severe headache, vomiting, loss of consciousness, or other symptoms.
Under normal circumstances, this is a good chance to get the basics about what happened. You can still try to do that if you feel up to it, but it’s more likely that your TBI symptoms aren’t going to allow you to do that. WIth that said, there’s a couple important things that need to be documented:
- Pictures and videos of the vehicles, damage, road conditions, traffic signs, skid marks, weather, and anything else that may help explain what happened.
- Names and contact information for bystanders who saw the accident.
Remember, don’t try to push through your injuries to get these things. If somebody is with you, ask them to get them. Better yet, if there’s police there, ask them to. That way, the aftermath of the scene is at least documented as much as possible.
Then, in the days and weeks after, the effects of a TBI usually progress. That can make things a bit more difficult, but there’s still going to be other things to keep track of like:
- Your medical records
- The police report
- Progress pictures and notes about your symptoms and other injuries
- A fuller TBI diagnosis and prognosis
Here’s the bottom line: if you don’t have everything, don’t panic. A TBI isn’t always easy to see from the outside. Keeping track of what you’re going through can help show what your TBI has left you with. But as you move forward, the details of what happened are also going to matter.
How TBIs Happen in Manhattan Beach Car Accidents
Even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse, it’s not difficult to understand how a TBI actually happens—it’s caused by a sudden blow or jolt that makes your brain move inside your skull. So from that perspective, it’s even easier to understand how it happens in a car accident. Sometimes it happens when your head hits the steering wheel or your window, while other times, it can happen just from the sudden jolt of the collision that causes your head and neck to snap in a given direction.
But a potential injury claim is about the specifics of what happened, which means it’s helpful to look at the more common ways they happen:
- Rear-end accidents, especially when you’re hit hard enough to throw your head forward and backward
- Head-on collisions, which can create significant force and cause serious injuries
- T-bone and other intersection crashes, particularly when a driver runs a red light or fails to yield
- High-speed crashes along busy roads like Sepulveda Boulevard and Manhattan Beach Boulevard
- Rollover accidents, where someone’s head may strike part of the vehicle or the person is thrown around inside the car
The type of accident matters, but more to the point, the underlying cause of the accident itself is what helps you move ahead with a claim.
Who’s Responsible for a Car Accident That Causes a TBI?
After a car accident, one of the biggest questions is usually pretty straightforward: Who caused it? That’s not any different when a TBI is involved, but it is still important because answering that question is ultimately what gives you the person or group that’s responsible for your “damages.”
Basically, though, it’s about showing negligence. That just means someone:
- Did something—or didn’t do something—that caused the accident and your injury.
That usually falls on another driver that was:
- Speeding or simply driving too fast for the road or traffic conditions
- Running a red light or stop sign
- Texting, looking at a phone, or otherwise getting distracted behind the wheel
- Following too closely and rear-ending another car
- Making an unsafe turn or changing lanes without making sure it’s clear
- Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs
Of course, there’s rarely one single cause of a car accident. So that can potentially bring in other people and groups like:
- Another driver that wasn’t directly involved in the accident
- A company that made a part that failed
- The city, county, or state government that didn’t keep the road maintained
Unfortunately, there isn’t always a simple answer when it comes to responsibility. But when you’re left with a TBI, the claims process and your damages are going to be extremely important for you and your family going forward.
What Financial Help You Can Get With a TBI Claim
It’s pretty clear that TBIs are serious. And what makes them really difficult is that everybody responds to them differently. Some people’s symptoms last a few weeks or months and then they go back to normal. But for a lot of people that experience a TBI in a car accident, it changes their entire life. And not just their life, but the lives of the people around them.
While that sounds scary, the claims process still works in the same way as it does for any car accident. It’s about filing a claim and getting financial help for what you’re left with. That includes things like your:
- Medical expenses, including emergency care, doctor visits, testing, therapy, and medication.
- Future medical care, if you need ongoing treatment or rehabilitation.
- Lost income, including time you’ve missed from work and the impact on your ability to earn in the future.
- Pain and suffering, including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and other physical problems.
- Emotional distress, including anxiety, frustration, mood changes, and other effects of the injury.
- Loss of quality of life, when a TBI makes it harder to work, spend time with family, or do the things you enjoyed before.
- Property damage, including damage to your vehicle.
With a TBI, some of the biggest problems may not show up right away. You may leave the hospital thinking you’re going to be fine, only to realize later that you’re having trouble remembering things, concentrating, sleeping, or keeping up with work and everyday responsibilities. That brings up a problem when you understand that you typically only have two years from the date of the accident to file your claim. You might not know how injured you are, but you also don’t have to try to go through it alone.
Maison Law is Here to Help Manhattan Beach TBI Victims
A TBI can change a lot of things at once. You may be dealing with headaches, memory problems, trouble concentrating, mood changes, or difficulties with things that used to be part of your normal routine. At Maison Law, we can help you understand your options and handle the legal side of your claim. Set up a free consultation today to get started.
