What causes brain injuries?
You’re walking down the street. You trip, fall, and bonk your head. As passersby look at you questioningly, you get up—totally embarrassed—and make your way home. After thinking about it a little while, you decide to go to the hospital to have yourself checked out just to make sure your brain is fine.
Or maybe, you are driving home from work one day. You stop at a red light and, as you look in your rearview mirror, you see them coming. “They’re not slowing down. They’re not stopping,” you think. Then, Bam! Your head snaps forward to smack the steering wheel and whips back to hit your headrest, and you’re out like a light. You wake up in the emergency room, where they tell you were in a car accident.
But maybe, one day, your son is walking his dog. A person who is texting and driving runs up on the sidewalk and hits him. When the police call you, he is still unconscious. When you arrive at the hospital, he is officially in a coma. Every day, you sit and wait and pray that he comes back.
Those three stories are all common examples of how someone might get a brain injury. And, even though the third example might seem more serious than the first two, all three of those situations could result in traumatic brain injury or death.
But, those aren’t the only ways you could get a brain injury. Brain injuries are often from:
- Vehicle accidents
- Sports injuries
- Physical abuse
- Common accidents (like tripping and falling), and
- Gunshots
Any time your head might hit something or be hit by something, you could end up with a traumatic brain injury. Then, after your injury, a wide variety of symptoms could follow.
What are some symptoms of traumatic brain injuries?
The brain is your most powerful organ. It controls your ability to breathe, your heart’s beat, your ability to wake up, and your thoughts and feelings about yourself and the world around you. So, when this vital organ gets damaged, it can cause several different symptoms.
This might include:
- Difficulty speaking or understanding spoken language
- Memory loss
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes
- Loss of vision
- Ringing in your ears
- Clear fluid draining from the nose or ears
- An altered sense of taste or smell
- Loss of balance or coordination
- Convulsions or seizures
- Depression or anxiety
- Difficulty sleeping
- Difficulty focusing
- Emotional instability
- Impaired logic
- Inability to accurately assess your abilities
- Entering into a coma
- Inability to breathe on your own, and even
- Death
That is a huge list of things you might be experiencing after your accident. You might even be experiencing several of those symptoms at the same time. However, if you are just noticing one small symptom and you have not been checked out by a doctor, you need to stop what you’re doing right now and go get checked out. Timely help from a medical professional can make the difference in the severity of your injury and the amount of time it takes you to recover.
With such a wide variety of symptoms, you might wonder, “If my symptom doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, am I still able to sue?” The short answer is yes, you might have grounds for a lawsuit depending on the circumstances surrounding your accident. Your best bet is to talk with an expert California brain injury lawyer.
When should you speak with a California brain injury lawyer?
If you or a loved one have suffered a brain injury, right now is a great time to contact a California brain injury lawyer. By taking a little bit of time to speak with an expert attorney, you will have a better shot at recovering every dollar of compensation you need. Plus, with a lawyer’s help, you will ensure you or your loved one receives top-notch medical care and support.
At the Law Offices of John C. Ye, we will gladly speak with you about you or your loved one’s injury and recommend what you should do next. Our conversation and all the expert advice we will give you is free. You will not owe us a dime.
How can you file and win your brain injury lawsuit?
When you want to file and win your brain injury lawsuit:
- Get medical treatment as soon as you can. With brain injuries, early treatment can mean a less-severe injury and an easier recovery. Because the brain is such an important organ, you want to double-check that everything is fine even if you just bonked your head.
- Follow your doctor’s orders. Your doctor knows exactly what you need to do to heal as quickly as possible. By straying from your doctor’s orders you jeopardize your ability to recover, and this greatly impacts your case. Think of it this way, if you told someone how to do something—let’s say tie their shoes—and they didn’t follow your directions, you might think they didn’t really want to learn how to tie their shoes. Otherwise, they would have done what you told them. The same is true with your recovery from your accident. If you don’t follow the doctor’s orders to the letter, a future jury or judge might think you didn’t really want to get better.
- Keep your doctors’ appointments. This is just part of following your doctor’s orders. They’ve asked to see you again because they think it’s important. Do your part and show up.
- Don’t talk to anyone about your accident. Don’t chat with friends about it, and don’t talk about it on social media. In particular, you don’t want to talk about your case with anyone from an insurance company because they are trying to gather information so their company doesn’t end up having to pay you quite so much money. Right now, you really don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize your payment or medical coverage.
- Keep track of everything related to your accident. You might want to keep a folder with all your current bills, emails related to your brain injury, and a little notebook with other information. Note any phone calls or texts (date, time, the person you spoke with) and what they were about. If you are really motivated to win your case, you should start keeping a little journal about what life is like since your brain injury. Talk about how your life has changed, what you miss doing, and other feelings related to your injury.
- Accept help from others. After a brain injury, your body is doing its best to heal and recover. Still, there will be things you can’t quite do for yourself. Now is the time to accept help in areas where you need it. If someone has to come into your home to care for you, accept that help. If someone has to drive you to your appointments, accept that help. And, seriously consider having an expert California brain injury lawyer help you with your case to ensure all of your losses will be covered.
Can I afford a California brain injury lawyer?
Most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis. This is the best way to work with a brain injury lawyer because it means he or she will be laser-focused on winning your case. When your lawyer’s payment depends on your level of success, you can guarantee he or she will be extremely motivated.
This is because if you are not awarded anything, your lawyer won’t get paid. After all, 30% of $0 is still $0. By working on a contingency basis, you know your lawyer is just as eager to bring in a significant settlement for you as you are to receive it.
Before deciding on which brain injury lawyer to work with, you need to know what percentage he or she expects. It’s not unusual for experienced lawyers to ask for anywhere from 25% to 75%, so it’s important to understand what your attorney expects before you officially enter into a contract.
Keep in mind, the contingency fee is negotiable. Don’t be afraid to try to adjust to a lower fee before signing a contract. But, before you agree on a percentage and sign, you need to ask about hidden fees.
Are there hidden fees?
- Sliding fee scale. Ask your prospective lawyer what the fees will be if you go to trial. In some cases, lawyers may use a sliding fee scale. This means you would have to pay a higher percentage if your case ends up in court. Often, it’s quite a bit higher. If the lawyer you’re speaking with has a sliding fee scale, politely thank him or her, and find a different lawyer.
- Case costs. You might have expenses like court filing fees, investigation fees, expert witness fees, and more. Case costs are a normal part of any case, so don’t worry about trying to reduce or eliminate them.
But, what’s most important about case costs is that you pay them “off the top.” This means your case costs are paid before your lawyer’s payment is calculated. It might not sound like a big deal but paying “off the top” can put a lot more money back in your pocket.
Here is an example. Let’s say your settlement is $100,000. Your case costs are $10,000, and your lawyer’s percentage is 33%. When your case costs come off the top, your lawyer’s percentage is calculated from the remaining $90,000. This results in $60,300 for you and $29,700 for your lawyer.
However, if you did not pay your case costs first, your lawyer’s percentage is calculated first. This means he or she would make $33,000, and you would be left holding the bill for the case costs. This would leave you with $57,000 after paying court costs.
So, let’s take a look at the two examples. In the first one where you took your case costs off the top, you ended up with $60,300. In the second example where you paid case costs after, you ended up with $57,000. The first example leaves you with more money—$3,300 more. Make sure that paying the case costs off the top is included in your contract with your brain injury lawyer.
May we help you?
At the Law Offices of John C. Ye, our expert California brain injury lawyers are ready to help you with your case. Just give us a call at 877-278-6890 or contact us online, and we can schedule a time to talk. Remember, it won’t cost you a dime to talk with us and, even if you don’t end up choosing to work with us, you’ll have fresh expert advice about what you should do next.
Whether you choose to work with us or one of our competitors, we hope your case goes smoothly and your recovery goes quickly.
