If you have suffered a brain injury, you may be worried about your future. Whether you were injured in a slip and fall, car accident, or medical procedure, you may be entitled to an insurance settlement.

The best way to get the settlement you deserve for your brain injury is to hire a lawyer experienced in brain injury lawsuits. They know how to calculate your current and future damages, which offers from the insurance company are reasonable, and when to take your case to court. Your attorney will tell you what you need to do and remove much of the stress from the process.

What Does a Fair Settlement Look Like?

Brain injuries can cause a lot of pain at the time of injury and during recovery. Many people report pain for many days or weeks after the initial injury, and sometimes longer. Brain injuries can also cause severe and permanent disabilities.

The CDC estimates that only 26% of people with moderate to severe brain injury improve over five years, while 30% experience worsening symptoms. Common brain injury symptoms include:

  • Persistent headaches
  • Blindness
  • Repeated nausea and vomiting
  • Slurred speech
  • Personality changes
  • Seizures
  • Decreased control over movement
  • Loss of sensation or numbness and tingling
  • Confusion

Many of these symptoms make it impossible to return to work at your previous position or enjoy your hobbies and leisure time. Your brain injury may also negatively impact your relationships. You have to account for your loss of current and future income, including working fewer hours or in a position that pays less than you were making before your accident.

Your compensation must also account for your loss of enjoyment of life, a legal term that means you have trouble performing your usual activities. Sports, social gatherings, and hobbies may be more difficult or impossible following a brain injury.

Treatment for brain injury often involves multiple scans or surgery, with many follow-up appointments to monitor your progress. These costs add up quickly and must be considered when deciding what a fair settlement looks like for you.

How Do I Know If I’m Being Offered a Fair Settlement?

To determine the compensation you deserve, gather your medical bills and pay stubs. The medical bills show your current medical costs and give you an idea of future medical expenses. Pay stubs allow you to estimate your current and future lost income.

Calculating loss of enjoyment of life is more complex. It factors in your age (younger victims will have to live with their symptoms for longer), education and work history, the severity of your injuries, future consequences of the injury, and the nature of the loss of activity. An attorney with extensive personal injury experience is in the best position to determine a fair settlement for your brain injury.

How to Obtain a Fair Settlement

If you want to receive a fair settlement, speak to our Indiana brain injury lawyers. They can calculate fair compensation based on your age, current and future medical bills, pain, loss of income, and loss of enjoyment of life.

They can also hire medical and financial expert witnesses to make the insurance company or jury understand your pain and how much your suffering has cost you. These witnesses are instrumental in conveying your loss of enjoyment of life to the jury.

What Happens if the Insurance Company Won’t Offer Fair Compensation?

Insurance companies are usually only interested in their own profits and are reluctant to pay any settlement. They often offer low, unfair compensation at first. An experienced brain injury attorney can negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf.

If negotiations with the insurer fail, your lawyer can take the company to court, where a judge or jury will hear your case and decide how much to award you.

The maximum amount of punitive damages you can receive in Indiana is $50,000, while compensatory damages are determined by the defendant’s degree of fault. In cases where the defendant has been convicted regarding your injury, you may claim 100% of compensatory damages.

If your brain injury results from medical malpractice, the damages you can receive compensation for are limited to $1.8 million. This cap applies to injuries that happened after June 30, 2019. Malpractice injuries before this date have lower compensation limits.

Schedule a Free Consultation to Discuss Your Brain Injury Case

Pursuing an insurance settlement for a brain injury can be overwhelming. Our skilled legal team at Wagner Reese can take over the most challenging aspects of the process, calculating fair compensation and relieving you of the burden and anxiety. Let us advocate for you and get you the settlement you deserve.

Contact the experienced brain injury team at Wagner Reese to schedule your free consultation today.