Brain Injury Legal Information Necessary for Filing an Injury Claim
When pursuing a claim, it helps to know how you can use some basic information regarding your injury before taking legal action.
For instance, in brain injury, which is a serious injury caused by car crashes or slip and fall accidents, assaults and other acts of violence. Hence, with proper brain injury legal information, you can recover and mitigate the effects of this devastating injury.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that as many as 1.4 million Americans suffer from brain injuries resulting from various traumatic accidents.
Contrary to what some people believe brain injuries are sometimes difficult to detect and may vary from mild to severe; in a few cases, it is misdiagnosed. The symptoms of this injury are sometimes subtle. In fact, a brain injury victim may look all right after an accident but may feel different a few days or weeks later.
However, you do not have to be involved in a major accident to suffer from these injuries. Brain injuries can be inflicted by any physical trauma to the head and brain such as blow, bump, shake or penetration or any movement that will cause disruption to the brain’s function. Hence, one can suffer from these injuries even while engaging in contact sports such as football or non-contact sports such as bicycling.
Common types of Brain Injury
- Concussion – This injury is often caused by violent shaking of the head caused by a jolt or blow to the head that can result in permanent damage.
- Closed head injuries – This injury is often not noticeable but the damage is significant. Closed head injuries do not show obvious effects such as external bleeding. A whiplash can cause this type of injury.
- Acquired brain injury – This injury is often due to internal causes and occurs in near-drowning accidents, medication misuse, and exposure to toxic substances, among others.
Understanding how one has acquired his injuries can help determine what caused the accident and who the liable parties.
In cases involving serious injuries such as brain injury, the victim may pursue a claim based on two principles, which will be determined by the cause of the accident and the party involved.
Negligence – In finding fault under this theory, your lawyer must prove that you were injured because of another person’s recklessness. To do this, your lawyer must show that the liable party owed you a duty of reasonable care, and failed to perform that duty, resulting in your injuries.
Strict product liability – If your injury was caused by a defective or faulty product, the manufacturer can be held liable for your injuries. The lawyer must show that product was unreasonably safe under the circumstances which resulted in your injuries.
A brain injury lawyer can help you mitigate the effects of serious injuries and provide you with the necessary legal information on brain injury and other serious injuries.
