Car accidents, physical assaults and other forms of violence, sports injuries, and explosions are common causes of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). If you were diagnosed with a TBI after one of these or another type of incident or accident caused by negligence, you should consider consulting an attorney. A Columbus personal injury lawyer in your area can explain how to prove someone’s negligence caused your traumatic brain injury.
Your lawyer will collect evidence substantiating your case, such as medical records, lay and expert witness testimony, and official accident or incident reports. The evidence gathered for your case file will aim to prove the negligent party owed you a duty of care, but they did not provide it, thereby causing your injury and resulting financial consequences.
How To Prove Negligence In A TBI Case
According to the Legal Information Institute, proving negligence in a traumatic brain injury case involves establishing each of the four elements of negligence, which include:
Duty Of Care
First, your lawyer must prove the at-fault party owed you a duty of care. In general, everyone has a duty to provide ordinary care to others around them every day. For example, drivers must share roads safely with other motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and anyone else around them.
In general, “duty of care” means individuals should avoid causing injury to others whenever reasonably possible.
Breach Of Duty
A breach of one’s duty to provide reasonable care means the at-fault party in an accident caused injuries due to careless, reckless, or negligent behavior. For example, a driver who runs a red light or a person who assaults someone else breaches their duty of care.
In a TBI case, your lawyer must prove a breach occurred in the at-fault party’s duty of care to you.
Causation
Your attorney must also prove the at-fault party’s breach of duty of care caused an accident that resulted in your injuries. They may accomplish this by collecting evidence that establishes a correlation between the at-fault party’s negligent or reckless behavior and the accident.
Damages
Lastly, your lawyer must prove the accident resulted in damages. In personal injury cases, the term “damages” refers to the financial consequences of your injury. These can include medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses and losses. Your lawyer may use income statements and medical bills to prove your TBI’s financial consequences.
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Build A Strong Evidence File After Suffering A TBI
According to the Mayo Clinic, a traumatic brain injury can result in serious short-term or long-term consequences, such as seizures, infections, headaches, vertigo, depression, insomnia, memory and communication problems, and even coma.
If you are recovering from these or other TBI symptoms, seeking compensation on your own may seem impossible. Even for someone not suffering from a TBI, it can be difficult to understand the information an evidence file should contain. It can also be challenging to obtain certain information, including expert and industry information and testimony.
When a personal injury law firm represents you, they will help you build an evidence file that may help you prove negligence and win the financial compensation you are entitled to.
Accident Or Incident Report
Depending on how you were injured, you might have official reports of the occurrence. Law enforcement officers typically create these after a car, truck, bicycle, motorcycle, or pedestrian accident. Other types of accidents may result in various incident reports, such as animal control or internal accident reports. These reports typically contain a plethora of beneficial information, including:
- The accident date, time, and location
- Witness contact information
- Notes from the investigating officer
- Accident scene photos and videos
Your TBI lawyer will obtain these reports on your behalf while you concentrate on your recovery.
Medical Records And Bills
Your medical records will state the cause of your TBI, any additional injuries or illnesses that stem from it, and any further injuries you suffered in your accident. They will also tell your TBI attorney how extensive your injury is and how it will affect your physical and cognitive abilities. Medical records will also document your pain and suffering and prescribed treatment plan.
Lay And Expert Witness Testimony
If the accident that led to your injuries happened when you were not alone, you might have lay witness statements that support your right to compensation. In general, witness statements, especially from people you don’t know, are considered objective, making them valuable evidence. They can provide a look at the accident from various points of view and may have supporting smartphone photos and videos.
Expert witnesses can also substantiate the cause of your accident and traumatic brain injury. These witnesses can include accident reconstruction experts, medical experts, and more.
A Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Can Help You Seek Compensation
Because neither legal representative — yours nor the at-fault party’s — was present when your injury occurred, both will rely on evidence to tell the story of your injury. Compelling evidence can include:
- Medical records
- Medical bills
- Written prognosis
- Employment records
- Accident reports
- Medical referrals
- Accident scene photos
- Injury photos
- Witness statements
- Expert consultants
In addition to collecting evidence for you, your traumatic brain injury lawyer will also present the evidence to the at-fault party’s insurance and legal representatives. Generally speaking, most personal injury cases are settled without the time and expense of a court case. However, your lawyer will prepare your evidence for trial if we cannot settle your case out of court.
Get Help Proving Your Right To Recoverable Damages After A TBI
Were you or someone you love diagnosed with a TBI after being involved in a negligence-based accident? Our client-focused team will work to help you prove someone’s negligence caused your traumatic brain injury. We will also help you fight for monetary recovery from the at-fault party.
Contact one of our case review team members at the Fitch Law Firm LLC to start building your personal injury case today.