What is the Average TBI Settlement in Seattle?

What is a TBI?

Catastrophic injuries happen suddenly and can have life-threatening or life-altering consequences. Such injuries arise from violent accidents and normal everyday accidents. Among the most common catastrophic injuries are traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). According to Johns Hopkins Medical, a traumatic brain injury is one of the leading causes of disability and death in adults.

TBI is a broad term for serious injuries to the brain. Whereas a head injury is any trauma that the head sustains to the skull but does not impact the brain, a TBI is an injury that is suffered when an external force impacts the skull and affects the brain. The damage done could be central to one part of the brain (focal), or it could cover more than one area (diffuse). There are many different severity levels when speaking about traumatic brain injuries. Mild TBIs include concussions, whereas severe injuries to the brain include tears or brain bleeding, which could result in coma or death.

There are two broad types of traumatic brain injuries. A closed brain injury is a non-penetrating injury to the brain that does not break the skull. Closed brain injuries are common in car accidents, sports injuries, slip and fall accidents, and injuries to infants. A penetrating brain injury, sometimes referred to as an open brain injury, occurs when a penetrating force breaks the skull. A common example of a penetrating brain injury is a gunshot to the head.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident caused by another person’s negligence, you should not be the party responsible for paying costly medical bills and other expenses related to the injury. By filing a personal injury lawsuit, it is possible to recover compensation for your traumatic brain injury accident. To learn more, please contact a traumatic brain injury attorney at our law firm.

What Are Common Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries?

Brain injuries are more common than a lot of people like to think. A TBI can be caused by ordinary events in daily life, not just in traumatic or violent accidents.

Common causes of traumatic brain injuries include:

• Assaults.
• Bicycle accidents.
• Commercial truck accidents.
• Defective product and product liability cases.
• Gunshots.
• Medical malpractice.
• Motor vehicle accidents.
• Motorcycle accidents.
• Premises liability cases.
• Slip and fall or trip and fall accidents.
• Sports injuries.

Research has shown that falls account for nearly half of all TBI-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Statistics also show that firearm-related suicide is the most common cause of TBI-related death in the United States.

What Are Symptoms and Signs of a Traumatic Brain Injury?

Whereas some of the signs of a brain injury may be immediately apparent following an accident, others take more time to manifest. If you suspect you have been in a traumatic brain injury accident, you must seek emergency medical treatment without delay.

Signs of a TBI could include:

• A general feeling of weakness.
• A numbing feeling across both sides of the body.
• A tingling sensation on both sides of the body.
• Blurred vision or other changes in vision.
• Coma and other disorders of consciousness.
• Difficulty concentrating.
• Drowsiness.
• Fatigue.
• Intense headaches.
• Loss of coordination.
• Mental confusion and agitation.
• Migraines.
• Nausea and vomiting.
• Radical changes in mood or personality.
• Seizures or convulsions.
• Sensitivity to light and sound.
• Slurred speech.

While a mild traumatic brain injury may disappear with time and adequate rest, severe TBIs result in permanent disabilities and other long-term effects. A traumatic brain injury could cause motor deficits, cognitive deficits, functional deficits, social difficulties, sensory deficits, language deficits, regulatory disturbances, epilepsy, and psychiatric changes.

What Sort of Financial Compensation Could You Recover with a Personal Injury Claim?

With the help of experienced personal injury lawyers, it is possible to recover financial compensation for your traumatic brain injury. To do so, you and your attorney must present a case proving that fault rests on the shoulders of another party and also show the cost of having suffered your TBI. With a successful personal injury case, it is possible to recover both economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damages may include:

• Past medical bills and future medical expenses
• Lost wages and lost income earning capacity.
• Property damage.
• Funeral expenses.
• Physical therapy and rehabilitation expenses.
• Cost of rehabilitation services, medical equipment, and assistive devices.

Non-economic damages can include:

• Disability, dismemberment, and disfigurement.
• Loss of quality of life.
• Lost companionship or consortium.
• Emotional distress and mental anguish.
• Physical pain and suffering.
• Wrongful death.

In certain cases, it may also be possible to pursue punitive damages.

Contact our law firm to schedule your initial consultation with our highly skilled legal team to discuss your case today.

What Factors May Influence Your Maximum Compensation?

The settlement for your traumatic brain injury case will partially depend upon the facts surrounding the incident that caused the TBI.

The following factors will influence the full compensation for your case:

• Characteristics of the personal injury victims.
• Egregious conduct by the defendant.
• Mitigating damages.
• The ability to establish Negligence, maliciousness, or recklessness on the part of the at-fault party.
• The ability to show both emotional and physical pain and suffering.
• The extent of medical treatment required and the cost of future medical care.
• The location of the personal injury trial.
• The severity of your injuries.
• Whether there were several parties liable for causing the accident.
• Whether you lost wages or lost the ability to remain at your place of employment.

What is the Average Payout for a Traumatic Brain Injury Lawsuit?

There is no easily defined average for a traumatic brain injury lawsuit. To offer a more accurate idea of how much you could stand to recover for your personal injury case, it would be necessary to discuss your case with an experienced attorney.

That said, we have seen traumatic brain injury cases come back with large settlement offers in the six and seven figures.

Whereas soft tissue injuries commonly recover somewhere around $20,000 in personal injury cases and complex injuries recover closer to $50,000 in personal injury cases, catastrophic injury cases routinely recover settlements in the hundreds of thousands or more.

Schedule a Free Consultation with Experienced Personal Injury Attorneys Today

It is difficult to offer a broad idea of how much your traumatic brain injury case is worth without first discussing your case with you in a case evaluation. Only when we’ve been able to review the facts of your case will we be able to offer you a clearer picture of how to proceed with your case and how much you may stand to recover.

Contact our Washington State law firm to discuss your case with experienced personal injury attorneys today. Every consultation is free. Additionally, we work on a contingency fee basis. You don’t pay unless we win.

To schedule your free initial consultation, please call us at 206-900-9900.