Brain Injury Lawyer in Centennial, CO
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) endanger residents of Centennial, creating troubling symptoms and large medical bills.
If someone else’s negligence caused your TBI, you have a right to seek compensation for your injuries and expenses. The lawyers at Varner Faddis Elite Legal, LLC have more than 30 years of experience advocating for injured clients. If you have questions about your TBI injury, we offer a free consultation to discuss your case. As our case results show, we fight vigorously so that you and your loved ones receive justice. Contact us our Centennial Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer today.
Receiving Compensation for a TBI
Victims of TBIs can seek damage compensation if someone else is responsible for the injury. TBI cases are part of personal injury law, which holds that a person or other entity is negligent if they had a duty of care to someone and failed to perform that duty of care. If injuries result specifically from the negligent breach of duty, the negligent party owes damage compensation to the victim.
Duty of care may sound like a hard-to-understand legal term, but in reality, it’s simple. The vehicle driver must obey the law and follow generally accepted safety principles: that’s the duty of care.
Breaking the law or behaving recklessly breaches the duty of care. Employers must follow generally accepted safety practices, and failure to do so breaches the duty of care. Landlords, owners of retail establishments, and other proprietors must also avoid situations that cause people to slip and fall on their property, including icy sidewalks and slick surfaces (caused by liquid spills), and unsafe staircases. If they don’t, they breach their duty of care.
If your TBI resulted from negligent action, seek damage compensation. Compensation is economic recompense for your injuries.
In Colorado, damage compensation includes.
- Past medical bills: For emergency services (such as ambulances and emergency department treatment), hospitalization, surgery, doctor’s office visits, diagnostic tests, medical treatment, prescription medication, retrofitting a home to accommodate injuries, and more.
- Future medical bills: Doctor’s office visits, hospitalization, surgery, diagnostic tests, medical care, prescription medication, retrofitting a home to accommodate injuries, medical equipment, and more.
- Lost income: Earnings lost due to an accident, medical treatment, and recovery periods.
- The lifetime value of earnings: If the TBI curtails or ends your ability to work in the future.
- Pain and suffering: The physical, mental, and psychological pain and suffering.
Victims usually approach an insurance company for damage compensation or bring a personal injury suit in civil court.
What if My Loved One Died From a TBI?
The law also provides that loved ones whose family members incur a fatal TBI can seek damage compensation. A wrongful death suit is essentially a personal injury case where the injury resulted in death.
In these cases, family members can receive compensation for losses to themselves and the deceased’s estate, including:
- Funeral and burial costs
- Wages and related compensation the deceased expected had they lived
- Benefits that the deceased expected had they lived
- Loss of the deceased person’s companionship
- Grief
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
In Colorado, the right to bring a wrongful death suit in the first year after death resides with the spouse. After that, the spouse and surviving children may file a wrongful death claim. If there is no surviving spouse, surviving parents can file the claim after the first year, as can eligible designated beneficiaries.
Folks filing a wrongful death claim can approach an insurance company or file a suit in civil court.
What if a TBI Stems From a Crime?
Some TBIs may stem from crimes, such as knife stabbing or a shooting. Injured people’s rights to compensation operate under the same laws as any other injury or death caused by negligence. The victims may bring suits for compensation to civil court for traumatic brain injuries.
The criminal nature of the case does not go to civil court but to a criminal court. Law enforcement bears responsibility for charging individuals guilty of a crime. The state of Colorado is responsible for bringing a criminal case to trial.
Civil and criminal courts are entirely separate.
While most criminals cannot cover the costs of their crimes, if the attack took place at a business that failed to provide security, lighting, or other safety measures that could have prevented your injury, you can hold it responsible.
The Colorado Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations refers to the period when a complainant must bring their case to court. In Colorado, the statute of limitations for personal injury cases is three years from the date of an auto accident injury. For wrongful death cases, it’s two years.
Speak with an attorney as soon as possible after any incident that causes injury. Successful cases depend on the amount and quality of evidence about negligent or reckless behavior—the more time that goes by, the greater the possibility that evidence will erode or become lost.
Dealing With Insurance Companies
Unfortunately, insurance companies are not friends of TBI victims and their families. Insurance companies are not always pathways to fair compensation.
Insurance companies want to maintain their profits as much as possible. If there is a way they can lower your settlement or deny it altogether, they’ll take it.
But wait, you may say, I have a very clear case! Maybe a driver hit your car, and you went through the windshield.
Insurance companies may not agree. If their insured is the driver, they could argue that you ran a stop light and their driver had the right-of-way. If that’s true, you’re at fault, not the other driver. It may be an untrue accusation, but that doesn’t stop them from making it, mainly if there’s no evidence to the contrary.
Or, they might argue that your symptoms don’t amount to significant damages, and they pay far less than you deserve.
Many insurance companies practice “low balling,” where they offer a very low sum (a low ball) but pay quickly. They know that TBI injuries, particularly if severe, can require life-long care. Victims and their families may suffer financial duress and immediately need the insurance claim to pay their bills and afford ongoing care.
One of the ways that the lawyers at Varner, Faddis Elite Legal, LLC can help TBI victims is to negotiate with insurance companies. Families often find negotiations difficult and stressful. Since insurance adjusters can delay responses and be difficult to reach, negotiating can feel impossible for family members and victims. But for a lawyer? It’s our job.
Experienced lawyers know what fair damage compensation is. Insurance companies often settle if a victim and their attorney bring a suit because they know that a court is inclined to show empathy for the victim.
What Do I Need to Prove Negligence?
If the insurance company and victim claim that the accident arose from different causes, what evidence do victims need to prove negligence?
Evidence varies according to the circumstances causing the TBI.
But evidence can include:
- A police report
- Eyewitness testimony
- Testimony from people who witnessed negligent conditions (such as residents in a building with unsafe stairs or chronically icy sidewalks)
- Pictures or video of an accident or TBI-inducing scene
- Pictures or video of your injuries
- Medical records of your injuries and treatment
If you are in an accident, address your safety and health first. If you do not need an ambulance, get a police report and see a doctor immediately. Follow the doctor’s treatment recommendations. If you do not, an insurance company can argue that you gave no indication of injury or that the failure to follow treatment makes you liable, not their insured.
If you don’t have evidence, a lawyer at Varner Faddis Elite Legal, LLC can gather existing evidence and work with an investigator to obtain more.
Take notes or journal about what occurred as soon as possible after your injury, including what happened, who or what caused the injury, all symptoms, and how the injuries affect your life.
What Causes a TBI?
A TBI severely injures the brain. Medical specialists recognize two types of TBIs: closed and open. Most reported TBIs are closed, meaning they stem from a blow to or extreme jostling of the head. A football player tackled by an opposing team member may receive a closed TBI, as may a passerby hit by falling construction debris from a building. An occupant might jostle back and forth in a vehicle accident enough to suffer a closed TBI.
The ultimate physical cause of a TBI is the brain jostling back and forth within the skull, injuring the brain itself. One can receive a head injury without suffering a TBI: a closed TBI is about the impact on the brain.
In an open TBI, the victim receives an injury that opens the head to the brain. Open TBIs generally stem from a penetrating object, such as a knife, bullet, or another sharp device.
TBIs result from:
- Vehicle accidents: car, truck, bicycle, motorcycle
- Workplace accidents
- Criminal acts, such as stabbings and shootings
- Slip and fall accidents
- Unsafe premises
One recent year, the U.S. saw 223,135 TBI-related hospital stays and 64,362 deaths related to TBI; 176 people, on average, died every day from a TBI injury throughout the country. Approximately 15 percent of high school students reported a TBI from sports or recreational activities. While young people are at risk for brain injury, people 75 and older see the highest hospitalizations and fatalities related to TBIs.
Across the U.S., falls are the number one cause of TBIs. Indeed, falls cause nearly half of all TBIs. The number two cause is motor vehicle accidents, which cause one out of five hospitalizations related to TBI. The third most common cause is assault, according to the CDC.
What Are the Symptoms of TBI?
Victims of head injuries may not be sure whether they have a TBI because they cause so many symptoms:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Unconsciousness
- Headache
- Blurry vision
- Sensory changes, like vision or hearing problems
- Balance problems.
- Unusual fatigue
- Seizures
- Memory loss
- Fatigue after normal activities
- Sleep problems
- Confusion
- Disorientation
- Personality changes
- Difficulties in concentration
- Impaired cognitive skills or loss of them
- Coma
Because of the wide variety of symptoms and causes, visit a doctor if you’ve experienced any blows or severe jostling to your head. A doctor can examine you thoroughly and provide appropriate medical treatment.
Let Us Help You
If you or a loved one suffer a TBI in Centennial or the surrounding areas, Varner Faddis Elite Legal, LLC can help. We will fight to obtain just compensation on your behalf. Our first consultation is always free. We see people in our Centennial office, at your home, or in the hospital. Reach out to a Centennial personal injury lawyer.
Contact Varner Faddis Elite Legal, LLC at 720-710-9073 or online.
Client Testimonial
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Star Review
“Lauren Varner and her staff collected all the necessary information, did the necessary research and procured a nice settlement for my case. They were able to keep me from having to appear in court. I am very grateful for their diligence and keeping me informed. I strongly recommend that practice.” -Rob W.
Office
6025 South Quebec St.
Suite 100
Centennial, CO 80111
Phone: 720-710-9073