When you face a serious injury like a brain injury, the damages you get should be high. The injury is severe, and you need higher damages to compensate your needs. But understanding exactly how much your case is worth is difficult without a lawyer.

A “good” settlement for a brain injury will cover the costs associated with the injury, plus your pain and suffering. That means accounting for the high medical costs, plus home nursing or other care needs you might face. It also means accounting for the loss and difficulty you face from disabilities. Each case is different, so review yours with a lawyer.

Call Phoenix Accident and Injury Law Firm at (480) 428-0816 for a free case review with our Arizona personal injury lawyers today.

What Damages Are Included in a Brain Injury Case?

Brain injuries – whether we’re talking about concussions or more severe traumatic brain injuries (TBI) – involve three major areas of damages that come up in most injury cases. However, the specifics of your injury and losses dictate the values:

Medical Bills

Severe TBIs often require intensive medical care. CT scans and MRIs are often needed to determine the extent of the damage and what treatment is needed. If surgery is needed to repair injuries or you need a craniectomy to relieve pressure, this will mean even higher costs.

Many people with severe TBIs also need ongoing physiotherapy, mental health therapy, occupational therapy, and potentially even around-the-clock care. All of these costs, now and projected into the future, should be included in your claim.

Lost Earnings

Brain injuries often cause lost income, whether you need to take a few weeks off to deal with a concussion or you face a lifelong disability that requires a career change or puts you on permanent disability.

In any case, we can calculate the past and future lost wages in your case.

Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering accounts for the “non-economic” damages in your case. This includes the actual pain of injury, plus the taxing and draining nature of the mental and emotional effects.

Many brain injuries come with a sense of loss – whether that is loss of ability, loss of your former self, or loss of future freedoms the disability will cause you. Worse injuries that impact your life more broadly often have higher pain and suffering damages than short-term injuries that have a smaller effect.

Factors to Consider When Calculating Damages

The following are all important factors that can drive up the medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering of a brain injury:

What Type of Injury Do You Have?

Mild concussions are arguably “less severe,” but they could still lead to persistent post-concussion syndrome or later CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).

How Many Prior Brain Injuries Have You Had?

People who participate in sports or extreme sports often have a history of concussions, meaning this concussion might be far worse than the previous ones due to the cumulative nature of brain injuries.

How Much Has Your Life Changed Because of This Injury?

If your entire life has been upended, you need help getting dressed and going about your day, and you will never be able to financially support yourself again, you deserve exceptionally high damages.

So, How Much is a Good Settlement?

A settlement is “good” if it covers all of your needs. Never accept less than your case is worth from an insurance company or defendant.

The problem is, it can be difficult to calculate your damages and know what your case is worth. The only way to really know is to talk to an Arizona personal injury lawyer about your case, the strength of your evidence, your chances of winning if the case went to trial, and other factors.

FAQs for Brain Injury Settlements in Arizona

What Happens if I Accept a Settlement?

If you accept a settlement, your case is over. This means you cannot go back and claim more in a lawsuit or through additional negotiations. That is why it is so important to talk to a lawyer first.

Should My Settlement Be a Lump Sum or Structured Settlement?

How you get the money is something you should discuss with a lawyer. Many people with disabilities that keep them from working benefit from being on a fixed income because it keeps them under asset limits for programs like SSI or Medicaid. Others might want the money put all at once in an account they can control, so they can manage, invest, and use the settlement money however they want.

What is Pain and Suffering?

Pain and suffering is a bit of an umbrella term for the “non-economic damages” in your case. While economic damages reimburse you for costs and expenses (e.g., medical care), non-economic damages reimburse you for things like

• Pain
• Mental suffering
• Anguish
• Emotional distress
• Lost ability
• Etc.

How is Pain and Suffering Calculated?

When we calculate economic damages, we have bills and financial records to use. With non-economic damages, like pain and suffering, there are none.

Instead, we can use one of these shortcut methods:

• The Multiplier Method – Set a multiplier from 1.5 to 5 based on the severity of the injury and multiply that by the economic damages in the case.
• The Per Diem Method – Select a per-day cost for pain and suffering (usually set by starting with the victim’s pre-injury daily income) and multiply it by the number of days they face pain and suffering.

Should I Settle or Go to Trial?

The question of whether you should accept any settlement should always be considered with your lawyer. In some cases, we can go back and negotiate for a better deal, but in others, the only alternative might be going to trial.

However, trial is sometimes unpredictable. You should always weigh the risk of losing or getting a low award at trial against having money in hand from a settlement.

Call Our Arizona Personal Injury Attorneys Today

Call Phoenix Accident and Injury Law Firm at (480) 428-0816 for a free case assessment from our Phoenix personal injury attorneys.