Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a common result of car accidents and sports injuries. Symptoms of a TBI include headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and problems with speech. TBIs can also have long-term effects, like mood swings, combativeness, unusual behavior, and cognitive deficits.
Brain injury symptoms may not appear right away after your accident, and new symptoms may emerge in the weeks and months following the injury. A TBI can leave you saddled with medical bills, unable to work, and struggling with brain fog, memory loss, confusion, and other symptoms that can make it hard to live your daily life and carry out your normal activities. A brain injury lawyer can help you get the compensation you deserve to pay bills, make up for your lost income, and keep you afloat until you can get to work again – or ensure that you’re financially secure if you can never go to work again. Here’s what you need to look for in a brain injury attorney.
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Specialization and Experience
If you’ve suffered a TBI as the result of a car accident, you need to find a personal injury attorney who specializes in brain injuries from car accidents. There are many subspecialties under the umbrella of personal injury law, and you need someone who knows the ins and outs of TBI cases. You need someone who has worked with brain injury cases in the past.
An experienced brain injury lawyer will be able to tell you, for example, when it’s a good idea to accept a settlement and when it’s a good idea to sue for more. An experienced attorney will be able to effectively negotiate with the insurance company to get you a bigger settlement. They’ll be able to tell you how to proceed with your medical care and personal life in order to get the most compensation. And, because they’ll know the court system, they’ll have some idea of how the judge will react to your case and whether it’s worth taking it to trial.
Good Reviews and Client Recommendations
You wouldn’t hire a plumber or an electrician without checking their reviews online, and you shouldn’t hire an attorney without checking their reviews, either. Look on sites like Google or Avvo for lawyer reviews and recommendations. Ask any attorney you talk to for a list of client references, and call the previous clients to find out how satisfied they were with the attorney’s work.
A Strong, Professional Team
TBI cases are complicated, so you don’t want to go with a small firm that will only be able to put one or two people to work on your case. You need a firm that can offer a strong, professional team of attorneys and paralegals to assemble and argue your case. A team with multiple attorneys brings more experience to bear on your case.
Good Communication Skills
A good attorney must have good communication skills to successfully argue his or her cases in front of the court. Not only do you want someone who can argue convincingly for your case, you also want someone who keeps lines of communication open, even when there hasn’t been much forward momentum in your case. Choose an attorney who will communicate with you through your preferred method, be it by text message, phone call, or email; many TBI plaintiffs prefer written attorney communications so they can look back on them later. Look for an attorney who responds to you quickly and keeps you in the loop even when they are waiting on the court or the insurance company to move the case forward.
A Contingency Fee Structure
Most, if not all, personal injury attorneys work on contingency, which means that they take a percentage of your settlement or award. If you don’t win your case, the attorney doesn’t get paid. That means that attorneys likely won’t take a case unless they feel they can win it. Make sure you can pay on contingency and that you know what percentage of your settlement or award will go to your attorney. Typically, it’s about 33 to 40 percent.
The Right Personality Fit
TBI cases can take a lot of time to work their way through the courts, and you’re going to be sharing intimate details of your medical history and personal life with your attorney. That’s why it’s important that you like and get along well with your attorney. If your personalities clash, it’s going to be hard to work together as closely as you will need to, and will add extra stress to an already difficult time in your life.
If you’ve suffered a TBI due to a car accident or someone’s else’s negligence, you need the right attorney to represent you. Shop carefully for a brain injury attorney, so you can get the money you need to pay your medical bills and make up for your lost wages.