A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has the potential to drastically impact every part of your life. Any compensation you seek should properly reflect those extreme changes. Exactly how much you may receive in compensation depends on how your injury occurred, your symptoms, and who was responsible for the accident. 
Factors That Affect Your Traumatic Brain Injury Compensation
There’s a huge range of possible symptoms victims suffer after a brain injury. This makes it difficult to put a specific price tag on a brain injury case without a knowledgeable attorney first uncovering all the details of the accident.
Generally, your compensation goes up the more that a TBI interferes with your ability to earn a living or engage in normal, everyday activities. Here are some specific factors that may be calculated when you recover damages.
Income losses
It’s simple for your attorney to crunch the numbers and see how much income you lost in commissioned, hourly, or salaried wages.
Lost earning potential
Both cognitive and physical problems after a TBI may prevent you from returning to your old job. Those issues could force you to find new employment with a reduced salary, or even quit working altogether. Future losses need to be calculated as part of your compensation.
Medical expenses
Damages from a TBI will likely cover the emergency room visit after the accident, any subsequent hospital stays, and other costs such as surgery or medication.
Out-of-pocket expenses
Costs related to additional treatment should also be covered, which is especially important if you need to see specialists who aren’t available locally.
Adaptive devices and ongoing treatment
Damages may cover your need to install adaptive equipment at home, hire an in-home nurse, or utilize services such as language and occupational therapy.
Non-economic damages
This part of your potential TBI compensation covers pain and suffering stemming from issues like cognitive impairment, extreme behavioral changes, vision loss, and so on.
Property damage
This factor might play a role if the traumatic brain injury was the result of a car accident and your vehicle was totaled.
Wrongful death
In the event that a loved one dies because of their brain injury, funeral costs may be included in covered compensation.
How an Attorney Helps You Recover Financially
Your legal counsel’s job is to fight for every dollar you’re owed after a TBI. An attorney helps your financial recovery by:
Establishing Liability
The liable party might seem obvious, such as the at-fault driver in a car accident. However, it’s not always that simple. The at-fault party who caused your accident could be a crew who improperly loaded cargo into a truck, a property owner who didn’t fix a broken staircase, or someone else entirely.
Filing Legal Actions
If insurance won’t cover all your costs (or denies your claim in bad faith) you may need to file a personal injury lawsuit. However, Virginia has a strict statute of limitations on traumatic brain injury cases, which is why you need a lawyer to stay on top of that deadline.
Handling Communication
Insurance providers are more likely to treat you fairly and provide coverage for critical hospital costs if you have legal representation.
Investigating the Accident
An attorney’s investigation is crucial to every other aspect of your recovery, from that first step of determining liability to presenting your case in court. This often involves going through employment records, eyewitness statements, police reports, surveillance videos, and other details to prove what occurred and who was responsible.
Relieving the Pressure
Lawsuits and insurance claims are the last things you want to handle while recovering from a TBI. You should focus on your physical health while your attorney takes care of all the legalities.
