If you or a loved one has experienced a brain injury because of someone else’s negligence, Hall Law Personal Injury Attorneys can help. Call our Edina brain injury lawyers at (952) 697-5560. We can help you recover compensation for your medical expenses, emotional suffering, and lost wages.
Brain injuries can have a long-term effect on your quality and enjoyment of life. Our team has over 40 years of experience fighting for our clients and has received several local and national accolades in cases such as Edina catastrophic injuries, Edina wrongful death, dog bites, nursing home abuse, and more.
Contact our law office in Edina, MN, today to schedule a free case evaluation.
How Hall Law Personal Injury Attorneys Can Help After a Brain Injury in Edina
Brain injuries are sneaky. Sometimes the effect of a brain injury is immediately obvious, but other times the full impact reveals itself over time. This means that many brain injuries go unnoticed and can quickly become complicated legal cases.
Hall Law Personal Injury Attorneys has experience handling complex brain injury cases. We understand that these cases require a highly skilled legal team.
Our Edina personal injury lawyers have been recognized as Top 100 Trial Lawyers by National Trial Lawyers and Attorney of the Year for 2021 by Minnesota Lawyer. We are members of the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys, the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and the American Society of Legal Advocates.
When you hire us to represent you in Edina, Minnesota, we can:
- Provide candid and clear legal advice
- Keep your case organized and on track to meet deadlines
- Collect evidence and thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident
- Negotiate for full compensation from the responsible parties
- Fight for you in a trial when necessary
Our clients are the most important part of our legal practice. We do everything possible to make sure that they leave our office in a better place than when they came in. Contact us to hear more about our law firm and for a free consultation today.
Types of Brain Injury
Brain injury is a broad category that refers to many different types of injuries. Unlike broken bones or bruises, brain injuries are incredibly complex. Since the brain injury is usually hidden within the skull, it can be difficult to identify the type of brain injury.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries, also known as TBIs, are sudden injuries to the brain caused by some external force. For example, a TBI may occur after hitting your head on the windshield in a car accident or after falling down stairs.
TBIs are closed-head injuries, which means that the damage happens entirely within the skull. This is a contrast to an open-head injury that happens when the skull is penetrated and that results in a brain injury.
TBIs are classified as mild, moderate, or severe. This classification can be a bit misleading. Even a mild TBI can become severe over time, especially if it goes untreated. Examples of traumatic brain injuries include concussions, temporary loss of consciousness, and permanent coma.
Acquired Brain Injuries
The opposite of a traumatic brain injury is an acquired brain injury. Unlike a TBI that happens because of an external force, an acquired brain injury is caused by something internal. A great example is a stroke, drug overdose, or lack of oxygen to the brain.
Primary and Secondary Brain Injuries
Brain injuries are also classified as either primary or secondary. A primary brain injury is complete at the time of impact.
A secondary brain injury changes and develops over time. This could happen in a matter of hours, days, weeks, months, or even years. Secondary brain injuries are very dangerous because the ultimate effect of the trauma may not be known for a long time.
Symptoms of Brain Injuries
Our brain controls every part of our being. As a result, the symptoms of brain injuries are incredibly varied and diverse. They can affect everything from our personality, our mobility, our speech and motor skills, to our mental health.
Mild Brain Injury Symptoms
Don’t be deceived by the name. Mild brain injury symptoms can still be very serious. Some examples of mild symptoms include:
- Headache
- Nausea and vomiting
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Blurred vision
- Ringing in the ears
- Sensitivity to light
- Temporary loss of consciousness
- Feeling dazed or confused
- Trouble with concentration
- Difficulty sleeping
- Mood changes
If you experience any of these symptoms, you should immediately contact a doctor to look into a brain injury.
Moderate or Severe Brain Injury Symptoms
Moderate or severe brain injuries can include a mixture of mild symptoms but also other more obvious symptoms. For example:
- Loss of consciousness for minutes or hours
- Seizures
- Dilation in the pupils
- Loss of coordination
- Numbness in extremities
- Extreme confusion
- Slurred speech
- Coma
- Unusual behavior or changes in personality
It is important to remember that any of these symptoms can become more serious and damaging over time.
Brain Injury Statistics
Brain injuries are very common across the United States, including in Minnesota. In Hennepin County, there were 16,197 people admitted to the emergency department for traumatic brain injuries in 2019. A total of 323 of these people died from their injuries.
The majority of these injuries were unintentional, meaning that they were caused by an accident. Falls accounted for the majority, followed by car accidents.
Causes of Brain Injuries
Brain injuries can be caused by anything that creates trauma in the brain. We have seen our clients experience brain injuries after:
- Car accidents
- Bike accidents
- Boating accidents
- Motorcycle crashes
- Slip and falls
- Gun malfunctions
- Snowmobile accidents
- Construction site accidents
- Farm accidents
- Hunting accidents
- Sporting accidents
As a result, we have experience handling every type of brain injury case, no matter how it happened.
Valuing Your Brain Injury Case
The value of each brain injury case varies greatly. Some people have a mild brain injury that resolves after treatment while other people are permanently disabled and will never recover.
Factors that may impact the value of your case include:
- The severity of your injury
- The required medical treatment and follow up
- The emotional impact of your injury
- The impact of your injury on your ability to work and earn income
- How the injury happened, and who is at fault for your accident
An Edina brain injury lawyer can help you estimate the value of your case after an initial consultation.
Damages in an Edina Brain Injury Case
The value of your case is tied directly to the damages that you can recover. In Edina, you can ask for compensatory damages after a brain injury.
Compensatory damages compensate you for your losses, both tangible and intangible. This category of damages can be divided further into two types of damages: special and general damages.
Special Damages
Special damages are compensation for actual monetary losses caused by an accident or a brain injury. These damages are usually proven through documentation like receipts, bills, or estimates.
In brain injury cases, we often pursue special damages for:
- Medical bills
- The cost of surgery
- Rehabilitation and physical therapy
- Cognitive therapy
- Nursing home costs
- In-home care
- Lost wages
- Lost earning capacity
- Medical devices like walkers and wheelchairs
- Pharmaceuticals
Since the symptoms of brain injuries vary, the special damages usually vary depending on the specific course of treatment and the effect on the client.
General Damages
General damages are compensatory damages that pay clients for their non-monetary losses after a brain injury. These are intangible losses that recognize the life-changing effect of a brain injury.
General damages include:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Alienation from family
- Loss of consortium
- Physical impairment or disability
- Emotional distress
These types of damages are very common in brain injury cases because it is normal for the injury to impact the emotional well-being of a client. It can change how they interact with family, their mental health, and their overall quality of life.
How Long Do I Have To File a Brain Injury Lawsuit in Minnesota?
The deadline to file a Minnesota brain injury lawsuit significantly depends on the facts of your case. For example, brain injuries caused by negligence versus medical malpractice will have different statutes of limitations.
We strongly recommend that you seek legal advice as soon as possible after your injury. If you miss the applicable statutory deadline, you’ll lose your right to pursue damages in court.
Contact an Edina Brain Injury Lawyer for a Free Case Review
If your life has been upended by a brain injury, Hall Law Personal Injury Attorneys can help you get compensation for your losses. You deserve to be made whole again after experiencing a life-altering injury like a brain injury.
Our Edina brain injury attorneys take a compassionate and fearless approach to every case. If you’d like to learn more about our practice, contact us to schedule a free case review and consultation. We have an office conveniently located in Edina, MN.
Our personal injury law firm in Edina, MN, also provides:
- Car Accident Lawyers in Edina, MN
- Catastrophic Attorney in Edina
- Bicycle Accident Lawyer in Edina
- Dog Bite Lawyers in Edina
- Motorcycle Lawyer in Edina, MN
- Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers in Edina
- Truck Accident Lawyer in Edina
- Wrongful Death Lawyer in Edina, MN
