Catastrophic Injuries Attorney in Atlanta

Spinal Cord Injuries

The spinal cord is the bundle of nerves that allows your brain to communicate with the rest of your body. It transmits nerve signals that are necessary for movement and sensation, and when it is damaged, it can interfere with these signals. In some cases, a spinal cord injury can be so severe that communication is completely cut off, resulting in paralysis below the site of the injury. Even in cases where the brain can still communicate with the rest of the body, victims often experience significant issues like numbness, tingling, pain, loss of range of motion, and muscle weakness.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries are often the result of a bump or blow to the head. They can also occur when the head snaps back and forth on the neck with force sufficient to cause the brain to hit the inside of the skull. They cause a disruption in normal brain function and can cause significant issues, including:

Fortunately, in many cases, these symptoms resolve within a few weeks or months, allowing victims to live as they did prior to their accident. In more serious cases, however, victims can be left with significant physical and cognitive difficulties that may affect them for the rest of their lives. Many severe traumatic brain injury victims are unable to ever return to work and may not be able to live on their own. Common causes of traumatic brain injuries include motor vehicle accidents, bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, slip and fall accidents, and sports accidents.

Other Catastrophic Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries are just two examples of serious catastrophic injuries that can have lifelong consequences. Any injury that can result in a significant functional disability can be considered catastrophic. Some examples of other catastrophic injuries include the following:

Protecting Your Rights After a Catastrophic Injury

By definition, catastrophic injuries will result in long-term consequences that will substantially affect victims’ lives. For this reason, they tend to result in cases involving significant sums of money, often well into the millions of dollars.

If you are dealing with a catastrophic injury that occurred in an accident, it’s critical that you do everything you can to protect your rights. The insurance company is not on your side and will do everything it can to pay you as little as possible. Some of the tactics that insurance companies may use to minimize the amount it compensates you include the following:

• Waiting for your medical expenses to accumulate before making a settlement offer, knowing that the financial pressure of mounting bills will make it more likely that you will settle for less.
• Telling you that they “need” a recorded statement in order to “process” your claim. The reality is that the insurance company does not need anything, but a recorded statement gives them an opportunity to trick you into saying something that may justify a lower settlement offer.
• Contacting you immediately after your accident with a settlement offer, hoping that you have not had a chance to speak to a lawyer to find out much your claim is actually worth.
• Starting with an unreasonably low settlement offer.
• Requesting an overbroad authorization to sift through your medical records, looking for anything in your past that could allow them to characterize your injuries as a “pre-existing condition.”

Fortunately, there are certain things that you can do to protect your legal rights after a catastrophic injury. The most important of these include:

• Seeking medical attention right away after an injury-causing accident.
• Engaging in follow-up care and following all of your doctor’s treatment recommendations.
• Keeping detailed notes about the way in which your injuries affect your day-to-day life. Things of which to make note of include pain you experience, activities you can no longer enjoy, feelings of sadness, anxiety, or depression, problems sleeping, and social or family gatherings your injuries prevent you from attending.
• Staying off social media. Insurance companies may closely monitor your online activity to see if you post anything that may allow them to argue that your injuries are not as serious as you are saying that they are or that they are not affecting you in the way that you claim.
• Calling an attorney as soon as you can. Once you retain a personal injury lawyer, he or she will represent you in all communications with the insurance company and protect your rights. Waiting to start your claim can jeopardize your chances of obtaining compensation, as evidence critical to your case may disappear or get destroyed. In addition, if you wait too long, your claim could be completely barred by the statute of limitations.

Atlanta Catastrophic Injury FAQ

Some accident victims walk away with only a few scratches or no injuries at all. Others, however, have their lives instantly changed when they sustain catastrophic injuries. The following are some common questions about catastrophic injuries and resulting legal claims. To discuss your specific injuries and rights, contact an Atlanta catastrophic injury attorney at Brauns Law Accident Injury Lawyers, PC.