Riverside Brain Injury Lawyer

Brain injuries can be caused by many different types of accidents, but result in the same long-lasting injuries to any victim. Auto accidents, falls, and sports injuries are major causes of brain injury, leading to high numbers of incidents in areas like Riverside.

Brain injuries are different than ordinary accident injuries because they can impact your entire personality and your ability to do the most ordinary of tasks. You should not be forced to both go through life with a brain injury and suffer the economic effects of this injury based on an accident that was not your fault. Our skilled Riverside brain injury lawyers can help you recover compensation from the party or parties responsible for your accident.

Why Hire an Attorney?

Hiring a Riverside brain injury lawyer to represent you during your insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit can make sure that you have someone in your corner protecting your rights and best interests throughout the legal process. While an insurance company may try to take advantage of you, a lawyer will stand up for you and negotiate with adversaries in pursuit of a positive case outcome.

Hiring a brain injury attorney can come with significant benefits, including:

• Preserving and compiling evidence to support your lawsuit.
• Building the strongest possible claim to financial damages.
• Securing testimony from medical experts, if needed.
• Presenting your case in a compelling way to an insurance company, judge or jury.
• Fighting for maximum financial compensation for your past and future losses.
• Having an attorney look out for you and your family during this difficult time.

At Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP, our Riverside brain injury attorneys operate on a contingency fee basis. This means you don’t have to worry about how much an attorney will cost. We do not charge anything in attorney’s fees unless we obtain financial compensation for your claim. If we do secure a settlement or verdict in your favor, we will charge our fees as a percentage of your overall earnings. That way, you never have to afford an attorney out of pocket.

Cases Panish | Shea | Boyle | Ravipudi Has Represented

The Riverside brain injury legal team at Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP has a strong record of success in litigation in a variety of different accidents, including car crashes, premises liability accidents, slip and fall accidents, construction and workplace accidents, and medical malpractice.

Our past case results for clients with brain injuries include a $21,067,093 verdict in Nelsen v. Hillyard, Inc., et al for a 29-year-old veteran who was involved in an auto collision with a speeding company van, as well as a $15,000,000 verdict in Tilton v. Southern California Gas & Electric for a teenage auto accident victim who suffered a debilitating brain injury. We also secured a $9,600,000 settlement in Doe v. Express Delivery Com for a traumatic brain injury and post-concussive syndrome after a delivery truck’s tow dolly became detached and caused an auto accident.

Together, our attorneys have won more than $800 million in verdicts and settlements for clients in the past 5 years alone. We have a success rate that is over 99 percent. While we do not promise to win your case, we do guarantee hard work and personalized legal services through every phase of your lawsuit for the best possible outcome. We are experienced personal injury attorneys who can go to trial for maximum results, if necessary.

What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A traumatic brain injury describes any damage to the brain’s cells, tissues, fluids or other parts due to a source of trauma. Common causes of traumatic brain injuries are violent bumps, blows, jolts and blunt-force impacts to the head and skull. When an external force strikes the skull, it can jolt the brain and cause it to bump into the sides of the skull, resulting in bruising or other injuries to the brain. In other cases, an external hazard may pierce through the skull and brain, causing a penetrating traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injuries can take the form of concussions, bleeding, hemorrhaging, torn tissues, bruising, swelling and other physical damage to the brain. A traumatic brain injury is often classified as catastrophic, meaning that it will significantly or permanently affect the victim. A brain injury survivor may notice temporary or long-term changes in his or her health, including trouble communicating, cognitive challenges and motor function disability.

Common Brain Injury Symptoms

The brain is a complex organ that is responsible for all thoughts, motions, bodily functions and feelings in the body. When the brain sustains an injury, no matter how minor, the consequences can be severe for a victim. Some of the most common symptoms associated with a traumatic brain injury are:

• Headaches
• Sensitivity to light and sound
• Vertigo or loss of balance
• Dizziness
• Blurred vision
• Vomiting or nausea
• Slurred speech
• Confusion or disorientation
• Memory loss
• Loss of consciousness
• Behavioral or mood changes
• Changes in sleep patterns
• Fatigue
• Convulsions or seizures
• Coma or death

Long-term symptoms can include interference with speech and communication skills, personality changes, trouble with comprehension or cognition, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression, and motor function disabilities.

Common Causes of Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries are often preventable. They occur in avoidable accidents, such as car crashes and slip and fall accidents. If one or more parties have the power to prevent your brain injury, that party may be financially responsible for your injury and its related losses. Some of the most common reasons that brain injuries occur in Riverside, California are:

• Motor vehicle accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Falls
• Sports injuries
• Child abuse/Shaken Baby Syndrome
• Workplace accidents
• Explosions and blast injuries
• Violence, assaults and gunshots
• Struck-by objects
• Medical malpractice
• Birth injuries

Statistically, men are more likely than women to suffer traumatic brain injuries. Adults who are 65 and older are at the highest risk of being hospitalized and dying from brain injuries. Older adults are also at the highest risk of brain injury misdiagnosis due to coexisting medical conditions, such as dementia.

Negligence in Accidents Resulting in Brain Injuries

In personal injury law, negligence is a legal term that is used when someone fails to act with a reasonable amount of care or prudence and this causes an injury to someone else. In California, if one person’s negligence results in a victim suffering a traumatic brain injury, the negligent party may be financially responsible (liable) for related losses. It is necessary to prove that negligence caused your accident, however, to recover financial compensation as a brain injury survivor in Riverside.

Proving negligence requires evidence of four elements:

1. Duty of care. The party being sued (the defendant) must have had a legal obligation to be reasonably careful. This is what is known as the duty of care that the defendant owed to the person bringing the lawsuit (the plaintiff).
2. Dereliction of duty. There must be proof of a dereliction of duty, or a failure to fulfill one’s obligations, by the defendant. The defendant must have committed an act or omission that fell short of the duty to exercise reasonable care.
3. Damages. The plaintiff must have proof of compensable losses, or damages, connected to the defendant’s breach of the duty of care. These may include a brain injury, medical bills, lost wages or a permanent disability.
4. Direct cause. There must be a provable connection between the defendant’s dereliction of duty and the plaintiff’s damages. In other words, the plaintiff’s brain injury would not have happened but for the defendant’s breach of the duty of care.

The evidence used to prove these elements must be clear and convincing enough to demonstrate that the defendant is more likely than not legally responsible for the accident or injuries in question. An experienced brain injury attorney at Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP can help you gather evidence to prove your case, such as medical bills, photographs and videos, expert testimony, eyewitness statements, and accident reports. Then, we can help you use this evidence to build a compelling claim to damages.

Brain Injury Recovery

Brain injury recovery is often a long and tedious process, made more difficult by the re-learning of “mundane” tasks as simple as eating, speaking, and walking. These all represent milestones to the victim of a brain injury, but also represent the full picture of the recovery process. During this process, a victim cannot work and receive a paycheck, nor can they participate in ordinary life events. Instead, they are often confined to a hospital or rehabilitation center where they are forced to spend hours on end practicing basic life skills.

As a victim of a brain injury accident, you are entitled to receive compensation for these injuries, including medical care, rehabilitative care, lost wages, future earnings, mental anguish, and pain and suffering. Your family members are additionally entitled to receive compensation based on their own mental suffering and loss of companionship.  Many victims of brain injuries never fully regain full control of their brain after suffering such a traumatic accident.  This can not only impact the victim’s ability to survive as a functioning member of society, but additionally impacts their entire personality. Brain injuries have the potential to make an ordinarily calm person highstrung, an ordinarily mellow person unruly, and an ordinarily quiet person obnoxiously loud. These are all traits that can drastically impact the victim’s relationship with their close family members, as well as their ability to hold a job.

Brain Injury Statistics

Unfortunately, traumatic brain injuries are more common than you would think around the country. According to the CDC:

• 1.7 million people sustain a TBI each year
• 52,000 more die and TBI is a contributing factor to one-third of all injury related deaths in the United States
• 275,000 are hospitalized due to brain injury
• Males are 1.5 times more likely to sustain a TBI than females
• Half a million emergency room visits for TBI are made by children ages 14 or younger annually
• Adults aged 75 years and above have the highest rates of TBI hospitalization and death
• Indirect and medical costs of TBI totaled an estimated $76.5 billion in the United States in 2010

However, many brain injuries go unreported initially after the injury occurs until damage reveals itself in the weeks to follow.  It is important to take medical action as soon as possible after a brain injury, to prevent further damage from occurring. Doctors and scientists alike still do not fully understand the inner workings of the brain and any injury to the brain can impact the entirety of our inner being. It’s also important to speak with a Riverside brain injury attorney to discuss your legal options against a negligent party.

Damages You Can Recover

If you or your lawyer can establish negligence and prove another party is at fault for you or a loved one’s traumatic brain injury, your family could recover financial compensation for many different losses. Another word for this financial compensation is damages. Most brain injury claims settle, meaning the insurance company offers a fair amount for the victim’s losses. However, your case may have to go to trial in Riverside County if an insurance company refuses to offer a reasonable settlement.

Our attorneys at Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP can negotiate for maximum monetary recovery for all of your losses, including:

• Medical expenses (past and future)
• Long-term disability
• Losses of income
• Lost capacity to earn
• Property damage
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Lost quality of life
• Wrongful death damages
• Punitive damages

Although no amount of money is enough to make up for a brain injury, achieving a fair award can go a long way toward improving your future. Damages can help with the long-term effects of a brain injury, such as the inability to work, physical therapy, rehabilitation and live-in care. It is important to work with a brain injury lawyer in Riverside to fight for maximum financial compensation for you. Obtaining the amount that you deserve for a traumatic brain injury can allow you and your family to move forward with less financial stress and greater peace of mind.

Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP | Riverside Brain Injury Lawyers

If you have been the victim of a terrible accident which left a lasting brain injury, you may be eligible to receive compensation for your injuries.  The Riverside brain injury attorneys of Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP have years of experience in handling brain injury cases and understand the difficult task that reaches before you and your loved one during the recovery process. As the victim of a traumatic accident, you should not be responsible to cover the years of rehabilitation and the possibility of never fully regaining true brain functioning. Contact our personal injury lawyers today for your initial free consultation.