You take your personal safety seriously and do all that is in your power to keep out of harm’s way. But you must have help from other parties to meet such a crucial life aim. When you are on the road, in a restaurant or club, or staying in a hotel, you depend on others to act responsibly. If you have been injured in an accident caused by the recklessness and negligence of another person, it can lead to serious complications in your life.
A brain injury is one of the worst kinds of injury. It can have wide-ranging physical and psychological effects. It can put you out of work and cause the decline and ruin of your finances. Brain injuries come in two general categories: mild and severe.
The symptoms of a mild brain injury include:
- Headache
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Disorientation
- Sleeplessness
- Sensory problems
- Loss of memory
- Mood changes
- Inability to concentrate
Signs of severe brain injury include:
- Persistent headache
- Convulsions or seizures
- Pupil dilation
- Draining of fluids from nose or ears
- Numbness in fingers and toes
- Lack of coordination
- Slurred speech
If you have any of these symptoms, you should go immediately to the hospital. Although loss of consciousness and paralysis—temporary or permanent—can indicate brain damage, the latter does not always present in these forms. Your body may be telling you that something has gone terribly wrong with its executive organ—your brain—through other means.
If you are diagnosed with a brain injury, you should take legal action against the person who caused the accident that led to it.
Building Your Legal Case
To make this happen, you must hire Reno brain injury attorneys. Even if you went to the hospital after an accident and everything checked out fine, you will still have a case against the person who caused the accident if you show symptoms of brain injury later on. Hiring a personal injury law firm in Reno Nevada is the only way to build such a case.
Your brain injury lawsuit will be based on a claim of negligence. To succeed in your suit, your Reno personal injury lawyer will need to prove that the defendant had a duty of care, that they failed to adhere to this standard, that their failure caused your injury, that you have suffered material loss as a result, and that the respondent owes you a certain amount of money.
In other words, a Reno personal injury attorney will need to link your brain injury to the actions of the defendant.
The Road to Compensation
Getting the money you are entitled to will require time, patience, and the skill and insight of the Reno brain injury lawyer you hire. The first thing your attorney will do is sit down with you and ask you to recall the events that led to the accident. It is okay if you cannot remember everything. The lawyer just needs enough to formulate their approach to investigating the accident and their legal strategy.
The most important thing is to demonstrate the culpability of the respondent in the accident. To this end, your lawyer will bring in investigations professionals. Investigators will recover any video camera footage of the accident scene. They will also track down and interview everyone who witnessed it. Investigators will also look into the background of the person responsible for the accident, or, if you were injured in a public place, the history of complaints against the company. The point here is to show a pattern of neglect and carelessness, which can improve the strength of your case.
Your attorney will also bring in independent medical experts to review your records. They will give statements about the severity of your brain injury, its debilitating effects, and the prognosis for your recovery.
All of this evidence will be used to pressure the other side to offer a fair and adequate settlement.
If you have suffered a brain injury because of someone else’s negligence, you should call the personal injury attorney in Reno NV at the Law Office of Stephen Osborne to review your legal options.