What do you know about head injury compensation?
Each and every head injury is unique. They range in severity from minor bruising, to a concussion, and all the way to a fractured skull or brain injury. But even a minor head injury can have long-lasting effects on a person: they might suffer headaches, vision problems, or dizziness. The most serious headaches may cause permanent disability or even death.
The cause of a head injury could be any kind of accident, including road accidents and accidents at work.
In this post, our personal injury and worker’s compensation attorneys at Gordon & Gordon will discuss the different types of head injuries, how they can occur, and how they can help their clients obtain head injury compensation.
How Do I Know If I Am Eligible For Head Injury Compensation?
Unfortunately, not all injuries are eligible for head injury compensation. The best way to know if you are eligible to receive head injury compensation is to speak with an experienced personal injury attorney.
However, there are a few elements of eligible head injury cases that we can talk about.
For instance, in order to be eligible for head injury compensation through personal injury, your injury has to be someone else’s fault.
In the legal sense, fault is a slippery thing. To prove that someone else was at fault for your injury, we have to prove that someone else had a duty of care that they ignored and that this behavior resulted in your injury. We’ll describe some in-depth examples below.
Second, we have to prove that your injury materially affected your life in a negative way. This is usually relatively easy: it’s simple to prove that you had to miss work. It’s also easy to prove that you accrued medical bills. All of these factors, plus others, will come together to form a number of damages you can ask for from the at-fault party.
The concept of fault is only applicable in personal injury cases. The worker’s compensation claims are a little different.
Should I File A Personal Injury or Worker’s Compensation Claim?
As we mentioned earlier, a head injury can occur anywhere. It can happen at work or in your private life.
If your head injury occurs at work, a worker’s compensation claim will probably be your best bet. But you may still be eligible for head injury compensation through worker’s comp even if your injury does not occur at work. For instance, if you were carrying out your work duties and get into a car accident, you are probably eligible for worker’s compensation benefits.
The biggest difference between a worker’s compensation claim and a personal injury claim is that we base personal injury claims on fault. In order to receive head injury compensation through a personal injury claim, your injury has to be someone else’s fault. In a worker’s compensation claim, your injury just has to occur while you’re working.
Again, the best way to know for sure what kind of claim you should file is to contact an experienced attorney and discuss your case with them.
What Are Some Examples of Head Injury Claims?
Here, we’ve compiled a short list of hypothetical scenarios where the victim would qualify for head injury compensation. We’ll also discuss whether or not the client should file a worker’s comp claim or a personal injury claim, and why.
A Head Injury At Work
The victim of this particular head injury is at work at the time of his accident. During the course of his job inspecting deliveries for a hospital, an iron bar strikes the client on the back of the head.
The client immediately suffers from dizziness, nausea, and blurred vision. He has to cut back his hours at work because he continues to experience painful headaches. The client also has a hard time concentrating. He finds himself unable to do his previous job or any other job with his employer.
Additionally, the client experiences rapid mood swings and other out-of-character behavior. He relies heavily on anti-depressants and anxiety medications.
This client has grounds for head injury compensation through worker’s comp, for the rest of his life. This scenario highlights the need to always consider the long-term prognosis because this injury will affect the client for the rest of his life. The money he receives from his employer’s worker’s compensation plan should reflect that.
Car Accident Causing A Head Injury
The victim in this case is a 17-year-old boy who is the passenger in a car that strikes a streetlight. In this hypothetical scenario, the passenger is not wearing a seatbelt and is thrown from the car and onto the ground outside.
The boy immediately suffers an epileptic seizure and multiple fractures of the skull. He is in intensive care for 10 days and has a permanent brain injury that will affect him for the rest of his life. After suffering a series of epileptic seizures and being unable to work, this client is eligible for a personal injury settlement. He will depend on anti-epilepsy medication for the rest of his life, all due to his brain injury.
A Cycling Injury
In this case, the hypothetical victim of a head injury is cycling to work. As he cycles through the main entrance to his workplace, a barrier between lanes of traffic falls and strikes his helmet.
Because of the cyclist’s helmet, this injury is milder than the previous two hypothetical scenarios. The cyclist suffered from somewhat serious headaches after the injury and missed a small amount of work.
This client could potentially file a personal injury claim or a worker’s compensation claim. He was on his way to work at the time of the injury, but there could be third parties in charge of erecting the barrier that fell on him.
Contact Gordon & Gordon
The Louisiana head and brain injury attorneys at Gordon & Gordon are well-versed in both personal injury and worker’s compensation claims. If you or someone you love has suffered a head injury, contact the Gordon & Gordon law firm by calling 318.716.HELP. You can also leave us a message on our website.