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East Texas Brain Injury Lawyer

Brain injuries can be truly devastating for personal injury victims and their families. Even a so-called “mild” traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as a concussion, can lead to chronic headaches, dizziness, sleep disturbances, and problems with concentration and memory.

But even if a brain injury can profoundly change someone’s life, that’s no guarantee of fair compensation from the at-fault party. Because TBIs are so often “invisible” injuries, insurance companies frequently dispute the severity of symptoms—or try to deny that a brain injury even occurred in the first place.

The brain injury attorneys of Roberts & Roberts assist people in Texas and across the nation in lawsuits involving serious traumatic brain injuries. In more than 40 years of legal advocacy, Roberts & Roberts has established a national reputation for effective representation of clients in significant personal injury matters.

If you or someone you love has suffered a severe brain injury because of someone else’s carelessness, you need the experienced Texas brain injury lawyers at Roberts & Roberts on your side. We serve clients in Waco, Beaumont, Longview, Lufkin, Texarkana, and Tyler, as well as throughout East Texas and across the state.

About Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Lawsuits

It’s important to work with a brain injury lawyer skilled at preparing a case and presenting evidence that reveals the extent of your catastrophic injury.

Traumatic Brain Injuries Are Expensive

Brain injuries can be very costly for victims and their families. The Centers for Disease Control found that direct medical costs of TBI and indirect costs, such as lost productivity, totaled $60 billion in the United States over one year.

If you or a loved one suffered a brain injury, you could face expenses that include:

• Medical and hospital bills
• Rehabilitation and therapy
• Emergency room visits
• Surgeries
• Assistive equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers or other devices
• Private health aides
• Residential facility or nursing home costs
• Lost wages for you and family caregivers, if they quit work to care for you

And the economic costs alone can’t begin to cover the emotional and psychological tolls of memory problems, post-traumatic stress, altered relationships with loved ones, and loss of enjoyment of life. You deserve fair compensation for these non-economic losses, too.

Brain Injuries Can Be Tricky to Prove

As noted above, brain injuries (especially mild TBIs) are frequently “invisible” injuries. Microscopic tears to your brain tissue might not show up on a conventional brain scan such as an MRI.

Furthermore, symptoms such as chronic pain or headaches often tend to be self-reported and may not have a good source of objective evidence. Serious personality changes or emotional and cognitive deficits might be totally obvious to you (and your loved ones) but not as obvious to an insurance company or jury.

Insurance companies are primarily interested in protecting their bottom lines. They aren’t going to give you the benefit of the doubt unless you bring substantial evidence. This might include doctors’ notes, cognitive test results, and written testimony from loved ones, colleagues, and others who knew you well both before and after the injury. It might also require your attorney to educate an insurance company (and the jury) on the latest developments in medical research surrounding brain injury diagnosis and treatment.

An Experienced Attorney Can Help

Brain injury cases can be difficult and complex. They are often more time-consuming to investigate and litigate due to the amount of evidence required and the fact that our scientific understanding of brain injuries is constantly evolving.

We highly recommend you seek out a Texas personal injury lawyer experienced with handling traumatic brain injuries and other catastrophic injury claims. Your lawyer can help in several important ways, including:

• Connecting you with the right doctors who can provide you with the medical treatment you need.
• Conducting detailed interviews with loved ones, friends, colleagues, and others who can testify how a serious brain injury has affected you or your loved one’s daily life.
• Working closely with doctors, life care planners, economists, and other experts who can accurately estimate your future medical expenses, care needs, and quality of life.
• Being up to date on the latest medical research and testing (to help combat the outdated and misguided analysis provided by the insurance company’s “expert” witnesses.

Brain Injuries Are Very Common (But Frequently Go Undiagnosed)

About 1.7 million people sustain traumatic brain injuries every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 52,000 TBI victims die from their injuries and another 275,000 must be hospitalized.

Those who do survive often face long rehabilitation programs and lasting disabilities, including cognitive and motor impairments, behavioral problems, and speech loss. In Texas, approximately 440,000 people live with disabilities caused by a traumatic brain injury, according to the Brain Injury Association of Texas. Many brain injury victims cannot return to work or perform at the same level as before the accident.

Yet despite these shocking statistics, the truth is that many concussions go undiagnosed for days or even weeks after the initial accident. Emergency room personnel may miss the signs, particularly if they are concentrating on treating more directly life-threatening or painful injuries. Furthermore, because concussions can affect cognitive function, brain injury victims themselves might not realize how severely they’ve been affected until they start having difficulty working or performing tasks that used to seem simple.

Traumatic Brain Injuries Often Require Long Recoveries

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is not a single event. It often represents the start of a condition that often lasts a lifetime. Each year, traumatic brain injuries contribute to a substantial number of deaths and cases of permanent disability.

The brain is the organ that sends out all of the body’s signals for thinking, sensation, language and emotion. When those signals are interrupted due to a traumatic brain injury, any number of complications can arise, some of which are a direct result of the injury and some that arise secondarily. These include:

• Paralysis
• Strokes
• Blood clots
• Personality changes
• Behavioral problems
• Cranial nerve injuries
• Brain swelling
• Skull fractures
• Seizures
• Cerebrospinal fluid leaks
• Ventricular enlargement
• Multiple organ failure
• Infections
• Hypermetabolism
• Muscle atrophy
• Speech problems
• Short-term or long-term memory loss
• Cognitive deficits (thinking, reasoning, problem-solving abilities)
• Sensory problems (particularly with vision and hand/eye coordination)
• Chronic pain
• Increased risk for dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease

What Can Cause a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A TBI is caused by a blunt or penetrating head injury that causes a disruption of normal brain function. Tissues, nerves or blood vessels in the brain can be strained or torn.

The most common causes of traumatic brain injury include:

• Auto Accidents/a>
• Workplace Injuries
• Falls
• Sports injuries
• Blows or strikes to the head

You do not have to have hit your head directly to sustain a TBI. Any sudden whip-like motion to your head could jostle your brain inside your skull hard enough to cause damage.

Common Early Brain Injury Symptoms

Each traumatic brain injury is unique. If you suspect that you or someone you love may have suffered a concussion, keep an eye out for any of the following warning signs:

• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Blurred vision
• Ringing in the ears
• Confusion
• Difficulty concentrating
• Short-term or long-term memory loss
• Speech problems
• Change in sleep patterns
• Unpredictable mood swings
• Changes in personality

Although temporary loss of consciousness can occur after a mild TBI, please note that you do not have to lose consciousness to sustain a TBI. Signs of a TBI might not appear immediately after the accident. You might even appear normal. But brain injuries affect the way we think, act and feel.

If you notice any of these symptoms, don’t wait around to see if they clear up on their own. Seek medical attention immediately. Early treatment and intervention can improve long-term outcomes. And if you need to file a brain injury lawsuit, starting a record of diagnosis and treatment as early as possible after the crash can help you build a stronger case.

Contact Roberts & Roberts Today

Most of the attorneys at Roberts & Roberts are board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in personal injury law or civil trial law. That means you will have a legal specialist at your side providing help with your brain injury claim.

We have been helping Texas residents get fair treatment and compensation for catastrophic injuries for more than 40 years. We understand the complexities and difficulties many brain injury victims face when pursuing a legal claim, and we’re here to help. Contact us today for a free consultation and case review.