Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
A traumatic brain injury is the injury most often missed at the emergency room and most often disputed afterwards. A normal CT scan does not mean the brain is uninjured, and insurers rely on people not knowing that.
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Why a normal scan does not end the question
Standard CT imaging is designed to find bleeding and swelling that require immediate surgery. It is not designed to detect diffuse axonal injury, the microscopic shearing of nerve fibres that causes many lasting cognitive problems. A person can be discharged with a clear scan and still have a brain injury that changes their work and family life.
Specialized imaging and formal neuropsychological testing are what document these injuries. Neuropsychological evaluation measures memory, processing speed, attention and executive function against expected performance, and it produces the objective record an insurer cannot simply dismiss as subjective complaint.
What a brain injury actually costs
The medical bills are rarely the largest number. The larger loss is usually the change in what a person can earn and do. Someone who returns to work but can no longer manage complex tasks, hold attention through a shift, or regulate frustration has suffered a loss of earning capacity even if their job title has not changed.
Where care will be needed for years, a life care planner sets out what that care involves and an economist reduces it to present value. Without that work, future costs are simply argued about rather than proved.
The symptoms families notice before doctors do
Headaches, light and noise sensitivity, sleep disruption, word finding difficulty, irritability and a flattening of personality are commonly reported by family long before they appear in a medical chart. Those observations matter as evidence. Contemporaneous notes about what changed, kept from the first weeks, are often the most persuasive material in the file.
Causes the firm sees
Vehicle and motorcycle collisions, falls from height on construction sites, being struck by falling objects, bicycle and pedestrian collisions, and blast injuries. The mechanism matters because it shapes both the medical picture and the liability case.
Deadlines and why they arrive early here
The two year limit under section 16.003 runs from the injury, not from the day the diagnosis is finally made. Because brain injuries are frequently identified late, the practical window to investigate is shorter than it looks.
Do you have a brain injury claim?
A claim exists where another party's negligence caused the injury, whether that was a driver, a property owner, a contractor or a manufacturer. The harder question in these cases is usually not liability but proof that the brain injury is real and was caused by the incident.
That is why a claim can exist even where the emergency department recorded no brain injury at all. A missed diagnosis is a gap in the record, not evidence that nothing happened.
How the injury is proved when the person looks fine
Objective testing rather than appearance. Neuropsychological evaluation measures memory, processing speed, attention and executive function against expected performance. Specialized imaging identifies structural injury that standard CT does not resolve.
Around that sits the human evidence: treating physicians documenting the course of symptoms, and family, friends and colleagues describing what changed against a baseline they knew. Contemporaneous notes kept from the first weeks are frequently the most persuasive material in the file.
Why these cases take longer, and should
A brain injury claim should not resolve until clinicians can say whether the deficits are permanent. That commonly takes many months, and a settlement reached earlier necessarily assumes a recovery that may not happen.
In the meantime the firm coordinates records across the several providers involved, instructs a life care planner where future care is required, and works with an economist on lost earning capacity. That work is what converts future costs from an assertion into a proved figure.
Who carries the cost of proving it
Brain injury cases are among the most expensive to prosecute, because neuropsychological testing, specialized imaging, life care planning and economic analysis are all expert work. The firm advances those costs under the contingency arrangement, so the standard of proof a client can afford does not depend on their income while they are unable to work.
What this kind of claim can recover
| Method | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| CT imaging | Bleeding, skull fracture, swelling requiring urgent care |
| MRI, including diffusion imaging | Structural injury a CT does not resolve |
| Neuropsychological testing | Objective deficits in memory, attention, processing speed |
| Treating physician records | Course of symptoms and response to treatment |
| Family and coworker accounts | Change in function against a known baseline |
| Life care plan | Care, equipment and support required in future |
| Economic analysis | Present value of lost earning capacity and future care |
More on brain injuries
Concussion or Traumatic Brain Injury
There is no difference in kind. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury.
ReadLong Term Care Costs After a Brain Injury
The hospital bill is the part everyone sees.
ReadTexas Brain Injury Law
A brain injury claim runs on the same Texas negligence framework as any injury case, but three features...
ReadBrain Injury Settlements
Brain injury claims have the widest value range of any injury type, from modest to life-changing...
ReadMedical Malpractice Brain Injury
Some brain injuries are caused by the medical care meant to help, an oxygen-deprivation injury during surgery, a missed stroke, a birth injury.
ReadDeadline to File a Brain Injury Claim
Two years for most claims, but three things can change that, and one of them, the medical cause...
ReadHow Long a Brain Injury Claim Takes
Longer than most injury claims, commonly one to three years, because a brain injury cannot be valued...
ReadWho Can File a Brain Injury Claim?
The injured person, usually, but a brain injury frequently affects the very capacity needed to bring a claim.
ReadWhat To Do After a Brain Injury
The person who was injured often cannot protect their own claim, so this is written for the family.
ReadWho Is Liable for a Brain Injury?
Whoever caused the event that injured the brain, and a brain injury can arise from almost any kind of accident.
ReadEvidence in a Brain Injury Claim
A brain injury is the hardest common injury to prove, because it is often invisible on standard imaging and the person may not remember what happened.
ReadTypes of Brain Injury Claims
Brain injury claims are grouped in two ways that matter legally: by how the injury happened...
Read
Related practice areas
Injury claims overlap. These are the areas most often connected to this one.
Car Accidents
A car accident claim in Texas turns on two questions: who was responsible, and what did the collision actually cost you.
Learn moreMotorcycle Accidents
Motorcycle claims are decided twice: once on the facts, and once against the assumption that the rider must have been speeding.
Learn moreConstruction Accidents
Texas is the only state that does not require private employers to carry workers compensation.
Learn more
Who handles brain injuries at the firm
Shanna Valentine
Attorney
St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami, Florida
Mike Ely
Attorney
George Washington University Law School, 2002
Frequently asked questions
Yes. CT imaging is designed to find bleeding and swelling that need urgent treatment, not the microscopic nerve damage that causes many lasting cognitive problems. Specialized imaging and neuropsychological testing are what identify those injuries.
A concussion is a traumatic brain injury. It is usually classified as mild, which describes how it presented at the time rather than how serious the consequences are. Some people recover fully in weeks and some have symptoms that persist for years.
Through objective testing rather than appearance. Neuropsychological evaluation measures function against expected performance, treating physicians document the course of symptoms, and people who knew the person before the injury describe what changed.
Future care is part of the claim, but it has to be proved rather than asserted. A life care planner sets out what will be required and an economist values it in present terms.
Two years from the date of the injury under section 16.003. That clock runs from the injury rather than from the date the diagnosis was finally made, which matters because these injuries are often identified late.
The firm advances those costs. Neuropsychological testing, specialized imaging, life care planning and economic analysis are all expert work, and they are funded by the firm under the contingency arrangement rather than billed to the client as the case proceeds.
Find out where your claim stands
A free consultation covers what your claim requires, what the deadline is, and what insurance coverage is actually available.
Contingency fee. You pay nothing unless we win.