What is the Average Settlement for Traumatic Brain Injury?

Sustaining a brain injury can change your life in an instant. These injuries can happen from slips and falls or even tackles on the football field. They often lead to lots of medical treatment and rehab, lost income, and a lower quality of life.

In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded over 69,000 deaths in the US due to traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). The CDC highlights TBIs as a major contributor to death and notes that survivors often experience disabilities.

When negligence or unsafe actions are to blame for your injury, you may be able to seek compensation through a personal injury settlement when someone else is at fault for your injury. But how much is a brain injury case worth? What things decide the amount? 

Let’s explore those questions in depth.

What is a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A traumatic brain injury (or TBI) is sudden harm to the brain from a hard hit or jolt to the head. Common causes are falls, vehicle accidents, colliding with an object, assaults, and sports injuries. These forces crush delicate brain tissue, bruise and tear nerve connections, and result in swelling.

Even mild TBIs have serious health effects, like chronic headaches, cognitive problems, and personality changes. More severe TBIs lead to hospitalization, comas, paralysis, and death. No matter how bad it is, all TBIs need medical care and time to heal physically and emotionally.

Average Settlement Amounts for Different TBI Cases

Settlement amounts vary a lot based on how bad the TBI is. But you can get fair payment with good legal help.

Mild TBIs

For mild TBIs with temporary headaches, dizziness, or confusion, settlements range from $20,000 – $85,000. This accounts for medical bills and lost wages. On average, your lawyer will take 40% of these settlements.

Moderate Brain Injuries

Moderate brain injuries needing hospitalization and surgery and causing lasting issues like seizures or speech problems have average settlements of $250,000 – $1,000,000. This accounts for healthcare costs plus reduced lifelong income. 

Severe TBIs

Severe TBIs resulting in comas or permanent vegetative states have much higher settlements in the millions. One study found an average payment of almost $4 million for severe injuries leading to permanent total disability. 

Higher insurance coverage is key because lifelong care can exceed $5 million. Umbrella insurance policies help cover massive losses.

What Affects Settlement Amounts?

Many things affect TBI settlement amounts. First, if you share fault for the accident, you’ll get less money. Laws prevent any payout if you share even 1% of the blame.  

Also, lower insurance coverage means less compensation. So big policy maximums matter.

Additionally, more severe TBIs get higher settlements. Mild TBI with months of headaches and dizziness for six months may get around $30,000. Six-figure settlements often account for medical bills and lost income from moderate TBIs, causing seizures, surgery, and lots of rehab. 

The worst TBIs with permanent disability and lifetime care needs lead to settlements in the millions.

Finally, good lawyer negotiations, eyewitness accounts, accident reconstructions, disability evaluations, and medical documents help get more money. So skilled legal help makes a difference.

Understanding Brain Injury Effects

TBIs will dramatically lower your quality of life. Specific effects depend on things like your age, location of the injury, emergency response times, and severity.

If you have mild TBIs, you’ll experience headaches, dizziness, mood swings, and concentration problems. With mild TBIs, you can recover fully within weeks or months. 

If your TBIs are moderate, leading to dangerous swelling and issues like vomiting, seizures, slurred speech, and memory loss, it can take you weeks or years to heal. 

For severe TBI patients, you’ll immediately lose consciousness. You’ll experience fluid buildup need surgery and may fall into comas for months. If you awake, you can battle major physical and mental disability needing full-time care. 

Between doctor appointments, mental health services, physical and occupational therapy, home health aides, and more, you’ll require extensive medical and at-home support as a TBI patient.

Medical Costs

As discussed above, caring for TBI patients demands extensive healthcare. Just mild TBI ER trips cost $8,000 – $10,000. Ambulances tally $2,000 per ride. Hospitalization expenses stack up quickly, with ICU beds costing $4,000 daily. 

Comatose patients on ventilators accrue over $56,000 weekly. That’s not even accounting for diagnostic imaging, labs, supplies, medications, and surgical procedures like craniotomies or implantation of drainage tubes. 

After hospital discharge, costs keep rising through follow-up doctor visits, CT scans, X-rays, rehab, home healthcare aides, wheelchair vans, disability equipment, and more. At least, lifetime expenses for one severe TBI patient top $2.5 million. And that’s just medical bills.

Non-Medical Costs

Along with healthcare costs, you’ll lose major income over time as a TBI patient, including your family. After all, hospitalization and recovery make working impossible for a while. Also, some amount of permanent disability stays even after healing. So, you will be forced to retire early as a TBI survivor or work only part-time and according to Johns Hopkins research, lifetime lost wages per severe TBI victim average over $1.8 million.

Aside from money issues and economic impact, TBIs can emotionally devastate you and those around you. Personality changes strain relationships, leading to strained marriages and can tear families apart. 

Depression is very common. If your family is the caregiver, they’ll sacrifice their jobs, social lives, and mental health. Between income dips, family struggles, pain, and reduced life fulfillment, TBIs take immense personal tolls.

Legal Process and Seeking Payment

Getting TBI compensation involves extensive medical documentation of expenses, disabilities, outlooks, and care recommendations. At the same time, your lawyer will investigate accident causes through police files, videos, photos, witness interviews, and more. Accident reconstruction experts may analyze mechanisms, too.

With proof of fault and damages, your attorney sends demand letters pushing for fair reimbursement. If declined, a personal injury lawsuit follows, outlining harm and requesting payment. 

Over months of legal team information sharing, known as discovery, both sides evaluate case strengths and weaknesses to guide settlement talks or prepare for trial.  

About 95% of injury cases settle out of court through attorney negotiations with insurance claims handlers. Settlement talks summarize medical costs, income dips, pain, and suffering into a lump sum. 

Cases not reaching an agreement proceed to trial by jury for a binding decision. Having an experienced personal injury attorney proves critical for optimizing outcomes throughout legal proceedings.

Negotiation Strategies for Maximum Compensation

Settling TBI cases requires strategic talks by injury lawyers. Demand letters start discussions using past case outcomes to set realistic expectations. Competent lawyers factor in rising healthcare expenses and life expectancy when tallying lifetime care needs, too.  

Since insurance companies have certain profit duties, lowball counters follow. But firmly rejecting unfair offers while showcasing case merits pushes them toward fairer amounts. Back-and-forth talks continue until they reach an acceptable number. 

If talks stall, mediation involves a neutral third party exploring compromise solutions. Mediators clarify strengths and weaknesses on both sides. Signed waivers prevent mediation comments from reaching potential trials, promoting openness for mutually agreeable settlement ranges, often successfully.  

When mediation fails, experienced personal injury lawyers leverage litigation skills to secure fair case values during jury trials.

Legal Considerations

Pursuing TBI payment has pitfalls like short 2 to 6-year legal deadlines necessitating urgent action. Additionally, proving the full extent of damages for lifetime medical care and lost income grows challenging over decades. Defendants may claim pre-existing conditions or later accidents caused particular disabilities instead of brain injury.

Allegations accusing victims of even slight crash faults threaten to limit rewards. But skilled injury lawyers defeat such defense tactics.

Supporting TBI Victims

Recovering from any brain trauma remains tough mentally, financially, physically, and legally. Support groups like Brain Injury Alliance offer connections with fellow survivors and programs providing education and encouragement to ease the journey.  

State brain injury associations also link members to local support coordinators and resources. Additionally, Centers for Independent Living and State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies assist disabled individuals pursuing education, new careers, accessibility tools, transportation, housing, and healthcare coordination.  

For assistance managing extensive bills, victims can apply for Social Security disability benefits, Medicaid, Medicare, and other aid programs. Free legal help clinics provide guidance as well. With adequate personal and community support, you can regain health and purpose as a TBI victim.

Conclusion

Surviving any traumatic brain injury takes major physical, emotional, and financial tolls, requiring extensive support. While money doesn’t heal all wounds, sufficient compensation allows focusing energy on getting better instead of financial fears.  

Settlement averages differ hugely based on injury severity and other variables. But strategic negotiations by seasoned attorneys in pursuit of case merits help you either as the victim or family to the victim of traumatic brain injury, secure adequate compensation for medical requirements, lost livelihoods, and overall reduced well-being. With proper support, life goes on following even the most severe TBIs.

If you or your loved one is seeking compensation for traumatic brain injury, the best way to go about it is to talk to a personal injury attorney. At the Cumberland Law Group, we offer a free consultation, from our qualified personal injury attorneys. Reach out to us today, and let us help you on how to proceed with any TBI settlement cases.