Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can be painful, disorienting, and a daily roadblock to your happiness. A TBI can stop you from living your fullest life. This begs the question: What is the injury worth when a TBI results from someone else’s negligence?
Several factors, from the specific diagnosis of the injury to the severity of your symptoms, prospects for recovery, and direct financial impact of the injury, can all affect the calculation of your TBI settlement.
At Garnes Injury Law, attorney Erika V. Garnes has built her practice around a straightforward principle: people deserve to be treated with dignity after life-altering injuries, and they deserve fair settlements. If you or a loved one suffered a brain injury and are wondering what a fair settlement should look like, Garnes Injury Law can help you understand what that looks like. We can pursue justice and protect your rights after a TBI accident injury.
Reach out to an experienced traumatic brain injury lawyer at Garnes Injury Law today to protect your rights and pursue the full compensation you deserve.
Key Takeaways: TBI Settlements
- TBI settlements are based on all the damages the victim suffers: These damages typically include not only medical costs but also physical pain, lost income, psychological changes, emotional anguish, and other harm.
- The severity and duration of the injury are of paramount importance: The more serious and long-lasting the symptoms, the more significant the financial and non-economic losses tend to be.
- Insurance companies rarely offer what’s fair (at least not without prompting from an attorney): Without strong evidence and aggressive advocacy, those with brain injuries often receive lowball settlement offers that only cover a fraction of their total damages.
- The strength of evidence and documentation can determine the likelihood of a strong settlement: Medical imaging, neuropsychological evaluations, witness accounts, expert testimony, and other evidence and documentation can be critical pieces of a successful settlement negotiation.
- Hiring an attorney right away is the best way to help your case: The sooner you involve a lawyer from Garnes Injury Law, the more we can do to help you.
Factors That Shape a TBI Settlement Value
Calculating the cost of a traumatic brain injury is like calculating the value of anything. Several factors combine to determine the ultimate value. In the case of a TBI, those factors typically include:
- The specific type of injury: Brain injuries can be classified in several ways, from a specific injury type (like a concussion or hemorrhage) to broader criteria (such as a penetrating or non-penetrating injury). The type of injury you’ve suffered will be a vital factor in the ultimate value of your case.
- The severity of the injury: The more severe an injury is, the more expensive it is likely to be. Severity can be gauged in several ways, from the degree to which it threatens someone’s life to the degree to which it interferes with one’s day-to-day life.
- Duration of symptoms: A TBI that resolves in weeks will be valued differently from one that lasts a lifetime, for example.
- The victim’s age and earning potential: A younger person with decades of working years ahead of them typically faces greater economic loss than someone who is already retired.
- The quality of medical evidence: Brain scans, neuropsychological testing, and specialist evaluations are among the key pieces of evidence that can prove the severity of a brain injury.
- The nature of the victim’s future care needs: If someone is going to need long-term care for their brain injury, this will be a vital consideration when calculating the fair value of a settlement.
It is just the start of how we calculate the financial value of our clients’ brain injury cases. Erika Garnes and her firm don’t just plug numbers into a formula—they construct a human story supported by the evidence.
Specific Damages That Must Factor Into a TBI Settlement Value
We calculate the total value of a TBI claim by totaling the individual values of specific damages. These damages include the economic type, which are primarily defined by their financial value. These economic damages can include:
- Medical bills
- Rehabilitation costs
- Lost income
- Loss of earning capacity
- The cost of home modifications (most common in cases of disabling TBIs)
- The cost of a disability-friendly motor vehicle
- Assistive care costs
If loved ones need to alter or abandon their careers to care for a loved one with a TBI, their financial losses must also be considered.
Non-Economic Damages Reflect the Psychological, Emotional, Physical, and Human Toll of a TBI
While economic losses can be relatively simply itemized, the human cost of a TBI is harder to quantify. Yet, these damagesmust be consideredwhen calculating the value of a TBI settlement, as they are every bit as important as the economic damages.
The symptoms of a brain injury inevitably cause non-economic harm, which often include:
- Physical pain, which can include chronic headaches, nerve pain, and sensitivity to lights and sounds
- Emotional anguish, such as anxiety, depression, irritability, and fear
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium, which happens when a brain injury damages intimacy, companionship, and shared life plans between spouses and partners
- Cognitive and behavioral changes such as mood swings, memory loss, and impaired judgment
Our legal team gets to know our clients on an intimate, personal level. This authentic approach enables us to see the entire picture of their damages in high definition.
Why Brain Injury Settlements Can Vary Drastically from One Case to Another
One of the most frustrating realities for brain-injury survivors is hearing that someone else received a vastly different settlement for what seems like the same injury.
The truth is that TBI settlement values depend on the unique person, not just the diagnosis.
Two people can suffer similar trauma and experience markedly different outcomes. One might return to work in a month, while another might never work again. The settlement value must reflect that individual’s physical, emotional, and financial losses—not a general average of other people’s settlements.
Some outside factors can also influence the financial outcome of a brain injury case, including but not limited to
- The venue: Jury verdicts in certain Florida counties trend higher than others.
- The defendant’s resources: A corporate defendant with strong insurance coverage can pay more, but might also put up a fiercer fight.
- The capability of the injured party’s attorney: Insurers tend to offer higher settlements to lawyers who are strong negotiators and proven litigators.
The difference between a $100,000 settlement and a $1,000,000 settlement often comes down to the lawyer’s tenacity, preparation, and aggressiveness—qualities that Attorney Erika Garnes is known for.
Possible Barriers to Fair Compensation for Someone with a Brain Injury
Even when you know what your TBI claim is worth, getting that settlement can be a battle. Some of the most common and significant barriers we encounter when seeking compensation for clients with TBIs are:
Insurance Pushback
Insurers often argue that a TBI is “minor,” especially when imaging doesn’t show indisputable damage. They may claim that symptoms are psychological or unrelated to the accident. These claims are all attempts to limit the insurer’s financial liability.
Documentation Gaps
If a person doesn’t immediately seek treatment or misses follow-up appointments, insurers seize on that fact to downplay the injury. Brain injuries that are difficult to document with graphic imaging (like a brain scan) are especially vulnerable to insurers’ skepticism.
Pre-Existing Conditions
If you had prior head injuries, mental-health challenges, or neurological symptoms, insurers might try to shift blame for your current state away from the recent accident.
Underestimating the Injured Party’s Non-Economic Losses
Insurers rely on formulas that don’t always account for how drastically a TBI can change someone’s life from a non-economic standpoint. Our team will provide the necessary witness statements, expert testimony, and other documentation that prove the extent of your pain and suffering.
Fatigue and Financial Pressure
Victims facing mounting bills may accept low offers simply to stop the bleeding, or to “get it over with.” Adjusters know this and prey on victims’ desperation through quick but inadequate settlement offers.
At Garnes Injury Law, clients don’t face these pressures alone. Attorney Erika Garnes and her team handle negotiations directly with insurers, pushing back against every bad-faith tactic and ensuring no one takes advantage of your vulnerability.
How Our Brain Injury Lawyer Builds—and Wins—TBI Cases
The very symptoms of brain injuries are reasons to hire an attorney. If you’re confused, in pain, or suffering in other ways that affect your mood or cognition, it’s only right that you seek help with a case that will be psychologically, intellectually, and even physically taxing.
Securing a substantial settlement requires more than submitting bills and medical reports. It requires strategy, persistence, and credibility. Our brain injury attorney will treat your case as an essential story to tell—not a file to close.
Our case-building process is intentional, and generally sees us:
- Gather specialized medical evidence, such as MRIs, DTIs, and neuropsychological tests, that can document damage that standard scans miss.
- Coordinate expert testimony, as neurologists, vocational experts, and economists can help translate your condition into financial terms while adding priceless credibility to your case.
- Interview witnesses, who might include family members, coworkers, and friends who have seen changes in your personality, memory, relationships, and life as a whole.
- Document your daily reality with journals, video diaries, personal statements, and other relevant documentation.
- Negotiate aggressively, as aggression is the language that insurance companies tend to understand best.
- Prepare for trial so that, even though most cases settle, we are ready for any path your case follows.
Brain injuries typically happen because of an outside force being imposed on the victim, which results in an injury. It will be our job to determine what that force was, who inflicted it, and who is financially responsible for the harm that resulted from the force.
In other words, it’s our job to get justice for the negligence that has left your brain injured and your life diminished.
Frequently Asked Questions - TBI Settlements and
Most of our clients are unfamiliar with brain injuries. They also have limited knowledge of the claims and legal processes that arise from brain injuries. Questions are inevitable, and some of the questions we hear often from clients with TBIs are:
How long does it take to settle a TBI claim?
TBI cases often take longer than other personal injury claims because doctors need time to determine the full extent of the injury. Rushing to settle before you know your long-term prognosis can cost you significant compensation. Most serious cases take several months to a few years to resolve, though our goal is to get you fair compensation as soon as possible.
What if my MRI came back normal, but I still have symptoms?
Many TBIs don’t show up on standard imaging. Neuropsychological tests, DTI scans, and expert evaluations can prove brain dysfunction even when MRIs look normal. A capable lawyer from our team will ensure these more advanced assessments are part of your case.
There is almost always a way to prove the harm of a brain injury, whether or not imaging clearly proves that injury’s existence.
What happens if the party responsible for the TBI doesn’t have enough insurance?
We are familiar with this circumstance. Insurance often provides insufficient coverage for serious injuries, so we must be creative in pursuing compensation in these cases.
Your brain injury attorney will explore all other avenues, such as underinsured motorist coverage or pursuing compensation directly from liable parties.
Don’t Wait to Call Garnes Injury Law About Your TBI Attorney
In Florida, most personal injury cases must be filed within two years of the injury occurring. Missing that window, you may lose the right to secure your deserved compensation.
Brain injury cases typically require months of compiling medical documentation, securing expert analysis, and conducting strategic preparation—so the sooner you begin, the stronger your case may be.
At Garnes Injury Law, your first consultation is free. The firm works on a contingency basis, meaning you pay nothing unless they win for you. Call personal injury attorney Erika Garnes and her team today at (954) 905-2683 to complete your free consultation. We will help you understand how these cases are calculated.