Brain injuries can range from concussions to injury from lack of oxygen to full-blown TBIs. The range of results is also broad, from a few days off work to lifelong disabilities and home care needs.
If you faced a brain injury, working with a lawyer to recover compensation for you injury is vital. Many insurance payouts are simply not enough to cover long-term brain injuries, and restrictions on car accident lawsuits might even impede your ability to get your case compensated in full.
For help with your brain injury case, call Legal Care New Jersey today at (732) 838-9769 for a free case evaluation.
Types of Brain Injuries You Can Sue for in Jersey City
The law in New Jersey generally allows you to sue for any brain injuries you could potentially suffer in an accident. However, there are elements that must be met in your case to allow you to sue. In many accident cases, no one is at fault, or the accident was actually caused by the victim. These cases can be difficult to recover compensation for, but there might be insurance available.
Types of Brain Injuries
Brain injuries include three major categories of injury. The first is traumatic brain injury (TBI) where the injury is caused by a force impacting your head. Some of these injuries are “penetrative” injuries in that something actually pierces through the skull and enters the brain itself, often leading to much more severe outcomes. The second is hypoxic and anoxic injuries – those caused by reduced oxygen or complete lack of oxygen. Third are brain injuries caused by illness or other effects.
Generally speaking, our brain injury attorneys can help you sue for any injuries caused by trauma to the head by suing whoever caused the accident. You can also sue for assault. Similarly, suffocation leading to hypoxic or anoxic brain injuries can be the basis of a lawsuit for drowning accidents, accidents leading to chemicals being released, or assault/strangulation. Suing for brain injuries caused by illness is often more difficult unless those illnesses were caused by toxic exposure, medical malpractice, pharmaceutical injuries, or other accidents someone else caused you.
Proving Fault
As mentioned, there are elements that must be met in every injury case in order to hold someone else liable. Namely, there must have been some legal duty that they violated that caused your injury. If no mistakes were made and everyone was being as careful as they reasonably could have been, then no one can be legally responsible for the injuries except in narrow circumstances (such as when a product defect is involved).
If you were the only one responsible for your accident, then you might not be able to sue anyone else for the injury. However, if you were only partially to blame, then you can sue other parties who also shared blame – but not if you were more than 50% at fault.
Insurance Claims
If you were the only one responsible for the accident that injured you, you might be unable to sue anyone for your injuries. However, Workers’ Compensation benefits might still be available for workplace accidents, and no-fault car insurance payments might be available for car accident injuries. Sometimes your homeowners insurance can also pay for injuries at your house, including brain injuries. In any case, your health insurance might also cover a portion of the medical expenses.
If someone else was responsible for your injuries, then there is no reason you should be required to pay, even through insurance, and our attorneys can fight to get you compensation.
Common Causes of Brain Injuries in Jersey City, NJ
Many different accidents can cause brain injuries, with victims potentially facing serious TBI or other brain injuries even in seemingly mundane accidents.
Car Accidents
Car accidents are one of the leading causes of most serious injuries, including brain injuries. If your head impacts the side window, the steering wheel, or even the windshield, you might suffer a serious brain injury in a car crash. While airbags, headrests, and other safety features are there to reduce the impact of a crash, brain injuries are still possible.
Slip and Falls and Trip and Falls
When you fall down, the resulting injuries can be surprisingly severe. Hitting your head on an object or wall on the way down can leave you with a TBI, as can hitting your head on the ground. When you fall and hit the back of your head on the ground, that can easily lead to a concussion or worse, and many people who slip on spills or icy surfaces could potentially see their lives forever changed because of these simple, everyday accidents – and the responsible property owners can be held liable for even the worst injuries in these simple accidents.
Sports Injuries
Many concussions and brain injuries occur during sports. In some cases, head injuries are a known risk of the game, and no one is to blame for unfortunate tragedies. However, unsportsmanlike conduct that leads to an injury could go beyond the expectations of the game and potentially even constitute assault and battery. Negligent supervision of children, failure to stop unnecessary roughhousing, and other issues could also potentially constitute negligence. Lastly, head injuries from defective or inadequate helmets could also lead to lawsuits against the helmet manufacturers or the athletics programs that chose inadequate headgear for their athletes.
These cases are often complex, so you should always consult with a lawyer to determine whether you have a valid lawsuit.
Work Injuries
Injuries at work can lead to brain injuries if you were not given proper helmets or hard hats for the job at hand, if proper safety procedures were not followed, or if you were exposed to hazardous chemicals without proper ventilation and respirators. In many cases, you cannot sue your employer directly for an injury at work and must use Workers’ Compensation. Nonetheless, the opportunity to sue a negligent equipment manufacturer is often available in a workplace brain injury case.
Contact Our Jersey City Brain Injury Attorneys for Help
Dial (732) 838-9769 today for a free case review with Legal Care New Jersey’s brain injury attorneys.
