A traumatic brain injury can change someone’s life even when the injury cannot be seen from the outside.
A person who appeared physically healthy before an accident may suddenly struggle with memory, concentration, headaches, balance, sleep, mood, or the ability to perform a job. More severe brain injuries can leave someone permanently disabled and dependent on others for everyday care.
These injuries also create unique challenges in personal injury claims. An insurance company may question an injury because a scan appears normal, the injured person never lost consciousness, or symptoms were not fully recognized immediately after the accident.
If you or someone you love suffered a traumatic brain injury because of another person’s negligence, D. Willis Law can help you understand your rights and determine your options for pursuing compensation under Texas law.
A traumatic brain injury, commonly called a TBI, is an injury that affects how the brain works.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a mild TBI or concussion can result from a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or from a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth.
That distinction is important.
You do not necessarily have to strike your head against an object to suffer a traumatic brain injury.
A violent automobile collision, for example, can cause rapid acceleration and deceleration of the head. The resulting movement can affect the brain even when there is no obvious external head wound.
Traumatic brain injuries range from relatively mild concussions to devastating injuries resulting in permanent cognitive and physical impairment.
Yes. A concussion is considered a type of mild traumatic brain injury.
The word “mild” describes the initial medical classification of the injury. It does not necessarily mean that every person’s symptoms will be insignificant or disappear immediately.
Many people recover from a mild TBI within a relatively short period. Others experience symptoms that persist much longer.
A concussion can affect someone’s ability to think, remember, work, sleep, exercise, drive, or participate in ordinary activities.
That is why a concussion should not automatically be dismissed as “just a bump on the head.”
No.
A person can suffer a traumatic brain injury without losing consciousness.
This is an important misconception because someone may assume there was no brain injury simply because the person remained awake after the accident.
The more useful questions involve the person’s symptoms, neurological function, medical evaluation, and how the person changed after the event.
Someone may initially report feeling dazed or confused and later develop headaches, memory difficulties, sensitivity to light, sleep problems, or other symptoms.
Yes.
The CDC explains that signs and symptoms of a mild TBI or concussion may appear immediately after the injury or may not appear until hours or days later.
This can create problems in personal injury claims.
Immediately after a serious accident, a person may be focused on obvious injuries such as broken bones, bleeding, or severe pain. Family members may not recognize subtle changes in memory, concentration, mood, or personality until later.
The absence of a particular symptom at the accident scene does not necessarily establish that a brain injury did not occur.
Medical records, family observations, work performance, and the progression of symptoms can all become important when evaluating what happened.
TBI symptoms vary considerably from person to person.
Potential physical symptoms include:
Cognitive symptoms can include:
Emotional and behavioral symptoms can include:
Sleep problems may include:
Not everyone experiences the same symptoms.
Anyone concerned about a possible brain injury should obtain appropriate medical evaluation rather than attempting to diagnose the condition from a website.
Some symptoms following a head injury can indicate a medical emergency.
The CDC identifies TBI danger signs that warrant emergency medical attention, including a worsening headache that does not go away, repeated vomiting, seizures, weakness or numbness, slurred speech, unusual behavior, increasing confusion or agitation, unequal pupil size, loss of consciousness, or extreme drowsiness or inability to awaken.
This page is intended to provide legal information, not emergency medical advice.
If you believe you or someone else may be experiencing a medical emergency following a head injury, call 911 or obtain appropriate emergency medical care.
Traumatic brain injuries exist on a spectrum.
A mild TBI may involve relatively subtle symptoms and no obvious structural abnormality on routine imaging. Nevertheless, symptoms can interfere with work and everyday activities.
Moderate and severe TBIs may cause much greater impairment.
Depending on the injury, a person may experience problems with:
Severe brain injuries may require extensive rehabilitation, assistive equipment, home modifications, professional caregiving, or lifelong medical care.
The severity of the injury therefore affects not only treatment but also how damages should be evaluated in a legal claim.
A TBI can result from many types of accidents.
Potential causes include:
For purposes of a personal injury claim, the existence of a brain injury is only part of the analysis.
There must also be a legal basis for holding another person, company, or entity responsible.
Motor vehicle crashes are a common source of traumatic brain injury claims.
A person’s head may strike a window, steering wheel, headrest, dashboard, or another object during the collision.
But direct head impact is not always necessary.
Rapid acceleration, deceleration, and rotation during a violent crash can cause movement of the brain within the skull.
That means the absence of a visible head wound does not necessarily rule out a TBI.
If your brain injury resulted from a motor vehicle collision, our San Antonio car accident lawyer page explains additional issues involving Texas automobile accident and insurance claims.
Commercial truck collisions can produce tremendous forces.
A passenger-vehicle occupant, motorcyclist, bicyclist, or pedestrian involved in a collision with an 18-wheeler may suffer a severe traumatic brain injury along with multiple other injuries.
Truck cases can also involve evidence that may not exist in an ordinary automobile accident, including driver records, electronic logging information, vehicle data, maintenance records, company policies, and commercial insurance.
When a TBI results from a serious commercial-vehicle crash, both the medical and trucking aspects of the case may require substantial investigation.
Our San Antonio truck accident lawyer page discusses these commercial-vehicle issues in greater detail.
Motorcyclists are particularly vulnerable to head injuries because they lack the physical protection of an enclosed passenger vehicle.
A motorcycle crash can involve direct impact with another vehicle, the pavement, or another object.
A helmet can reduce the risk of some head injuries, but wearing a helmet does not make a rider immune from traumatic brain injury.
A motorcycle TBI claim may involve questions concerning how the collision occurred, helmet use, medical causation, comparative responsibility, and the long-term consequences of the injury.
Learn more about these claims on our San Antonio motorcycle accident lawyer page.
A pedestrian or cyclist struck by a motor vehicle can experience multiple impacts.
The initial vehicle impact may be followed by contact with the hood, windshield, pavement, or another object.
These collisions can cause severe brain injuries even at speeds that might produce much less serious consequences for someone protected inside another vehicle.
When a pedestrian or cyclist suffers a TBI, evidence concerning vehicle speed, visibility, right-of-way, driver distraction, roadway conditions, and video may become particularly important.
Additional information is available on our San Antonio pedestrian accident lawyer and San Antonio bicycle accident lawyer pages.
Falls can also cause traumatic brain injuries.
Potential cases may involve falls caused by:
Not every fall creates legal liability.
A successful personal injury claim generally requires evidence establishing why the fall occurred and a legal basis for holding another party responsible.
When a serious fall results in a brain injury, preserving photographs, surveillance video, witness information, and the condition that caused the fall can be critical.
A normal CT scan does not necessarily mean that a person has not suffered a mild traumatic brain injury.
CT scans can be extremely important for identifying certain serious conditions, including bleeding or structural injuries. But a concussion or mild TBI may be diagnosed based on clinical evaluation and symptoms even when routine imaging does not reveal an obvious abnormality.
This distinction can become important in an insurance claim.
An insurer may point to normal imaging as evidence that nothing is wrong. The actual medical question, however, should be addressed by qualified healthcare professionals based on the complete clinical picture.
A legal claim should accurately reflect the medical evidence rather than exaggerating what a scan either proves or disproves.
MRI can provide useful information in appropriate cases, but imaging is only one part of evaluating a suspected brain injury.
Whether a particular imaging study is medically appropriate depends on the circumstances and should be determined by the treating healthcare professionals.
From a legal perspective, it is a mistake to assume that a brain injury case either succeeds or fails based solely on whether an MRI shows an abnormality.
The diagnosis, symptoms, medical history, neurological findings, treatment, functional limitations, and other evidence may all matter.
The appropriate diagnostic process depends on the circumstances and severity of the injury.
Healthcare professionals may evaluate:
Some patients may be evaluated by neurologists, neuropsychologists, rehabilitation specialists, or other professionals depending on their symptoms.
The purpose of medical evaluation is treatment and diagnosis.
In a legal claim, those medical records can also provide important evidence concerning the injury and its consequences.
Neuropsychological testing can evaluate areas such as memory, attention, processing speed, executive function, language, and other cognitive abilities.
It may be used in appropriate cases to help healthcare professionals understand how a brain injury has affected someone’s functioning.
Not every person with a concussion needs neuropsychological testing.
But when someone reports persistent cognitive problems after a significant injury, appropriate testing may become important both medically and in understanding the person’s long-term limitations.
The decision to perform testing should be made by qualified healthcare professionals based on the patient’s needs.
A broken bone can often be seen clearly on an X-ray.
A brain injury can be different.
Some of the most significant consequences may involve changes in memory, concentration, processing speed, emotional regulation, fatigue, or personality. Those changes may not be obvious to a stranger looking at the injured person.
The person may appear completely normal during a short conversation.
That does not necessarily mean the person functions normally over an eight-hour workday or can manage the same responsibilities as before the accident.
This is one reason TBI cases require careful documentation.
The legal case may need to demonstrate not simply that an injury was diagnosed, but how the person’s life changed because of it.
One of the most important questions I would want answered in a serious brain injury case is:
How is this person different now than before the accident?
Medical records are important, but they may not tell the entire story.
Family members, friends, coworkers, supervisors, and others who knew the injured person before and after the accident may have observed changes that are difficult to capture during a short medical appointment.
Examples might include:
Those observations can help explain the real-world consequences of an injury.
It can be useful to keep an accurate record of significant symptoms and limitations.
The purpose should not be to manufacture evidence or document every minor discomfort.
Rather, contemporaneous information can help someone remember how symptoms developed and affected everyday life.
Useful information might include significant headaches, medical appointments, missed work, memory problems, sleep difficulties, activities that could no longer be performed, or assistance required from family members.
Always be accurate.
A TBI claim is strengthened by credible documentation, not exaggeration.
Yes.
Insurance companies and defense lawyers may review publicly available social-media activity.
A photograph showing someone smiling at a family event does not prove that the person has recovered from a brain injury. Nevertheless, isolated posts can be taken out of context and used to challenge claims concerning limitations or quality of life.
Do not delete or alter existing evidence after a claim arises without obtaining appropriate legal advice.
At the same time, people involved in serious personal injury claims should understand that public posts may eventually be scrutinized.
A strong brain injury case may require several categories of evidence.
Depending on the circumstances, evidence can include:
The evidence needed depends on both the severity of the injury and the disputed issues in the case.
Another thing I would want to determine quickly in a serious TBI case is what evidence exists outside the medical records.
Video may be overwritten. Vehicles may be repaired or destroyed. Electronic information may not be retained indefinitely. Witnesses can become difficult to locate.
In a commercial truck case, important company records may also need to be preserved.
This does not mean every brain injury case requires immediate litigation.
It means that waiting too long to investigate a serious accident can result in evidence disappearing before anyone realizes it was important.
Responsibility depends on how the injury occurred.
Potential defendants can include:
Some cases involve more than one responsible party.
For example, a commercial truck crash may involve potential claims involving both a driver and a motor carrier. A construction accident may involve several contractors or companies.
Identifying all potentially responsible parties can also be important when a catastrophic injury exceeds the insurance coverage available from a single defendant.
Texas follows a proportionate-responsibility system.
Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §33.001, a claimant generally cannot recover damages if the claimant’s percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent.
If the claimant is 50 percent or less responsible, §33.012 generally reduces recoverable damages according to the claimant’s percentage of responsibility.
For example, if a jury determined that someone sustained $1 million in recoverable damages but was 20 percent responsible for the accident, the damages generally would be reduced by 20 percent.
Comparative-fault allegations can therefore have enormous financial consequences in a catastrophic brain injury case.
That is another reason the circumstances of the underlying accident should be investigated carefully.
Compensation depends on the evidence and circumstances of the individual case.
Potential damages may include:
A severe brain injury can produce enormous future costs.
Someone who can no longer work may lose decades of earning capacity. A person requiring lifelong assistance may incur substantial future care expenses.
A proper damages analysis therefore should consider the future—not merely the bills that have already arrived.
There is no reliable average settlement or online calculator that can determine the value of a TBI case.
Potential value depends on factors including:
A concussion that resolves completely in several weeks presents a very different damages case from a brain injury that prevents a 30-year-old professional from ever returning to work.
Both may technically be traumatic brain injuries.
Their legal damages are not remotely the same.
A catastrophic TBI may require care long after a lawsuit or insurance claim ends.
Potential future needs can include:
In an appropriate catastrophic-injury case, a life-care planner or other qualified expert may help evaluate anticipated future needs and costs.
Economic experts may also be needed when an injury substantially reduces or eliminates someone’s future earning capacity.
A TBI can affect employment even when the injured person remains physically capable of performing many tasks.
Someone may struggle with concentration, memory, multitasking, decision-making, fatigue, or stress tolerance.
Those problems can be particularly significant for people whose jobs require complex reasoning, rapid decision-making, communication, or sustained concentration.
A person may return to work but be unable to perform at the same level as before.
Evaluating loss of earning capacity therefore can require more than simply calculating the paychecks missed immediately after the accident.
A serious brain injury often affects more than the injured person.
Family members may become caregivers. A spouse may assume responsibilities that the injured person previously handled. Parents may need to care for an adult child. Relationships can change when an injury affects memory, personality, emotional regulation, or independence.
Those consequences are difficult to reduce to numbers.
But understanding them can be essential to understanding the true severity of the injury.
A serious TBI case should tell the complete story of what changed—not merely recite diagnoses and medical bills.
A brain injury involving a child requires particular care.
The consequences may not be fully understood immediately because a child’s brain and abilities are still developing.
Questions may arise concerning:
Claims involving minors can also involve different procedural and limitations issues.
Parents should preserve medical records, school records, testing, photographs, witness information, and other evidence that may help document changes following the injury.
Some brain injuries permanently affect a person’s ability to live independently.
The injured person may need assistance with mobility, transportation, medication, finances, meals, hygiene, appointments, or other activities of daily living.
A permanent disability can also change where someone can live and whether family members must provide care.
When a TBI is expected to produce lifelong limitations, evaluating future needs becomes one of the most important parts of the case.
Settling a catastrophic injury claim based only on current medical expenses can dramatically understate the injury’s actual financial consequences.
A severe traumatic brain injury can be fatal.
When another person’s negligence causes a death, Texas law may allow certain surviving family members to pursue a wrongful death claim. A survival claim may also exist under appropriate circumstances.
Fatal injury cases can involve substantial damages as well as complicated questions concerning who may bring the claims.
They should be evaluated individually and promptly.
Your health should come first.
Seek appropriate medical care, particularly if you are experiencing symptoms following a blow or jolt to the head or body.
When circumstances permit, other useful steps may include:
In a serious case, consider obtaining legal advice before providing a detailed recorded statement to the other party’s insurance company or signing broad medical authorizations.
Be cautious.
You should always be truthful, but the other party’s insurance company represents its insured’s financial interests.
Brain injury cases can make recorded statements particularly problematic because memory and concentration may themselves be affected by the injury.
An adjuster may ask detailed questions about the accident, symptoms, previous medical history, work, activities, and prior injuries.
In a serious TBI case, consider obtaining legal advice before providing a detailed recorded statement to the opposing insurance company.
Some TBI symptoms are reported by the patient rather than measured by a simple laboratory test.
That does not automatically make them imaginary.
Headaches, memory problems, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, dizziness, emotional changes, and sleep disturbances can be real consequences of traumatic brain injury.
At the same time, credibility matters.
A strong claim should rely on accurate medical documentation, appropriate evaluation, consistent reporting, and evidence of how the symptoms actually affect the person’s life.
The goal is not to exaggerate an injury.
It is to document it well enough that someone who did not experience it can understand its consequences.
A prior concussion or other medical history does not automatically prevent a new personal injury claim.
But prior medical history may become relevant to determining what symptoms existed before the accident and what changed afterward.
Insurance companies frequently obtain prior medical records in serious injury cases.
The best approach is generally to be accurate about relevant prior conditions rather than attempting to hide them.
The legal and medical question is whether the accident caused a new injury, aggravated a preexisting condition, or produced additional limitations.
Texas generally has a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury lawsuits.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §16.003 generally requires a personal injury action to be brought no later than two years after the cause of action accrues.
However, exceptions can apply, and certain types of claims—particularly those involving governmental entities or other special circumstances—may involve additional notice requirements or different procedural rules.
Do not rely on a general website article to calculate the deadline for an individual case.
There is another reason not to wait.
The statute of limitations may give someone considerable time to file a lawsuit, but important evidence can disappear much sooner.
Video may be erased, witnesses may move, vehicles may be repaired, and electronic records may be lost.
The deadline for preserving the strongest evidence may effectively arrive long before the legal deadline for filing suit.
Be particularly careful about settling a claim before the long-term effects of a suspected brain injury are reasonably understood.
A settlement ordinarily requires the injured person to release the claim.
If symptoms persist or future problems develop afterward, the person generally cannot simply reopen the claim because the injury turned out to be worse than expected.
This can be particularly important with a TBI because the long-term consequences may not be obvious immediately after the accident.
Before resolving a serious claim, it is important to understand the diagnosis, prognosis, future treatment, functional limitations, and potential effect on employment.
There is no standard timeline.
A mild concussion that resolves quickly and involves clear liability may present a very different case from a catastrophic brain injury requiring lifelong care.
The timeline can depend on:
It can be a mistake to resolve a serious TBI claim merely because an insurance company is willing to make an early offer.
The injury should be sufficiently understood before an important settlement decision is made.
Not every concussion requires an attorney.
If symptoms are minor, resolve quickly, and the financial losses are limited, hiring a lawyer may provide little benefit.
Legal representation becomes more important when the injury involves:
The more serious the injury and the greater the potential future loss, the more important careful investigation and damages analysis become.
A traumatic brain injury lawyer can investigate the accident, preserve evidence, identify responsible parties and insurance coverage, obtain relevant records, evaluate damages, and determine whether expert assistance is appropriate.
Depending on the case, the investigation may involve:
The objective is to connect three things clearly:
what happened, what injury it caused, and how that injury changed the person’s life.
That is particularly important in a brain injury case because many of the most serious consequences cannot be seen simply by looking at the injured person.
Traumatic brain injury cases can involve medicine, neurology, psychology, economics, vocational issues, future medical care, and complicated liability questions.
The insurance company may have attorneys, adjusters, medical reviewers, and experts evaluating the claim.
A serious injury claim therefore should not be treated like an ordinary property-damage dispute.
After practicing personal injury law for many years, one thing I would want to understand early in a significant TBI case is not merely the diagnosis in the medical records but what the injured person could do before the accident that he or she can no longer do now.
That difference can be central to understanding the real value of the claim.
Personal injury cases are commonly handled on a contingency-fee basis.
Under a contingency arrangement, the attorney’s fee generally is calculated as a percentage of the recovery rather than billed by the hour while the case proceeds.
The exact fee arrangement and responsibility for litigation expenses should be explained in the written fee agreement.
D. Willis Law offers free initial consultations so you can discuss what happened and understand your legal options before deciding how to proceed.
A traumatic brain injury can affect someone’s health, career, independence, relationships, and future.
When the injury was caused by another person’s or company’s negligence, Texas law may provide a right to pursue compensation.
D. Willis Law can review the circumstances of the accident, help identify the legal and insurance issues involved, and determine what steps may be appropriate.
Contact D. Willis Law for a free and confidential consultation about your San Antonio traumatic brain injury case.
This page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or medical advice. Every traumatic brain injury claim is different, and the applicable law, insurance coverage, deadlines, medical issues, and potential damages depend on the particular circumstances. Reading this page or contacting D. Willis Law does not create an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship is established only through an appropriate written agreement.