Working with McIntyre Law
Our brain injury lawyers at McIntyre Law understand your needs—financial, physical and emotional. We realize that it’s not just about the patient who suffered a traumatic brain injury, but about those who live with and care for them. If you’re a caregiver for a family member who is recovering or who needs continuing care, that affects your ability to earn a living. You could be caught between a rock and a hard place—either give up all or some of your own income, or pay someone else to be the caregiver while you’re at work. Neither is an easy solution, and it might not be financially feasible… but, what choice do you have?
That’s where an experienced brain injury attorney comes in. Most insurance companies will look at the bare minimum for what a patient needs now, but we’re going to evaluate the entire situation— past, present, and future.
What is a contingency fee?
When a lawyer works on a “contingency fee” basis, they’re agreeing to accept a fixed percentage of any monetary rewards from your lawsuit to cover their legal fees. If there are no rewards from your brain injury lawsuit, you don’t pay the lawyer. You have enough to worry about — so we get paid if, and only if, you do.
What is traumatic brain injury?
A traumatic brain injury is when brain dysfunction is caused by a strong blow or jolt to the head or body, or an object that penetrates the skull (like a bullet or shattered piece of skull). Traumatic brain injury can be mild to severe — to fatal. Sometimes, the effect could be temporary dysfunction of brain cells, but if it is a more severe injury, it could mean long-term complications that affect a person’s ability to perform basic functions of daily life.
Traumatic brain injury could be the result of a car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident, oil field accident, negligent maintenance of premises that cause a hazardous condition, or numerous other things. Often, an accident is just that — an accident. But, sometimes, it’s the result of someone else’s negligence or intentionally reckless behavior. If that happens, you need a brain injury lawyer who will help you through the process of recovering medical expenses and the cost of ongoing care that you might need.
If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury, you might experience any number of severe symptoms, such as persistent headaches; nausea; seizures; paralysis; loss of hearing, vision, taste, or smell; slurred speech; or cognitive or learning deficits. But there are subtler signs of brain injury, too, like personality changes, lethargy, memory problems, and even the feeling of pins and needles somewhere on the body. When you’ve had an accident that could result in a traumatic brain injury, you must seek immediate emergency help. At the hospital, you will likely receive a CT scan, MRI or X-ray to determine the nature and extent of the injury. These kinds of tests are expensive, and you could have a lengthy hospital stay, followed by inpatient rehabilitation, depending on the severity of the injury. For some people, a traumatic brain injury causes long-term or even life-long problems that prevent them from returning to work, resuming their normal activities, or even being able to care for themselves without constant aid.
Meet Our Brain Injury Attorneys
We’ll help you through and make sure that you’re covered—for life.
What compensation can I get from a traumatic brain injury lawsuit?
At McIntyre Law, our attorneys can help you recover costs associated with all aspects to your diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care. Here are just a few of the costs that you might be facing after a traumatic brain injury:
Surgery costs:
Brain surgeons are not a dime-a-dozen. It is one of the most highly-trained and -skilled medical specialties that requires not just an experienced surgeon, but also specialized equipment and hospital staff, so any surgical procedure of this nature will be costly. You could even have to travel to another city or state if your condition requires a specialist who is unavailable in your area.
Rehabilitation costs:
Sometimes, a brain injury can leave a patient needing to re-learn basic functions like walking, using eating utensils, writing, or other skills. Inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient physical therapy can have hefty price tags—rehabilitation, alone, could be $1,000 per day. Even once the patient has recovered, s/he might require ongoing physical therapy in order to regain strength in affected limbs in order to resume prior quality of life.
Continuing care costs for daily life activities:
While rehabilitation and physical therapy are designed to allow patients to regain skills and strength needed to live on their own as they did prior to the traumatic brain injury, these services will only happen for a finite period of time, and the therapies might not be able to restore every patient to his or her pre-injury condition. Some patients suffer from diminished capacity or physical ability long after they’ve “recovered” and some are never able to regain those pre-injury skills. Those people might be left unable to earn a living, and they also might require around-the-clock attention from a family member or other caregiver in order to survive.
Prescription drug costs:Depending on the nature of your injury, your physician could prescribe a number of drugs that are meant to help brain function, reduce pain or serve other medical purposes. If these drugs are not covered under your insurance plan, the cost could add up quickly.