Dallas Brain Injury Lawyer | TBI Attorney Texas

A traumatic brain injury can derail your entire life in seconds. You’re facing mounting medical bills, lost income, and uncertainty about whether you’ll ever fully recover. The at-fault party’s insurance company is already working to minimize what they pay you, and you need someone in your corner who understands what’s at stake.

Varghese Summersett represents brain injury victims throughout Dallas and the surrounding areas. Our Dallas brain injury lawyers understand the unique challenges TBI victims face, from securing proper medical documentation to proving long-term damages that may not be immediately visible.

Types of Brain Injuries We Handle

Brain injuries range in severity. Some victims recover within weeks, while others face permanent disability. The type and severity of your injury determine the medical treatment you’ll need and the compensation you’re entitled to recover.

Concussions are the most common type of traumatic brain injury. Even a mild concussion can cause headaches, dizziness, memory problems, and difficulty concentrating that last for months. Insurance companies often dismiss concussions as minor injuries, but the medical research shows that repeated concussions can lead to permanent brain damage.

Contusions are bruises on the brain tissue itself. Large contusions may require surgery to remove, and they can cause lasting cognitive impairment depending on which part of the brain is affected.

Diffuse axonal injuries occur when the brain shifts inside the skull during a violent impact. The twisting and shearing forces tear nerve fibers throughout the brain. These injuries often result in coma or persistent vegetative states.

Penetrating injuries happen when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain tissue. These catastrophic injuries typically require immediate surgery and extended rehabilitation.

Secondary brain injuries develop hours or days after the initial trauma. Swelling, bleeding, or lack of oxygen can cause additional damage to already-injured brain tissue. Quick medical intervention is critical to prevent secondary injuries from worsening.

How Brain Injuries Happen in Dallas

Motor vehicle accidents cause more traumatic brain injuries than any other single event. When your head strikes the dashboard, windshield, or side window during a collision, the impact can cause severe brain trauma even if you’re wearing a seatbelt. Rear-end collisions on Interstate 30 or Central Expressway often cause whiplash injuries that result in concussions.

Motorcycle accidents frequently result in severe head trauma. Texas law doesn’t require motorcycle helmets for riders over 21 who carry proper insurance, but an unprotected head striking the pavement at highway speeds causes devastating injuries.

Slip and fall accidents at Dallas businesses, apartments, or public properties can result in serious brain injuries when the victim’s head strikes the floor or another hard surface. Property owners have a legal duty to maintain safe premises, and they can be held liable when dangerous conditions cause fall injuries.

Construction accidents involving falls from heights, falling objects, or scaffold collapses cause numerous brain injuries each year. Dallas construction sites must follow strict safety regulations, and violations that lead to worker injuries can create significant liability.

Sports injuries during high school football, soccer, or recreational activities cause thousands of concussions annually. While some sports injuries are inherent risks of the game, inadequate supervision, defective equipment, or negligent coaching can create legal liability.

Assault and violent crimes result in intentional brain injuries. Victims may have civil claims against their attackers as well as premises liability claims against property owners who failed to provide adequate security.

Compensation Available in Dallas Brain Injury Cases

Texas law allows brain injury victims to recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include your actual financial losses with specific dollar amounts. Non-economic damages compensate you for subjective harms that don’t have a precise price tag.

Medical expenses form the foundation of most brain injury claims. This includes emergency room treatment, hospital stays, surgery, diagnostic imaging, medications, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and psychological counseling. Brain injuries often require lifelong medical monitoring and care.

Future medical costs must be calculated by medical experts who can project your long-term treatment needs. A life care plan documents every medical expense you’ll face over your lifetime, from routine follow-up visits to adaptive equipment to home healthcare services. These projections can reach into the millions of dollars for severe brain injuries.

Lost wages compensate you for income you’ve already lost due to your injury. This includes salary, bonuses, benefits, and self-employment income. If your brain injury prevents you from returning to your previous occupation, you can recover the difference between what you used to earn and what you’re now capable of earning.

Lost earning capacity addresses your reduced ability to make money in the future. Many brain injury victims can return to work in some capacity but can no longer perform the same job or earn the same income. Economic experts calculate these losses by analyzing your age, education, work history, and the specific limitations your injury creates.

Pain and suffering damages compensate you for physical pain, emotional distress, and diminished quality of life. Brain injuries often cause chronic headaches, depression, anxiety, and personality changes that fundamentally alter who you are. Texas law doesn’t cap pain and suffering damages in most personal injury cases.

Loss of consortium claims allow your spouse to recover for the loss of your companionship, affection, and support. Brain injuries can strain or destroy marriages when the injured spouse’s personality changes or when cognitive deficits make it impossible to maintain the same relationship.

Proving Liability in Dallas Brain Injury Cases

Winning your brain injury case requires proving that someone else’s negligence caused your injury. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001, you must establish four elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages.

The at-fault party must have owed you a duty of care. Drivers owe other motorists a duty to follow traffic laws and drive safely. Property owners owe visitors a duty to maintain reasonably safe premises. Employers owe workers a duty to provide a safe workplace.

The at-fault party must have breached that duty through careless or reckless conduct. Speeding, running red lights, texting while driving, and drunk driving all constitute breaches of a driver’s duty of care. Failing to clean up spills, ignoring broken handrails, or neglecting to fix dangerous property conditions breach a property owner’s duty.

The breach must have directly caused your brain injury. This is where medical evidence becomes crucial. Your doctors must connect your symptoms and diagnosis to the specific accident through medical records, diagnostic imaging, neurological testing, and expert testimony.

You must have suffered actual damages. Documentation of your medical treatment, lost income, and other losses proves the value of your claim. In brain injury cases, this often requires testimony from multiple medical experts, vocational experts, and life care planners.

Why Insurance Companies Fight Brain Injury Claims

Insurance companies know that severe brain injuries can cost millions of dollars in medical care and lost income over a lifetime. They’re motivated to deny claims, minimize injuries, or pressure victims into quick settlements before the full extent of damage is known.

Insurers often argue that your symptoms existed before the accident. They’ll scrutinize your medical history looking for any prior head injuries, headaches, or cognitive issues to blame for your current condition. This is why immediate medical attention and thorough documentation are so critical.

They claim your brain injury isn’t as severe as you say. Insurance companies hire their own doctors to conduct independent medical examinations designed to downplay your injuries. These doctors rarely spend more than 30 minutes examining you and often conclude that you’re exaggerating your symptoms.

They try to blame you for causing or contributing to the accident. Under Texas’s modified comparative negligence rule found in Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001, you can’t recover anything if you’re more than 50 percent at fault. Insurance companies will look for any way to shift blame onto you.

They pressure you to settle quickly before you understand the full impact of your injury. Brain injuries evolve over time, and the symptoms you have today may not reflect the permanent impairments you’ll face. Settling too early means giving up your right to pursue additional compensation later.

The Claims Process After a Brain Injury

Your journey to compensation begins with medical treatment. Seek immediate care after any accident involving a head injury, even if you feel fine. Symptoms of serious brain injuries don’t always appear right away, and delayed treatment gives insurance companies ammunition to deny your claim.

Document everything related to your injury and treatment. Keep copies of medical records, bills, prescriptions, therapy appointments, and doctor’s notes. Take photos of visible injuries. Write down your symptoms each day, including headaches, dizziness, memory problems, mood changes, or sleep disturbances.

Report the accident promptly to the relevant insurance company, but limit what you say. Give basic facts about when and where the accident occurred, but don’t discuss your injuries in detail or admit any fault. Insurance adjusters will use your statements against you.

Don’t sign any medical authorization forms from the insurance company. These forms often give them access to your entire medical history, not just records related to this injury. They’ll use unrelated past medical issues to argue that your current symptoms aren’t caused by the accident.

Your Dallas brain injury lawyer will send a demand letter to the insurance company once your treatment is complete or has reached maximum medical improvement. This letter outlines the facts of the accident, documents your injuries and treatment, explains the legal basis for liability, and demands a specific amount of compensation.

Most cases settle during negotiations without going to trial. Your lawyer and the insurance company will exchange offers and counteroffers until reaching an acceptable settlement amount. This process can take months, especially for severe injuries requiring extensive documentation.

If negotiations fail to produce a fair settlement, your lawyer will file a lawsuit. Texas gives you two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. Missing this deadline means losing your right to recover any compensation.

What Your Case May Be Worth

Every brain injury case is unique, and the value depends on the severity of your injury, the extent of your losses, and the strength of your evidence. Several factors significantly impact settlement values.

The severity of your brain injury is the single biggest factor. Mild concussions that resolve within weeks typically result in settlements ranging from a few thousand dollars, while moderate brain injuries requiring months of rehabilitation and causing lasting cognitive impairment can settle for six figures. Severe brain injuries resulting in permanent disability, the need for lifelong care, or drastically reduced quality of life can result in settlements or verdicts exceeding $1 million.

Your age and occupation matter because they affect lost earning capacity. A 30-year-old engineer who can no longer work due to cognitive deficits has potentially 35 years of lost income. That same injury to a 60-year-old near retirement has fewer years of lost earnings to calculate.

Clear liability makes your case more valuable. When the at-fault party is obviously to blame and there’s no question you share any fault, insurance companies are more likely to make reasonable settlement offers to avoid trial.

The quality of your medical documentation affects value. Complete medical records that clearly link your symptoms to the accident, document the severity of your injury, and establish the need for ongoing treatment strengthen your case. Gaps in treatment or inconsistent medical records weaken it.

Available insurance coverage caps your recovery. Texas requires minimum liability coverage of $30,000 per person, but serious brain injuries often exceed that amount. If the at-fault party only carries minimum coverage and has no significant assets, you may not be able to recover your full damages even with a winning case.

Get Clarity About Your Options Today

If you or someone you love suffered a brain injury in Dallas, time matters. Evidence disappears, witnesses forget details, and your medical condition may worsen without proper treatment. Varghese Summersett offers free consultations to brain injury victims.

Call (214) 903-4000 to speak with a Dallas brain injury lawyer about your case. We’ll review what happened, explain your legal options, and help you understand what your case may be worth. You don’t pay anything unless we recover compensation for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have to file a brain injury lawsuit in Dallas?

Texas law gives you two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. Missing this deadline means losing your right to pursue compensation through the courts. However, you should contact a lawyer much sooner than two years. Evidence deteriorates over time, witnesses become unavailable, and insurance companies are less willing to negotiate fairly when claims age.

What if the insurance company says I’m partially at fault?

Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001. You can still recover compensation if you’re 50 percent or less at fault, but your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if your damages total $100,000 and you’re found 20 percent at fault, you would recover $80,000. If you’re more than 50 percent at fault, you can’t recover anything. Insurance companies often exaggerate your fault to reduce what they have to pay.

Do I need to go to court for a brain injury case?

Most brain injury cases settle through negotiations without going to trial. However, you must be prepared to go to court if the insurance company won’t make a fair settlement offer. Having a lawyer who’s willing and able to take your case to trial gives you leverage in settlement negotiations. Insurance companies make lower settlement offers when they believe you’re not serious about litigation.

How much does a Dallas brain injury lawyer cost?

Varghese Summersett handles brain injury cases on a contingency fee basis. You don’t pay any upfront costs or attorney fees. We only get paid if we recover compensation for you, and our fee comes as a percentage of your settlement or verdict. This arrangement allows brain injury victims to afford quality legal representation regardless of their financial situation.

What if the person who injured me doesn’t have insurance?

You may still have options for recovery. Check your own auto insurance policy for uninsured motorist coverage, which can compensate you when an at-fault driver has no insurance. You might also have a personal injury claim against other potentially liable parties, such as the bar that overserved a drunk driver or the property owner who failed to maintain safe premises. An experienced lawyer can identify all potential sources of recovery.

Protect What Matters Most

A brain injury affects every aspect of your life and your family’s future. You need a Dallas brain injury lawyer who understands the medical complexities of TBI cases and has the resources to fight for full compensation. Varghese Summersett has the experience and commitment to help you through this difficult time. Call (214) 903-4000 for a free consultation about your brain injury case.