Tacoma Brain Injury Lawyer

If you have a brain injury from an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, contact Park Chenaur and Associates to learn about your legal options.

Brain injuries are severe and require immediate medical care and ongoing treatment to heal. The damage can lead to debilitating impairments and other complications. Permanent damage to brain cells, nerves, and tissue can lead to mental and physical disability.

Park Chenaur and Associates understand the physical, emotional, and financial toll a brain injury can take. You don’t have to go through this traumatic experience alone. Let us help you fight for the justice you deserve. Contact us for your free consultation with our Tacoma brain injury lawyers.

Why Choose Park Chenaur and Associates?

Tacoma Brain Injury Lawyer

Park Chenaur and Associates has over two decades of experience representing Tacoma clients in personal injury cases. We know how to handle the complexities of brain injury claims and have successfully secured favorable compensation for accident victims. You will receive personalized attention when you hire us and the guidance and support you need.

We have a reputation for being lawyers our clients can trust. We hold an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest possible rating. We also have five-star ratings on Google and Facebook. Our previous clients can attest to our hard work and dedication. We care about your needs and will do whatever it takes to try to resolve your case favorably.

Do not hesitate to call us for your free consultation so we can start working on your brain injury claim.

An Overview of Brain Injuries in Tacoma

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 223,135 hospitalizations and 64,362 deaths related to traumatic brain injury occurred in one year in the United States. These figures represent over 611 brain injury-related hospitalizations and 176 deaths daily.

You must comply with state laws to sue someone for causing a brain injury. In Washington, the general personal injury statute of limitations allows a three-year timeframe to file a lawsuit. That means you have three years from the date of your brain injury to initiate a lawsuit against the negligent party.

The timeframe differs if a healthcare professional’s error causes brain injury. The statute of limitations for medical malpractice allows a three-year or one-year time frame depending on the circumstances. You must file suit within three years of the medical malpractice or within one year of discovering the injury is due to a medical error, whichever period ends later. However, you can’t bring legal action against the medical provider more than eight years after the date of the medical malpractice.

You can toll or delay the statute of limitations if the negligent act involves intentional concealment, fraud, or a foreign body without diagnostic or therapeutic effect or purpose left behind in your body. That means the timeframe temporarily pauses if a foreign body causes injury or the doctor participates in fraudulent activity or attempts to hide what happened. The one-year period starts when you have actual knowledge of the concealment, fraud, or foreign body.

An Overview of Brain Injuries in Tacoma

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 223,135 hospitalizations and 64,362 deaths related to traumatic brain injury occurred in one year in the United States. These figures represent over 611 brain injury-related hospitalizations and 176 deaths daily.

You must comply with state laws to sue someone for causing a brain injury. In Washington, the general personal injury statute of limitations allows a three-year timeframe to file a lawsuit. That means you have three years from the date of your brain injury to initiate a lawsuit against the negligent party.

The timeframe differs if a healthcare professional’s error causes brain injury. The statute of limitations for medical malpractice allows a three-year or one-year time frame depending on the circumstances. You must file suit within three years of the medical malpractice or within one year of discovering the injury is due to a medical error, whichever period ends later. However, you can’t bring legal action against the medical provider more than eight years after the date of the medical malpractice.

You can toll or delay the statute of limitations if the negligent act involves intentional concealment, fraud, or a foreign body without diagnostic or therapeutic effect or purpose left behind in your body. That means the timeframe temporarily pauses if a foreign body causes injury or the doctor participates in fraudulent activity or attempts to hide what happened. The one-year period starts when you have actual knowledge of the concealment, fraud, or foreign body.

Common Types and Causes of Brain Injuries

A brain injury can occur in numerous situations. You can hit your head during a fall or on the dashboard in a car crash. Symptoms often appear immediately after an accident. However, some types of brain injuries don’t cause noticeable symptoms until days or weeks later.

There are two main types of brain injuries you can sustain—non-traumatic and traumatic brain injury.

Non-Traumatic Brain Injury

A non-traumatic brain injury doesn’t involve physical trauma to the head.

Multiple factors can contribute to this type of injury, such as:

  • Illness
  • Drowning
  • Metabolic disorder
  • Oxygen deprivation
  • Cardiac arrest
  • Aneurysm

The two primary types of non-traumatic brain injuries include:

  • Hypoxia. Hypoxia occurs when the brain receives less oxygen than necessary due to minimal blood flow.
  • Anoxia. Anoxia is a complete lack of oxygen to the brain preventing it from functioning normally.

Traumatic Brain Injury

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from a violent blow or jolt to the head.

There are various TBI classifications, such as:

  • Diffuse axonal injury. A diffuse axonal injury is the tearing of long connecting nerve fibers in the brain as it shifts and rotates inside the skull.
  • Concussion. A concussion is a mild TBI affecting normal brain function. The injury temporarily causes headaches and memory, concentration, and balance issues.
  • Intracranial hematoma. An intracranial hematoma is a collection of blood outside the blood vessels in the brain. It can lead to death if left untreated.
  • Coup-contrecoup. A coup-contrecoup brain injury occurs when the brain hits one part of the skull, causing damage, and then the opposite side of the brain hits another part of the skull leading to additional damage.
  • Contusion. A contusion is a brain bruise. It causes mild bleeding at the site of the injury.
  • Brain hemorrhage. A brain hemorrhage is uncontrollable bleeding within the brain tissue or on the brain’s surface. Bleeding can also occur in the space surrounding the brain.
  • Penetrating brain injury. A penetrating brain injury occurs when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain. Metal, glass, and other sharp debris from a car accident can cause a penetrating brain injury.

Different types of brain injuries cause varying symptoms.

Below are the most common brain injury symptoms.

  • Cognitive defects
  • Problem-solving difficulties
  • Coma
  • Lost sense of space and time
  • Confusion
  • Decreased awareness of self and others
  • Issues with memory and amnesia
  • Inability to understand abstract concepts
  • Problems with judgment
  • Shortened attention span

Motor Deficits

  • Poor balance
  • Tremors
  • Swallowing problems
  • Weakness or paralysis
  • Poor coordination
  • Decreased endurance
  • Inability to plan motor movements
  • Shortening and tightening of the muscles

Sensory or Perceptual Deficits

  • Right or left-sided neglect
  • Changes in vision, touch, hearing, smell, and taste
  • Vision problems, including lack of visual acuity, limited range of motion, or double vision
  • Trouble understanding the location of a limb in relation to the body
  • Heightened or loss of sensation in body parts

Language and Communication Deficits

  • Trouble writing or reading
  • Decreased vocabulary and slow, hesitant speech
  • Trouble identifying objects and their function
  • Difficulty choosing the right words to say
  • Issues with completing everyday tasks such as brushing teeth
  • Trouble understanding speech and speaking
  • Problems forming coherent sentences

Functional Deficits

  • Organizational problems
  • Inability to operate machinery or drive a car
  • Impaired abilities with daily activities such as bathing and eating

Social Difficulties

  • Trouble understanding and responding to social interactions
  • Difficulty making and keeping friends
  • Impaired social capacity causing challenging interpersonal relationships

Regulatory Disturbances

  • Headache
  • Fatigue
  • Loss of bladder and bowel control
  • Dizziness
  • Changes in eating and sleeping habits

Psychiatric or Personality Changes

  • Irritability
  • Apathy
  • Disinhibition, including cursing, temper flare-ups, aggression, and lowered frustration tolerance
  • Decreased motivation
  • Exaggerated changes in mood
  • Depression and anxiety

Any external factor that causes a violent jolt or blow to the head or brain can lead to a brain injury.

Brain injuries often occur in situations such as:

  • Medical malpractice
  • Nursing home abuse f
  • Motor vehicle accidents
  • Workplace accidents
  • Slip and falls

Brain Injury Compensation

The party you hold liable for your brain injury will depend on the type of accident that injured you. For example, you can file an auto insurance claim if another driver causes a car crash. You might be able to pursue compensation from a business owner if the dangerous property conditions cause you to fall and hit your head.

When you file a claim or lawsuit against the negligent person or company responsible for your brain injury, the money you receive might compensate you for your:

  • Loss of earnings
  • Lost earning capacity
  • Mental anguish
  • Hospitalization, surgery, physical therapy, and other medical expenses
  • Pain and suffering
  • Disability or disfigurement
  • Damage to personal property

Sometimes, a brain injury is fatal. The personal representative of the decedent’s estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Compensation goes to surviving family members to cover:

  • Funeral and burial expenses
  • The value of lost household services the decedent can no longer provide
  • Final medical bills
  • Loss of the decedent’s affection, training, love, companionship, and care
  • Lost financial support the decedent could have contributed if they survived

Determining the value of your case might be a complicated process. It requires calculating your financial expenses and monetizing your non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering. 

Factors that commonly contribute to the value of a brain injury case include:

  • Whether the injury caused permanent damage such as physical disability or cognitive impairment
  • Availability of evidence proving liability
  • Length of the recovery period
  • Daily life disturbances such as missing work
  • Amount of insurance coverage
  • Total accident-related expenses
  • The estimated cost of necessary treatment in the future
  • Type and severity of the brain injury
  • Any emotional effects of the accident

You should hire a Tacoma brain injury lawyer from Park Chenaur and Associates for legal representation. Brain injury cases are complex. Handling the responsibility on your own could lead to an unfavorable outcome. We can investigate and obtain evidence to try to hold the negligent party accountable for their actions and recover the compensation you deserve.

Fighting the Insurance Company

You face an uphill battle when an accident leaves you with a brain injury. Pursuing legal action against the at-fault party and negotiating a fair settlement with the insurance company is time-consuming. It’s often overwhelming for accident victims because they don’t know state laws or what their rights are while dealing with injury claims.

One of the most common mistakes is believing the insurance adjuster wants to help. Insurance companies want to save money. That means they will deny a claim or provide an inadequate settlement offer if possible. The goal is to avoid significant payouts.

You are not obligated to talk to an insurance adjuster if they contact you to discuss the accident. They might try to trick you into saying something that damages your case or allows them to avoid accepting liability for their policyholder. That’s where Park Chenaur and Associates can take over.

We know how to communicate with insurance carriers to negotiate a settlement agreement we believe is appropriate for our clients. We can locate and submit valuable evidence and aggressively negotiate compensation for your losses. If settlement discussions fail, we have the resources to file a lawsuit on your behalf.

How to Handle a Brain Injury

You probably already saw a doctor for an initial evaluation of your brain injury. Hire a Tacoma brain injury lawyer from Park Chenaur and Associates shortly after the accident. We can begin investigating and create a strategy to try to hold the at-fault party liable.

While we work on your case, you should follow up with recommended medical providers. The doctor who diagnosed your brain injury might advise you to take prescriptions for the pain, get an X-ray to locate internal issues, or start physical therapy to strengthen your motor function. You must listen to your doctor and follow the recommended treatment plan precisely.

Significant gaps between appointments and deviations from the treatment plan can slow your recovery and negatively affect your case. You should continue treating your brain injury until your healthcare professionals release you from their care. At that point, we can request all of your medical records and send a settlement demand to the insurance company.

Maintaining adequate documentation after an accident is beneficial. You can document your symptoms in a pain journal and keep track of the doctors you see. Forward any copies of your medical records and bills for us to review. You shouldn’t worry if you can’t maintain documents while your case is pending. We can gather everything we need. Your primary focus should be on treating your injury.

If you have social media accounts, don’t use them until your case ends. Although sharing photos and commenting on others’ posts seems harmless, doing so can be detrimental to your case. A defense attorney or insurance adjuster can comb through your social media accounts for evidence they can use against you.

They might find posts that contradict the severity of your injury. Sometimes, they might try to use the online evidence they find to blame you for the accident, so they don’t have to pay as much. You must stay away from social media and other digital forms of communication.

Get Help From a Trusted Tacoma Brain Injury Lawyer

attorneys rick and angel
Rick Park & Angel Chenaur, Brain Injury Lawyers

A brain injury is life-changing. The damage to your brain can prevent you from living independently. You face significant financial strain if you can’t return to your job or find other sources of income.

Park Chenaur and Associate will protect your rights and remain by your side until the end. You can count on an experienced Tacoma personal injury lawyer from our firm to fight for you.

If you sustained a brain injury in an accident due to someone else’s negligence, call us at (253) 345-2555 or complete our online form for a free consultation. We’re available 24/7 to speak with you.

Tacoma Office Location:

3517 6th Ave, Tacoma,

WA 98406,

Phone: (253) 345-2555