Car accident scene, with ambulance and fire trucks
Personal Injury – The Importance of Acting Fast in Texas. In the state of Texas, personal injury cases fall under the category of “civil” cases, and therefore have a two-year statute of limitations. This means that a lawsuit can only be filed within two years of the date of the incident that caused the injury. In many cases, some injuries become apparent very quickly; broken bones and lacerations are easy to identify and are fairly straightforward to treat with the correct medical care, however, “unseen” injuries can be much harder to detect which increases the probability of suffering from long-lasting complications.
Top Three types of Personal Injury claims
The top three types of personal injury claims are car accidents, slip, and fall accidents, and medical malpractice accidents, and each of these claims can involve these “invisible injuries.”
Traumatic brain injury is one of the most commonly reported in these cases, but, symptoms may range from light headaches and mild dizziness to seizures, slurred speech, numbness, and loss of motor control. Diagnosing traumatic brain injury requires more advanced testing than superficial injuries, which is why acting fast after getting in an accident is so important; if left untreated and undiagnosed, a traumatic brain injury can lead to some serious health complications and even death.
Car Accidents – Whiplash or Something Serious?
If you have been rear-ended or have had to slam on the brakes at a moment’s notice, chances are you may have experienced whiplash. Whiplash is an injury that affects the neck and occurs when the neck suddenly moves forward and backward The tendons, muscles, nerves, and discs of the neck are all involved in this injury, however, a sudden and violent head movement can also lead to brain damage.
Closed brain injuries may accompany whiplash, as they can occur when rapid motion shakes the brain within the skull. This leads to bruising and tearing of brain tissue and blood vessels and may lead to a primary and or secondary brain injury depending on the extent of the damage.
Primary injury describes when damage to the brain is more or less complete at the time of impact while secondary injury refers to the changes that occur over a considerable period of time after the primary injury, which leads to further degeneration of brain tissue.
Brain injuries can result in devastating and irreversible damage which often requires life-long medical care to ensure a comfortable standard of living following an accident.
San Diego Pedestrian brain damage lawsuit
In 2017, a pedestrian was crossing the street at the intersection of La Jolla in San Diego when he was struck by a vehicle during rush hour traffic. The victim was able to obtain legal counsel and file a lawsuit to cover the damages from the incident, which included severe traumatic brain injury.
Lawsuit allegations
The lawsuit alleged that the city was at fault for the accident, and had described the design of the intersection as faulty; the driver of the offending vehicle had to wait a long time for traffic to clear before being able to turn into the intersection, and there was a lack of signs and poor visibility of the pedestrian crosswalk that ran through the street. The driver proceeded once he saw an opening but unfortunately also struck the victim during his turn.
The collision resulted in the victim sustaining severe head trauma, brain bleed, traumatic brain injury, and a skull fracture. He required eight days of intensive care, which resulted in a very high medical bill.
His injuries also made it so that he suffered a profound change in his mental ability and was no longer able to work, and his wife served as the co-claimant of the case as she had tragically lost the companionship of her husband. Thankfully, the pair was awarded a payout of $1.5M by the city of San Diego in 2021.
The Legal Aspect
Suffering delayed symptoms after getting injured can be a scary and confusing experience. It’s important to assess and document injuries with the help of a medical professional as soon as you can following an accident. In Texas, the two-year statute of limitations imposes further urgency on filing for financial compensation. Depending on the type of accident that caused the injury, the theories of “comparative negligence” and “respondeat superior” may also apply:
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Comparative negligence: you are eligible for full financial compensation if you were not at all partially responsible for the accident, but your financial compensation decreases by the percent amount of your responsibility; for instance, if you were driving distracted and were hit by another vehicle, but you were found to be 20% responsible due to your behavior, you would only be eligible for 80% financial compensation.
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Respondeat superior: if you were injured by an employee of a company who was acting within the scope of their employment during the accident, you may be able to hold the company liable.
Injured? Dr. Shezad Malik law firm can help
Don’t delay in seeking immediate medical care and legal assistance if you or a loved one may have suffered from invisible injuries following an accident. Give the Dr. Shezad Malik Law Offices a call at 214-390-3189 and we’ll get you started on your road to peace of mind and fair compensation.
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