According to a special emphasis report from the Illinois Department of Public Health, nearly 30,000 people suffered traumatic brain injuries across our state in 2021. Traumatic brain injuries – or TBIs – can have long-lasting consequences for survivors of all ages and result in significant expenses related to medical care, rehabilitation, and even long-term disability.

After a car accident, TBI survivors often turn to insurance companies to help them access financial support for their physical, emotional, and practical losses. Unfortunately, however, TBIs are often invisible injuries with symptoms that can be difficult to prove and quantify. As a result, some survivors may find their claims devalued or downplayed by insurance companies and their representatives. Here’s a brief explanation of how traumatic brain injuries can occur and an overview of what survivors can do if an insurance company attempts to deny or downplay a brain injury-related claim.

What is a traumatic brain injury?

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a kind of injury that occurs when a significant impact or force alters the brain’s normal functioning. TBIs are particularly common in car accidents because many of these incidents involve sudden changes in speed, while others involve direct, high-velocity impacts that can result in blows to the head. These kinds of movements can damage brain tissue, cause internal bleeding, or otherwise impact a survivor’s neurological functioning.

One of the most concerning (and frustrating) aspects of TBIs is the fact that some injuries and symptoms may not be readily apparent after an accident. Instead, some TBI survivors notice symptoms developing slowly over time, which can lead to additional complications and other increased risks. While minor TBIs – like concussions, for example – may resolve on their own and result in relatively manageable symptoms, others can seriously impact a patient’s ability to return to their normal routine after an accident.

What are the symptoms of a TBI?

Traumatic brain injury symptoms usually look like physical, cognitive, emotional, and/or neurological changes. While TBIs typically fall on a fairly wide spectrum in terms of severity and symptom presentation, there are a few symptoms commonly associated with brain injuries. Some potential TBI symptoms to look out for after a car crash or other traumatic accident include:

• Temporary or sustained loss of consciousness
• Chronic headache
• Changes in vision
• Speech difficulties
• Dizziness
• Confusion
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Fatigue
• Changes in motor functioning
• Balance problems
• Ringing in the ears
• Memory loss
• Trouble concentrating or “brain fog”

These kinds of symptoms can range in severity, but each of them has the ability to disrupt a TBI survivor’s life for at least some amount of time. For example, if a car accident survivor sustains a concussion in a crash and struggles with their memory or concentration for weeks after an accident, they may end up falling behind at work or school during the recovery process.

Similarly, chronic headaches, vision changes, and fatigue – among other symptoms – could prevent someone from engaging in certain social or recreational activities after an accident, leading to social isolation, depression, or other mental health challenges. All of these symptoms can negatively impact a survivor’s quality of life and require extensive time, resources, and funds to adequately address.

Long-term costs of a TBI

Due to the kinds of symptoms listed above, many TBI survivors find themselves facing extensive and compounding costs related to their immediate and long-term medical treatment and symptom management. Research suggests that the lifetime cost of a traumatic brain injury can range from tens of thousands to even millions of dollars, depending on the severity and duration of a victim’s injuries.

While minor injuries may not require much in the way of ongoing medical care, moderate to severe brain injuries can lead to more pervasive financial distress across various aspects of a survivor’s life. Some potential sources of long-term financial damages in serious brain injury cases may include:

• Ongoing medical evaluation and treatment
• Surgery
• Rehabilitation
• Long-term care placement
• Physical or occupational therapy
• Mental health treatment
• Lost wages
• Reduced lifetime earning capacity
• Pain and suffering
• Diagnosable mental health conditions (i.e., anxiety, PTSD, depression, etc.)

Your average TBI survivor may not have enough cash on hand to comfortably cover all of the potential costs associated with their injury and subsequent recovery efforts. As a result, survivors often rely on insurance coverage to help them fill in the gaps – particularly in cases where one party’s injuries were caused by another person’s negligence.

Unfortunately, some insurance companies are inclined to devalue or downplay these kinds of long-term losses to avoid paying out large sums of money to survivors. While we always hope that insurers will do their due diligence to ensure accident victims receive fair compensation for their losses, sometimes additional action is needed to help TBI survivors fight for the full value of their claim.

How insurance companies devalue TBI claims

There are a few different avenues insurers may use to avoid paying the full and fair value of a TBI claim. At the end of the day, insurance companies are businesses that are incentivized to minimize payouts whenever possible. Despite their relative severity and potential for long-term financial consequences, traumatic brain injuries often involve unique nuances that insurers can leverage to undervalue or downplay the need for compensation.

First, some TBI symptoms may overlap with preexisting health conditions or other diagnoses that are unrelated to a brain injury. As a result, insurers may argue that a TBI survivor’s reported symptoms are actually the result of another medical condition entirely and are therefore not eligible for compensation as part of a car accident claim. Similarly, some TBI symptoms do not appear for days, weeks, or even months after an accident. This delayed onset can leave room for speculation as to whether or not the delayed symptoms are explicitly TBI-related or the result of some other condition or behavior on the part of the claimant.

To make matters even more complicated, delayed symptom onset can lead some TBI patients to delay medical evaluation or treatment. Insurance companies may look at this delayed treatment as evidence that the survivor’s injuries weren’t actually significant or may claim that their worsening symptoms were the result of their failure to seek prompt medical care. If the insurance company believes that your symptoms are unrelated to the accident or influenced by other factors, it may dispute or reduce your claim for compensation.

The role of comparative negligence in TBI cases

Illinois follows what’s called a modified comparative negligence rule. Under this rule, if you’re found to be more than 50% at fault for an accident, you generally cannot recover any compensation from another involved party. Even if you were less than 50% responsible, your final amount of compensation will be reduced in proportion to your share of fault. This is significant in real-life cases because a claimant who’s deemed 45% to blame for an accident will end up walking away with 45% less compensation.

Insurance companies understand the nuances of this system and will subsequently scrutinize claimants under the framework of comparative negligence. They may look for signs that suggest a victim contributed to his or her own injuries so the insurer can minimize its own liability for those injuries. An experienced car accident and brain injury lawyer can help injured victims fight back against unsubstantiated or inflated claims of comparative negligence so they can retain more of any compensation they are ultimately awarded.

How to protect your claim

One of the most important things you can do to prevent an insurance company from unjustly downplaying your symptoms or devaluing your claim is to document absolutely everything. The sooner you can seek medical evaluation after an accident, the more quickly you can begin building a paper trail related to your injuries, symptoms, medical expenses, and other losses. Even if you feel relatively normal after a crash, a prompt medical evaluation can help you catch any unseen, slow-to-develop injuries and protect you from potentially catastrophic complications.

Detailed records can help you paint a clear picture of how your injury developed and what kind of impact it has had on you since. Providing this kind of specific information can clear up lingering questions about the severity of your injury and help you push back against any attempts to downplay your suffering.

An experienced lawyer can help you identify and collect important documentation in your case and can even enlist the help of expert witnesses like doctors, life care planners, and accountants who can speak more specifically to the long-term impact of your injury at home, work, school, and beyond. With the right combination of physical evidence, documentation, and witness statements, TBI survivors and their legal representatives can stay one step ahead of common insurance tactics and fight more effectively for fair compensation under the law.

Final thoughts

A TBI can completely alter the course of a survivor’s life due to the severe symptoms and extensive care needs often associated with these injuries. Between the physical, emotional, and financial consequences of a traumatic brain injury, many survivors rely on insurance coverage to help meet their current and future recovery needs. When insurers attempt to downplay symptoms or undervalue survivors’ claims, accident victims suffer in more ways than one.

At Gainsberg Injury and Accident Lawyers, we understand the unique challenges many TBI survivors must face on a daily basis. That’s why we work so hard to deliver knowledgeable and compassionate legal support for accident victims seeking fair compensation.

If you or someone you love sustained a traumatic brain injury in a car accident, and you’re concerned about an insurance company paying their fair share, give us a call today or fill out our online contact form for a free case review. We can talk you through your legal options and help you decide how best to move forward in your fight for compensation.