Diagnosed with Dementia after an Accident – Lawyer for Accident Victims

Being in an accident is a traumatic experience, but seeing a doctor right away can put you on the road to recovery. Usually, the injuries caused by the accident are obvious right away, like a fractured bone or a dislocated joint. But what if you have an injury that can take months or years to develop? This is unfortunately the case with traumatic brain injuries, which many victims end up with from an accident.

Dementia is one of the most common health conditions you can develop if you experienced a blow to the head or a violent shaking of the head. Most people associate these injuries with athletes (football and hockey players, for example), but dementia often affects the elderly, those with pre-existing illnesses, and people who sustain head injuries due to a car crash or another accident. In fact, people with severe TBI (traumatic brain injury) are 4 to 5 times more likely to develop dementia than patients who have never had a head injury.

If you have a serious brain injury because of careless or reckless conduct by others, you have the right to seek compensation in the form of medical expenses, current and future lost wages, pain and suffering, and more. Our attorneys can help you secure maximum payment from a lawsuit, thereby ensuring that you have the necessary funds to cover all your expenses, now and into the future. Contact Normandie Law Firm and talk to a lawyer who can help you sue for dementia caused by brain injury from an accident.

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What is Dementia?

Most people think of dementia as a disease, but it’s actually a general term to describe an impaired ability to reason, think, or remember things, like how to do basic tasks that are associated with everyday life. Those with dementia will eventually be diagnosed with a specific disorder, like Alzheimer’s and fronto-temporal dementia.

Dementia is most commonly associated with the elderly, but it’s not a normal part of the aging process. In fact, dementia can happen at any age due to a variety of reasons, including untreated heart conditions, family history, and traumatic brain injury from an accident.

To determine whether a patient has dementia, doctors will run tests on cognitive abilities to check for memory, attention, and problem-solving skills. In addition, they may order brain scans and blood tests to determine underlying causes like vitamin deficiency and hormone imbalances, which are natural causes of dementia.

Sadly, many patients are diagnosed with dementia after an accident that resulted in a head injury. An actual diagnosis may not happen for years, but early medical intervention can help minimize the effects of a traumatic brain injury. Even if your accident seems relatively minor, please talk to your doctor right away if you experience the following symptoms of dementia:

• Problems with your memory, attention span, or speech
• Vision problems
• Impaired reasoning or problem solving skills
• Forgetting names of loved ones
• Inability to complete daily tasks without assistance
• Getting lost in familiar areas or forgetting things like your address
• Not using the correct word to refer to familiar objects

How Does Dementia Develop after an Accident Where I Hit my Head?

When you are injured from a car crash or another serious accident, you can experience a moderate to severe injury to the brain. This can happen due to a blow to the head, the skull being pierced by an object, or the head being shaken back and forth (very common in car accidents). These examples of trauma can lead to chemical changes in the brain and result in the patient developing Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases.

It’s important to note that not everyone who is hurt in an accident will be diagnosed with dementia. With immediate and proper medical attention, many victims can heal from their injuries and resume their lives in a healthy and normal way. But the risk of getting dementia increases for those with a head injury, even if you have no family history of dementia or pre-existing health issues that are associated with dementia.

What Kind of Accidents Cause Dementia?

Frankly, any accident that results in a head injury has the potential to cause dementia. Accidents that are most commonly associated with traumatic brain injury include:

• Car accidents, particularly head on-collisions and being hit on the side
• Slip and fall or trip and fall, where the victim’s head hits the ground or another surface
• Falling object incidents, like collapsing ceilings or items falling off a shelf.

These incidents often cause people to strike their head against a hard surface or object, and the resulting impact can lead to a concussion, contusion, diffuse axonal injury and other neurological conditions. Alternatively, brain damage is caused by falling objects, like falling merchandise at a store or tiles, bricks, and other debris falling off a roof.

Please note that even a mild brain injury can have serious long-term complications, including loss of memory and other cognitive abilities. Immediate treatment is essential after an accident to ensure that your injuries are properly identified and treated. In spite of medical intervention, there is no denying that the current and future costs of living with a brain injury are expensive. Our sole motivation is to uphold your rights and fight to bring you the highest possible settlement in a brain injury lawsuit. Contact us today and schedule a free case evaluation to learn about the ways we can assist you.

Can I Sue if I was Diagnosed with Dementia after an Accident?

Yes, you have the right to sue if negligence by another party, whether it be an individual, company, government agency, etc. caused you to be injured in an accident where you later developed dementia. The concept of negligence can be defined in many ways, but overall, it refers to someone’s failure to exercise reasonable care that could have prevented harm to others.

For example, a building owner is negligent in their duty to guests and residents if they fail to clean up hazards that results in people slipping on the floor and falling down. A motorist can be sued for negligent conduct if they are distracted on their phone and end up hitting the back of someone’s car. These are basic examples, and many cases involve more complicated circumstances, but hopefully, we have given you a sense of what it means to fail in your duty of care to others.

The concept of negligence, however, does not apply in cases of workplace injuries, as all employers in California are required to obtain workers’ compensation insurance. Thus, if you were injured at your workplace, a job site, or while performing a job-related duty, your medical costs and lost wages are covered by worker’s compensation. These benefits are paid to you, even if no one is at fault for the accident, so it’s a valuable form of protection for anyone who is hurt on the job.

Please note that workers’ comp cases have tight deadlines, which you will learn more about later in this article. Regardless of how you were injured, please know that our legal team is here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide you with legal advice and guidance.

Average Settlement for Brain Injury Resulting in Dementia

There are some figures indicating that the median case value for a brain injury case is around $1,500,000, and that sounds about right to us when we look at the payments we normally obtain on behalf of our clients. We can say with certainty that the vast majority of settlements are close to or over $1,000,000, even in cases of moderate TBI that results in dementia. If there is severe injury to the brain, a case value may be around $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 due to the victim’s lifetime medical expenses, loss of career and associated income, and other financial burdens.

Of course, not all lawsuits for accidents that cause dementia are worth 7 to 8 figures, so compensation awards for TBI claims can be in the range of $110,000 to $500,000. How much you can receive from a personal injury lawsuit is based on many issues that are specific to your case, though the degree of injury and how they affect your health and finances have the biggest impact. Until we learn these details about you, it would be impossible to provide an accurate assessment of your case value. With that in mind, please contact our law firm as soon as possible.

How Long Does it Take to Settle a Traumatic Brain Injury Case?

Some cases of traumatic brain injury from an accident may be settled in a few months, but many of these claims take at least 1 year due to the complications of proving conditions like dementia that develop over a long period of time. In addition, how much the victim is entitled to often exceeds $1,000,000 and insurance companies generally put up a fight to reduce their client’s liability and pay the smallest possible amount.

The case resolution timeline can be especially long if the party that caused your accident is a public entity, like a government employee or agency. In these situations, there are additional requirements for how to file a claim and if / when you can file a civil lawsuit. Because of these issues, government injury claims, like suing a city or county, usually take 1 to 2 years.

The possibility of going to trial is a subject that comes up during many of our consultation. Yes, this is possible if we are unable to negotiate a reasonable settlement with the insurance company. However, we want to stress that settlements are reached out of court in over 95% of all personal injury lawsuits. So, there’s very little chance that we will need to try your case in court.

How Much Time Do I have for a Lawsuit if I was Diagnosed with Dementia?

Normally, those who sustain bodily harm from an accident have 2 years to file a lawsuit for monetary damages. But there is an exception for injuries that cannot be diagnosed right away, like dementia after a car accident. If you are already 2 or more years past the date of the accident, you still have 1 year to file a lawsuit from the date of finding out about a related illness or injury. Thus, you can base the deadline for lawsuit on the date of being diagnosed with dementia or any other condition caused by a head injury.

Keep in mind that extensions on the statute of limitations for a lawsuit must be approved by the court. That’s why you should always verify the deadline for an injury case with an accident lawsuit attorney.

Statute of Limitations for a Workplace Injury Claim

Claims for an injured worker are very different than filing a lawsuit for personal injury, as you are entitled to compensation through the state. These cases have a firm deadline of 1 year from the incident date, no matter what type of accident you had. Additionally, you have 30 days to notify your employer that you had an accident at work. If you do not meet these deadlines, you will forfeit your right to workers’ comp benefits, so please talk to your employer immediately if you sustained an injury while you were working.

Along with filing a workplace accident claim through the state, some employees have the right to file a separate lawsuit against a negligent party. This is known as a third party lawsuit, and as a general rule, you will need to show that there was a dangerous condition that caused you to be injured while you were performing a work-related task. A delivery driver, for example, can trip and fall on someone’s property because of broken concrete on the steps.

On top of filing a workers’ compensation claim, the driver can also seek compensation from the homeowner under the law of premises liability. As we mentioned before, these lawsuits have a 2-year deadline, starting from when the accident occurred, or within 1 year of finding out about a health condition caused by the accident.

A workplace injury lawyer at our office can answer all your questions and ensure that you obtain every penny you deserve if you sustained a brain injury from an accident during work.

Contact a Brain Injury Accident Attorney

The effects of dementia are devastating enough on their own, but what if you develop the condition after an accident that was caused by someone else? In that case, you have the right to demand compensation for your current and future losses, which we can help you with here at Normandie Law Firm.

We have an experienced team of personal injury lawyers, who are ready to fight for the compensation you deserve. All legal fees are paid by the individual or entity that harmed you, so you don’t have to worry about how much it will cost to hire a lawyer. And if we fail to recover your settlement, you pay us absolutely nothing since you are protected by the Zero Fee Guarantee from day one.

Please consider a free consultation at our law firm, so that we can advise you of your rights and legal options.

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