What to Expect When Filing a Brain Injury Lawsuit in Kansas
What happens when a brain injury victim needs to seek compensation? If you are dealing with such an injury, knowing what to expect when filing a brain injury lawsuit in Kansas will help you manage expectations throughout the compensation process. Meeting with an experienced brain injury attorney early on will give you answers to your compensation questions and peace of mind.
If you or a loved one is facing the consequences of a brain injury, contact our office to learn about the compensation you may be owed. Call to schedule a free consultation today.
Insurance Company and Defendant Pushback
If you are seeking compensation for a brain injury (or any other injury), you can expect pushback from the insurance company involved and, potentially, the liable party. The compensation process is adversarial, meaning parties to a compensation claim or lawsuit are pitted against one another on the issue of damages and accountability.
Whether a victim has been injured is not as important as whether the victim can prove that they have been harmed and do so in a way that satisfies all legal requirements. Insurance companies expend significant resources to defend against compensation claims in order to pay less or nothing at all. Victims should, therefore, expect some potential issues from insurance companies and should hire competent counsel as soon as possible.
With decades of combined experience, you can confidently put your injury case in the hands of Palmer Law Group.
Timing Issues
Timing issues can arise throughout a brain injury lawsuit. They must be settled as soon as possible. They can lead to a reduction or all-out denial of a perfectly valid claim, which is why injury victims must act quickly when they deserve compensation and hire an experienced brain injury attorney in Kansas.
Statute of Limitations
One of the primary timing concerns deals with the statute of limitations, which is a deadline for taking legal action on a matter. In Kansas, the statute of limitations for seeking compensation for a brain injury is two years. After two years, an otherwise valid lawsuit will likely be thrown out.
Time and Evidence Problems
Successful brain injury lawsuits rely heavily on strong evidence. However, evidence can easily become problematic when too much time has passed since an injury.
Witnesses can provide powerful testimony in a brain injury case. However, if the witness’s testimony was not recorded or otherwise memorialized until some time after an injury, the testimony will be less reliable. Another issue with witnesses is that they can be difficult to locate after too much time and may even be impossible to find. A cure for both of these issues is prompt action in collecting and preserving witness testimony and contact information.
Quick action in seeking compensation will also help preserve certain types of evidence that might be lost or destroyed with the passage of time. For example, video evidence these days is easy to come by. Almost every adult has fingertip access to a video recorder in their phone, and traffic and surveillance cameras are everywhere. However, much of the video footage recorded these days ends up getting deleted after a period of time, making prompt action vital when pursuing a case.
How Much to Expect From a Brain Injury Claim
One of the most important questions brain injury victims have has to do with how much compensation they will receive. The answer always depends on an injured person’s specific circumstances. For those injured on the job, worker’s compensation is available and consists of various economic benefits and compensation, including:
Medical treatment for the brain injury, including hospital stays
A percentage of lost wages plus certain expenses
Vocational benefits
Death benefits.
Compensation for non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, is not available with workers’ compensation claims. However, it is available in a personal injury claim.
Brain injury victims can file personal injury claims when they have a valid injury claim not covered by workers’ compensation, such as an auto accident. Even an injured worker may be able to file a personal injury claim if they were harmed by someone outside of the workplace.
Personal injury claims allow more categories of compensation than workers’ comp, including:
Pain and suffering
Loss of enjoyment of life
Mental anguish and emotional distress
Other intangible losses.
Ultimately, what a brain injury sufferer receives should match their anticipated future losses and expenses related to the injury. A person with a serious, debilitating brain injury can expect significant outlays for medical care and treatment. They must also prepare for a substantially lower income or no income at all. As such, their compensation payout will be significantly higher than a brain injury victim who fully recovers within a few months or a year.
How Much to Expect to Pay a Kansas Brain Injury Lawyer
Personal injury and work injury attorneys typically do not receive their fees until a case has been fully resolved. As such, brain injury victims seeking compensation pay nothing at the commencement of their case. Once damages have been recovered, the Kansas brain injury attorney will receive a percentage of the total. What this percentage is depends heavily on the specific circumstances and difficulties involved in a case.
Court Appearance Expectations
Although some brain injury cases make it into court, the vast majority do not. Instead, they are settled by way of negotiations or sometimes mediation or arbitration. Cases that do go to trial might involve complex issues, unreasonable insurance companies, stubborn defendants, or significantly high damages. Whether a case goes to trial or not, the injury victim needs effective representation to recover the compensation their future deserves.
Brain Injury Representation You Need and Deserve
If you or someone you love has suffered a brain injury and needs compensation, don’t settle for low-ball insurance company offers. Instead, contact one of Kansas’s top personal injury law firms for effective representation. Reach out to Palmer Law Group!
Palmer Law Group is here to stand with you. Call for a free consultation and answers to your questions about compensation.