Unique Aspects of Nashville Catastrophic Injury Claims

Legally, a catastrophic injury is defined as any injury that is going to have serious, long-term effects on a victim. A catastrophic injury, in the medical community, is generally going to be seen as severe impact or injury to the spine, the spinal cord. One of the unique aspects of Nashville catastrophic injury claims is that the injuries almost always result in permanent impairment. The resulting medical bills can be quite expensive and difficult to deal with on your own. That is why if you have sustained a catastrophic injury, you should consult a knowledgeable catastrophic injury attorney that could help you recover the damages you deserve.

Determining Catastrophic Injury

One of the unique aspects of Nashville catastrophic injury claims is the importance of someone’s ability to maintain gainful employment. The victim’s ability to maintain gainful employment plays a role in determining whether a person’s injury is catastrophic or not. If someone cannot maintain gainful employment and earn a living, it is automatically deemed a catastrophic injury.

Differences Between Catastrophic Injuries and Other Injuries

Damages are what set catastrophic injuries apart from other personal injuries. The injuries and all of the economic and emotional damages associated with those injuries are very high. A common consequence of a catastrophic injury would include someone who is permanently unable to perform any type of gainful employment. That can include returning to their regular customary job or any other type of job.

Catastrophic injuries often place serious stress on the injured person’s family, especially their spouse. They may need constant supervision or help with their activities of daily living. It can include a lifetime of rehabilitation and future medical bills which creates a significant impact on the injured person and everyone around them.

Calculating Damages in Catastrophic Injury Cases

The level of damages is another one of the unique aspects of Nashville catastrophic injury claims. Catastrophic injury means high damages in these cases, and that requires a legal understanding of the law as to what damages a person is entitled to recover and how to prove them in part. The question is, how does someone package those damages together in an evidentiary form that is acceptable to the court and that a jury understands? Experts are often retained to give their opinion as to these damages.

How Expert Witnesses Can Help

Economic experts place dollar amounts on what the law approves, as far as lost wages, loss of retirement benefits, and things like that. Vocational disability experts will testify what percentage of jobs this person can or cannot perform and how that will impact them over their life.

Lifecare planners will talk about what it would take to make a home handicapped accessible for the injured person, e.g., a handicapped accessible vehicle. The injured person should have as much freedom as they had before this horrible accident.

Unfortunately, that will cost a lot of money. Rehab is not cheap and medical care is not cheap. There are a lot of tools available in this great country to help people who have suffered brain injuries, but unfortunately, these are expensive.

Defining Incapacitation

When someone is unable to act on their own behalf because of a brain injury or some other injury or illness, they are considered incapacitated. An individual that cannot make logical decisions or decide what is in their best interest, they are incapacitated. The victim could also be incapacitated physically and have difficulty getting around, getting in the house, getting on the hospital bed. Generally, in a traumatic brain injury case, the injured person often times cannot talk much less think properly or make decisions in their own best interest.

Reaching Out to an Attorney When the Injured Party is Incapacitated

One of the unique aspects of Nashville catastrophic injury claims is that often because the victim might not be able to communicate, someone must reach out to an attorney on their behalf. Most of the time, the spouse, a child, a parent, will make the initial phone call to an experienced lawyer.

In the event the injured person is unable, either physically or mentally, to communicate, a family member may be appointed as their guardian in order to pursue a lawsuit on their behalf. If the injured person passes away before the completion of the lawsuit, an Estate will be opened in the Probate Court and the Administrator of the Estate will be allowed to continue the lawsuit until completion.

Determining the Relationship Between the Injured Party and Family Members

Determining the relationship to the injured person is important in ascertaining whether they have a legal right to act on behalf of the injured person. It is important to determine whether they have power of attorney for healthcare and power of attorney to make financial decisions and enter into contracts. If they do not, someone needs to be appointed by the Probate Court to represent the injured person.