The Future Costs of Traumatic Brain Injury
In many personal injury cases, like car accidents or slip and falls, a person is hurt, incurs medical bills, gets better, and moves on with life. The cost of that victim's care is usually paid because it is all finished.
With brain injury, there are usually expenses for past care, and expenses that are likely to be incurred in the future. These might include future medical costs, rehabilitation costs, educational costs, vocational training costs, psychiatric/psychological care costs, home-aid costs and costs for special equipment.
When the effects of a brain injury are expected to be life-long, these future costs can be staggering. And the only way for a lawyer to prove them is typically through expert testimony on estimated future care needs and vocational losses, and expert testimony by an economist who can put a number on the cost of that future care and vocational losses.
After a long process of analysis by several experts, lawyers typically have a set of numbers that represent the estimated future costs and losses that a brain injured person and his/her family face. This is usually presented to the attorney for the insurance company of the person who caused the injury (the defense attorney).
This defense attorney then begins the process of challenging the basis and accuracy of the estimates. The goal of the defense is to find every possible way to discredit or reduce these estimates so that the insurance company or defendant will ultimately be liable for less money.
All of these costs are separate from what are called "pain and suffering damages." Pain and suffering damages are usually left to the jury to decide, if the case goes to trial. There is no concrete way to calculate those types of damages. However, experts may testify as to expected future pain and suffering, and juries are permitted to consider (or not consider) such damages in the amount they award, under certain circumstances.
People hear about large settlements and jury awards that seem outrageous from the outside. However, when costs are calculated over a lifetime, and the only money a person will ever have to take care of him/herself comes from a settlement or verdict, it quickly becomes clear that the numbers are usually not large at all, just realistic. And you can be sure that insurance defense lawyers will be present to challenge and attack every penny claimed as damages by a brain injured plaintiff.
