Imagine waking up in a sterile white room, the beeps of machines your only companions. Your body aches, but a deeper disorientation chills you; you can’t remember the events leading to this hospitalization. This is a devastating reality for many victims who suffer from memory loss after accident.
Sometimes, memory loss might recover earlier, but in several cases, you may experience problems even after a long time. This persistent disorder is known as traumatic brain injury (TBI) or post-concussion syndrome (PCS).
Medical advice can make a recovery from memory impairments easy. However, legal advice is also essential when it comes to memory loss after an accident. This entails either settlement for memory loss after accident with an insurance company or battling for reimbursement in court.
Memory Loss After Accident
After an accident, brain injury results in several kinds of memory loss, including short-term and long-term memory loss, which is known as different types of amnesia:
Anterograde Amnesia
Anterograde amnesia is the most common type of memory loss after a concussion. Other cognitive problems, such as difficulties with attention, often accompany it.
Patients with anterograde amnesia may experience:
Difficulty remembering conversations or events just minutes after the occurrence, the names and faces of people they’ve just met, or the storyline in movies they recently watched.
Prospective Memory
Concussions may also affect prospective memory, in which patients can’t remember plans or other commitments long enough to attend them.
Patients with loss of prospective memory may:
People often forget important occasions, such as birthdays, holidays, and family events, to take medicines at the right time, to pick up children from school at a certain time, or to attend important meetings at work.
Retrograde Amnesia
Retrograde amnesia is less common, but it can happen. Typically, patients lose the ability to recall events that have occurred during the period immediately preceding the brain injury.
Patients with retrograde amnesia may experience:
Difficulty remembering events that occurred before the concussion, general knowledge facts, names, faces, places, and dates that were familiar before the injury, or inability to recall skills and abilities that they knew before the injury.
Common Treatment Approaches for Memory Loss
To “treat” memory means being able to rework all brain parts, which injured in the accident. There are some commonly offered, helpful therapies and options, such as:
- Cognitive Therapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Psychotherapy
- Relaxation Therapies
- Music Therapy
- Medications
- Dietary supplements
TBI patients can recover with family members’ support and a variety of memory encoding strategies. Using these methods regularly can enhance the way your brain encodes and stores memories.
How a Memory Loss Lawyer Evaluates a Case’s Settlement Value
Evaluating the value of a settlement for memory loss after accident requires a comprehensive approach by a skilled personal injury lawyer. They assess accidents and their consequences and meticulously analyze them to determine fair compensation amounts.
Legal Pathways for Seeking a Settlement
Memory loss after accident often stems from TBIs. A lawyer specializing in these cases begins by thoroughly investigating the circumstances of the accident. Here’s in detail what your lawyer might do:
Calculate your damages
Your lawyer will add up all your existing damages. Then, they will consult with experts, including doctors, who can pinpoint how much care and financial support you will need in the future.
Investigate the claim
If an accident happens due to defective vehicle manufacturing, you might have a chance to claim against the vehicle’s manufacturer. Your lawyer will help in filing a personal injury claim. This claim details your injuries, it’simpact on your life, and the compensation values.
Review your own insurance policies
If you have your own insurance coverages, they supplement your settlement. Your lawyer can help you review insurance policies and provide you with knowledge of what steps can be best for you.
Negotiate with the insurance companies
Next, your lawyer will send a demand letter to the insurance companies. It will outline the strengths of your case and demand fair compensation for your injuries. From there, they will negotiate back and forth with the insurance adjuster.
Your case may proceed to court if negotiations do not yield a satisfactory settlement. Your lawyer will present your case, and a judge or jury will determine the outcome based on the evidence. If necessary, you can appeal the decision if legal errors affected the trial’s outcome.
Your Advocate in Adversity
A personal injury lawyer’s expertise in personal injury law and experience with TBIs equip them to handle the complexities of such cases.
Most personal injury lawyers charge a contingency fee. So you never pay them, and consultations are free. You just need to pay legal fees and the costs of your settlement. That also means that if you don’t win, you don’t pay.
Final Thoughts
Facing memory loss after accident and settlement for memory loss after accident requires the support of medical facilities as well as knowledgeable legal professionals. By better understanding the evaluation process of a memory loss lawyer, survivors can better navigate their legal journey and seek the justice they need to move forward.