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Now it is a rare injury to have a brain injury from a car accident, but it can happen. Generally speaking, you're going to see somebody striking their head against the window or the windshield. Sometimes it can also happen from the quick back and forth motion of the head. It rattles the brain inside the head and sometimes can cause damage that way as well.
Generally speaking, if you do strike your head, you're going to notice things like dizziness, sometimes really severe headaches, blurred vision. These kinds of neurological complaints can be a sign of a brain injury. You also may have lost consciousness for a period of time, if the brain was deprived of oxygen for a period of time. You may be forgetful. You may have short term memory loss. Those are all very important issues and you need to be very cognizant of them. I had a case one time when my client's head hit the windshield. He had a bump on his head but it went away after a couple of days. About a week after the accident he started to notice debilitating headaches, very very painful headaches, to the point where he had to check into the hospital because he couldn't do his job, he couldn't even drive a vehicle, it was so painful. They found that he had a slow bleed inside his brain from the date of the accident. It had been happening very slowly overtime to the point where they actually had to do brain surgery on the client. He ended up unfortunately compromised and he still has some effects of the injury until today. For a while he had to walk with a walker. He wasn't able to control his arms and legs as well as he would like to. He wasn't able to drive a vehicle. He actually lost his job as a result of the accident because he could no longer do the job that was required of him. Be very very careful if you have these kinds of symptoms as it may be indicative of a brain injury. You may need to seek a neurological consultation as soon as possible to rule out anything serious. Also your orthopedic doctor who is treating you may want to send you for a neurological evaluation before commencing physical therapy or any active treatment for your accident. This is Robert Mansour. Thank you very much for watching this brief video about brain injuries and car accidents. If I can be of assistance, please feel free to contact my office. Thank you very much. If you've had a brain injury from a car accident, call our office at (661) 414-7100 to see if we can help. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, everyone. This is Robert Mansour, and I want to make a brief video about an issue that comes up all the time - "Should I give a recorded statement to the other party's insurance company?" The answer is generally "no." You have no legal obligation to speak to the adjuster from the other party. As a matter of fact, it is very curious - they generally call you the day of the accident or even the next day to get a recorded statement from you, and here's why: Generally speaking, they are trying to box you into a story. How do I know that? I used to work for an insurance company as a lawyer for them. They generally want to call you right away because they want to box you into that story. They might say, "Were you hurt in the accident?" You'll say, "Well, I'm kind of sore, but not too bad." Then a few days later, you are really sore. You can hardly move. Your muscles have really tightened up, or you've discovered an injury that you didn't even realize you had on day one. See, the problem now is you've given the other party a recorded statement, and they have you saying, "I wasn't hurt. I'm fine. Not a big deal." That's why you don't want to give a statement so early on in the process. There's very little, if anything, to be gained by it. In fact, it's usually used against you in the future. Also, giving a statement to your company, your own company, you want to be careful with that too. You have generally a legal obligation, a contractual obligation, to cooperate with your own insurance company, because otherwise they might pull the coverage from you and say, "Well, you didn't cooperate with us, and therefore we're not going to extend coverage to you." However, there's nothing wrong with telling the adjuster, "Listen, I'm not feeling very well right now. Can I get your name and number and I'll contact you in about a week's time to talk to you at that time?" Nothing unreasonable about that. Even better, go talk to an experienced personal injury lawyer and say, "Here's what's going on. What do you think I should do? Should I give a statement? Should I not give a statement?" Then, you also might have the issue of liability. By talking about what happened at the accident so early on, first you might want to see what that police report has to say about everything first. Remember, you don't have a legal obligation to speak to the adjuster from the other party. You may have an obligation to speak to your own adjuster, but either way, be very careful what you say and when you decide to give that statement. You may choose not to give a statement at all. There's nothing wrong with that. Again, you may have to cooperate with your own insurance company, but at the very least, talk to an experienced lawyer first to see what your options are. Thank you very much for watching this brief video. If you've been injured in a serious car accident, call (661) 414-7100 to see if we might be able to help you. |
Attorney Robert MansourRobert Mansour is an attorney in Santa Clarita, California who has been practicing law since 1993. After working for 13 years for the insurance companies, he now counsels victims of personal injury. Click here to learn more about Robert Mansour. Categories
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