If someone you love has suffered a severe brain injury in a car or truck accident in Louisiana, the road ahead is unlike anything you could have anticipated. The medical bills that arrive in the first days and weeks after the crash are only a fraction of what a serious brain injury truly costs.
You need the assistance of an experienced Baton Rouge brain injury attorney to help ensure all current and future care costs are established and accurately valued.
Calculating future care costs for a severe brain injury is one of the most critical parts of a traumatic brain injury claim, and getting it wrong can leave a family struggling for the rest of their lives.
At Chris Corzo Injury Attorneys, our brain injury lawyers fight to make sure our clients are not shortchanged by an insurance company that only wants to settle the easy costs and walk away from the hard ones. Call a brain injury attorney in Baton Rouge at (225) 999-1111 or visit our contact page to schedule a free consultation today.
Why Future Care Costs Matter So Much in Severe Brain Injury Cases
A mild concussion and a severe traumatic brain injury are not the same thing, and the law should not treat them the same way.
A severe TBI can permanently alter a person’s ability to speak, remember, make decisions, regulate emotions, and care for themselves. The injury may require a lifetime of medical expenses, professional caregiving, and specialized support that most families could never afford on their own.
Louisiana law allows injury victims to recover compensation for future medical expenses and future losses, not just the bills that have already come due.
Under Louisiana Civil Code Article 2315, a person injured by the negligence of another is entitled to full compensation for all damages that flow from that wrongful conduct, including those that have not yet been incurred at the time of trial or settlement.
Our experienced Baton Rouge brain injury lawyers can help ensure these potential future costs are not overlooked during the legal process.
Who Calculates Future Care Costs?
An experienced brain injury attorney does not calculate future care costs alone. It requires a team of qualified experts, each contributing a different piece of the picture.
Life care planners are often used to help establish and accurately value future costs. A life care planner is typically a medical professional, often a registered nurse or rehabilitation specialist, who evaluates the injured person’s condition and then develops a comprehensive written plan to estimate what medical needs the injury victim is likely to have over the course of their lifetime.
That plan will account for things like neurological care, psychiatric treatment, physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, home health aides, adaptive medical equipment, and residential placement if independence is no longer possible.
A neuropsychologist may also be involved to document cognitive and behavioral changes resulting from the brain injury.
These evaluations are vital in severe brain injury cases because the deficits are often invisible to outsiders. A person may look fine while struggling with profound memory loss, impaired judgment, or emotional dysregulation that makes holding a job or living independently impossible.
Once the life care plan is in place, an economist will help accurately value the needs identified by the life care planner.
The economist takes projected future costs and calculates their present value to determine what a lump-sum payment today would need to be to cover those expenses as they arise over the person’s remaining life expectancy. The economist’s analysis incorporates factors like medical inflation, interest rates, and the injured person’s statistical life expectancy.
How Lost Earning Capacity Is Calculated
In addition to future care costs, a brain injury damages claim should include lost wages and earning capacity.
Louisiana law permits injured victims to recover for loss of future earning capacity based on factors including their education, prior training and work history, and the limitations now imposed by the injury.
A vocational rehabilitation expert may be called upon to assess what the injured person can realistically do going forward, and an economist will translate that analysis into a present-value calculation.
Our brain injury attorneys will help you gather the necessary records to support these complex claims for lost income.
Why You Need an Experienced Baton Rouge Brain Injury Lawyer
Insurance companies will not volunteer to pay all future care costs for severe brain injuries. Their adjusters are skilled at framing brain injuries as problems that have been resolved or will resolve on their own, and they work hard to close claims for as little as possible.
Without a detailed life care plan supported by credible expert opinions, a future care claim is difficult to prove and even harder to defend under cross-examination.
At Chris Corzo Injury Attorneys, our Baton Rouge lawyers take severe brain injury cases seriously because we understand what is at stake for the families we serve. We bring in the right experts, build the evidence needed to support every element of the future care needs, and fight to make sure the at-fault party and their insurer are held responsible for all of it.
Contact Chris Corzo Injury Attorneys Today
If you or someone you love has suffered a severe brain injury in an accident, do not accept a settlement until you know the actual value of your claim. At Chris Corzo Injury Attorneys, our brain injury lawyers are available around the clock to talk with you about your case.
Call (225) 999-1111 or complete the short form on our contact page and schedule a free consultation to discuss your claim with a brain injury attorney in Baton Rouge today.