Brain Injury Lawyers: Expert Brain Injury Legal Advice

How can Brain Injury Solicitors help?

It is easy to understand how, when dealing with a loved one sustaining a serious traumatic brain injury, the last pressure that is needed is one of financial worry.

Our Brain Injury Solicitors can help you in the immediate aftermath of such an injury. We can make provision for ongoing care, financial security, complementary aids and support to enable as much independence and the best quality of life that is possible in the circumstances.

At PSR Solicitors, we have an exceptional team of highly trained legal professionals who can help you secure the maximum amount of compensation. This will cover private medical treatment, rehabilitation, counselling and specialist equipment to help you come to terms with your injury and live as independently as possible.

Your compensation award is there to recognise the significance of your injuries, redress the financial damage and physical harm caused and to ensure that you have access to all the services you require to give you the best chance of recovery, such as:

• Private medical treatments, rehabilitation, therapy and counselling to help you recover both physically and emotionally.
• Any specialist equipment that may be required to help you manage your injuries such as wheelchairs and assistive devices including communication aids.
• Modifications and adaptations to your house to help you remain in your own home and live independently.
• Loss of earnings resulting from your injury.
• Additional out of pocket expenses such as travel to and from hospital appointments.

The amount of compensation you are likely to receive will depend on the extent of your injuries, the impact on you and your livelihood, how long your recovery is likely to take and the financial implications of what has happened to you.

What Constitutes a Brain Injury?

Sustaining a brain injury can be catastrophic as the brain is integral to how we function. It is responsible for sending and receiving messages to and from the other parts of the body so if an injury interrupts these signals the effects are potentially devastating.

Brain injuries are usually caused by a violent blow or impact to the head or body, when an object penetrates the brain tissue or when blood or oxygen to the brain is restricted.

An Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is any type of brain injury happening after birth, and not as a result of a birth defect. ABIs include both traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries.

A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a sudden blow to the head causing the brain to crash from side to side into the skull.  This impact can lead to bruising, bleeding, and tearing of nerve fibre which disrupts the normal function of the brain.

Traumatic brain injuries are defined as being either mild, moderate or severe TBI. 

Mild concussion may be treated with rest and medication, while severe brain injuries may have a life-altering impact on a person’s physical and mental abilities.

Mild Brain Injury

Symptoms include headaches, confusion and memory problems but these tend to be temporary and patients usually make a full recovery.

Moderate Brain Injury

Symptoms can be more long-lasting but patients can usually expect to recover within a few months with the correct medical treatments and rehabilitation.

Severe Brain Injury

The effects are normally life-changing and permanent.

The terms mild, moderate and severe describe the effect of the injury on the brain function but they are all serious injuries that need swift medical attention. Specialist TBI Lawyers can help you get expert medical support for a traumatic brain injury, and get compensation to cover for loss of earnings, adaptations to home or vehicles, and any other expenses or losses you may have incurred.

How are brain injuries categorised?

Brain injuries are often categorised in one of three ways:

Open Head Injury

An open wound is present and an object has come into contact with the brain tissue. The prognosis is often positive as the injury is typically limited to one area of the brain.

Closed Head Injury

Despite no visible symptoms, these injuries typically cause the most damage as a large area of the brain is often affected resulting in paralysis and ongoing cognitive and behavioural problems.

Crushing Injury

When the brain is compressed between two objects, there is risk of severe trauma not only to the brain but also to the base of the skull and neck, potentially damaging the spinal cord.

The degree of the damage done depends on the position, force and nature.

Your questions answered

PSR Solicitors - Brain Injury Solicitors to Trust

We have a reputation right across the industry for being the leading serious personal injury solicitors for North Wales and Cheshire and are highly experienced in this field.

We have worked on some of the most serious and complex types of brain injuries, regularly representing clients who have been forced into seeking compensation in relation to:

• Road traffic accidents brain injury claims
• Workplace accidents brain injury claims
• Sporting injury brain damage claims
• Falls, particularly from a height
• Involvement in military action
• Child brain injury claims
• Physical assault leading to brain injury

Our accreditation by the Law Society for personal injury services is testament to our skill and expertise in providing quality personal injury advice and we are proud to have achieved the Lexcel Practice Management Standard for providing excellent legal services to all our clients.

Our brain injury specialists are renowned for achieving excellent results and are adept at dealing with insurance companies, negotiating the full compensation for our clients and helping them navigate the claims process. Proactively working to recover all the damages that you are owed, we will treat you with understanding and empathy, working with a determination and commitment to right the wrongs of your injury as a priority.

We will provide you with ongoing financial advice, including information about personal injury trusts to protect your money and will arrange interim payments so that you are not out of pocket while your claim is settled.

By instructing PSR Solicitors, you are guaranteed an exceptional team of personal injury specialists that you can trust to get the results that you deserve.

Recovery from a brain injury

Rehabilitation

It is impossible to give an indication of the extent of recovery and the exact timescales involved because every brain injury is unique.

Unlike the majority of other cells in the body, brain cells are unable to regenerate when they’re destroyed but this does not mean that recovery is unattainable. The brain is an amazing and adaptable organ, reorganising, to an extent, so that other parts of the brain take over some functions the damaged part of the brain used to carry out. This is referred to as ‘brain plasticity’.

During rehabilitation, the key is maximising the new nerve pathways that are developed, and this is achieved by engaging in the appropriate levels of activity

Timescales for recovery and rehabilitation

In the first couple of months following a severe brain injury it is only possible to estimate the potential recovery time and the extent of the recovery, but it is likely to be months, rather than weeks.

Normally after six months the picture will be much clearer but it is common to wait a year before making any key decisions because by this time the medical experts will have a very clear picture of the extent of recovery.

Recovery tends to slow the greater the amount of time that passes after the injury, with the biggest recovery gains made in the first 6 months, but that is not to say that incremental recovery cannot occur beyond the 2 years post-injury.

Accessing the appropriate injury rehabilitation services

There are many rehabilitation services available in the UK, both private and those run by the NHS. PRS’s injury lawyers have built a strong network of skilled medical experts that can help support you through this important period.

Rehabilitation Settings

Throughout the rehabilitation cycle it is likely the environment where your rehabilitation is administered changes, here are the likely settings.

Inpatient rehabilitation: Neurological rehabilitation centres offer the ideal setting for intensive specialist rehabilitation for people not yet ready to return home after discharge from hospital. Here a personal rehabilitation programme will be developed and implemented throughout the day.

Outpatient rehabilitation: As individuals recover and become well enough to return home, they may need further treatment as an outpatient, this can be a rehabilitation centre or at the local hospital

Community rehabilitation: Following an inpatient rehabilitation stay at a neurological centre, some individuals may be transferred to a residential transitional living unit. This is a place where people can develop their independent living skills with the longer-term objective of moving home. In other cases, the person may go home immediately after being discharged, with a community rehabilitation team providing further rehabilitation and assistance in their home.