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Suffered a traumatic brain injury in Herriman? BAM advocates for TBI victims with expert medical testimony to maximize your compensation.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most serious and complex injuries resulting from accidents. When head trauma occurs — from car crashes, truck accidents, falls, assaults, or sports injuries — the brain suffers damage that may be invisible on initial examination but causes lifelong cognitive, physical, and emotional consequences. Many brain injuries are not immediately apparent. A victim may seem fine at the accident scene, only to develop significant symptoms days or weeks later. BAM Personal Injury Lawyers represents brain injury victims in Herriman with deep understanding of the medical, legal, and financial complexity of TBI claims.
Brain injury claims are fundamentally different from other personal injury cases. Insurance companies frequently undervalue TBI because brain injuries are "invisible" — there are no broken bones, visible scars, or obvious physical limitations. A person with a severe brain injury may appear normal to an untrained observer, but cognitive testing reveals memory loss, impaired executive function, and other deficits. BAM works with neuropsychologists, neurologists, and brain injury specialists to document and prove the full extent of brain injuries.
Brain injuries range from mild concussions to severe diffuse axonal injury:
A concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury caused by impact or sudden movement that jostles the brain. Concussions may or may not involve loss of consciousness. Symptoms include headache, dizziness, confusion, memory problems, sensitivity to light and sound, and mood changes. While individual concussions may resolve in weeks, multiple concussions compound damage, and post-concussion syndrome causes lasting symptoms.
A brain contusion is a bruise to the brain tissue. Contusions cause bleeding and swelling, potentially increasing intracranial pressure and causing neurological damage. Severe contusions require emergency hospitalization and monitoring.
Diffuse axonal injury involves tearing of axons (nerve fibers) throughout the brain due to sudden rotation or violent impact. DAI causes widespread brain dysfunction and is often devastating. Victims may lose consciousness for extended periods and suffer permanent cognitive and physical disabilities.
Bleeding between the skull and dura mater (outer brain membrane) creates a hematoma that increases intracranial pressure. Epidural hematomas are medical emergencies requiring immediate surgery to drain blood and relieve pressure.
Bleeding between the dura mater and brain tissue accumulates and increases intracranial pressure. Acute subdural hematomas are medical emergencies. Chronic subdural hematomas develop slowly with symptoms appearing weeks after injury.
Bleeding in the subarachnoid space (between brain tissue and arachnoid membrane) spreads throughout the brain. Subarachnoid hemorrhage is life-threatening, causing severe headache, stiff neck, vision problems, and potential death.
TBI symptoms vary based on injury location and severity. Many symptoms develop gradually, hours or days after the injury:
Loss of consciousness, confusion, disorientation, memory loss (particularly memory of the accident itself), headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, ear ringing, and balance problems.
Difficulty concentrating, memory problems, slowed thinking, word-finding difficulty, difficulty understanding others, and confusion. These cognitive deficits prevent return to work and normal functioning.
Headaches (often persistent), dizziness, sensitivity to light and sound, visual problems, sleep disturbances, fatigue, weakness, and tremors.
Mood swings, irritability, anger, depression, anxiety, personality changes, impulsivity, lack of motivation, and social withdrawal.
Proper diagnosis is essential for documenting TBI severity:
CT scans detect bleeding and structural damage. MRI provides detailed imaging of soft tissue, including diffuse axonal injury. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI-MRI) shows microscopic damage to axons.
Comprehensive neuropsychological testing evaluates memory, executive function, processing speed, attention, and other cognitive domains. This testing objectively documents cognitive deficits and proves brain injury severity.
PET scans and other functional imaging show brain activity patterns, revealing areas of dysfunction.
Many TBI victims face lifelong consequences affecting employment, relationships, and independence:
Permanent memory loss, concentration problems, and impaired executive function prevent return to work. Victims who worked in professional roles requiring complex thinking may find themselves unable to perform those tasks.
Persistent symptoms lasting months or years after injury, including headaches, dizziness, cognitive problems, mood changes, and sleep disruption, prevent normal functioning and quality of life.
Post-traumatic headaches can be severe and chronic, requiring ongoing pain management and limiting activity.
Depression, anxiety, PTSD, personality changes, and emotional dysregulation are common after TBI. Victims often require psychological counseling and medication.
Cognitive and emotional changes prevent victims from working at previous levels. Loss of earning capacity calculations for TBI victims are often substantial.
Brain injury cases require specialized medical expertise:
Comprehensive medical records documenting emergency care, imaging results, hospitalizations, and follow-up treatment establish injury severity. BAM collects and organizes all medical evidence.
Neuropsychologists conduct specialized testing and provide expert testimony regarding cognitive deficits, their permanence, and impact on functioning. This expert testimony is often necessary to overcome insurance company claims that injury is not serious.
Neurologists testify regarding brain injury mechanisms, structural damage, expected recovery, and permanent effects.
Vocational experts analyze the victim's pre-injury work, education, and abilities, then evaluate post-injury functional capacity. They opine whether the victim can return to work and, if not, calculate loss of earning capacity.
Brain injury compensation is substantial due to severity and long-term consequences:
All medical treatment, including emergency care, hospitalization, surgery, imaging, neuropsychological testing, ongoing specialist care, rehabilitation, cognitive rehabilitation, medications, and assistive devices.
Cognitive rehabilitation, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and other rehabilitation therapies help maximize recovery. These services are often expensive and long-term.
Income lost during recovery and long-term lost earning capacity if cognitive dysfunction prevents return to work. For serious TBI, loss of earning capacity often reaches $1-3 million+.
Substantial compensation for physical pain, discomfort, and suffering from persistent headaches and physical effects.
Compensation for depression, anxiety, PTSD, personality changes, and emotional suffering. The psychological impact of brain injury is profound.
If brain injury prevents engaging in previously enjoyed activities or maintains relationships, courts award substantial compensation.
For serious TBI with permanent effects, life care plans document all future medical needs, rehabilitation, personal care assistance, equipment, and modifications. These plans often result in settlements of $1-5 million+.
BAM works with neuropsychologists, neurologists, and brain injury specialists to prove the full extent of your injury and maximize compensation. Call (801) 555-0000 for your free consultation.
The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a standardized tool measuring level of consciousness immediately after brain injury. GCS scores range from 3 (worst) to 15 (best) based on eye opening, verbal response, and motor response. Scores are used to classify TBI severity: mild (GCS 13-15), moderate (GCS 9-12), and severe (GCS 3-8). Immediate GCS scores document injury severity and predict recovery potential. Low GCS scores indicate serious brain injury with higher probability of permanent cognitive or physical deficits. However, even mild TBI (GCS 15) can cause significant long-term cognitive and emotional consequences.
Mild traumatic brain injury, including concussions, involves head impact without loss of consciousness or with brief loss of consciousness less than 30 minutes. While classified as "mild," concussions can cause lasting post-concussion syndrome. Moderate TBI (GCS 9-12) involves brief to moderate loss of consciousness, typically 30 minutes to 24 hours. These victims often experience significant cognitive deficits and prolonged recovery. Severe TBI (GCS 3-8) involves prolonged unconsciousness, often extended loss of consciousness, and high probability of permanent disability including cognitive dysfunction, personality changes, memory loss, and physical impairments.
TBI classification influences prognosis and recovery expectations. Mild TBI victims often recover within weeks, though some develop chronic post-concussion syndrome lasting months or years. Moderate TBI recovery typically takes months, with potential for significant long-term deficits. Severe TBI victims face years of recovery and high probability of permanent disability requiring lifelong support. Understanding GCS classification helps evaluate case value and project long-term care and support needs.
Secondary brain injuries develop after the initial head trauma and often cause more damage than the primary injury. Brain swelling (cerebral edema) occurs when fluid accumulates in brain tissue, increasing intracranial pressure. Elevated pressure compresses and damages brain tissue. Brain swelling often develops hours or days after injury, making medical follow-up critical. Intracranial hematomas (epidural, subdural, subarachnoid) accumulate blood inside the skull, further raising pressure. These collections may expand over time, causing progressive neurological decline. Some hematomas require emergency surgical evacuation.
Ischemia (insufficient blood flow) causes brain tissue death when blood flow to brain regions is disrupted. Ischemia may result from blood vessel damage, increased intracranial pressure restricting blood flow, or systemic complications like shock or hypoxia. Brain tissue dies within minutes without oxygen. Prevention of secondary brain injury through prompt medical treatment, adequate oxygen, and blood pressure management is critical. Providers in Herriman hospitals treating TBI work to minimize secondary injury through intensive care monitoring and interventions preventing complications.
Second impact syndrome, though rare, occurs when a second head impact occurs before recovery from initial injury is complete. The second impact may cause diffuse brain swelling and herniation, resulting in death. This risk is why medical clearance before returning to contact sports or activities with re-injury risk is essential. BAM considers whether second impacts occurred in your case or whether re-injury risk justifies activity restrictions.
Neuropsychological testing is comprehensive cognitive and behavioral assessment performed by trained neuropsychologists. Testing batteries evaluate multiple cognitive domains: memory (immediate recall, short-term memory, long-term memory), attention and concentration, executive function (planning, organization, judgment), language abilities, processing speed, and visuospatial skills. Testing takes 6-8 hours typically administered over multiple sessions and measures specific cognitive functions objectively.
Test results are compared to normative data for age, education, and demographic factors. Scores significantly below expected performance indicate cognitive deficits. Patterns of deficits reveal which brain regions were damaged. A victim with significant memory deficits but normal language and processing speed likely sustained hippocampal or temporal lobe damage. Someone with severe executive function deficits and personality changes likely sustained frontal lobe injury. The specific pattern of deficits guides treatment, accommodation planning, and explains functional limitations.
Neuropsychological testing is essential in litigation because it provides objective documentation of cognitive deficits. Insurance companies cannot minimize injuries when neuropsychological testing shows significant deficits. Defense experts may dispute testing results or interpretation, but legitimate testing by qualified neuropsychologists provides powerful evidence of TBI severity. BAM uses neuropsychological testing to prove injury severity and support damage claims for lost earning capacity, future care, and pain and suffering.
Daily challenges for brain injury survivors are profound and often invisible to others. Cognitive deficits affect work performance, memory-dependent tasks, and complex problem-solving. Victims who worked in professional roles requiring executive function may find they cannot perform their jobs. Simple decision-making becomes difficult. Memory problems prevent learning new information or following complex instructions. Attention deficits make concentrating difficult, reducing productivity. Fatigue is universal among TBI survivors, making even light cognitive work exhausting. Brain injury survivors often need extended rest periods or structured breaks throughout the day.
Caregiver burden is substantial for families. Spouses, parents, or adult children often assume significant care responsibilities — medication management, appointment scheduling, supervision of activities, financial management, and emotional support. Some TBI survivors become dependent on caregivers for activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, toileting, meals). Caregivers experience stress, depression, and exhaustion. Many caregivers leave employment to provide full-time care, resulting in lost family income. BAM considers caregiver burden when calculating damages and life care planning costs.
Return-to-work challenges are significant for brain injury survivors. Even mild TBI may prevent return to pre-injury work for months or years. Moderate and severe TBI often prevent return to previous employment due to cognitive limitations, fatigue, or behavioral changes. Some survivors transition to light-duty or part-time work at reduced wages. Others cannot work at all, representing permanent lost earning capacity. Vocational experts analyze pre-injury work, post-injury capabilities, and job market demand for suitable positions, calculating lost earning capacity damages.
Relationship impacts are common. Personality changes, mood problems, and behavioral issues strain marriages, partnerships, and family relationships. Brain-injured spouses or family members may become unrecognizable emotionally or behaviorally, affecting intimate relationships. Children's relationships with brain-injured parents change. Some relationships survive with counseling support; others end in separation or divorce. Courts recognize these relationship losses as compensable damages in TBI cases.
Children's brain injuries are particularly devastating because the brain is still developing. The pediatric brain has greater neuroplasticity (ability to reorganize and reassign functions), potentially allowing better recovery than adults. However, pediatric brain injuries can disrupt critical developmental windows where key cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capacities are being established. A brain injury disrupting language development may cause permanent language deficits. Injuries during the window for social-emotional development may cause lasting behavioral and emotional dysregulation.
Growing brains are more metabolically active than adult brains, and TBI may have different effects on developing neural networks. The growth plates of the brain (areas still developing and myelinating) may be more vulnerable to long-term injury effects. Delayed manifestation of deficits is common in pediatric TBI — a child may appear to recover from injury only to show cognitive and behavioral problems months or years later as expected developmental milestones are missed. A child whose reading skills should develop at age 7 may be unable to learn to read due to TBI-related cognitive deficits.
Life care planning is comprehensive assessment of all future medical, rehabilitation, and support needs for permanently injured individuals. For serious TBI, life care plans may project 50+ years of needs. Plans include future physician care, neuropsychological follow-up, rehabilitation services, cognitive therapy, medications, assistive devices, home modifications, vehicle modifications, personal care assistance, and other supports. Each service is priced based on current costs with inflation adjustments projected through the victim's remaining life expectancy.
Life care plan economists and vocational specialists work together to calculate present value of all future costs. Economists apply appropriate discount rates to convert future dollar amounts to present value. A victim needing $100,000 in future medical care over 40 years has present value less than $100,000 because money grows through investment over time. However, serious TBI life care plans often total $2-5 million or more when all services and inflation are considered. These plans are critical in settlement negotiations and trial verdicts because they provide comprehensive accounting of actual costs, not speculative damages.
Life care planning is especially critical for young TBI victims with many decades of remaining life expectancy. A 16-year-old with severe TBI may need care for 60+ years. Planning for that length of support, accounting for changing care needs as the victim ages, inflation, and provider changes, is complex. BAM retains life care planning experts to prepare comprehensive plans supporting substantial settlements for young, seriously injured victims.
Neurologists are physicians specializing in nervous system disorders including brain injury. Neurologists conduct neurological examinations, interpret imaging, diagnose TBI, prescribe medications, and manage acute treatment. Neurologists testify regarding the mechanisms of brain injury, structural damage shown on imaging, expected recovery, and prognosis. However, neurologists typically do not assess cognitive function in detail — that is the domain of neuropsychologists. A neurologist may testify that imaging shows diffuse axonal injury, while a neuropsychologist quantifies the cognitive deficits resulting from that injury.
Neuropsychologists are PhD-level psychologists specializing in brain-behavior relationships. They conduct comprehensive cognitive and behavioral testing, interpret results, and explain cognitive deficits to non-experts. Neuropsychologists testify regarding specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses, functional implications of deficits (e.g., memory problems preventing job performance), and compensatory strategies. Neuropsychologists also evaluate emotional and behavioral changes (depression, anxiety, personality changes) related to TBI. Both neurologists and neuropsychologists are critical expert witnesses in serious TBI litigation.
If you've suffered a traumatic brain injury in Herriman, contact BAM immediately. Our experience with brain injury cases and relationships with leading neurological experts ensure your case receives proper evaluation and expert support. Call (801) 555-0000 or contact us online. Se habla español.
BAM Personal Injury Lawyers was founded by two experienced personal injury attorneys who have dedicated their careers to fighting for injured victims in Utah and Idaho. Our founders' combined experience, commitment to thorough investigation, and client-centered approach set BAM apart from high-volume firms.
Kigan Martineau leads BAM Personal Injury Lawyers with a focus on thorough case investigation and client advocacy. With over two decades of personal injury experience, Kigan has recovered over $50 million for injury victims across Utah and Idaho. His commitment to taking fewer cases and dedicating significant resources to each one ensures clients receive the attention and expertise their cases deserve.
Dan Benzion brings 15+ years of personal injury litigation experience to BAM. Dan is fluent in Spanish and actively engaged in the Spanish-speaking community, ensuring injured victims of all backgrounds have access to high-quality legal representation. His bilingual services and deep community connections reflect BAM's commitment to inclusive advocacy. Dan has recovered over $30 million for injury victims and is known for his aggressive negotiation tactics and effective courtroom presence.
BAM Personal Injury Lawyers has recovered millions of dollars for injury victims. While every case is unique and results depend on individual circumstances, these examples represent the types of cases we successfully resolve for our clients. All settlements and verdicts are subject to confidentiality agreements, and these case types and amounts are representative only.
BAM Personal Injury Lawyers was founded by Kigan Martineau and Dan Benzion to provide a fundamentally different approach to personal injury representation. Unlike high-volume firms that process cases like assembly line widgets, BAM takes significantly fewer cases to ensure each client receives the investigation, expertise, and attention their claim deserves.
Our commitment to thorough investigation means we invest time and resources that high-volume firms simply cannot. We retain expert witnesses, accident reconstruction specialists, medical consultants, and economists when cases require them. We negotiate aggressively with insurance companies and are not afraid to take cases to trial when settlement offers are inadequate.
Dan Benzion is fluent in Spanish and actively serves the Spanish-speaking community throughout Utah. BAM offers bilingual consultations and legal representation to ensure language is never a barrier to quality advocacy.
If we fail to meet every commitment we make to you before a settlement offer, you owe us nothing. We advance all case costs upfront. You have zero financial risk. Our contingency fee means we are paid only when we recover money for you.
BAM Personal Injury Lawyers serves injury victims in Herriman and throughout Salt Lake County. We handle cases in Third District Court and are experienced with local procedures, judges, and opposing counsel in this jurisdiction. Whether your case settles or goes to trial, we have the local knowledge and courtroom experience to protect your interests.
Every case starts with a free, confidential consultation. We will listen to your story, evaluate your claim, and explain your legal options. We are available 24/7 for emergency consultations. Call (801) 913-0265 or contact us online. Se habla español.
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