California Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Attorney

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes a mild TBI or concussion as an injury caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or a hit to the body that moves the head and brain rapidly back and forth. Symptoms can affect thinking, learning, emotion, behavior, sleep, balance, vision, and physical comfort. Symptoms vary by person and can appear immediately or hours or days later.

Anyone who may have a TBI should obtain appropriate medical evaluation. CDC directs people to call 911 or seek immediate emergency care for adult danger signs, including a worsening headache that does not go away, repeated vomiting, seizures, weakness or numbness, decreased coordination, slurred speech, unusual behavior, unequal pupils, increasing confusion or agitation, loss of consciousness, marked drowsiness, or inability to wake. Children can show these signs and may also cry inconsolably or refuse to nurse or eat; seek immediate emergency care for danger signs. This page does not diagnose an injury or replace medical care.

CDC explains that a CT scan is not needed to identify a mild TBI or concussion but may be used when a patient is at risk for bleeding. Its recommendations for adults with mild TBI seen in an emergency department say not to image routinely, including CT and MRI, and to use clinical decision rules to determine need. That means a normal acute scan does not, by itself, resolve whether a person experienced a mild TBI. It also does not prove that later symptoms came from a particular incident.

Imaging has a medical purpose chosen by qualified clinicians. This page does not recommend DTI, MRS, SPECT, PET, or any other test for a particular person, and no test is a universal substitute for a complete clinical and causation analysis.

A useful record begins with the history given to clinicians, examination findings, imaging purpose and results, discharge instructions, medication, follow-up, and prior medical history. It then tracks actual function over time: work or school tasks, driving, sleep, memory, concentration, balance, headaches, relationships, and daily activities. Family members, coworkers, and contemporaneous records may provide information a patient does not recognize or remember.

Accuracy matters more than volume. Symptoms may overlap with sleep disruption, pain, medication effects, mental-health conditions, prior injuries, and other medical causes. Follow qualified treatment advice; do not self-diagnose, exaggerate, or seek a test or treatment only to build litigation evidence.

1. Diagnosis: What condition does a qualified clinician diagnose, using the history, examination, appropriate testing, and differential diagnosis?
2. Specific causation: What evidence connects that condition to this incident? Timing may be relevant, but temporal sequence alone does not establish causation.
3. Functional change: What can the person reliably do before and after the event, and what records or witnesses support the claimed change?
4. Legally recoverable loss: Which medical expenses, work losses, care needs, and noneconomic harms are supported, reasonable, attributable to the event, and recoverable under the governing law?

CDC notes that neuropsychological or neurocognitive testing can help a healthcare provider evaluate learning, memory, concentration, and problem solving. A qualified examiner must interpret results in context, including the person’s education, language, prior functioning, sleep, pain, medication, mental health, performance-validity, and symptom-validity information. No score or “clean” validity profile automatically proves injury, causation, honesty, or malingering.

The appropriate professionals vary. Treating clinicians may address diagnosis and care; other qualified experts may be needed for neurology, rehabilitation, neuropsychology, vocational capacity, future care, or economics. A long expert list is not a measure of a case’s strength.

CDC states that moderate and severe TBI can lead to long-term or lifelong health problems and that some people need ongoing care. That general proposition does not establish any person’s prognosis, care plan, or cost. A damages analysis should start with medically supported needs, their frequency and duration, equipment or accessibility needs, work capacity, earnings history, reasonable costs, life expectancy, and any required present-value calculation. There is no standard TBI multiplier or automatic multimillion-dollar value.

Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 generally provides two years for an action for injury caused by another’s wrongful act or neglect. It is not a universal deadline. Public-entity claims and other parties, causes of action, and accrual rules may impose different or earlier requirements. A deadline must be calculated from the actual facts and documents.

The firm evaluates suspected brain-injury claims arising within its accepted civil practice, including suitable vehicle, commercial-truck, fall, premises, construction, product, and work-related third-party matters. It does not handle workers’ compensation claims themselves. Acceptance depends on conflicts, facts, timing, venue, available evidence, and the firm’s ability to undertake the representation.