When to Contact an Injury Lawyer for Concussion or TBI
A concussion can look deceptively simple on paper: a bump to the head, a headache, a few days of rest. Traumatic brain injuries rarely follow neat timelines, and they do not always announce themselves at the scene. I have sat with clients who walked away from a car crash chatting with officers, then spent the next month misplacing words, losing patience with their children, and watching their career wobble. On the other end, I have seen families navigate severe TBI where the injury was unmistakable from the first minute. In both scenarios, the question arrives sooner or later: when should you bring in a lawyer?
The answer, if reduced to a single line, is this. If you suspect a concussion or TBI and someone else’s negligence may be involved, speak to an injury lawyer as early as you can do so comfortably. The moment you wonder whether you should make the call, you probably should. Everything after that involves nuance, evidence, and timing.
Concussions and TBI rarely behave like other injuries
Medical professionals sometimes call concussions “mild” TBI. I avoid that word around clients. The label refers to initial test results, not to impact on a person’s life. I have watched a “mild” concussion derail a senior manager’s promotion, unravel a marriage, and force a household to hire after-school help because the parent who used to run the evening routine now needs darkness and silence by 4:30 p.m. Symptoms can change from hour to hour. Cognitive fog settles in. Light sensitivity turns a simple grocery run into an ordeal. A straight-A teenager can suddenly struggle to read a page without losing their place.
The uneven nature of recovery is part of what makes these cases challenging. Insurance adjusters look for orderly stories, preferably ones that resolve in 30 to 60 days. A concussion does not oblige. Two steps forward can be followed by three steps back after a noisy restaurant or a long Zoom call. When your function varies, the documentation must capture the fluctuations. That is one of the first places a seasoned accident lawyer proves their value: translating real-life variability into evidence that can withstand scrutiny.
Waiting invites doubt, and doubt shrinks claims
Most people are decent. They hesitate to call a lawyer because they hope to recover quickly, or because they do not want to “make a fuss.” Time is polite but unforgiving. The longer you wait, the more room you give the other side to question the cause of your symptoms. If three weeks pass between the crash and the first mention of memory lapses in your medical records, expect a defense expert to attribute those lapses to stress, lack of sleep, or preexisting anxiety. That does not make them right, but it gives them a foothold.
I remember a teacher who declined legal help after a rear-end collision. She felt “off” for a few days, then tried to push through exam season. A month later she could not grade for more than twenty minutes without a headache. By the time she called, her pediatrician’s notes focused on her child’s ear infection, not her own health, because that was the appointment she kept. We rebuilt the story with witness statements and work emails, but her claim would have carried more weight if the timeline was tighter. The lesson is not to panic. It is to document from the outset and to let an injury lawyer guide that process.
The first 72 hours set the tone for your case
Three actions in the early window make a disproportionate difference later. They sound simple. They rarely happen by accident.
Get a medical evaluation and describe all symptoms, even if they seem minor or embarrassing. Mention dazed feelings, confusion, nausea, balance issues, ringing in the ears, visual changes, irritability, and sleep disruption. Vague complaints like “I don’t feel right” have less value than specifics. If the doctor gives you cognitive rest instructions, follow them and keep the paperwork. Preserve evidence while it still exists. Save photos of the scene, damaged vehicle parts, visible bruising, and any blood on clothing or airbags. Ask for the names and numbers of witnesses. If there is video from nearby businesses or dash cams, an attorney can send preservation letters before it is overwritten. Start a symptom journal that includes dates, triggers, and practical consequences. Note missed meetings, changes in work output, support you needed at home, and anything your supervisor or colleagues observed. A week of entries is good. A month is better. Six months of consistent notes can anchor a claim.
If you have already blown past this window, do not assume you have hurt your chances beyond repair. A capable car accident lawyer will look for alternative documentation. Therapists’ notes, performance metrics, pharmacy records, emails to HR, and even calendar changes can help piece together a reliable narrative.
Concussion cases demand careful causation
In plain terms, causation is the bridge between event and injury. With broken bones, that bridge is sturdy. With concussion and TBI, it needs reinforcement. Two issues show up regularly. First, symptoms can appear or intensify days after the event. Second, many people bring vulnerabilities to the scene: prior concussions, migraines, ADHD, anxiety, sleep disorders. The defense will try to use those facts to downplay your claim.
A skilled injury lawyer does not run from prior conditions. We contextualize them. A football player with two past concussions who functioned at a high level for five years before the crash can still prove that the new event pushed him past a tipping point. A professional with long-managed anxiety who never missed work can show that post-injury sensory overload is categorically different. We often bring in treating providers or independent experts, not to varnish the story, but to explain brain physiology in accessible terms. When an MRI is normal, we lean on neuropsychological testing, vestibular assessments, and observation from people who knew you before the incident.
How severity influences timing, and why “mild” still warrants early counsel
If you or a loved one lost consciousness, had a skull fracture, bled in the brain, or needed ICU care, you should contact an injury lawyer as soon as the immediate medical crisis stabilizes. High-severity cases carry larger damages, tighter deadlines, and more aggressive pushback from insurers. There is also a practical need to coordinate benefits, wage replacement, and home modifications quickly.
For so-called mild concussions, I give a simpler rule. If symptoms persist longer than seven to ten days, or if they interfere with work, school, or caregiving, call. If you hold a safety-sensitive job, call even earlier. Pilots, surgeons, heavy equipment operators, commercial drivers, and law enforcement cannot guess their way through recovery without risking others. Your employer might have formal reporting obligations, and a lawyer can help you navigate them without oversharing or endangering your position.
Work, school, and the documentary backbone of damages
The value of a case flows from two sources: what the law allows and what the records show. Concussion claims often turn on the latter. Blooming phrases like “brain fog” need to resolve into specific, documented losses. That means linking symptoms to missed shifts, reduced billable hours, lost bonuses, slipped deadlines, or demotions. In the school context, we look for accommodations, reduced course load, altered testing environments, and notes from counselors or athletic trainers.
One client, a software engineer, presented a tidy example. Pre-injury, his code review acceptance rate sat at 97 percent. Post-injury, it dropped to 68 percent for three months, then climbed slowly. We charted those numbers against medical visits, therapy sessions, and increased break time documented in his timekeeping system. The visual told a story no adjective could, and the claim settled closer to full value.
Home life matters as well. If you needed rides for children you previously chauffeured, hired cleaners, or ordered more prepared meals because you could not tolerate the sensory input of cooking, track the expenses. Insurers respond to receipts. If a family member absorbed the workload instead of a paid service, the law in many jurisdictions still recognizes the value of that labor. The right lawyer knows how to present it.
What a lawyer does in the first month that you cannot do yourself
You can, of course, handle some early steps alone. You can schedule appointments, rest, and tell your supervisor you are following medical advice. You can collect photos and keep a journal. What you cannot replicate is the leverage that comes from experience, structure, and targeted pressure on the right points in the system.
A thoughtful injury lawyer will do the following within the first month, and often within the first week. We identify every insurance policy that could apply, not just the at-fault driver’s. In a car crash, that can include your own underinsured motorist coverage, med-pay or PIP benefits, and sometimes an employer’s policy if you were on the job. We send letters to preserve evidence, request 911 audio, and secure surveillance before it is overwritten. We coordinate with your providers so symptom descriptions appear in the chart, not just in hallway conversations. We manage communications with adjusters so you do not make casual statements that later get spun as admissions. We set up a release schedule for medical records that protects your privacy while giving the proof your claim requires. We triage gaps in care. If vestibular therapy is indicated but out-of-network, we help find options or negotiate sessions.
On the legal side, we analyze the jurisdiction’s statute of limitations and any notice requirements. Government defendants often come with short notice-of-claim deadlines, sometimes as little as 60 to 180 days. Miss those, and you can lose the right to sue even if your case is otherwise strong. An accident lawyer who lives in this terrain will not let that happen.
The phone call that prevents a recorded statement mistake
More than a few claims falter because a polite, honest person took a recorded statement from an insurer while still concussed. Short answers get misinterpreted. Memory gaps sound like uncertainty about facts. When asked to rate pain on a 1 to 10 scale, people undersell, either from humility or from a desire to sound brave. Later, when symptoms intensify, the insurer points to the earlier rating and pushes back.
This is not about gaming the system. It is about precision. After a concussion, your job is to heal, not litigate your own words. A car accident lawyer will either attend the statement with you or advise you not to give one at all. When communication is necessary, we craft it deliberately, with room for the variability that head injuries entail.
The defense playbook and how we counter it
Most defense experts in TBI cases lean on a familiar set of themes. They suggest that a low-speed crash cannot cause concussion. They argue that normal imaging rules out lasting injury. They point to delayed onset of symptoms and attribute it to life stress. They comb your medical history for anything, from a college soccer header to a migraine five years ago, that might dilute causation. They scrutinize social media for photos from a wedding or a beach day, then claim those images are inconsistent with your reported limitations.
Experience lets you anticipate and disarm these moves. Low-speed crashes can and do cause concussions, especially when angles and head turns are involved. Normal imaging is common in concussive injury because scans detect structural damage, not the metabolic or microstructural changes that often underlie symptoms. Delayed onset is medically recognized, particularly when adrenaline masks early discomfort. Prior incidents may make you more susceptible, which supports rather than defeats causation if you were functioning well before the new trauma.
You do not need to live like a monk to protect your case, but you do need discretion. Keep your social media quiet. When you do attend a family event, pace yourself and record the aftereffects in your journal. If a two-hour wedding leads to three days in a dark bedroom, that contrast is part of the evidence.
Settlement timing, medical plateaus, and the patience to get it right
A settlement reached too early can cost more than a tough negotiation ever will. Concussion recovery often follows a stepwise pattern. You might feel 80 percent at three months, then hit a plateau. At six months, you feel 90 percent, except for headaches after long drives. At nine months, the headaches ease, but you find yourself snapping at colleagues. Many cases settle once a treating provider can estimate the trajectory with some confidence. That usually means we wait to see a plateau or a steady trend.
Insurers press for early resolutions, especially for people who need immediate cash flow. A good lawyer balances urgency with prudence. We explore interim payments from med-pay or PIP, short-term disability, or employer accommodations so you are not forced to compromise the long-term value of your claim to cover short-term bills. In moderate to severe TBI, we build a life care plan with the help of specialists, projecting therapy needs, assistive tech, and vocational support over years, not months.
When a case should not be pursued, or should be narrowed
Discernment is part of professionalism. Not every concussion claim warrants a lawsuit. If symptoms resolved completely within a couple of weeks, time off was minimal, and there is little lasting impact, a quick insurance claim may be all you need, sometimes without a lawyer. If liability is murky and proof of injury is thin, an honest conversation about risk belongs on the table.
There are also times to pursue a narrower claim. Some clients want to bring every grievance into the demand, from minor shoulder soreness to a dent on a bike rack. Piling on can make a legitimate brain injury look like a money grab. We often strip a claim to its core, present it cleanly, and protect credibility. Paradoxically, that strategy can increase value, because decision-makers trust what feels proportional.
How to choose the right advocate for a brain injury case
Credentials matter, but the work feels personal. You want an injury lawyer who handles concussion and TBI regularly, not as an occasional footnote to whiplash cases. Look for someone who understands neuropsychological testing, who can talk vestibulo-ocular reflexes in plain language, and who knows when to bring in a life care planner. Ask how often they go to trial. You do not need a courtroom cowboy every time, but insurers calculate offers based on the lawyer’s willingness and ability to try a case.
I suggest one short checklist to use during consultations.
Ask for two or three examples of past concussion or TBI cases with similar facts, including settlement or verdict ranges and time frames. Find out how they handle communication during recovery, including coordination with medical providers and employer documentation. Clarify their approach to recorded statements and social media guidance. Discuss fee structure, case costs, and what happens if the case is unsuccessful. Gauge their respect for your timeline. You should feel both protected and unrushed.
You are hiring judgment as much as you are hiring advocacy. Pay attention to whether the lawyer listens, redirects, and calibrates. The best accident lawyer will tell you when to push and when to hold, and they will ground those recommendations in experience rather than bravado.
Special situations that require immediate attention
Some scenarios demand faster movement than usual. If a rideshare driver caused the crash, you are dealing with layered insurance that changes depending on whether the driver was logged into the app and whether a ride was in progress. Evidence from the app can vanish quickly without preservation letters. If a commercial truck is involved, the trucking company likely has a rapid response team already working. Your lawyer should be just as quick, requesting electronic control module data, driver logs, maintenance records, and camera footage.
If the at-fault party is a governmental entity, deadlines are shorter and procedural rules stricter. If a defective product contributed to the head injury, such as an airbag that deployed improperly or a bike helmet that failed despite proper use, a product liability angle may change the trajectory of the case. These are not do-it-yourself domains. Bring in counsel promptly.
Money, risk, and the reality of contingency fees
Most injury lawyers work on contingency. You do not pay fees unless there is a recovery. The typical fee falls in a range find an injury lawyer that often starts around one-third of the recovery and may rise if litigation or trial becomes necessary. Case costs are separate and can include expert fees, records, deposition transcripts, and court filings. In TBI cases, costs can run into five figures when expert testimony becomes essential. A candid conversation at the outset avoids surprises later.
Clients sometimes ask whether hiring a lawyer will “reduce their take-home” because of the fee. The fair answer is that it depends on the case. In a straightforward fender-bender with transient symptoms, perhaps yes. In concussion and TBI claims, the delta between what insurers offer unrepresented claimants and what a well-prepared lawyer can negotiate or win at trial usually dwarfs the fee. I have seen unrepresented offers of $15,000 turn into $140,000 after methodical workup, and $60,000 pre-suit offers rise to seven figures when long-term cognitive impairment became clear. Results vary, but the pattern is consistent.
Life after the file closes
The legal process ends. Recovery continues. A resolution that respects your future should not only pay medical bills and lost wages. It should give you space to rebuild routines, retrain attention, and rediscover joy without guilt. If you need noise-cancelling equipment for work, we include it. If your child’s soccer games overwhelm you, we account for the real cost of help on weekends. If you plan to change careers because screens now trigger migraines, we document vocational support.
A settlement or verdict cannot rewind the moment of impact, but it can fund the scaffolding that lets you climb back. That is the quiet aim behind the paperwork.
A practical note on calling sooner rather than later
If you are reading this while squinting at your phone because the light hurts, the simplest guidance is the right one. Make the call. Speak to an injury lawyer before you talk at length with insurers, and before you assume that feeling better today means the problem has passed. If your case involves a vehicle, and you suspect fault lies elsewhere, a car accident lawyer has tools you do not: investigators, preservation tactics, medical networks that understand brain injuries, and the credibility to insist that a fluctuating recovery still deserves respect.
You do not need to know whether your case is “big enough.” You do not need a perfect timeline or flawless memory. You need a professional who recognizes what a concussion can steal, who will help you measure those losses honestly, and who will shoulder the fight while you heal.

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Experienced Injury Attorneys representing seriously injured individuals. We fight with the major insurance companies and trucking companies to make sure we exhaust every avenue of recovery and get our injured clients top dollar.