Brain and Spinal Injuries

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) ranges from mild concussion to severe, persistent deficits in memory, executive function, emotional regulation, speech, and motor control. The injury is often invisible on standard imaging and unfolds over weeks and months, which is part of why it takes longer to build a TBI case than other injury types. Neuropsychological testing, advanced neuroimaging, and careful documentation of day-to-day functional changes are the core of the case.

Spinal cord injuries produce paralysis or significant impairment of motor and sensory function below the level of injury. Complete spinal cord injuries result in total loss; incomplete injuries preserve some function. Either way, lifetime care needs are substantial — wheelchair accessibility, home modifications, attendant care, ongoing medical management of secondary conditions, and specialized rehabilitation. The damages framework tracks those needs across a lifetime.

Brain and spinal injury cases are built on three parallel tracks: liability (who caused the injury and how), causation (the precise medical link between the conduct and the permanent harm), and damages (the full lifetime impact). Each track requires its own experts — accident reconstructionists, treating physicians, neuropsychologists, rehabilitation specialists, vocational economists, and life-care planners.

Investigation starts immediately. Physical evidence, scene photographs, vehicle data, surveillance footage, and contemporaneous witness accounts all fade or disappear within weeks or months of the incident. Early attorney involvement protects the evidence that will ultimately determine what a case is worth.

Life-care planning is the backbone of catastrophic-injury damages. A certified life-care planner works with the treating medical team to project every cost the injured person will incur — medications, therapies, equipment, home modifications, attendant care, periodic surgical revisions — across the remainder of their expected life. An economic expert then translates those costs into present value.

Lost earning capacity is projected separately. The analysis looks at what the person was doing professionally, what they could have been doing, and how their injury has reduced or eliminated their ability to earn. In cases involving permanent total disability, this component alone can run into the seven or eight figures over a full working life.

Recoverable damages cover the full scope: past and future medical expenses, past and future lost income, reduced earning capacity, home and vehicle modifications, ongoing attendant care, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of activities the injured person can no longer do. Spouses and family members may have their own claims for loss of consortium where the injury has affected the family relationship.

Oregon has complex rules around non-economic damage caps that vary by case type. A lawyer with current Oregon experience is essential — the applicable cap affects case valuation, settlement negotiations, and trial strategy in material ways.

A motorcyclist is struck by a driver who ran a stop sign. The rider sustains a severe traumatic brain injury — weeks in intensive care, months in rehabilitation, and permanent deficits in memory, executive function, and emotional regulation. He cannot return to his previous profession. The case develops around liability (clear, given the traffic violation), causation (straightforward from ER records), and the far more complex damages question of what the rest of his life will cost and what it would have looked like if this hadn't happened.

Another pattern: a worker is struck by a piece of falling equipment on a job site and sustains an incomplete spinal cord injury with paraparesis. The case involves overlapping workers' compensation coverage and third-party claims against the equipment manufacturer, the general contractor, and other parties on the site. Coordinating those tracks — preserving the third-party case while comp benefits flow, and structuring settlement so the comp lien is resolved cleanly — is a significant part of the representation.

Brain and spinal injury cases are long. Two to four years from intake to resolution is typical, with more complex cases running longer. Early phases involve medical stabilization and treatment — settlement before maximum medical improvement risks locking in an amount that can't cover actual future needs. Once the medical picture is stable, demand and negotiation may resolve the case; if not, formal litigation with discovery, depositions, and trial follows.

Oregon's general personal-injury statute of limitations is two years from the date of injury. Claims against government entities require notice under the Oregon Tort Claims Act within 180 days. Missing these deadlines ends the case entirely, so early consultation is critical.