Compensation for Chronic Pain Caused by a Minneapolis Car Crash

Posted on behalf of Steve Terry
on March 15, 2024 in Auto Accidents
Updated on March 18, 2024

Many car crash injuries will heal in a matter of weeks or months, with few lingering symptoms. Unfortunately, some victims experience pain for months or years after their injury occurred. This is known as chronic pain, and it can dramatically impact your quality of life.

At TSR Injury Law, we recognize the profound impact that chronic pain can have on the lives of crash victims. Below, we explain what victims need to know about including chronic pain in a compensation claim.

Our licensed Minneapolis car accident lawyers have recovered compensation on behalf of many people who suffered life-altering injuries. If you were injured in a crash in Minneapolis or elsewhere in Minnesota, we may be able to help you. We charge no upfront fees.

More than $1 billion recovered. Call TSR for legal assistance: (612) TSR-TIME.

Car Crash Injuries That Often Cause Chronic Pain

Some injuries heal with time, but others can cause persistent pain for months or even years after the collision. These are some of the more common car crash injuries that may result in chronic pain:

Whiplash: This is a severe strain of the soft tissues in the neck. It is caused by sudden rapid back-and-forth movement of the head and neck, which often happens during a collision. Whiplash can cause chronic neck and shoulder pain, stiffness and headaches.
Herniated discs and back pain: Discs in the spine may bulge or rupture due to the force of a collision, causing the discs to press on spinal nerves or spinal cord. This type of disc injury in the spine can cause ongoing neck and back pain, numbness and weakness.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs): Concussions and other brain injuries can cause chronic headaches and cognitive or emotional problems. Brain damage from a collision could also trigger migraine headaches, which can be incredibly painful.
Knee injuries: The force of a car crash has the potential to tear the cartilage in your knee, causing swelling, pain and trouble walking. Instability in the joint often leads to chronic pain and a higher potential for osteoarthritis.

Shoulder Injuries, like rotator cuff tears: The rotator cuff can be torn during a car crash, causing severe shoulder pain and reduced range of motion. This injury often requires surgery and can result in long-term discomfort and functional limitations.

Symptoms That Come With Chronic Pain

Unfortunately, pain is often just one symptom that comes with a severe car crash injury. People who experience chronic pain often experience additional symptoms, such as:

Aching, burning or shooting pain: Chronic pain can manifest itself in various ways. Some individuals may experience aching pain, while others experience burning pain. Still others may experience a combination of both these types of pain. Unfortunately, chronic pain may not go away with any of the typical pain management methods.
Stiffness and discomfort: You may have limited mobility in the affected area, along with stiffness that limits your daily activities.
Fatigue: Chronic fatigue is physically draining. The fatigue can be so severe and overwhelming that some people struggle with simple tasks.
Trouble sleeping: You may struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep because you are so uncomfortable. This contributes to continual fatigue, which in turn can make the pain worse.
Emotional impact: Chronic pain often results in poor mental health, as victims may experience anxiety, depression and/or irritability.
Trouble concentrating: Chronic pain makes it hard to concentrate, which is distracting and makes it harder for victims to engage in the same activities they used to do. This includes duties they performed at work, as well as activities they enjoyed in their personal lives.

How Can Patients Manage Chronic Pain?

People who have chronic pain often use various strategies to manage it. This may include pain medication and anti-inflammatory medications, along with physical therapy, a pain management program with injections, mental health counseling and possibly massages or acupuncture.

Each injury is different, so crash victims must work closely with their doctors to develop a plan that is tailored to their needs.

Can Minnesota Crash Victims Include Chronic Pain in a No-Fault Claim?

Minnesota’s no-fault insurance system allows crash victims to get immediate coverage of medical expenses and lost wages, regardless of who caused the crash. This includes coverage for things like:

Surgery
Rehabilitation
Hospital stays
Transportation to the hospital
Physical therapy
Chiropractic care
Steroid, lidocaine, or Botox injections
And more

If your chronic pain results in doctors prescribing medication or physical therapy, those bills may be covered by the personal injury protection (PIP) plan in your own insurance policy. However, your PIP insurance may not cover ongoing medical costs, especially if those costs exceed the limits of your coverage.

Your PIP coverage also will not cover pain and suffering, as it is a form of non-economic compensation.

What About a Lawsuit?

One of the main differences between a no-fault state like Minnesota and a fault-based state is that there are additional restrictions on your ability to file a car crash lawsuit in Minnesota. State law says you cannot recover for pain and suffering for a car crash injury unless your case fits one of five criteria:

You incur more than $4,000 in medical treatment
You have a permanent injury
You sustain 60 days with a disability
The victim of the crash died
There is permanent disfigurement

If your case meets one of these criteria, you may be able to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver’s insurance policy. If eligible, you can seek compensation for various damages that are not available in a no-fault claim, such as:

Pain and suffering
Loss of enjoyment of life
Lost earning capacity
Emotional distress

In short, you may be able to seek compensation for chronic pain from a car crash, but there are many factors to consider. That is why it is vital that you speak to an experienced lawyer about securing full compensation for your damages.

Contact TSR Injury Law After Getting Injured in a Collision

We are dedicated to securing the maximum compensation for our clients to support their recovery and manage the ongoing impact of chronic pain. If you or a loved one are dealing with chronic pain following a car crash, do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Complete a free case evaluation form or call us at (612) TSR-TIME.

Is It Normal to Be Tired After a Minneapolis Car Crash?

Posted on behalf of Steve Terry
on July 17, 2023 in Auto Accidents

Many car crash victims initially feel soreness and fatigue. While soreness may take weeks or months to dissipate, fatigue usually resolves itself within a couple of days.

However, there are exceptions when crash victims may continue to feel fatigued for several days or more. They may be sleeping a lot more than normal, but the extra rest does not bring back the energy they had before their car crash. In these situations, fatigue might be a sign of something more serious, like a traumatic brain injury.

If you are experiencing fatigue after a car crash in Minnesota, our car crash lawyers in Minneapolis may be able to help you take legal action to recover compensation for your damages. Our services come at no upfront cost, and we have obtained more than $1 billion for our clients.

We are ready to take your call. Phone: (612) TSR-TIME.

Why Am I So Tired After a Car Crash?

Car crashes are incredibly stressful, which commonly triggers the body into releasing adrenaline. Adrenaline helps to provide the energy your body needs to get through physically traumatic events.

Once the adrenaline wears off, however, crash victims often feel completely exhausted. They may also feel sore from the injuries they sustained in the collision. Your body is simply responding to what happened, and it needs sleep to start the healing process. This is a typical reason that victims may feel much more tired than normal during the days following a crash.

That said, sometimes feeling excessively tired is not just a normal response to a stressful experience. Sometimes fatigue after a crash may indicate a severe injury.

Do I Have a Traumatic Brain Injury?

You may be feeling excessive fatigue because you suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash. Feeling drowsy or fatigued are two common symptoms of a traumatic brain injury, such as a concussion. This is particularly true if your excessive fatigue and excessive sleeping lasts for more than a few days.

You might doubt you suffered a head or brain injury because you didn’t hit your head during the collision. What you may not realize is you can suffer a concussion without hitting your head. Your head getting jerked forward and backward could be enough to cause a brain injury.

Sometimes crash victims hit their head, but they do not remember it happening. That is why you should never dismiss symptoms of a possible brain injury.

Could You Be Feeling Tired Because You Are Depressed?

While much attention is paid to the physical consequences of car crashes, these situations can also exact a heavy emotional toll. Victims may feel anxious or overwhelmed because of everything they need to deal with in the aftermath of a collision. They may feel anxious about their recovery and depressed because of the pain and discomfort they feel.

Emotional suffering may sometimes make it harder to sleep, but may also cause people to sleep much more than they did before the crash.

Trauma-Induced Migraine Headaches

Intense trauma, such as from a car crash, could cause people to experience migraine headaches. Some people who experience migraines feel intense sensitivity to light and noise. This often causes them to spend a lot of time in a dark and quiet bedroom, which can result in excessive sleeping.

Migraines can also be a symptom of a traumatic brain injury, similar to a concussion.

How Long to Wait to Sleep After a Car Crash

For the most part, it is perfectly safe to go to sleep after a car crash. In fact, sleep is an essential aspect of your recovery. Your body and your brain both need sleep to help recover from the trauma of the crash.

You may have heard stories about people going to sleep after a car crash and never waking up. They died because of a traumatic brain injury, likely due to a severe concussion or bleeding in the brain. That is why it is so important to seek immediate medical care right after a crash. With any serious injury, early diagnosis and treatment can be a critical factor in how well you recover.

You should also go back to the ER if you continue to feel fatigued, experience new symptoms or have any other reason to suspect a brain injury. In fact, even if you do not suspect a brain injury, you need to be evaluated by qualified medical professionals to determine the severity of the injuries you suffered.

How Long Could Fatigue Last After a Crash?

It is normal to feel fatigued for a couple of days after a crash. However, you should be concerned if you continue to feel exhausted for more than a few days. If you are sleeping much more than usual and you feel more tired than normal, you need to see a doctor right away.

What Should I Do if I am Experiencing Extreme Fatigue After a Car Crash?

Too often, crash victims do not err on the side of caution and wait too long to seek medical treatment. They ignore symptoms or they think these symptoms will resolve themselves over time.

However, if you are feeling excessively fatigued, you need to go to the doctor right away, so he or she can identify and diagnose your injuries. Be sure to report all the symptoms you are experiencing, including your excessive fatigue or sleeping.

If you wait to seek treatment you may be allowing a brain injury to get much worse and potentially become life-threatening. Waiting also makes it harder to connect your symptoms to the crash. If you seek treatment sooner rather than later, it helps to show that your symptoms are connected to the accident.

Make sure to follow through with your medical treatment. You may need to attend multiple follow-up appointments to monitor your condition. You may also need to get an MRI or CT scan to get a better understanding of your injuries.

Your next step is to seek help from an experienced attorney. Recovering full compensation for a serious injury is a lot more difficult without an attorney.

Victims often underestimate the cost of medical treatment for a car crash injury. If you have a brain injury, you might need treatment for a long period of time. There may be long-term or even permanent consequences that require ongoing medical interventions.

Contact TSR Injury Law For Post-Crash Legal Help

Need legal help after a car crash caused by another driver?

Many crash victims think they can handle the process on their own, but they often end up recovering much less compensation than they need. Call TSR today to learn about the benefits of hiring an attorney after a car crash. We have been representing crash victims in Minnesota for decades and have obtained millions on their behalf.

Call us today to learn more. We are here to help. Ph: (612) TSR-TIME.

How Memory Loss Could Impact Your Claim for Compensation

Posted on behalf of Steve Terry
on April 22, 2022 in Auto Accidents
Updated on April 25, 2022

Sometimes crash victims do not remember much of anything about their crash. Sometimes this is because they suffered a traumatic brain injury that has created gaps in their memory.

If someone was severely injured in the crash or the victim almost died, memory loss may be a side effect of the emotional trauma suffered by the victim.

There are other reasons someone may have impaired memory or no memory of the crash. Our attorneys discuss memory loss after a car crash below, including how it may impact a claim for compensation.

If you were injured in a crash, you can meet with one of our attorneys in a free consultation to discuss legal options. We have helped numerous crash victims and have a proven track record of securing compensation.

How a Crash Could Cause Memory Loss

A traumatic brain injury is one of the common reasons crash victims have memory loss. For example, crash victims often suffer concussions from a violent blow or jolt to the head. They could hit their head on the steering wheel, slam back into the headrest or strike their head on something else inside the car. There have been cases where outside objects break through the windshield and strike victims in the head.

It is important to note a concussion could result from a crash in which the victim did not suffer a blow to the head. The victim’s head could get thrown forward and backward so violently that it causes the brain to move and hit the inside of the skull.

A severe concussion could impair short and long-term memory, so the victim may forget things that happened long before the crash, in addition to the crash itself.

Crash victims may also forget the incident because of:

Substance abuse/impairment – If the victim was impaired by alcohol or drugs, he or she may not remember what happened. This may affect the victim’s ability to seek compensation because the victim is likely at fault for the crash.
Cognitive impairment from before the crash – Older drivers may have cognitive impairment because of a condition like Alzheimer’s or dementia.
Emotional response/survival response – When someone is involved in a bad crash, such as one in which they nearly died or someone else died, they may forget about it as part of an emotional response. The brain is focused on survival instead of creating memories, which is why victims may not remember much about the crash.

Building a Case if You Cannot Remember the Crash

There are various pieces of evidence your lawyer may use to build your case for compensation. For example, the police report documents the crash and may indicate which driver the officer believes is at fault. If the other driver was issued a citation, it can go a long way in proving negligence.

Eyewitness testimony can also be useful, such as testimony from another driver or pedestrians who were in the area at the time of the crash. However, it depends on how reliable the witness is and what he or she was able to see.

There may be pictures of the crash taken by witnesses, law enforcement or others involved in the crash. These images may help your lawyer gain a better understanding of what happened.

Video footage of the crash can also help validate a case. For example, there may be a surveillance camera in the area that captured the crash. Traffic cameras may have also captured the collision.

If the vehicles involved have event data recorders, data from these devices can help the victim’s attorney determine what happened. These devices store a variety of data, including speed, braking, acceleration, deployment of airbags, use of seat belts and more.

It is also possible to reach conclusions about what caused a crash by analyzing damage to the vehicles involved. The location of damage could indicate that one driver was negligent by violating the other driver’s right of way. The amount and extent of damage could indicate how fast another vehicle was traveling. Your lawyer may bring in an accident reconstruction expert to further determine what the crash damage says about what happened.

How do Insurers View Crash Victims Who Have Memory Loss?

Car insurance companies are looking for some reason to deny a claim or diminish its value. They often do this by attacking the victim’s credibility. If the victim does not remember what happened, the insurance company may say there is no case. They may quickly deny the claim or make a lowball offer.

However, you can still seek compensation as there are other ways to validate your claim. You should discuss the situation with a licensed attorney. Some crash victims take the insurance company’s word for it even though they may still be able to obtain compensation.

If you have memory loss, it is probably a bad idea to talk to the insurance company. You may say something that hurts your case without realizing it. The attorneys at our firm know how to protect a claim when talking to insurance companies.

Contact TSR Injury Law Today to Discuss Your Crash

Give us a call to schedule a free consultation with a licensed Bloomington-based auto accident attorney. There is no obligation to hire our firm after this meeting, so there is no risk to you. We can explain how we may be able to assist you during this difficult time.

No upfront fees. No risks. Call today to learn more. (612) TSR-TIME

Tag: traumatic brain injury