A serious car accident in Schaumburg can impact much more than your ability to drive, exercise, or handle daily tasks. If you suffer a traumatic brain injury, one of the biggest challenges may be how it affects your ability to work. Even if you appear physically fine, you might deal with memory loss, headaches, trouble concentrating, fatigue, mood swings, or difficulty finishing tasks that used to be easy. For people working in Schaumburg or commuting to places like Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, and Mount Prospect, these issues can make almost any job harder. When I review a traumatic brain injury claim, I consider both the immediate loss of income and how the injury could affect your career in the long run.
Many people think of disabling accident injuries as broken bones, spinal injuries, or anything that makes moving difficult. Traumatic brain injuries are different because their symptoms are not always easy to see.
A concussion or more serious brain injury can lead to headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and sound, memory issues, trouble focusing, sleep problems, depression, anxiety, irritability, and slower thinking. Someone who used to handle many tasks at once may now find it hard to finish even one without feeling overwhelmed.
These problems can be especially tough for people whose jobs need focus, decision-making, talking with others, staying organized, driving, using machines, helping customers, or remembering details.
Even seemingly minor cognitive changes can have major employment consequences.
Insurance companies might say that going back to work means your brain injury was not serious. I do not see returning to work as the same as being fully recovered.
Some people with traumatic brain injuries go back to work because they cannot afford to stay home. They might need much more time to do their tasks, make mistakes they never made before, take more breaks, or rely a lot on coworkers.
Others reduce their hours or accept less demanding responsibilities because they can no longer tolerate a full workday.
The important issue is not simply whether you returned to work. I want to understand how your ability to perform that job has changed since the accident.
If your injuries keep you from working after a Schaumburg car accident, lost wages can be included in your personal injury claim. Pay stubs, tax forms, employer letters, attendance records, and other job documents can help show how much money you lost while recovering.
A traumatic brain injury can make things more complicated if you still have trouble earning money even after you go back to work.t no longer be able to work overtime. You could lose eligibility for promotions. You may have to leave a physically or mentally demanding profession entirely. A person who previously worked 50 hours per week may only tolerate 25 or 30 hours after the injury.
In serious cases, those differences can represent years or even decades of lost earning potential.
Loss of earning capacity addresses more than the paychecks you have already missed. It considers the income you reasonably could have earned in the future if the accident had not occurred.
For example, assume a 35-year-old employee was steadily advancing through a company before suffering a traumatic brain injury. After the collision, persistent cognitive problems prevent that person from handling management responsibilities. The employee might still work, but their long-term career trajectory has changed dramatically.
I may examine employment history, education, training, previous earnings, expected advancement, occupational requirements, medical restrictions, and anticipated future limitations when evaluating this type of damage.
Vocational and economic evidence can also become important when establishing how an injury may affect future employment opportunities and lifetime earnings.
One challenge with traumatic brain injury claims is proving symptoms that other people cannot see.
Medical documentation therefore becomes extremely important. Emergency room records, neurologist evaluations, neuropsychological testing, imaging studies, rehabilitation records, occupational therapy reports, and physician assessments may help document the extent of the injury.
Neuropsychological testing can be particularly important when a person reports changes involving memory, attention, problem-solving, information processing, or executive functioning.
I also want to understand how those limitations translate into actual workplace problems. A medical diagnosis establishes the injury, but evidence demonstrating how that injury affects employment helps show the financial consequences.
People who worked with you before and after the crash may notice changes that you do not recognize yourself.
A supervisor may have noticed that you require additional time to complete assignments. A coworker may have seen you forget instructions or repeat questions. Someone who previously relied on you for complicated projects may notice that you now struggle with multitasking.
Employment evaluations can also provide valuable comparisons. Strong performance reviews before an accident followed by documented difficulties afterward may help demonstrate how your abilities changed.
I consider this type of evidence particularly valuable because it can show how the injury affects real-world performance rather than relying solely on what appears in a medical chart.
When another driver’s negligence causes a crash and traumatic brain injury, Illinois personal injury law may permit the injured person to seek compensation for resulting losses, including lost earnings and other accident-related damages.
Illinois uses a modified comparative negligence system. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116, an injured person whose contributory fault is not more than 50 percent may still recover damages, although the recovery can be reduced according to the percentage of fault assigned to that person. A person found more than 50 percent responsible is generally barred from recovering under the statute.
Illinois also generally requires personal injury actions to be filed within two years after the cause of action accrues under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, although exceptions and different deadlines can apply depending on the circumstances.
Because a traumatic brain injury may affect your health and earning ability long after the accident, I believe it is important to evaluate the long-term consequences before determining the full value of the claim.
Potentially, yes. When another party is legally responsible for the accident, income you lose because your injuries prevent you from working may be included among the damages sought in a personal injury claim. Establishing those losses often requires more than simply stating how much money you normally earn. I may review recent paychecks, tax returns, employment records, work schedules, overtime history, commissions, bonuses, and documentation from your employer.
If you are self-employed, the analysis may involve business tax returns, invoices, contracts, financial statements, prior earnings, and evidence showing work you were unable to perform. The goal is to establish the difference between what you likely would have earned without the accident and what you actually earned afterward.
Returning to your job does not necessarily eliminate an employment-related claim. Many people with traumatic brain injuries return to work while continuing to experience serious limitations.
You may work fewer hours, require more breaks, have difficulty concentrating, forget instructions, struggle with deadlines, or experience headaches and fatigue by the middle of the workday. You may also discover that responsibilities involving complex decisions or multitasking have become significantly harder.
I look at how the accident changed your actual ability to work, not simply whether your name appears on a payroll. A meaningful reduction in productivity, hours, responsibilities, advancement opportunities, or future earning capacity can be important when evaluating damages.
Evidence can come from several different sources. Medical records may document your diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, restrictions, and expected recovery. Neuro-psychological testing may help identify problems involving memory, concentration, attention, reasoning, or processing speed.
Employment records can provide another important source of evidence. Performance reviews from before and after the crash may demonstrate a noticeable change. Supervisors and coworkers may also be able to describe problems they personally observed.
Depending on the severity of the injury, vocational professionals or economists may evaluate whether your limitations reduce the jobs you can perform or the income you are reasonably capable of earning in the future.
A serious traumatic brain injury may force someone to change careers even when that person remains capable of performing some type of work.
Suppose you previously had a job requiring extensive concentration, rapid decision-making, driving, physical coordination, or management responsibility. If permanent cognitive limitations prevent you from performing that profession, you may have to accept work that pays significantly less.
That difference can potentially form part of a loss of earning capacity claim. I would want to evaluate your age, education, occupational history, previous income, transferable skills, medical restrictions, future treatment needs, and realistic employment opportunities when determining the extent of that loss.
Do not automatically assume that unfavorable workplace documentation damages your personal injury claim. Depending on the circumstances, it may actually provide evidence of how significantly the injury affected you.
If you had consistently positive evaluations before the accident but began experiencing concentration problems, missed deadlines, memory issues, or reduced productivity afterward, those records may establish an important timeline.
The circumstances surrounding those performance problems matter. Medical documentation and testimony from doctors, coworkers, family members, and others may help explain why your abilities changed after the collision.
I would want to review both your medical records and employment history before determining how workplace documentation could affect your case.
I would be cautious about resolving a traumatic brain injury claim before the long-term effects are reasonably understood. Brain injuries do not always follow predictable recovery patterns. Symptoms can continue long after broken bones or other physical injuries have healed.
A settlement generally needs to account for more than expenses you have already incurred. Future medical treatment, continuing rehabilitation, reduced earning ability, lost employment opportunities, and long-term limitations may substantially affect the value of a claim.
Once a claim is fully settled and released, you ordinarily cannot return later and demand additional compensation simply because the injury became worse than expected. Understanding the likely long-term medical and employment consequences can therefore be particularly important before resolving a serious brain injury case.
A traumatic brain injury can affect your career, finances, independence, and quality of life long after the vehicles have been repaired and the crash scene has been cleared. If another driver’s negligence caused your injury, SJ INJURY LAW can review the accident, your medical condition, your employment losses, and the long-term impact the injury may have on your ability to earn a living.
SJ INJURY LAW represents car accident victims in Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Northbrook, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Wheeling, Park Ridge, Rosemont, Glenview, Chicago, and throughout Illinois.
If you or someone you love suffered a traumatic brain injury in an automobile accident, contact our Schaumburg car accident attorney at SJ INJURY LAW by calling (847) 434-3555 to receive your free consultation.
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