A traumatic brain injury can change everything. Your work, your relationships, your independence. I'm Scott Barney, a Hampton Roads personal injury attorney with 20+ years of experience working with medical experts to document TBIs in full and fight for the long-term compensation they require, on a no-win, no-fee basis.
The Invisible Nature of Traumatic Brain Injuries
A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is often called the 'invisible injury.' Unlike a broken bone on an X-ray, the damage from a concussion or a moderate TBI does not always show up on a standard CT scan or MRI in the emergency room. Yet the effects can destroy a person's life.
Symptoms like memory loss, personality changes, chronic fatigue, light sensitivity, and cognitive delays can take days or weeks to fully manifest. Because these symptoms are subjective, insurance companies routinely try to minimize them. They argue the victim is exaggerating or that the cognitive issues are unrelated to the crash.
Proving a TBI requires specialized medical evidence. We work with neurologists, neuropsychologists, and advanced imaging specialists (like DTI or PET scans) to objectively document the damage to the brain's pathways and functions.
Calculating the True Lifetime Cost
A severe brain injury does not just result in a hospital bill. It changes the trajectory of a person's life. The financial impact spans decades.
When building a TBI case, we must account for lost earning capacity. If a professional can no longer handle complex tasks, or a laborer can no longer safely operate machinery, that lifetime of lost income must be compensated. We also calculate the cost of future life care: in-home assistance, cognitive therapy, specialized transportation, and long-term medical monitoring.
Insurance companies want to settle these cases quickly, before the family realizes that the victim will never fully return to who they were. Accepting a fast settlement in a TBI case is almost always a mistake.
Virginia Law and Brain Injury Claims
Like all personal injury cases in Virginia, you generally have two years to file a lawsuit (Va. Code § 8.01-243). However, TBI cases are uniquely vulnerable to Virginia's contributory negligence rule.
If the injury occurred in a car crash or a slip and fall, the defense only needs to prove the victim was 1% at fault to deny the entire claim. Because brain injury victims often have no memory of the accident itself, they cannot testify to what happened. This makes gathering independent evidence—witnesses, video, and accident reconstruction—absolutely critical.
Furthermore, if the victim is deemed legally incapacitated due to the injury, a guardian or conservator may need to be appointed to pursue the claim on their behalf. We guide families through this complex legal and medical maze.
Cases I Handle
Brain injuries I represent
How I Help
What I do for you
Build the medical picture
I bring in neurologists and life-care planners to document the injury and its lasting effects.
Capture the human impact
I gather accounts from family and coworkers showing how the injury changed daily life.
Project future costs
I quantify the years of treatment, therapy, and lost earnings insurers try to ignore.
Demand full value
I negotiate firmly and take the case to trial when the offer doesn't reflect the real cost.
What You May Recover
Compensation in a Virginia TBI claim
- Emergency, surgical, and neurological care
- Long-term rehabilitation and therapy
- Lost wages and diminished earning capacity
- In-home care and life-care costs
- Pain, suffering, and loss of quality of life
Recent Results
Outcomes for clients
Case results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each case. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict a similar outcome in any future case.
Head & Brain Injury FAQ
Questions I hear most
Related Practice Areas
Serving Hampton Roads
Hurt and not sure what to do? Let's talk today.
Free, confidential, and no obligation. You owe me nothing unless I win your case.