Every year, millions of Americans, including thousands of Arizona residents, suffer head injuries. Many of these injuries happen in connection with employment—head injuries are among the most common work-related injuries you can experience.
According to national data, head injuries are among the most expensive to treat, averaging $90,000 in workers’ compensation settlements; however, your specific case may be significantly below or above the average.
If you have suffered a head injury at work in Arizona, our team of experienced and passionate workers’ compensation attorneys at the Matt Fendon Law Group can help you receive what you deserve in your workers’ compensation head injury settlement. Call Matt Fendon Law Group today at (800) 229-3880 to schedule a free consultation.
Average Workers’ Compensation Head Injury Settlements
According to data from the National Safety Council, when we consider all forms of bodily injury, head injuries are by far the most costly ones to treat. Nationally, the average workers’ compensation settlement for a work-related head injury is more than $90,000.
However, what your settlement might amount to is completely dependent on the specifics of your case. Your settlement may be significantly less or more than the average.
Head injury accidents at work are often serious and long-lasting in their health, employment, and lifestyle consequences. They can be expensive to treat in the short term and for future medical care.
The more serious your head injury claim is, like with traumatic brain injury cases, the more likely it becomes that your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company will look for ways to minimize your brain injury compensation. This will almost always involve using attorneys and medical experts to look for ways to attack your claim.
It is in these situations, when so much is at stake not only to you but also to your loved ones, that having a workers’ compensation lawyer from Matt Fendon Law Group can be critical to the success of your outcome.
Our firm successfully negotiated the largest workers’ compensation settlement in Arizona history; a traumatic brain injury case that settled for $3,000,000.
How Do Head Injuries Happen at Work?
You can suffer a head injury in any line of work. Some occupations are more at risk than others:
- Construction industry workers
- First responders (firefighters, police officers)
- Professional athletes, including race car drivers
- Warehousing, delivery, and dock workers
The most common sources of job-related head injuries can result from:
- Slips and fall accidents
- Being struck by a falling object or by equipment
- Being injured as a passenger or driver in a work-related car accident
- Being exposed to an explosion at work
- Being subject to violence at work from other persons or by animals
Although some head injuries at work can be minor and require little or no treatment or time lost from work, others can be severe enough to cause you to lose the ability to work or, in the worst case, to lose your life.
Common Types of Head Injuries
We can break head injuries into three main types: head trauma, hematomas, and traumatic brain injury.
Head Trauma
Head trauma injuries are those that affect the head but not the brain. Skull fractures and facial trauma are examples of head trauma injuries.
Skull Fractures
A skull fracture is a break in the skull bone. Minor fractures may require little treatment, but skull fractures that cause part of the skull to depress into the brain or a skull fracture caused by a penetration of the skull can be serious and require surgery to treat.
Facial Trauma
Facial trauma injuries can be skull fractures or soft tissue injuries.
Bone injuries can include midface broken bones, broken eye sockets, a broken jaw, and broken or missing teeth. Soft tissue injuries include lacerations, avulsions, scrapes, and facial burns, and occipital neuralgia, a condition that causes severe headaches.
In the workplace, the most common causes of facial trauma are car accidents and physical assaults.
Facial trauma injuries can result in a disfigured appearance, but they can also have more serious functional effects, including damage to your tongue, salivary glands, and nerve endings. These can affect your ability to speak, bite, chew, drink, smile, or even blink.
Hematomas
A hematoma is a blood clot that forms on or inside of the brain.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injuries are frequently occurring work-related injuries in Arizona. Some estimates are that nationally, six of every ten brain injury claims for workers’ compensation include a traumatic brain injury claim.
How to Make a Claim for Work-Related Head Injury Claims
If you suffer a head injury at work, you will need to identify which options are available to you to pursue a fair brain injury settlement for your medical costs, lost wages, and other compensation.
Most of the time, if you are working with an experienced Arizona workers’ compensation lawyer, a workers’ compensation settlement will be enough to serve your medical treatment, rehabilitative, and therapeutic needs.
The starting point is that in Arizona, workers’ compensation is based on a “no-fault” system. This means that if you accept a workers’ compensation settlement with your employer’s insurer, you cannot sue your employer for your injury, including for claims of ordinary negligence.
Under a no-fault system, the advantage is that you do not need to prove that you were harmed like you would if you sued your employer for personal injury.
Your employer has the advantage of not having to defend against employee personal injury lawsuits.
Why You Should Have an Arizona Workers’ Compensation Lawyer On Your Side
Our attorneys have years of experience helping brain injury victims like you who have been injured on the job to realize the best brain injury settlement possible. We know the tactics that insurance companies use to try to deny or minimize often traumatic brain injury settlements for a head or brain injury and how to counter them.
In addition to carefully preparing and thoroughly supporting your head injury benefits claim with evidence, we will also negotiate your case with insurers on your behalf so you are not taken advantage of.
We will help you understand the nature of your injuries and your rights under Arizona workers’ compensation. If you need to make an initial benefits claim, we will help you to prepare it. If your initial claim has been denied, we will help you to file an appeal. https://www.fendonlaw.net/blog/what-are-the-chances-of-winning-a-workers-comp-appeal/Call us today at (800) 229-3880 to speak with one of our Phoenix workers’ compensation lawyers in a free initial consultation.
