Thousands of Pennsylvanians suffer a traumatic brain injury every year, in a car crash on I-81 outside Scranton, a fall on a construction site in Allentown, a motorcycle collision in Philadelphia, or a workplace accident in Wilkes-Barre. Some of those claims settle for a fraction of what they are worth, and the reason is almost always the same. The proof arrives late.
The Slocum Firm builds brain injury claims around what the record shows over time rather than what a first assessment happened to say, and we do it for clients across Pennsylvania rather than in one city.
These claims sit apart from most injury cases because the injury can complicate the process meant to prove it. An inconsistent account of the crash is a normal feature of these files, and it is routinely read as a credibility problem rather than a documented consequence of what happened.
Building the case correctly means anticipating that from the first client meeting rather than answering it after an offer has already been made.
If someone in your family has been diagnosed with a brain injury after an accident, call The Slocum Firm at (570) 209-7376 before you give a recorded statement or accept any offer. We answer at any hour, and the conversation costs nothing.
What Makes a Brain Injury Claim Hard to Prove?
These claims are harder to prove than most, and the difficulty is evidentiary rather than factual. A brain injury does not always produce the kind of single, decisive document a fracture or a surgical record provides, which means the claim has to be built out of a pattern rather than a snapshot.
That pattern is assembled over time. Repeat assessments by treating physicians, records of what a person could do before the injury compared with after, and accounts from employers and family about specific changes carry more weight together than any one report does alone.
The label attached to an injury in its first hours does not cap what the claim is worth. An early classification is made in the minutes after a crash, for treatment purposes, by people who are not thinking about a legal claim, and Pennsylvania law compensates the documented consequences of an injury rather than the category it was first sorted into.
Why These Claims Are Easy to Underestimate
These claims get undervalued for reasons that have little to do with how serious the injury is. There is often no single image or number that settles the question, and a person can present entirely normally in a deposition while the effects on their work and daily life are substantial.
What answers that is documentation rather than a client’s account alone. Structured records built with the right professionals, over enough time to show a pattern, turn a claim that reads as subjective into one supported by data.
Timing matters as much as evidence. A claim negotiated within a few months of the injury, before the trajectory is clear, tends to resolve for less than the same claim would a year later once the record exists.
The Team Behind Every Serious TBI Case
No single professional can document a brain injury’s lifetime impact, which is why these cases rely on a coordinated group. A treating physician documents the clinical course and what has changed. A neuropsychologist produces standardized testing results that give the file objective data rather than description.
Beyond the medical side, a certified life care planner projects the full cost of care and support the person will need for the rest of their life. A vocational rehabilitation professional assesses the effect on the ability to work and on future earning capacity. A forensic economist converts those projections into present-day figures a jury or an insurer can evaluate.
Assembling that team takes months, which is the practical reason these claims should not be rushed toward an early number.
Where These Injuries Happen Across Pennsylvania
Motor vehicle accidents remain the leading cause of traumatic brain injury statewide, from rural highway collisions to dense urban intersections. Falls, whether on a construction site, a commercial property, or a poorly maintained sidewalk, account for a substantial share. Motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrian claims are heavily represented, because none of those road users has the structural protection a vehicle provides.
Workplace accidents round out the picture, particularly in industrial and construction settings where falls, equipment failures, and falling objects are common. We represent people with brain injuries throughout Scranton and northeastern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, Wilkes-Barre, and communities across the Commonwealth, and we coordinate directly with the treating teams wherever a client is being seen.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Brain Injury?
The answer depends on where the injury happened, and in Pennsylvania the identity of the defendant can matter as much as the severity of the injury.
Falls on construction sites are among the leading causes, and they carry a rule that surprises most injured workers. Workers’ compensation generally limits what you can recover from your own employer, but it does not bar a claim against a negligent third party such as a general contractor, a subcontractor, a property owner, or an equipment manufacturer. That third-party claim is where pain and suffering and full lifetime damages become recoverable.
Where a government body is the defendant, the ceiling changes entirely. Damages against a local agency are capped at $500,000 for everyone injured in the same incident combined under 42 Pa.C.S. Section 8553, and a written notice of the claim is generally due within six months under 42 Pa.C.S. Section 5522. Those two rules can decide a serious case before the medical record is even complete.
Where several parties share responsibility, Pennsylvania compares your share of fault against their combined fault rather than against each one separately. Someone found 40 percent at fault still recovers from a defendant who is only 15 percent at fault. That has been settled Pennsylvania law since Elder v. Orluck in 1986.
Does Limited Tort Insurance Block a Brain Injury Claim?
Often not, though it depends on the injury. Drivers who chose the limited tort option on their auto policy give up the right to claim pain and suffering for most injuries, but that restriction lifts for what the statute calls a serious injury, defined at 75 Pa.C.S. Section 1702 as death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement.
There are other routes around a limited tort election as well. Full tort rights are restored where the at-fault driver was convicted of or accepted ARD for driving under the influence in that crash, was operating a vehicle registered in another state, or was uninsured. If you were struck as a pedestrian rather than injured in a vehicle, the election does not bind you at all.
How Long Do You Have to File a TBI Claim?
Pennsylvania generally gives injured people two years from the date of injury to file a lawsuit under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524. Because the documentation these claims depend on takes months to assemble, waiting until close to that deadline puts a case at a real disadvantage even though the window is technically still open.
The clock works differently for an injured child. Under 42 Pa.C.S. Section 5533 the two years does not begin until the child turns 18, so a child injured at 10 generally has until their 20th birthday.
Pennsylvania also uses modified comparative negligence, which means your own share of fault reduces what you recover rather than eliminating it. Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 7102 you can recover as long as your share is 50 percent or less, with recovery barred at 51 percent or more. Fault allocation is where serious cases are decided, because a shift of a few percentage points can move the number substantially.
What Can a TBI Claim Recover?
Compensation in a Pennsylvania TBI case may include medical bills, future medical care, neurological rehabilitation, cognitive therapy, psychological treatment, lost wages, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, projected across the person’s remaining lifetime rather than just the immediate recovery period.
A Firm Built for the Complexity of Brain Injury Cases
TBI cases turn on documentation more than almost any other injury claim, and the representation behind one should match that rather than treat it as a routine file. The Slocum Firm has represented injured Pennsylvanians since 2009. We practice from our office in Scranton, Lackawanna County, and our attorneys are admitted to the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania, which cover Philadelphia, Scranton, and much of the Commonwealth.
Every client works directly with the attorney handling their case rather than a rotating group of case managers, and that attorney is reachable at any hour. Across our practice we have recovered in more than 95 percent of the cases we have taken, and our attorneys bring more than 50 years of combined experience to catastrophic injury claims.
Results may vary. Prior case outcomes do not guarantee similar results.
We take brain injury cases on contingency, so you pay nothing upfront and owe no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you. Case expenses are separate from the attorney fee, and we will explain exactly how they work before you decide anything. Call The Slocum Firm at (570) 209-7376 at any hour to find out where your family actually stands.
FAQs: Pennsylvania Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
These are the questions families ask us most often in the weeks after a brain injury diagnosis.
Can I recover for a mild TBI or concussion in Pennsylvania?
Yes. A mild classification describes how the injury was categorized at the start, not what it costs a person over time. Pennsylvania law compensates documented harm, so what matters is the record of how work, income and daily function actually changed, not the label applied in the first hours.
What types of professionals are needed to build a strong TBI case?
Typically a treating physician, a neuropsychologist for standardized testing, a certified life care planner, a vocational rehabilitation professional, and a forensic economist. The medical side establishes what changed, and the financial side establishes what that change costs across a lifetime.
How long do I have to file a TBI lawsuit in Pennsylvania?
Generally two years from the date of injury for an adult. For an injured child the two years does not start until the child turns 18. Because the documentation these claims depend on takes months to build, early legal involvement matters more here than the deadline alone suggests.
Can I bring a claim if my brain injury happened at work?
Often yes, but not against your employer. Workers’ compensation generally limits what you can recover there, while a claim against a negligent third party, such as a general contractor, a property owner, or an equipment manufacturer, can include pain and suffering and full lifetime damages. Identifying that third party early is the difference between a capped recovery and a full one.
How is a TBI case different from a standard personal injury claim in Pennsylvania?
It takes a larger team of medical and financial professionals, a longer documentation timeline, and a damages approach built around a lifetime rather than a recovery period. A routine soft-tissue claim needs none of that.
Take Action Now to Protect Your TBI Claim
If you or someone you love suffered a brain injury in Pennsylvania because of someone else’s negligence, call The Slocum Firm at (570) 209-7376, at any hour, whether the injury happened recently or several months ago. You will speak directly with an attorney about what your case would require and what the record currently supports. There is no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you, and we will explain how case expenses are handled before you decide anything.
