Our Oxnard Brain Injury Law Practice

Gomez Trial Attorneys is a top-rated, award-winning personal injury law firm representing those who have suffered preventable injuries because of someone else’s wrongful decisions or actions. We have offices in San Diego, Solana Beach, Bakersfield, San Luis Obispo, and Temecula, from which we fight for the legal rights of clients throughout the region, including Oxnard and greater Ventura County.

Our lawyers focus a significant amount of their energies and legal efforts on helping brain injury victims recover compensation from the individuals, companies, and/or government agencies whose actions caused them harm. Our significant successes on behalf of clients afflicted with preventable brain injuries include a $16.2 million outcome for a client who suffered brain trauma in a slip-and-fall accident, and a $13.5 million recovery for a client injured in a motor vehicle accident. We pride ourselves on our strong reputation as skilled, aggressive trial lawyers, and advocates who deliver sensible, smart, personalized legal services to injured clients.

We cannot guarantee that any client will recover compensation for a brain injury. However, we can promise to put the full weight of our experience and resources behind every case we handle, and to serve our Oxnard clients’ interests above all others.

Overview of Brain Injuries

We use the term brain injury to refer to any damage to a victim’s brain tissue that causes health and life challenges. Medical professionals separate brain injuries into two broad categories: traumatic brain injury (TBI) and non-traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

TBI typically results from a violent jolt, blow, or penetrating injury to the head. The force of the initial impact causes damage to brain tissue, including bruising and tearing of nerve fibers, broken blood vessels, and swelling. The initial (or primary) trauma caused by the impact often leads to subsequent (or secondary) harm caused by bleeding, swelling, and interrupted blood and oxygen supply to the brain.

Doctors rate brain injuries as mild, moderate, or severe according to a variety of factors, including the duration of any loss of consciousness. But do not let these labels mislead you. Even a so-called mild brain injury, more commonly called a concussion, can result in significant negative outcomes for the victim, who may suffer from long-lasting headaches, dizziness, confusion, light and sound sensitivity, and fatigue. One brain injury also heightens a person’s risk of another brain injury, according to research, and the negative effects of the injuries can compound each other.

The injuries that doctors refer to as moderate and severe also cause a wide range of challenges and deficits.

Stanford Health identifies some of the most common of those as:

• Cognitive impairments such as memory loss, difficulty reasoning, and loss of self-awareness;
• Motor impairments consisting of paralysis, numbness, tingling, weakness, dizziness, and loss of dexterity;
• Perceptual/sensory impairments including poor depth perception and loss of sense of taste or smell;
• Communication/language impairments manifested as difficulties speaking, reading, or understanding language;
• Functional impairments that get in the way of everyday activities;
• Social impairments like loss of emotional intelligence or inability to read social cues;
• Body regulation impairments like disrupted sleep and the inability to control bladder or bowel function;
• Mental health impairments including lack of emotional control, anxiety, depression, and suicidality; and
• Traumatic epilepsy, which causes seizures.

The type, severity, and duration of these symptoms vary widely from one brain injury to the next. Every brain injury and its aftermath are unique, because differences in which part of the brain suffered damage, when the victim obtained treatment, and the victim’s overall state of health can have a significant influence on symptoms and outcomes. One of the most difficult aspects of living with TBI is the unpredictability of the pace and direction of recovery from the injury. The ups and downs of symptoms that get worse, better, and worse again can cause significant strain.

Non-Traumatic Brain Injury

Incidents and accidents that do not involve a violent blow or jolt to the head can also result in a serious brain injury. A stroke (broken or blocked blood vessel in the brain), encephalitis (brain swelling), or cerebral hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) can damage brain tissue and result in the same wide and unpredictable variety of symptoms as those common in TBIs.

Whether traumatic or non-traumatic, a brain injury can cause massive challenges in the lives of victims and their loved ones. The team at Gomez Trial Attorneys has the skill and resources to help Oxnard brain injury victims obtain the compensation they need and deserve to support them through recovery from a brain injury. Contact us today to learn more.

Common Causes of Traumatic Brain Injuries

Brain injuries afflicting Oxnard residents, workers, and visitors stem from a wide variety of incidents and accidents.

Some common circumstances leading to brain injuries suffered by Gomez Trial Attorney clients include:

• Car, truck, and bus accidents, which represent a leading cause of TBI throughout the United States. Vehicle occupants suffer violent blows, jolts, or penetrating injuries in a crash, leading to a potentially life-altering TBI. Always get screened for TBI after any motor vehicle accident. Even if you do not have any outward sign of a head injury—such as a bruise, bump, or cut—you may still have suffered an injury to your brain that requires immediate medical attention.
• Bicycle and motorcycle accidents, even when a rider wears a helmet, can inflict severe brain injuries. California law requires all motorcycle riders and all bicycle riders (and skateboarders) under the age of 18 to wear helmets to protect against brain injury in an accident. Studies have repeatedly shown a helmet substantially reduces the severity of a brain injury in a crash. Never take to the road on two wheels without one.
• Falls cause a surprisingly large number of brain injuries to Ventura County residents, workers, and visitors every year. Older adults, young children, and construction workers have the highest overall risk of suffering a TBI in a fall, but no one is immune from the danger. Do not assume that you escaped injury in a fall if you just have a few bumps and bruises. Always seek medical treatment to screen for a brain injury.
• Sports that put athletes at risk for one or more blows to the head represent a significant risk factor for brain injuries in Oxnard. Public awareness about long-term brain damage to football players has focused public attention on these risks, but it is important to understand that any sport can put athletes in danger. Research shows that young female athletes, in particular, run an especially high risk of concussions in contact sports (even soccer), and that any youth athlete who suffers a first concussion runs a heightened risk of subsequent concussions that cause increasingly-severe damage.
• Explosions and pressure waves have been found to cause blast-induced traumatic brain injury (or bTBI), which can happen even if the victim does not suffer other physical trauma. The concussive force of a detonation or high-decibel sound is enough to cause brain injury. Ventura County service members, including those stationed at Naval Base Ventura County, may face a particular risk of these sorts of injuries.
• Gunshot wounds cause penetrating head injuries that result in traumatic brain injury. Tragically, the majority of gunshot wounds are self-inflicted, but accidental discharges of a firearm, intentional shootings, and battlefield injuries account for a significant share of them in Southern California.
• Drownings in swimming pools and open bodies of water occur every year in Ventura County. Many drowning victims perish from their injuries, but those who survive often suffer a significant non-violent brain injury due to oxygen deprivation.
• Medical mistakes, such as failures to diagnose emergent medical conditions, or the faulty prescription or administration of drugs, can lead to health emergencies that cause brain injury.

Gomez Trial Attorneys have years of experience representing Southern California brain injury victims. No matter how your brain injury happened, we know how to evaluate your legal rights to compensation. Contact one of our Oxnard brain injury lawyers today.

Seeking Compensation for Oxnard Brain Injuries

All Oxnard brain injuries result from a cause rooted in someone’s dangerous decisions or actions. At Gomez Trial Attorneys, one of our most important jobs is to analyze the facts and circumstances of a client’s brain injuries to determine who made an unreasonably dangerous choice that put our client in harm’s way, and thus has a legal liability to pay our client money damages. Every case has unique aspects, of course, but in many cases, our clients can seek compensation from:

Motor Vehicle Drivers (and Anyone Legally Responsible For Their Conduct)

Motor vehicle accidents inflict a significant proportion of brain injuries every year in Ventura County. Most accidents result from a motorist’s bad decision or careless action behind the wheel. Under California law, that motorist has a legal liability to accident victims injured by the unreasonably dangerous conduct that caused the crash. Others may also have liability for a driver’s actions, such as the employer of a driver who gets into an accident in a work vehicle.

Property Owners and Tenants

Owners and tenants of Oxnard private, public, and commercial property have legal duties to keep their premises in a reasonably safe condition for visitors. A person who sustains a brain injury because of any type of unreasonably dangerous condition at an Oxnard property will often have legal rights to seek compensation from the property’s owner and/or tenant. These rights apply for visitors to private homes, businesses open to the public, and even public parks and other spaces managed by the local government.

Organizers and Supervisors of Youth Sports

Playing sports comes with some unavoidable risks, to be sure. However, that does not mean that parents, coaches, referees, and youth sports organizations can simply ignore athlete safety. As public awareness of concussion risks increases, adults who supervise and organize youth sports must adapt by following strict brain injury safety protocols. An athlete left in the game after sustaining an injury may have a legal claim against the adults who failed to take her out of the game.

Government Agencies and Employers

We trust our government to provide essential public services, like road construction and maintenance, and to do so with reasonable care. Brain injuries that occur in accidents on Ventura County roads or at Oxnard municipal facilities could put county or city governments on the hook for damages. Likewise, Oxnard workers, residents, and visitors who work for local, state, or federal agencies—including service members—have the right to expect that their employers will not put them in unreasonable danger of preventable harm. Government employers and contractors who fail to keep workers safe may face legal liability for brain injury-related damages.

Medical Workers

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers have a basic obligation to deliver a minimum standard of care to patients. Most of the time, they far exceed that expectation, but this isn’t always the case. Patients harmed by a mistake in an Oxnard medical facility, including those who suffer brain injuries because of a medical error, may have the right to hold the provider financially accountable.

Call Our Experienced Oxnard Brain Injury Lawyers

Oxnard workers, residents, and visitors who suffer brain injuries because of someone else’s careless, reckless, or intentional actions have rights to significant financial compensation. The lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys have the skill and experience to get it for them. Contact us or dial (619) 237-3490 today for a free case evaluation.