A traumatic brain injury can change everything — how you think, how you communicate, how you move through the world. And in too many cases, the injury goes undiagnosed because it doesn’t look like anything is wrong.
At Jordan Law, we’ve represented clients with brain injuries ranging from concussions that were initially dismissed as headaches to severe traumatic brain injuries that left people unable to work, care for themselves, or remember conversations from five minutes ago. These are among the most complex personal injury cases we handle, and they require attorneys who understand both the medicine and the law.
Here’s what you need to know about traumatic brain injuries — how they happen, why they’re so often missed, and what to do if you or someone you love is dealing with one.
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when an external force causes damage to the brain. This can happen from a direct blow to the head, a violent jolt or shaking motion, or an object penetrating the skull. The most common causes include motor vehicle crashes, falls, assaults, sports injuries, and construction site accidents.
The brain is extraordinarily complex. Each region controls different functions — the frontal lobe governs judgment, behavior, and movement; the temporal lobe handles language, emotions, and memory; the parietal lobe controls spatial awareness and sensation; and the occipital lobe processes vision. The location and severity of the damage determine which functions are affected, and that’s what makes every brain injury case unique.
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Why Brain Injuries Get Missed
One of the most dangerous things about traumatic brain injuries is how often they go undiagnosed — especially mild and moderate TBIs. The person may look perfectly fine. They may walk, talk, and seem normal to anyone around them. But inside, their brain is injured, and the symptoms can be devastating.
Jason Jordan, founding partner of Jordan Law, has seen this pattern repeatedly in his 20-plus years of practice:
“The vast majority are categorized as mild traumatic brain injury, sometimes moderate. That person sitting right there doesn’t look any different than the person sitting over here. Mild traumatic brain injury — they’re going to try to compare it to like a concussion, like you got your bell rung, like it’s no big deal, when it really can actually be a big deal.”
This is the core problem with brain injury cases. Insurance companies seize on the word “mild” and use it to minimize the claim. They’ll argue that a mild TBI is just a concussion — something you shake off and move on from. But “mild” is a medical classification based on initial presentation (loss of consciousness, Glasgow Coma Scale score), not a description of the long-term impact. A so-called mild TBI can produce chronic headaches, cognitive difficulties, personality changes, depression, anxiety, and an inability to work — symptoms that last months, years, or permanently.
What makes this worse is that many brain injuries are never identified in the first place. As Jason explains:
“It’s unfortunate because a lot of these cases, they go undiagnosed. They continue moving through a case with a lawyer that’s not looking at that angle and sending that person to the right doctors. And it winds up getting settled as a soft tissue chiropractic case when really there is a mild traumatic brain injury component that not only has value and should be compensated for, but also has never been treated.”
This is exactly why choosing the right attorney matters. A high-volume firm that processes cases as quickly as possible isn’t going to catch a brain injury hiding behind a whiplash diagnosis. It takes an attorney who knows what to look for and which specialists to involve — neuropsychologists, neurologists, neuroradiologists — to identify and document the injury properly.
The Severity Spectrum
Brain injuries are classified into three categories, and each presents different challenges for victims and their families.
Mild TBI may involve a brief loss of consciousness (or none at all), headaches, nausea, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, sensitivity to light and sound, mood changes, and sleep disruption. These symptoms can persist for weeks, months, or longer — a condition known as post-concussion syndrome. The fact that imaging like CT scans often comes back “normal” makes these cases especially difficult to prove without the right medical experts.
Moderate TBI typically involves loss of consciousness lasting minutes to hours, significant confusion, short-term memory loss, and more pronounced cognitive deficits. Recovery is possible but often incomplete, and many moderate TBI patients require extended rehabilitation.
Severe TBI can result in extended unconsciousness or coma, permanent cognitive impairment, paralysis, personality changes, and the need for lifelong care. The financial impact alone can be staggering — lifetime care costs for a severe TBI can exceed $3 million.
Jason has represented clients across the entire severity spectrum, and he’s candid about how challenging these cases can be on a human level:
“I find brain injury cases are oftentimes difficult in the sense of just the ability to communicate with your client. If they’re brain injured, not only may they not be able to communicate with you as well, but they have bad memory issues, they have maybe violent outbursts and things like that. You have to really understand at all times — that’s why you’re here to represent them, is because they have these injuries.”
That last sentence matters. The very thing that makes a brain injury case difficult to manage — the cognitive deficits, the memory problems, the behavioral changes — is also the thing that makes the case valuable. It’s the injury itself. And it requires an attorney who has the patience, the expertise, and the commitment to advocate for someone who may not be able to fully advocate for themselves.
What to Do If You Suspect a Brain Injury
If you’ve been in an accident and you’re experiencing any of the following symptoms, you should be evaluated by a medical professional who specializes in brain injuries — not just an ER doctor who checks for fractures and sends you home.
Watch for persistent headaches that don’t respond to medication, difficulty concentrating or completing tasks that used to be routine, memory problems (forgetting conversations, losing track of what you were doing), sensitivity to light or noise, mood swings, irritability, or personality changes that others notice, fatigue or sleep disturbances, and dizziness or balance problems.
These symptoms may not appear immediately. It’s common for brain injury symptoms to develop days or even weeks after the initial trauma. This delay is one reason so many TBIs go undocumented — by the time symptoms become obvious, the connection to the accident may not seem clear.
Document everything. Keep a journal of your symptoms — when they started, how they’ve changed, how they affect your daily life. Ask family members and coworkers to note any changes they observe in your behavior, personality, or cognitive function. This documentation becomes critical evidence in a personal injury claim.
Why Your Attorney Matters in a Brain Injury Case
Brain injury cases require more than a standard personal injury approach. The right attorney will send you to the right doctors — neuropsychologists who can administer cognitive testing, neurologists who can evaluate structural and functional brain changes, and life-care planners who can calculate the true cost of your future needs.
At Jordan Law, we’ve recovered over $550 million for our clients, including cases involving traumatic brain injuries that other firms failed to identify. Our trial record — a $131 million verdict, a $45 million settlement, a $42 million verdict — demonstrates that we have the resources and the willingness to take complex cases to a jury when insurance companies refuse to pay fair value.
If you or someone you love has sustained a brain injury in an accident, don’t wait. Evidence degrades, memories fade, and the statute of limitations in Colorado is 2 years for general personal injury claims (3 years for motor vehicle accidents). The sooner we can get involved, the sooner we can make sure you’re getting the right medical care and building the strongest possible case.
Free Consultation — Call (303) 465-8733
Jordan Law Accident & Injury Lawyers 5445 DTC Parkway, Suite 1000 Greenwood Village, CO 80111