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Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries

Accidents happen every day, and not just to other people. Accidents probably happen to you every day. That isn’t an outlandish statement if you really think about it. You bump an elbow on the stairwell. You stub your toe in the middle of the night. You get distracted and burn your dinner.

These are the sort of accidents that happen regularly, to all of us, and there are no real lasting repercussions. You say “ouch” or some variation thereof, or you phone out for pizza or Chinese, and life goes on.

More serious accidents happen with less frequency, but the consequences aren’t really all that different. Safety advances in seat restraints, airbags, global positioning satellites with instant emergency contact and improvements in body design have drastically improved the odds of walking away from an accident unscathed. Trips to the hospital, if needed at all, are usually for treatment of minor injuries. And the insurance will usually recoup the property damage, so, minor inconvenience aside, life goes on.

But what happens if an accident is more serious? What happens if it’s the sort of accident where, despite the seat restraints, despite the airbags, despite everything, your life is irrevocably changed? What happens if you lose the ability to walk, or move at all, or breathe without a respirator? What happens if you sustain severe brain damage? What happens to your family if you are unable to work?

The rules change when the injury gets severe. The insurers, faced with the prospect of living up to real financial obligations, start dragging their feet or looking for loopholes. If the accident wasn’t your fault, and the other driver’s insurance company faces the liability, you can expect them to do everything possible to get out of paying you what you deserve. This includes outright denial of a claim, lowball settlement offers, and delays in payment.

In order for this to make sense, you should consider that the insurance company of the person that caused your accident doesn’t represent you. There is no sense of “doing the right thing” among insurance companies. Millions of people on the Gulf Coast are being told by their own insurers that there is nothing that they can do. If that’s how they treat their own clients, what sort of treatment do you think you’ll receive? Getting what is necessary out of an insurance company in serious situations takes absolute command of the facts and a thorough understanding of insurance company tactics and liability law.

This is what Lewis and Tompkins bring to the table.

We provide first rate legal counsel for injured Washingtonians, and we have twenty years of experience in dealing with insurance company tactics. We know the difference between a fair settlement offer and a denial of responsibility. We also go beyond the balance sheet of the medical bills, and also take a real look at what your life was like before the accident, and what it’s like now. We’ll look at the job you can’t do anymore, or the hobbies that you can’t enjoy anymore, and we will do everything we can to obtain a settlement that reflects the entire scope of your injury.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain or spinal injury, and you feel that the insurers are not living up to their obligations, contact the Law Offices of Lewis and Tompkins for a free legal consultation.

Web Resources for Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries:

SCI Info Pages - Spinal Cord Injury Information
Description: A free and informative resource for those with a spinal cord injury or other disabling injury or disease of the spine. Provides health information and resources for spinal cord injuries and a list of related links with site descriptions.

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Lewis & Tompkins
927 15th Street N.W., 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Phone: 202-296-0666