Recent Recoveries
- $2,000,000Car crash — litigation settlement
- $1,750,000Slip & fall — litigation settlement
- $1,000,00018-wheeler — litigation settlement
- $850,000Tractor-trailer — litigation settlement
- $650,000Commercial collision — litigation settlement
- $650,000Trucking accident — litigation settlement
- $550,000On-the-job injury — litigation settlement
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is decided on its own facts.
One minute you were driving to work, or crossing a car park, or halfway down a flight of stairs. The next there is a gap you cannot account for, and everybody is telling you how lucky you were.
Then the headaches settle in and do not leave. Names go missing. A conversation with two people in it is suddenly hard work, and by the evening there is nothing left. Nobody can see any of it, and the scan they took at the hospital came back clear.
So you begin to wonder whether you are making it up. You are not, and neither is the person at home who has watched you change. Everything below is about the distance between an injury that is real and an injury that has been proved.
A normal scan is the ordinary result
Most mild traumatic brain injuries do not appear on the CT taken in the emergency room. That is a fact about the scan, not about your brain.
You pay nothing to ask
The consultation is free, the fee comes out of the recovery, and there is no bill if we do not win.
Two years — and far less if a public body or a hospital is involved
Two years to file in most Texas cases. Six months’ written notice against a governmental unit, and a different set of rules again if the injury came from medical care.
Where It Starts
They told you the scan was clear
That is the ordinary result after a mild brain injury, and it is not the finding people think it is. It means you are not bleeding into your skull.
You were discharged with a leaflet and a sentence you have repeated to everybody since: the scan was normal. And then the headaches did not stop, the words started going missing, and a supermarket became something you have to recover from.
The scan was doing its job. A CT in an emergency department is looking for what could kill you before morning — a bleed, a fracture, swelling that needs a surgeon. The injury most people reading this have is not that. It is diffuse, it is at the scale of the wiring, and routine imaging is not built to resolve it.
Which is the whole difficulty of the claim. In every other injury case there is a picture of the injury. Here there is a person who says they are not the same, a family who agrees, and an insurer holding up a clear scan. Everything below is about how that gets proved.
Nobody disbelieves a broken femur. On this injury the first job is getting somebody believed, and you do that with testing and with the people who knew them before — not by insisting.
Aaron Genthe · Founder
- 01
We prove it with testing, not with the scan
A neuropsychological examination measures attention, memory, processing speed and executive function against normative data. It is the document that carries a mild brain injury case, and almost nobody has one unless a lawyer arranged it.
- 02
We go and find who you were before
Performance reviews, transcripts, training records, the colleague who sat beside you. A brain injury case is a comparison, and the defence is never going to collect the “before” half of it for you.
- 03
We answer the malingering case before it is made
Validity testing, consistent reporting, treatment that does not stop and restart. Every one of those is easy to build from day one and nearly impossible to reconstruct at the end.
Severity
“Mild” is a word about the first hour
The label was applied in the emergency department before anybody knew how this would go. It classifies how you presented, not what you are left with, and most of the hardest cases on this page start with it.
“Mild” describes the first hour, not the rest of your life
The classification is made in the emergency department, from the Glasgow Coma Scale, whether you lost consciousness and for how long, and how much of the event you cannot remember.
Moderate and severe injury
A score of 9 to 12, or of 8 and below, usually with something visible on imaging: bleeding, contusion, swelling, a fracture.
Concussion and post-concussion syndrome
A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury. Most people recover within weeks; a substantial minority do not, and where the headaches, fog, light sensitivity, irritability and sleep disruption persist well beyond the expected window it is generally called post-concussion syndrome.
Contusion, haemorrhage and haematoma
Bruising and bleeding, focal rather than diffuse: subdural, epidural, subarachnoid, intracerebral. These do show on imaging, which makes them easier to prove and, generally, far more serious.
Diffuse axonal injury
Widespread shearing of the nerve fibres, caused by rotational force rather than by impact. It is the mechanism behind the worst outcomes in high-speed crashes, and it is also the one with the least to show for itself on ordinary imaging.
Anoxic and hypoxic brain injury
Damage from the brain being starved of oxygen rather than struck: near-drowning, cardiac arrest, choking, a crush injury, carbon monoxide, anaesthetic and obstetric emergencies.
Where They Come From
The eight ways we are rung about most
The mechanism decides what evidence exists, who the defendant is and, on public ground, how long you have.
- 01Car and highway crashesThe commonest source by a distance. A head that never touched anything still travelled and stopped, and the airbag that saved your life hit you at speed to do it.
- 0218-wheelers and commercial vehiclesThe mass difference does the damage. These also carry a second problem worth knowing about: the evidence in a trucking case is destroyed on a federal retention schedule.
- 03Motorcycle crashesA helmet reduces the risk of a skull fracture. It does nothing about the brain moving inside it, and riders are routinely told they were lucky by people looking at an intact helmet.
- 04Bicycle collisionsSame mechanism, less protection, and a driver whose first account of it was given while the cyclist was unconscious on the road.
- 05Struck as a pedestrianTwo impacts as a rule — the vehicle, then the ground — and the second one is frequently the one that injures the brain.
- 06Falls on someone else’s propertyThe leading cause of brain injury in older adults, and the one most often written off on the day as embarrassment. A quiet head strike on a hard floor is a serious mechanism.
- 07Construction and industrial sitesFalls from height, falling objects, struck-by and caught-between. Often a workers’ compensation claim and a claim against somebody who was not your employer.
- 08Children — daycare, school and sportA developing brain injured before it has finished growing, where what was lost only becomes visible years later, as the schoolwork that never arrives.
Case Value
What your claim can actually include
“What is it worth?” is the first question on nearly every call, and on this injury no honest answer comes before it is clear what you are left with.
Economic losses
The half of the claim proved with paper and with expert projection. On a serious brain injury this column is usually the larger of the two, and almost all of it is in the future rather than the past.
Medical treatment already had
Ambulance, emergency department, imaging, admission, surgery, neurology, neuropsychology, and the therapies — cognitive, speech, occupational, vestibular — that follow.
The life care plan
What the next forty years costs, costed: therapy, medication, case management, equipment, supervision, respite and the replacement cycle on all of it. Built by a life care planner, priced by an economist, and the largest single number in a severe case.
Lost earning capacity
Not the wages missed so far, but the difference between the working life you were on course for and the one now available to you. In a young client with a brain injury this routinely dwarfs the medical bills.
Attendant care and household services
Supervision, personal care, and the driving, cooking, book-keeping and childcare that somebody now has to be paid to do — including where the person doing it unpaid is a spouse who gave up their own job.
Home, vehicle and technology
Ramps, bathroom modification, a vehicle that can be transferred into, and the assistive and reminder technology that keeps somebody living semi-independently.
Non-economic losses
The half no invoice arrives for, and on this injury the half that is hardest to convey and easiest to undervalue. It is proved by the people who live with the person, not by the person.
Physical pain and suffering
Headache, vertigo, nausea, photophobia and the procedures gone through, over the years they actually run rather than the weeks an adjuster budgets for.
Mental anguish
Frustration, fear, grief for the self that is gone, and the anxiety of not trusting your own memory. Frequently the dominant complaint in a mild injury.
Physical impairment
What is now out of reach: driving, working, reading a book, following a film, managing a household, being left alone with your own children.
Disfigurement
Scarring, craniotomy defects and hardware, valued separately from the surgery that caused or repaired them.
Loss of consortium
A claim belonging to the spouse for what the injury took out of the marriage — and, where a parent is seriously and permanently injured, Texas also recognises a claim by their children.
Texas Law
Four clocks, and everybody has heard of one
Which deadline applies to you depends on how the injury happened and who caused it. The two-year rule is the one everybody has heard of.
Written notice to a city, county, school district or DART
6 months
Deadline to file suit — ordinary claim or medical
2 years
A child’s own claim
tolled to adulthood
A record of who you were before the injury
no rule
Two years to file
Texas gives you two years from the date of the injury to file suit in most cases.
Six months, or less, against a public body
A claim against a city, a county, the State, a school district or a transit authority requires formal written notice within six months, and a city may shorten that by charter.
A brain injury caused by medical care is a different claim
Where the injury came from a surgical error, a delayed diagnosis, an anaesthetic or obstetric emergency or a birth injury, it is a health care liability claim under Chapter 74 and the rules change entirely: sixty days’ written notice before suit, an expert report served within 120 days of each defendant’s answer or the claim is dismissed, a statutory cap on non-economic damages, and an outer limit of ten years whatever else is true.
A child’s claim runs on its own clock
Limitations are generally tolled during childhood, so a young person’s own claim can be brought after they turn eighteen.
When the injured person cannot run the case themselves
A severe brain injury raises a question most claims never reach: who signs. A claim for a child or for an adult who lacks capacity is brought by a next friend or a guardian, and a settlement generally needs court approval, frequently with a guardian ad litem appointed to look at the deal on the injured person’s behalf.
Your share of the blame comes off the top
Texas applies modified comparative fault. If you are found partly responsible your recovery is reduced by your percentage, and at more than 50% you recover nothing at all.
What To Do
The six things that matter now
In order, and written for somebody who is tired, sore and finding it hard to hold a list in their head.
- 01
Be seen, and say your head was involved
Even without a blackout, even if you walked away, even a week later. Tell the doctor your head struck something or that it was thrown about, and describe what has changed since — not just the headache.
- 02
Write the symptoms down, daily, from now
A note on your phone is enough: what happened today, what you could not do, what you had to stop doing, how long it took to recover from an ordinary errand. Date each one.
- 03
Have somebody else come to appointments
A partner, a parent, a friend. They will hear what you cannot hold on to, they will notice what you are under-reporting, and they become the witness who can describe the change from outside.
- 04
Ask for the referral you have not been offered
Emergency departments discharge people with a head injury leaflet and no follow-up. If symptoms are still there after a fortnight, ask specifically to be referred to a neurologist or a neuropsychologist, and say the words “post-concussive symptoms”.
- 05
Give no recorded statement, and be careful what you post
Do not do a recorded interview with the other side’s adjuster, and do not sign a broad medical authorisation — those open your whole history to them, which on this injury is precisely what they want.
- 06
Ring before the record thins out
The vehicle gets repaired or salvaged, the scene video is overwritten, the witnesses move, the helmet gets thrown away, and every week that passes without treatment is a week the file cannot account for.
The Process
What happens when you call us
If you have never worked with a lawyer before you may feel overwhelmed, or a little suspicious.
- 01
Free case review
You ring or message. We ask how it happened, what your head did, what you have been told since, and what has changed at home and at work.
- 02
We get you in front of the right people
Neurology, neuropsychology, vestibular and cognitive therapy — on a letter of protection where there is no insurance, so treatment starts now and is paid for out of the recovery.
- 03
We build the before and the after
The records, the testing, the employment and school history, and statements from the people who knew you first. This is the part that answers the normal-scan defence, and it cannot be done at the end.
- 04
We value it properly and we negotiate
A life care plan and an economist where the injury is permanent, every policy identified including your own underinsured cover, and suit filed if the numbers will not move.
- 05
You get paid, and it is explained twice
We go through the settlement line by line, including the liens and what we got reduced, and we do it with whoever helps you keep track of things. Nobody leaves here unclear about what just happened.
Client Reviews
What our clients say about us
Published as they were written, by people this firm represented after somebody else’s negligence hurt them.
Rated five out of five stars
“I was nervous going into this but they made the process so easy as they walked me through it all. They were patient, understanding and considerate through it all and never made me feel unheard.”
Isabel Martinez
Rated five out of five stars
“They were very professional and patient with me, I had a lot of questions and they took the time to call and go over my concerns.”
mariana m
Rated five out of five stars
“They not only were easy to communicate with, get information from and to, they truly cared about me and what I needed. I would not have gone with anyone else.”
LeVaughn Parker
Your Attorney
The lawyer who works your case
This page has promised you a real attorney rather than a call centre several times over. It is only fair to say who that is.
Founder · Trial Attorney
Aaron Genthe
A Texas A&M graduate who went into personal injury straight out of law school, Aaron spent years as a litigator at one of the larger firms in Dallas — long enough to build a reputation as an aggressive and effective attorney, and long enough to watch how easily a client becomes a file number at a firm that size.
He started Genthe Law Firm so that the person you speak to about your injury is the person who tries it. On a brain injury that is not a nicety: the case is won or lost on whether somebody sat with you and your family long enough to understand what is actually different, and that is not a thing an intake script finds out.
- Practising since
- 2015
- Cases handled
- Hundreds, in Dallas and across Texas
- Education
- Texas A&M graduate
- Fee
- Contingency — nothing unless you recover
Questions
Brain injury FAQs
The questions people ask on the first call, answered the way we answer them on the phone.
Do I have a case if I never lost consciousness?
Yes. Most traumatic brain injuries happen without anybody blacking out, and loss of consciousness has not been required for a concussion diagnosis for a long time.
My CT scan was normal but I still feel wrong. Is there anything here?
Very likely, yes, and this is the single most common thing we are asked. A CT in the emergency room is looking for bleeding, swelling and fractures — things that need a surgeon that night. It is not designed to show the diffuse, microscopic injury behind most persistent post-concussive symptoms.
How long do I have to bring a brain injury claim in Texas?
Two years from the date of the injury in most cases. But if a city, a county, the State, a school district or a transit authority is involved, formal written notice is required within six months and sometimes sooner.
What is a brain injury case worth?
Nobody honest gives you a number on the first call. The largest components — future care and lost earning capacity — cannot be valued until it is clear what you are left with, and that takes months of treatment to establish.
The insurance company says the crash was too minor to injure my brain.
This is a standard argument and it is run on the photograph of your bumper rather than on anything about you. Vehicle damage is a poor guide to what happened to an occupant’s head: modern bumper covers are designed to absorb an impact and look undamaged, and a brain is injured by acceleration, not by sheet metal.
Also Handled Here
If your injury happened another way
A brain injury nearly always arrives attached to another kind of claim. These are the ones this firm litigates most often.
- 01Car AccidentsWhere most head injuries come from
- 02Truck AccidentsHigher forces, and evidence on a federal clock
- 03Slip & FallThe leading cause of head injury in older adults
- 04Motorcycle AccidentsAn intact helmet is not an intact brain
- 05Construction AccidentsFalls from height and struck-by injuries
- 06Wrongful DeathWhere a head injury proved fatal
Read more on brain and head injuries
- What’s the Average Traumatic Brain Injury Settlement in Texas?Why the averages mislead
- Post-Concussion Syndrome Settlement Value in TexasWhen symptoms outlast the prognosis
- Average Concussion Settlements in TexasWhat moves the number
- Signs of a Concussion After an AccidentWhat to watch for in the first days
- The Effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries After an AccidentThe long arc of a head injury
- Delayed Injury Symptoms After a Car AccidentWhy you felt fine at the scene
- Medical Treatment Gaps in Texas Injury ClaimsThe argument a hole in the file makes
- Letter of Protection in Texas, ExplainedGetting treatment with no insurance
