Los Angeles Brain Injury Lawyer

We build traumatic brain injury claims around medical documentation and lifetime cost, because insurers across Los Angeles still price a head injury as though the symptoms end when the emergency room discharges you.

Justice for Los Angeles Injury Victims

When "You Seem Fine" Becomes the Insurance Company's Argument

You left the hospital with a clean scan and the word concussion on your paperwork. Weeks later you are losing words mid-sentence, sleeping badly, and snapping at the people closest to you. That gap between what the imaging showed and what your life actually looks like is where most brain injury claims are won or lost.


CDC guidance on concussion symptoms explains that some appear immediately while others may not show up for hours or days, and that they shift during recovery, with mood changes or sleep problems surfacing a week or two after the injury. A normal CT scan does not rule out a closed head injury. It rules out bleeding.


The federal numbers make the same point from a different direction. CDC counts roughly 214,110 TBI-related hospitalizations in a single year and 68,663 TBI-related deaths, and states plainly that those totals leave out every brain injury treated only in an emergency department, an urgent care, a primary care office, or not at all.


That excluded group is where most of our clients start. As a traumatic brain injury attorney working these cases in Los Angeles, our job is to move you out of it and onto the record.

What a Los Angeles TBI Claim Actually Has to Establish

California negligence law is the frame. Civil Code §1714 makes everyone responsible for injuries caused by a want of ordinary care, and CACI 400, the jury instruction for negligence, breaks that into four things a brain injury case has to carry.

Duty

The driver, property owner, or business had a legal obligation to use reasonable care in the circumstances that led to your head injury.

Breach

They failed to meet it. Speeding on a crowded freeway, running a light, leaving a hazard in place, ignoring a known danger.

Causation

Their conduct was a substantial factor in causing the injury. In a closed head injury claim this is usually the contested element, because the defense will argue your symptoms come from stress, aging, a prior concussion, or nothing at all.

Damages

The injury cost you something measurable. Medical care, earnings, capacity, independence.

Causation is where a TBI lawyer in Los Angeles earns the fee. We work with treating physicians, neurologists, and neuropsychologists to build a record that connects the mechanism of injury to the deficits you are living with, and we do it early, while the timeline is still clean.


Deadlines matter here more than most people expect. Code of Civil Procedure §335.1 gives you two years from the date of injury to file, and a claim against a public entity such as the City of Los Angeles or Metro generally has to be presented within six months.

Where Head Injuries Happen Across Los Angeles

Los Angeles produces a specific mix of brain injury cases, and knowing the setting changes how the claim gets built.


  • High-speed collisions on the 101, the 405, and the 10, where sudden deceleration causes the brain to move inside the skull even without direct impact.
  • Surface street and intersection crashes, including rear-end collisions in stop-and-go traffic that the defense will characterize as minor because the vehicle damage was.
  • Falls on unsafe property in stores, apartment buildings, parking structures, and on broken sidewalks.
  • Pedestrian and cyclist impacts, which carry the highest rate of serious head trauma of any collision type we handle.
  • Assaults and negligent security incidents at bars, venues, and commercial properties.


Most Los Angeles injury suits are filed through Los Angeles County Superior Court, and our firm handles the filings and appearances so you are not making trips downtown while you are still recovering. If you are weighing catastrophic injury lawyer options across the city, our guide to the best personal injury law firms in Los Angeles lays out how to compare firms on track record, communication, and fee structure.


Where the injury happened outside the city proper, we cover those areas separately. Head injuries in the nightlife corridor are addressed in our West Hollywood brain injury coverage, and freeway and shared-property claims to the south are addressed in our Orange County brain injury coverage.

What a Brain Injury Costs After the Medical Bills Stop

California law allows recovery for the full long-term impact of a brain injury, not just the treatment already on paper. That is the difference between a settlement that covers your ER visit and one that accounts for the next thirty years.


  • Ongoing neurological care, cognitive rehabilitation, and medication
  • Lost wages during recovery and reduced earning capacity if you cannot return to the same work
  • The cost of help you now need at home, from childcare to case management
  • Pain, cognitive loss, personality change, and the effect on your relationships
  • Future care needs projected across your lifetime rather than the current billing cycle


Our traumatic brain injury practice explains how California structures these claims statewide, and our Los Angeles personal injury team covers the other case types we handle across the county.


You Work With the Attorney Handling Your Case

Hakakian Law Group is a personal injury firm headquartered on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, founded by Shawn S. Hakakian, Esq. around one idea: clients are treated like family, and they talk to their lawyer. One of our attorneys spent the early part of his career defending insurance companies, which means we know how a head injury claim gets valued on the other side of the table before the first adjuster call.


We take these cases on contingency. There is no cost to start building your case and no fee unless we recover for you.

  • How much is a brain injury lawsuit worth in Los Angeles?

    There is no honest average, and any firm quoting one is guessing. Value turns on the severity and permanence of the cognitive deficits, how well the injury is documented in your medical records, your age and earning history, the available insurance coverage, and whether liability is contested. We will give you a range once we have your records and know what coverage exists.

  • Can I sue for a traumatic brain injury in California?

    Yes, if someone else's negligence caused it. Civil Code §1714 makes a person or business responsible for injuries caused by a failure to use ordinary care, and you generally have two years from the date of injury to file under Code of Civil Procedure §335.1. Claims against a city, county, or transit agency carry a much shorter six-month presentation deadline.

  • What should I do after a head injury in a car accident in LA?

    Get evaluated the same day even if you feel functional, and say specifically that you hit your head or were jolted. Then start a symptom log covering headaches, memory, concentration, mood, and sleep, because that record often carries more weight than the initial imaging. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer before you have been fully assessed.

  • Who is the best brain injury lawyer in LA?

    The right question is who will actually work your file. Ask whether the attorney you meet is the one handling the case, whether they have taken head injury claims through litigation rather than settling early, and how they plan to prove long-term cognitive harm. Our guide to choosing a Los Angeles injury firm walks through the criteria worth weighing.

  • Do I still have a case if the ER told me I was fine?

    Often, yes. Emergency imaging is designed to catch bleeding and skull fracture, not the diffuse injury behind most lasting concussion symptoms. What matters is getting a follow-up evaluation with a physician who takes the cognitive complaints seriously and documenting the timeline from the day of the injury forward.

Los Angeles Brain Injury Questions We Hear Most

Talk to a Lawyer Before You Talk to the Adjuster

If your thinking, memory, or mood has not been right since the injury, that is worth a conversation, no matter how the hospital paperwork reads. We will review what happened, tell you honestly whether there is a claim worth pursuing, and handle every insurance contact from that point on. The consultation is free and there is no fee unless we win.

Content Reviewed By:

Shawn S. Hakakian, Esq., founder of Hakakian Law Group, PC, a Penn Law graduate and former Gibson Dunn attorney, National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 honoree, Avvo Clients' Choice Award recipient, and member of CAALA and the Consumer Attorneys of California. CA Bar No. 342841.