A traumatic brain injury is the injury defense doctors are paid to doubt. The scan is often clean, the scar is invisible, and the person who came home from the crash is not the person who left that morning. We build these cases on the medicine first, because that is where they are won. The Vertanous Firm has recovered more than $60 Million for injured Californians, including a $22.6 Million jury verdict for a pedestrian struck on the head by a falling municipal light-pole cap.
The Injury You Cannot See
The medical label "mild traumatic brain injury" describes the moment of injury, a brief loss or alteration of consciousness, not the years that follow. Ask the families. The injury looks like this in daily life:
Here is what most people miss: the injured person is often the last to see it. Adrenaline masks the first days, and pride masks the months after. It is the spouse, the coworker, and the best friend who notice that something changed. If your family says you have not been the same since the crash, that observation is evidence, and we know how to develop it.
Medicine First
Most lawyers order the records and hope. We read them. Tom Vertanous publishes on the medicine behind these cases, and it changes how the case is built from day one: which specialists the client needs, which findings matter, and which gaps the defense will exploit if they are not closed early.
A brain injury case is a team effort, and we assemble the team: treating physicians and neurologists who direct the care, neuropsychologists who measure the deficits, and life-care planners who project what the injury will cost over a lifetime. The demand package the insurance company receives is not a form letter with records stapled to it. It is the case they will face at trial, organized so an adjuster, a defense lawyer, and eventually a jury can follow the medicine to its conclusion.
That is what our clients mean when they say this firm knows the medicine. It is not a slogan. It is the method.
The Defense Playbook
Every serious brain injury case meets the same three arguments. We know them in advance, and we build the answers before the defense opens its mouth.
"The CT scan was clean." Of course it was. Standard CT and MRI imaging often cannot see the diffuse, microscopic damage a concussion causes; those scans exist to find bleeding that needs surgery. A traumatic brain injury is a clinical diagnosis, made by physicians from symptoms, examination, and history. The clean scan proves the client did not need a neurosurgeon. It does not prove the client is fine.
"Everyone recovers in a few weeks." Many people do. Some do not, and months of treating records document exactly which kind of patient our client is. A defense expert's generalization about most people does not survive a treating physician's testimony about this person.
"The plaintiff is exaggerating." This is the quiet accusation underneath every defense medical exam: one doctor, one hour, one conclusion. We answer with weight of evidence. Treating physicians who followed the client for months. Neuropsychological testing, which measures memory, attention, and processing speed objectively and carries built-in validity checks designed to detect exaggeration. And before-and-after witnesses: the supervisor, the coach, the sibling, the spouse, each describing the person before the injury and the person after. Juries believe the people who were there.
Told your injury is "just a concussion"? Get a second opinion on the case.
Free Case ReviewThe Future
In a serious brain injury case, the largest number is usually the one the insurance company hopes you never calculate: the cost of future care. A settlement that ignores it is not a settlement. It is a discount.
We prove future care through life-care planning: a physician-grounded projection of what the injury will require over the client's lifetime, item by item. Follow-up visits with neurology and physical medicine. Diagnostic imaging at intervals. Physical, cognitive, and speech therapy. Medications for headaches, mood, and sleep. Psychological care. And where the injury demands it, help at home, projected across a life expectancy, at real Southern California prices.
The result is a number with receipts behind it, built from treating physician recommendations rather than adjectives, and it changes negotiations. An adjuster can argue with a demand letter. It is much harder to argue with a treatment plan.
How TBIs Happen
A brain does not care what hit it. We see traumatic brain injuries across every kind of case we handle:
Whatever the mechanism, the case is built the same way: medicine first, liability proven with evidence, and a defendant who understands we are prepared to try it.
Damages
No honest lawyer quotes a number at the first call. But the components of a California TBI case are settled, and each one has to be built:
The gap between a discounted settlement and full value is rarely luck. It is preparation the carrier can see.
Find out what your case is actually worth.
Free Case ReviewFor Families
If someone you love took a blow to the head, or a hard jolt without one, here is what to do, in order:
See a doctor, describe every symptom, and do not filter out the "small" ones. Headaches, fog, and irritability belong in the chart, not just the neck pain.
A few lines a day: symptoms, missed work, hard moments. Memory is the injured organ; do not rely on it to document its own injury.
Records drive these cases. A file full of back-pain visits with no mention of memory problems becomes the defense's favorite exhibit.
Performance reviews, transcripts, and old projects prove who the person was. The contrast is the case.
Write down what you have observed, with dates. Before-and-after testimony from the people closest to the injury is some of the strongest evidence we present.
Brain injuries declare themselves over months. A settlement signed before the prognosis is known is priced for the insurance company, not for you.
Generally two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, and far shorter, measured in months, when a public entity may be responsible. Call before you assume you have time.
If we don't win, you don't pay.
The consultation is free. The representation is on contingency. If there is no recovery, you owe no attorney fee.
Questions We Hear Every Week
Yes. Standard CT and MRI scans often miss the diffuse, microscopic damage a concussion causes. A TBI is a clinical diagnosis: physicians make it from your symptoms, your examination, and your history, not from a single image. A normal scan rules out bleeding that needs surgery. It does not rule out a brain injury, and defense arguments that say otherwise do not survive treating-physician testimony.
Headaches that persist, sensitivity to light and noise, memory lapses, trouble finding words, slowed thinking, irritability, anxiety, sleep changes, and personality change. Many people notice little at first because adrenaline masks symptoms, and family members often see the change before the injured person does. If the people who know you best say you have not been the same, take that seriously and tell a doctor.
With the medicine and with the people. Treating physicians who followed you over months carry more weight than a defense doctor who examined you once. Neuropsychological testing measures memory, attention, and processing speed objectively, with built-in validity checks. And before-and-after witnesses, spouses, coworkers, and friends, describe the person you were and the person the injury left behind. Together, that evidence makes the invisible visible.
In an ordinary negligence case, California places no cap on the human damages a jury may award for pain, cognitive loss, and loss of enjoyment of life. Past medical expenses are measured by what was actually paid or incurred under Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal.4th 541. Future care and lost earning capacity are proven with physicians, life-care planning, and economists.
That is common. Adrenaline and shock mask symptoms, and problems with memory, concentration, and mood often surface only when you return to work or school and the demands of normal life expose them. Delayed onset does not mean the injury is not real. It means you should see a doctor now, describe every symptom, and start documenting the change.
Generally two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If a public entity may be responsible, such as a dangerous condition of public property, a written government claim is due on a far shorter timeline, measured in months. Evidence has its own clock too. The earlier we start, the stronger the case.
Nothing out of pocket. We work on contingency: the consultation is free, we advance the costs, and if there is no recovery you owe no attorney fee. That includes the experts a brain injury case requires: we advance the cost of the physicians, neuropsychologists, and life-care planners who prove it.
Client Reviews
Ani A., Glendalevia Yelp"The guy who hit me had a low max coverage. I don't know what magic Vertanous Firm worked, but I got paid for my damages less than a year out from my accident, and was paid three times more than the policy limit."
Tony K., Burbankvia Yelp"Tom is the absolute best. He knows the law and he also knows medicine. One meeting with Tom and he was able to understand the medicine behind my condition and find the appropriate doctors."
Bobby S., Los Angelesvia Yelp"Tom is a straight shooter and he's whip-smart. He treated my case as though it were his own. He has a gift for compassion that sets him apart from other legal professionals."
Where We Work
From our office at 301 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena, we represent brain injury survivors and their families across the San Gabriel Valley and all of Los Angeles County, in English, Armenian, and Farsi.
Contact
Call, text, email, or send a brief message. We respond the same day. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.
