Concussion & TBI Claims

Brain injury lawyer in Salt Lake City and all of Utah

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Who are we?

Salt Lake Injury Law represents people across Utah who suffered traumatic brain injuries in car crashes, falls, and other preventable accidents. We focus heavily on brain injury cases — including the “mild” concussions that insurance companies routinely dismiss — and we work to connect clients with the neurologists, neuropsychologists, and vestibular therapists who can document the injury and guide recovery.

What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is damage to the brain caused by an external force. The force does not have to involve a direct blow to the head. A whiplash-type acceleration-deceleration event — common in rear-end collisions — can cause a brain injury even when the skull never strikes anything.

TBIs are generally classified as mild, moderate, or severe. The labels are misleading. A “mild” TBI, more commonly called a concussion, can produce disabling symptoms that last months or years. The medical term is mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and it accounts for the majority of brain injury claims we handle.

How Brain Injuries Actually Happen: Axonal Shearing

The brain is suspended inside the skull in cerebrospinal fluid. When the head accelerates and then decelerates rapidly — for example, during a rear-end collision or a fall — the brain moves inside the skull at a different rate than the skull itself. This creates rotational and shear forces inside brain tissue.

Brain tissue is not uniform. Gray matter (the cell bodies of neurons) and white matter (the axons that connect them) have different densities. When shear forces pass through the brain, the boundary between gray and white matter experiences mechanical stress. The long, fragile axons that carry signals between neurons can stretch, tear, or rupture. This is called diffuse axonal injury (DAI) or axonal shearing.

Axonal shearing is the mechanism that explains why someone can suffer a real brain injury without losing consciousness, without striking their head, and without any abnormality on a standard CT scan. CT scans are designed to detect bleeding and skull fractures. They are not designed to detect microscopic damage to white matter tracts. This gap between imaging and injury is one of the central battlegrounds in concussion litigation.

After the initial mechanical injury, the brain enters what neurologists call the neurometabolic cascade. Damaged neurons release potassium and glutamate. Calcium floods into cells. Mitochondrial function falters. The brain’s energy demand spikes at the same moment its energy supply drops. This metabolic crisis is why concussion symptoms often worsen in the days following the injury rather than improving immediately.

Neurologic Changes After a Brain Injury:

People who have suffered a TBI frequently describe feeling like a different person. That description is medically accurate. A brain injury changes how the brain processes information, regulates emotion, and manages physical function. Common neurologic changes include the following.

Cognitive Changes

Word-finding difficulty. Slowed processing speed. Trouble holding multiple steps in working memory. Difficulty following conversations in noisy environments. Reading the same paragraph repeatedly without retaining it. Mental fatigue after tasks that previously felt routine. These deficits are often invisible on casual interaction but show up on formal neuropsychological testing.

Vestibular and Oculomotor Dysfunction

The vestibular system (inner ear and brainstem) and the oculomotor system (eye movement control) are frequently disrupted after a TBI. Symptoms include dizziness, vertigo, difficulty tracking moving objects, trouble reading, motion sensitivity, and disorientation in crowded visual environments like grocery stores. Vestibular therapy and neuro-optometric rehabilitation are often necessary.

Autonomic Dysfunction

The autonomic nervous system regulates heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and temperature. After a brain injury, autonomic regulation can fail. Patients may develop dysautonomia, exercise intolerance, orthostatic symptoms (lightheadedness on standing), and cardiovascular irregularities.

Mood and Personality Changes

Damage to the frontal lobes and their connections affects emotional regulation. Irritability, depression, anxiety, and emotional lability are common. Family members often notice these changes before the patient does. These are not psychological reactions to the injury. They are direct neurologic consequences of it.

Sleep Disruption

The brain regulates the sleep-wake cycle. After a TBI, patients commonly experience insomnia, fragmented sleep, non-restorative sleep, or hypersomnia. Sleep dysfunction worsens every other symptom and slows recovery.

Headaches and Sensory Sensitivity

Post-traumatic headaches — often presenting as migraine-type or cervicogenic — are among the most reported symptoms. Photophobia (light sensitivity) and phonophobia (sound sensitivity) frequently accompany them.

Common Causes of TBI in Utah

Auto accidents are responsible for a large share of the brain injury claims our firm handles. Rear-end collisions are particularly likely to cause concussions because of the rapid acceleration-deceleration of the head. The vehicle does not need to be totaled. Low-speed crashes can produce real brain injuries.

Falls account for roughly a third of TBIs nationally, and the proportion is higher among older adults. Slip-and-fall, trip-and-fall, and falls from heights all carry a risk of brain injury. Premises liability claims often involve a property owner’s failure to address a known hazard.

Sports and recreation injuries occur in football, hockey, cycling, skiing, and other contact or high-speed activities — all of which are common in Utah.

Workplace accidents — falls from heights, struck-by-object incidents, and equipment-related events — produce TBIs in construction, manufacturing, and warehousing settings.

Bicycle and pedestrian collisions with motor vehicles frequently cause head injury, and helmet use does not eliminate the risk of concussion.

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Why Insurance Companies Underpay TBI Claims

Brain injury claims are among the most aggressively defended claims in personal injury law. Insurance carriers commonly argue the following. The CT scan was normal, so there is no injury. (CT scans cannot detect axonal shearing.) The client did not lose consciousness, so there is no concussion. (Loss of consciousness is not required for a TBI diagnosis.)

The symptoms are subjective and unverifiable. (Neuropsychological testing produces objective performance data; DTI imaging can show white matter abnormalities.)

The symptoms must be caused by something else — stress, depression, age, a prior injury. (Medical causation analysis addresses each alternative cause.)

Defeating these arguments requires the right medical workup and the right experts. We work to ensure clients see providers who can properly document the injury: neurologists, neuropsychologists, vestibular therapists, neuro-optometrists, and, where appropriate, neuroradiologists who can interpret advanced imaging such as DTI and SWI.

How Salt Lake Injury Law Handles Brain Injury Cases

We do three things in every brain injury case:

First, we connect clients with the right specialists. A primary care visit and a CT scan are not enough to document a concussion. We help clients get to providers who understand TBI. Second, we build the medical narrative. We obtain complete records, work with treating providers to clarify diagnoses and prognoses, and where the case warrants it, retain medical experts to explain the injury to a jury.

Third, we negotiate or litigate. We prepare every case as if it will be tried. That preparation is what produces fair settlements when settlement is possible — and verdicts when it is not.

Damages in a Utah Brain Injury Case

A TBI claim can recover the following categories of damages.

Past and future medical expenses, including specialist care, imaging, therapy, and medication. Past and future lost income and lost earning capacity, including reduced ability to perform a current job or any job. General damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and the cognitive and emotional changes the injury has caused. In wrongful death cases, damages available to surviving family members.

Note: Under the Utah Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Gardner v. Norman, plaintiffs in Utah recover the full amount billed for medical treatment, not the discounted amount paid by health insurance. This change can be material in TBI cases involving extensive specialist care.

Statute of Limitations

In Utah, a personal injury claim arising from a brain injury must generally be filed within four years of the date of the accident. Claims against governmental entities are subject to shorter notice requirements — often one year — and require formal notice of claim. Cases involving minors and certain other circumstances may extend the deadline. Acting early is important. Evidence disappears, witnesses become hard to locate, and medical documentation is more persuasive when it is contemporaneous.

Frequently Asked Questions About Car Accident Lawyers

Is a concussion the same as a traumatic brain injury?

A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury. It is the same category of injury as a moderate or severe TBI — the difference is the degree of damage. The word “mild” describes the initial presentation, not the lasting impact. A mild TBI can produce symptoms that persist for months or years.

Can I have a brain injury if my CT scan was normal?

Yes. A CT scan detects bleeding, swelling, and skull fractures. It does not detect the microscopic axonal damage that causes most concussions. A normal CT scan does not rule out a brain injury.

Do I need to lose consciousness to have a concussion?

No. Most concussions do not involve loss of consciousness. A diagnosis is based on the mechanism of injury and the symptoms, not on whether the person blacked out.

What kind of doctor should I see after a head injury?

Start with a primary care physician or emergency department for any acute concerns. For ongoing concussion symptoms, the providers who typically lead recovery are neurologists, neuropsychologists, vestibular physical therapists, and neuro-optometrists. Salt Lake Injury Law can help connect you with appropriate specialists.

Why do my symptoms feel worse a few days after the accident?

The neurometabolic cascade — the cellular response to the initial injury — peaks in the days following the impact. Symptoms commonly worsen before they improve. Delayed onset of symptoms does not mean the symptoms are not real or not related to the accident.

How long do concussion symptoms last?

Most concussions resolve within several weeks. A meaningful subset develop persistent post-concussion symptoms that last months or longer. The risk of prolonged recovery is higher with prior concussion history, vestibular involvement, and certain demographic factors.

What is the case value of a brain injury claim?

The value depends on the medical evidence, the impact on the client’s life and work, the available insurance coverage, and the strength of liability. Brain injury cases tend to carry higher value than orthopedic-only cases because the consequences are often permanent and pervasive. A specific case value requires evaluation of the specific case.

How much does it cost to hire Salt Lake Injury Law?

We handle brain injury cases on contingency. There is no fee unless we recover for you.

Injured in an accident?

Contact Salt Lake Injury Law for a free consultation about your brain injury claim.

Attorney Jeremiah (“Jerry”) Taylor

TBI & Personal Injury Attorney in salt lake city

Jerry Taylor has been a successful legal litigator and negotiator for more than 15 years. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, Jerry was selected as a Super Lawyer by Mountain States Super Lawyers, an award given to a small percentage of attorneys based on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement.

For five years prior to that, Jerry was selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star. In 2021, Jerry was also named as one of Utah’s Legal Elite, an award given by Utah Business Magazine to attorneys who achieve a high standard of excellence within their field and who maintain a positive reputation for quality, ethics, and client service.

Jerry is an experienced litigator and negotiator. He has handled hundreds of litigation matters and has successfully represented many individuals.

Distinctions:

Mountain States Super Lawyers

Litigation, 2021-2025

Mountain States Super Lawyers Rising Star

Litigation, 2016-2020

Legal Elite

2021

Education:

University of Idaho College of Law

Juris Doctor, Moscow, Idaho, 2008

Brigham Young University

Bachelor of Arts, Communications/Public Relations, 2004

“Life with A TBI Injury Can Be Difficult. Let us make life Easier for you!”

Salt Lake City Personal Injury Lawyers

Our Practice Areas

Car Accidents

Slip and Fall Accidents

Dog Bites

Truck Accidents

Premises Accidents

Motorcycle Accidents

Other Types of Accidents

Talk to a Salt Lake City TBI & Personal Injury Lawyer Today!

If you or a loved one has been injured in a TBI accident or other personal injury incident in Utah, speaking with an experienced attorney can help protect your rights.

Jeremiah Taylor provides strategic guidance, strong advocacy, and a client-centered approach focused on results.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation.

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