Traumatic Brain Injury Claims in Georgia: Pursuing Compensation for Life-Altering Harm

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A traumatic brain injury ranges from a concussion to an injury that leaves permanent physical, cognitive, and emotional disability, and MedlinePlus lists motor vehicle crashes as “the most common cause in young adults” of a closed head injury. In a Georgia claim, the medical course of the injury supplies the evidence for the damages: how its severity was measured, what surgery and rehabilitation followed, and what effects remain. Those facts line up with the items Georgia’s Code lists as economic and noneconomic damages, from the costs of rehabilitation and therapy to loss of earning capacity and loss of enjoyment of life.

What a Traumatic Brain Injury Is

MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine’s consumer health service, defines traumatic brain injury (TBI) as “a sudden injury that causes damage to the brain.” A blow, bump, or jolt to the head causes a closed head injury; an object that penetrates the skull causes a penetrating injury. Symptoms “can be mild, moderate, or severe.” Concussions are a type of mild TBI, while “[m]ore severe TBI can lead to serious physical and psychological symptoms, coma, and even death.” Among the causes of closed head injury, MedlinePlus lists falls, “the most common cause in adults age 65 and older,” and motor vehicle crashes, “the most common cause in young adults.”

How Severity Is Assessed

MedlinePlus describes the steps a provider takes to diagnose a TBI: questions about the symptoms and the details of the injury, a neurologic exam, imaging tests such as a CT scan or MRI, a tool such as the Glasgow coma scale, which measures the ability to open the eyes, speak, and move, and neuropsychological tests to check how the brain is functioning. In a moderate or severe TBI, symptoms can include a headache that gets worse or does not go away, repeated vomiting or nausea, seizures, inability to wake from sleep, a dilated pupil, slurred speech, weakness or numbness in the arms and legs, loss of coordination, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation. Each of these steps can produce a record that documents how serious the injury was.

Treatment and Rehabilitation

For moderate to severe TBI, MedlinePlus states that providers first stabilize the patient, managing blood pressure, pressure inside the skull, and blood and oxygen flow to the brain. Treatment may then include surgery to remove clotted blood, remove damaged or dead brain tissue, repair skull fractures, or relieve pressure; medicines for anxiety, blood clots, seizures, depression, muscle spasms, and alertness; and rehabilitation therapies:

  • physical therapy, “to build physical strength, coordination, and flexibility”;
  • occupational therapy, to learn or relearn daily tasks such as dressing, cooking, and bathing;
  • speech therapy, for speech, communication, and swallowing;
  • psychological counseling, for coping skills, relationships, and emotional well-being;
  • vocational counseling, focused on the ability to return to work and deal with workplace challenges; and
  • cognitive therapy, to improve memory, attention, perception, learning, planning, and judgment.

CDC adds that “[p]eople with a moderate or severe TBI may need ongoing care, such as rehabilitation services, to help with their recovery.”

Lasting Effects

MedlinePlus states that “[s]ome people with TBI may have permanent disabilities,” and that a TBI can also raise the risk of other health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. CDC states that “a person with a moderate or severe TBI may have long-term or life-long effects from the injury.”

How the Effects Become Damages

For purposes of the statute on arguing damages, Georgia’s economic damages include past and future medical expenses, the costs of rehabilitation and therapy, lost wages and income, loss of earning capacity, and the loss of services the injured person can no longer perform, unpaid domestic services among them (OCGA 9-10-184(a)(1)). Its noneconomic damages include physical or emotional pain, anxiety, distress, suffering, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of society, companionship, and consortium (OCGA 9-10-184(a)(2)).

The medical record and the statute meet at specific points. Surgery and rehabilitation are medical expenses and costs of rehabilitation and therapy. Vocational counseling bears on loss of earning capacity. Occupational therapy for dressing, cooking, and bathing bears on the household services the injured person can no longer perform. Anxiety, depression, and a changed ability to remember or plan bear on mental anguish, physical impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life. Where care will continue for years, damages that follow legally and naturally from the injury are not too remote to recover even if they are contingent to some degree (OCGA 51-12-9), and the trier of fact may discount future costs to present value at 5 percent or at another rate it finds appropriate (OCGA 51-12-13(a)).

When the Injured Person Cannot Act

Georgia extends the filing period for some people who cannot act for themselves: a person who is legally incompetent because of intellectual disability or mental illness when the claim accrues gets, once the disability is removed, the same time to sue that others have (OCGA 9-3-90(a)). The statute’s categories are intellectual disability and mental illness; its text does not name brain injury, so whether a particular injured person falls within it turns on those categories.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a concussion a traumatic brain injury?
Yes. MedlinePlus states that “[c]oncussions are a type of mild TBI.”

Who is at greatest risk of a serious TBI?
MedlinePlus states that men “are more likely to get a TBI than women” and “more likely to have serious TBI,” and that adults 65 and older “are at the greatest risk for being hospitalized and dying from a TBI.”

Does a spouse have a separate deadline?
Yes. A spouse’s loss of consortium claim has four years from accrual under Georgia’s filing statute, while the injured person’s own claim has two (OCGA 9-3-33).

  • MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine), “Traumatic Brain Injury”
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Facts About TBI” (Aug. 4, 2025)
  • OCGA 9-10-184(a)(1), (2)
  • OCGA 51-12-9; OCGA 51-12-13(a)
  • OCGA 9-3-90(a); OCGA 9-3-33

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about brain injury claims under Georgia law. It is not medical advice or legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. How a claim is valued and when it must be filed depend on the injury, the evidence, and the specific facts. A person with a brain injury, or a family member, should consult a licensed Georgia attorney promptly about the particular situation.

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