Our client, a professional musician, was crossing the street with his wife when an SUV struck him. The traumatic brain injury that followed didn't just change his health. It changed what he could do for a living.

Our client had built a career as a working musician, the kind of livelihood that depends on fine motor control, focus, and the ability to perform under pressure. He and his wife were simply crossing the street together when an SUV struck him.

The collision left him with a traumatic brain injury. Unlike a broken bone, a brain injury doesn't announce the full scope of what it has taken all at once. In our client's case, it reached into nearly every part of his life, his ability to play music professionally, and his relationships with his wife and family.

An offer like that reflects a common insurance company playbook: value the injury off the initial medical bills and property damage, before the full, longer-term impact on a person's work and relationships becomes undeniable. For a musician whose livelihood depends on his brain functioning the way it always had, $350,000 wasn't close.

We filed suit and built the case around what the injury had actually done, not just the diagnosis, but the specific ways it had taken a professional musician's career and strained his closest relationships. That is a harder case to make than reciting medical bills, and it's the reason the number moved as far as it did.

After intensely advocating for our client's right to full compensation, the case settled for $3,500,000, ten times the insurance company's opening offer.