A brain injury is the one serious injury that frequently leaves no mark on the record it is going to be judged by. Somebody is dazed at the scene, declines the ambulance, gets a scan two days later that comes back clear, and goes back to work. The sleep goes first, then the temper, then the ability to hold a conversation in a noisy room. By the time anyone connects those to the crash, the file says a doctor looked and found nothing.
Emergency imaging is answering the emergency question, and the insurer uses the answer for a different one. A scan in a Bakersfield emergency room is looking for bleeding and swelling that need treating in the next hour. A clear result means that was not happening. It is not a finding that your thinking, memory and sleep are unaffected, and nobody in the emergency room said it was. The gap between what was tested and what gets claimed from it is where most of these cases are lost.
Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting for injured people in California. We work on contingency, we advance the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we win. If there is no recovery, you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour, including tonight.
If a Public Entity Is Involved, the Deadline Can Be Extended
This is the part of a brain injury claim that most pages never reach, and it is the one that saves cases.
A claim against a public entity normally has to be presented in writing within six months under Government Code 911.2. In Bakersfield that reaches the transit district, school districts, the city, the county and Caltrans on Highway 99, Interstate 5 and State Route 58. Six months is a difficult deadline for somebody who spent part of it in the hospital, and the law recognizes that.
Under Government Code 911.6, the board shall grant an application to present a late claim where “the person who sustained the alleged injury, damage, or loss was physically or mentally incapacitated during all of the time specified in Section 911.2 for the presentation of the claim and by reason of that disability failed to present a claim during that time.”
Two further grounds matter here and are easy to miss, because they are the ones most people actually fall under. Government Code 911.6(b) also requires the application to be granted where the injured person was a minor for any part of the six months, or was physically or mentally incapacitated for any part of it, provided the application is made within six months of them turning eighteen or of the incapacity ending, or a year after the claim accrued, whichever comes first.
Shall, not may. Where that ground is made out the relief is mandatory rather than discretionary.
There is a hard outer limit and it is the part to act on. Government Code 911.4 requires the application to be presented “within a reasonable time not to exceed one year after the accrual of the cause of action”. So a missed six-month deadline is recoverable, and the recovery route closes for good at twelve months. A family that assumes the claim died at six months, and a family that assumes there is no rush because there is an extension, both lose it the same way.
The same section also covers a claimant who was a minor for all of the six-month period.
Were you told the scan was normal?
That answers what the emergency room was looking for. It is not a finding about how you think, sleep or remember.
What These Cases Are Actually Built On
Not the scan. The scan is one document among many, and on a mild or moderate injury it is usually the least informative one.
The people who knew you before. A partner, a parent, a supervisor or a colleague describing what changed is frequently the strongest evidence in the case, because it is specific and it is not retrospective self-report. Somebody who can say you used to run the schedule and now keep a written list is describing an injury.
The employment record. Reduced hours, a change of duties, more errors, a move to less demanding work. These document a loss of earning capacity that is separate from lost wages and is usually much larger.
Neuropsychological assessment, where it is indicated, which measures function rather than structure and therefore looks at the thing the emergency scan was not looking at.
The gap in treatment, which cuts against you. The single most reliable argument an insurer makes is that somebody who waited three weeks to see anyone could not have been badly hurt. Where symptoms were the reason for the delay, that has to be documented rather than explained later.
Where a Bakersfield Brain Injury Case Comes From
The mechanism matters because it decides who the defendant is and which deadline applies.
Vehicle crashes are the largest source, and a head injury is often the part of a car accident claim that nobody recorded on the day. Riders and people on foot are exposed differently: a motorcycle rider and a pedestrian have nothing between them and the vehicle.
A fall on someone else’s property produces the same injury and runs against a different defendant, which makes it a premises claim, and where the property is public the six-month rule above applies.
On a site or in a warehouse a head injury may sit alongside a workers compensation claim without being covered by it, because workers compensation does not pay for pain and suffering.
Where an injury is fatal, the family’s claim is a wrongful death claim and the rules on who may bring it are stricter than most people expect.
How Long Do I Have to File?
Two years from the date of injury for most claims, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months to present a written claim to a public entity, under Government Code 911.2, with the late-claim route above where incapacity prevented it, and a one-year outer limit on that route.
Injured children. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while an injured person is under 18.
Did the six months run out while you were in the hospital?
Where incapacity caused it, late relief is mandatory rather than discretionary. It closes for good at one year.
Where the Records Are, and Why That Decides the Case
A brain injury claim is built almost entirely out of records made by other people, mostly in the first hours, and where the ambulance took you decides who holds them.
The most serious injuries in this county go to Kern Medical, 1700 Mount Vernon Avenue, a Level II trauma center designated in 2001 and re-verified by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. Ridgecrest Regional was designated Level IV in 2016 and covers the east of the county.
The documents that matter are not the discharge summary. They are the trauma activation record, which captures how the team graded the patient on arrival, the imaging and the radiologist’s own report rather than the sentence somebody read to you, and the first responder narrative, which is often the only account of how the head was struck and whether consciousness was lost. Those three come from different custodians and are requested separately, and none of them is in the packet an insurer asks you to sign a release for.
The police report is a separate errand. For a collision on a city street inside Bakersfield it comes from the Bakersfield Police Department Records Unit at 1601 Truxtun Avenue, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at a flat $7, on (661) 326-3883. The department says injury and fatal collision investigations take several days to weeks, so on this page in particular the report is usually the last document to arrive rather than the first.
Where the family is the one collecting all this, which is common when the injured person cannot, the practical advice is to start a single file and keep everything, including the ambulance paperwork and any note about behavior or memory in the days afterwards. Contemporaneous observations by people who know the person are evidence, and nobody else is going to make them.
Where Will a Bakersfield Brain Injury Case Be Heard?
At the Metro Justice Building, 1215 Truxtun Avenue. A brain injury claim is an unlimited civil case by definition, meaning damages sought above $35,000, and it is heard in Kern County before a Kern County jury.
That venue matters more here than on most pages, because the damages in a brain injury case are argued rather than invoiced. A jury is being asked to value a change in somebody that does not appear on a scan, and how that argument is built for a local panel is a large part of the case.
Why Bakersfield Clients Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to drive, or a long way out in the county, we will meet you where you are. Somebody recovering from a head injury should not have to organize travel to start a claim.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean. Explaining your own accident in your own words is not a convenience.
The economics are simple. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Bakersfield Brain Injury FAQs
The emergency room said my scan was clear. Does that end my claim?
No. A scan in an emergency room is looking for bleeding and swelling that need immediate treatment, and a clear result answers that question. Insurers routinely present it as an answer to a much wider question about whether you were injured at all, which is not what was tested and not what anyone in the emergency room said.
I missed the six-month government deadline because I was in the hospital. Is it over?
Not necessarily, and this is the most useful thing on this page. Government Code 911.6(b)(4) says the board shall grant an application to present a late claim where the injured person was physically or mentally incapacitated for the whole of the six-month period and failed to present a claim because of it. The relief is mandatory on that ground. But Government Code 911.4 caps the application at one year from when the claim accrued, so the route closes permanently at twelve months.
My family says I have changed but my scans are normal. Is that a case?
It can be. What people who knew you before can describe about your memory, temper, sleep and capacity for work is evidence, and on this kind of injury it is often the strongest evidence available. Employment records showing reduced hours or changed duties do similar work.
How is a brain injury claim valued?
Mostly on lost earning capacity and future care rather than on bills already paid, because the lasting cost of this injury is what you can no longer do. That is a separate item from lost wages and it is usually the largest number in the case.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either.
How long do brain injury cases take to settle?
Longer than most claims, and the reason is medical rather than tactical. The value of the case turns on what the lasting effects are, and that is not known early. Settling while recovery is still changing means settling on a guess, and a settlement cannot be reopened when the guess turns out low. The two-year deadline usually leaves room for that, but where a public entity is involved the six-month written claim still has to be presented early regardless of how the recovery is going, which is the one thing that genuinely cannot wait.
The scan came back normal. Does that mean there is no brain injury?
No, and this is the most common reason a real claim gets abandoned early. Emergency imaging is looking for the things that need treating in the next hour, principally bleeding and swelling. A normal result answers that question. It is not designed to rule out the diffuse damage that shows up later as trouble with memory, concentration, sleep, mood and tolerance for noise. What proves those is the record built over the following weeks, together with what the people around you noticed, which is why the observations family members make in the first month are worth writing down at the time rather than recalling later.
Contact a Culver Legal Bakersfield Brain Injury Lawyer
If a public entity is anywhere in what happened, the useful window is six months, and the rescue for a missed one closes at twelve. If you or someone in your family was hurt in Bakersfield or Kern County and things have not been right since, reach us at (310) 600-7881, at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
