Biloxi Head & Brain Injury Lawyer
Biloxi workers who hit their heads on a platform, a casino back-of-house stairwell, a shipyard deck, or a jobsite along the Gulf Coast face a decision that most people do not expect to make while still foggy and in pain: whether to handle the claim alone or bring in a lawyer. Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation firm that represents injured workers in Mississippi and Louisiana, including Harrison County and the rest of the Gulf Coast, and a Biloxi head & brain injury lawyer from our team works on claims where the injury is real but the insurer’s story is that it is not.
Head and brain injuries are different from a broken ankle or a torn meniscus. There is often no cast, no visible wound, and a normal-looking CT scan. Meanwhile the worker cannot concentrate, loses words mid-sentence, sleeps badly, gets headaches that end the workday, or finds that light and noise are unbearable. Adjusters read a short emergency room chart that says “head strike, neuro intact, discharged” and treat the file as closed. The fight in these cases is almost always about proving what the first chart did not capture.
Why Biloxi Workers Turn to Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe for Brain and Head Injury Claims
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC serves injured workers across Mississippi and South Louisiana, from Biloxi and the Gulf Coast to Jackson, Hattiesburg, the Delta, and New Orleans. Workers’ compensation is the center of the firm’s practice, not a side matter taken when it happens to walk in. Our attorneys bring over 75 years of combined experience to claims that have been denied, delayed, or cut off, and the firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements for clients. Consultations are free, the firm advances the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we recover benefits for you. Phones are answered 24 hours a day, and we speak Spanish as well as English.
The people behind that work matter on a case that may turn on medical testimony and a long record. Rob Lunsford, Founding Partner, has spent his entire legal career representing injured workers. Partners Brad Baskin and Jennifer Priebe have been recognized by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and The National Trial Lawyers, and the firm was ranked by Best Law Firms for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, in Jackson. Andrew Rueff has successfully tried dozens of jury and bench trials to verdict and regularly appears before the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission. Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher round out the attorney team.
The results reflect serious injury work: $685,000 for a surgical tech with a lower back injury, $600,000 for a construction worker with a complex back injury, $385,000 for a project manager injured when he was struck in his work vehicle, and $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns. Clients describe a team that listens, answers questions, and goes toe to toe with the insurance company. In a brain injury claim, that steady communication counts, because the worker may not be able to keep track of deadlines and paperwork alone.
Head and Brain Injury Situations We See on Gulf Coast Jobsites
- Falls from height or from ladders and scaffolding: Construction, roofing, and post-storm rebuilding work along the coast produce falls where the head takes the first impact. Hard hats reduce skull injuries but do not prevent concussion or the brain’s movement inside the skull.
- Struck-by incidents: Dropped tools, swinging loads, rigging failures, and falling materials hit workers at shipyards, ports, plants, and industrial sites. Insurers sometimes argue the blow was too minor to cause lasting symptoms.
- Vehicle crashes during work: Delivery drivers, truckers, and employees running work errands on I-10, U.S. 90, and I-110 can suffer concussions and more serious brain trauma. A crash caused by another driver may also support a separate injury claim alongside comp benefits.
- Slips and falls in hospitality and healthcare: Casino resort employees, hotel staff, kitchen workers, and nurses fall on wet floors and stairs. A fall onto tile or concrete can cause a concussion even when the worker feels fine at first.
- Post-concussion symptoms: Persistent headaches, dizziness, memory and attention problems, light sensitivity, irritability, and sleep disruption can continue for months. These symptoms are the heart of many disputed claims.
- Traumatic brain injury with cognitive or personality change: Moderate and severe injuries can affect judgment, speech, and emotional control, and may end a worker’s ability to return to the same job.
- Skull fractures, facial and neck injuries that travel with head trauma: A head injury rarely comes alone. Cervical injuries and vision or hearing complaints often accompany it and should be documented together.
- Electrical, chemical, and burn exposures: Industrial settings can cause neurological injury through electrocution or toxic exposure, which raises its own proof problems.
What to Do After a Head Injury at Work in Biloxi
Get medical care first, and tell every provider the injury happened at work and that you struck or jarred your head, even if the focus of the visit seems to be something else. Mention every symptom, including the ones that feel minor: fogginess, trouble finding words, nausea, sensitivity to light. If the emergency room discharges you with a short note, follow up with a primary care doctor or a neurologist as symptoms develop. Gaps in treatment are the first thing insurers point to when they claim an injury was minor or unrelated.
Report the injury to your employer, in writing if you can. In Mississippi, you must give notice of the injury to your employer within 30 days of the accident, and the same 30-day notice rule applies in Louisiana. Do not wait to see whether symptoms clear up. A worker with a concussion may be unreliable about dates and details in the first weeks, so write down what happened as soon as you are able, and ask coworkers who saw the fall or impact for their names and what they saw.
Mississippi gives you two years from the date of injury to file a Petition to Controvert with the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission if no disability benefits have been paid, and the clock can also run from the last payment. Claims are heard by an Administrative Judge, and a decision can be reviewed by the Full Commission on the existing record, not in a new trial. A party can then appeal a final award to the Mississippi Supreme Court within 30 days, and that court often assigns the case to the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Because the appeal rests on the record made before the Commission, the medical evidence you build early is the evidence you live with later.
Be careful with recorded statements and with returning to work before a doctor clears you. Adjusters often call within days, while you are still symptomatic, and ask open-ended questions that become the basis for a denial. You can be polite, give basic facts, and refer detailed questions to your attorney. Keep copies of every medical record, work restriction note, and piece of correspondence from the carrier. If you live in Biloxi but your injury happened on a Louisiana job, different deadlines apply: a formal claim there generally must be filed within one year of the accident, with an extension to three years from the last payment if benefits were paid.
How Insurers Fight Brain Injury Claims and How We Answer
The common defenses are predictable. The carrier says the imaging is normal, so nothing is wrong. It says symptoms are caused by stress, anxiety, or depression rather than the blow. It points to a prior concussion, a sports history, or age-related change and calls the problem pre-existing. It hires a records reviewer or schedules an independent medical examination with a doctor who spends a short visit concluding you have recovered. Mississippi and Louisiana both recognize that a job that aggravates or accelerates an earlier condition can still be compensable, so a prior history is a reason to build the medical record more carefully, not a reason to give up.
What an attorney does here is concrete. We gather the treating physicians’ records and push for appropriate referrals, such as neurology, neuropsychology, and vestibular or vision testing, because standard scans often miss functional injury. We work with treating doctors to document causation in clear terms, collect witness accounts of how the injury happened, and gather work history and coworker or family observations of how you have changed. We prepare you for the independent medical exam, challenge a one-sided report, and put the evidence in front of the Administrative Judge in a form that holds up on appeal.
Wage benefits matter as much as the medical fight. In Mississippi, temporary and permanent total disability benefits are generally paid at two-thirds of your average weekly wage, up to a statutory weekly maximum, and for no longer than 450 weeks. Permanent partial disability in many cases is also capped at 450 weeks. A worker with lasting cognitive or physical limits may be unable to return to the same work, which raises questions about loss of wage-earning capacity that deserve careful proof. Settlements in serious cases usually have to account for future medical care as well as lost income.
Sometimes a third party is responsible, such as a negligent driver, a contractor who left an unsafe site, or a manufacturer of defective equipment. Those claims run alongside workers’ compensation and can reach damages that comp does not, so the two have to be coordinated. Mississippi generally allows three years for most injury lawsuits, though claims against governmental entities have a one-year limit and notice requirements, so it pays to identify any outside party early.
Biloxi Head and Brain Injury Questions Answered
Can I get workers’ compensation for a concussion that does not show up on a scan?
Yes. Compensation depends on whether the work incident caused a medical condition and whether your treating providers document it, not on whether one scan was abnormal. Many concussions and mild brain injuries produce normal CT and MRI results. Neurological exams, neuropsychological testing, and consistent symptom records carry the weight in these claims.
How long do I have to report a head injury to my employer?
Report within 30 days of the accident in Mississippi, and the same 30-day notice rule applies in Louisiana. Report right away if you can, and put it in writing. A late report gives the insurer an easy argument that the injury did not happen at work.
How long do I have to file a claim in Mississippi?
If no disability benefits have been paid, you generally have two years from the date of injury to file a Petition to Controvert with the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission. If benefits were paid, the period can run from the last payment. Because exceptions are fact-specific, speak with a lawyer early.
Does a Biloxi workers’ compensation claim go to court?
Not at first. Mississippi claims are decided by the Workers’ Compensation Commission, which is an administrative body and not a court. Cases are heard by an Administrative Judge, and the Full Commission can review the decision on the existing record. Only after that can a final award be appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
What benefits can I receive after a brain injury?
Reasonable and necessary medical care, wage replacement while you cannot work or work at reduced capacity, and benefits for permanent disability where the injury leaves lasting limits. Mississippi covers workers from the first day of employment, with no waiting period.
The insurance company says my symptoms are from a prior concussion. Is my claim dead?
No. A pre-existing condition does not automatically end a claim. If the job caused, worsened, or accelerated the problem, benefits may still be owed. The key is medical evidence comparing your condition before and after the work injury, including records that show how you functioned before.
Can I be fired for filing a claim after a head injury?
Both Mississippi and Louisiana protect workers from retaliation for filing a compensation claim. If you were disciplined, demoted, or let go after reporting your injury, tell us so we can evaluate it alongside the comp claim.
Should I go to the doctor my employer or insurer sends me to?
Be cautious. A doctor chosen by the carrier may not be the right provider for a cognitive or neurological injury, and a short exam that ends with a full-duty release can damage your claim. Speak with an attorney about your rights regarding choice of physician and about specialist referrals before you rely on a single opinion.
What if a coworker or another driver caused my head injury?
You may have a separate personal injury claim against that outside party in addition to comp benefits. Mississippi uses pure comparative negligence, so your recovery is reduced by your share of fault rather than barred. Louisiana’s rules differ and depend on when the cause of action arose, so the state where the incident occurred matters.
My memory and focus are bad and I keep missing deadlines. How can a lawyer help?
Cognitive symptoms are common after head trauma, and they make it hard to track forms, appointments, and insurer letters. We manage the filing deadlines, communicate with the carrier on your behalf, coordinate your records, and let you concentrate on treatment.
Will my case settle, or will it go to a hearing?
Many claims resolve by negotiated settlement, but the strength of the medical evidence and the willingness to try the case drive the value. Our firm builds each file as if it will be heard by an Administrative Judge, which tends to produce better settlement positions.
Serving Biloxi Brain Injury Clients Across Harrison County and the Gulf Coast
We represent injured workers in Biloxi and across Harrison County, including Gulfport, D’Iberville, Long Beach, Pass Christian, and Diamondhead in neighboring Hancock County. Our reach extends to the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, including Ocean Springs, Gautier, Pascagoula, Moss Point, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland, and inland to Hattiesburg and the Pine Belt. We also serve workers in Jackson, Madison, Southaven, and the Delta, as well as north Mississippi. Across the state line, we represent clients in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport, and throughout South Louisiana and north Louisiana. Whether the injury happened at a shipyard, a casino resort, a construction site, or on the road between jobs, the same attention to medical proof applies.
Talk With a Biloxi Head Injury Attorney About Your Claim
If you are dealing with a head or brain injury from work, a Biloxi head injury attorney at Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe can review what happened, explain the deadlines that apply, and tell you what the evidence needs to show. Call us at any hour. Consultations are free, we advance the costs, and you owe no fee unless we recover benefits for you. We help injured workers, and that is all we do.
