Alexandria head injuries come off I-49 and US-71, where a high-speed rear-end hit does the kind of deceleration damage that never shows on the outside of the car. The ambulance goes to Rapides Regional Medical Center on 4th Street, the Level II trauma center, or to CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini on Masonic Drive. The Alexandria Police Department writes the report for a wreck inside the city, and the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office writes it for the rest of the parish. A Rapides Parish suit is filed in the 9th Judicial District Court at 701 Murray Street. Trey Morris Injury Lawyers pulls that report, requests the emergency department chart with the initial GCS score, and puts the other driver’s insurer on notice to preserve the vehicle data. That letter goes out once there is a sound basis for sending it, because moving as early as the law permits is what keeps the proof intact. The event data in each vehicle records speed and braking at impact, and it ties the force of the crash to a brain injury that standard imaging can miss.
The law on that claim is Louisiana law and does not change from parish to parish. A Rapides Parish brain injury is a two-year claim under La. C.C. Art. 3493.1, and for accidents on or after January 1, 2026 a 51% fault finding under Art. 2323 ends the claim. We build the TBI file from imaging and neuropsychological proof so an insurer cannot treat an invisible injury as a short-term concussion. Our Louisiana brain injury lawyers page covers the medicine and the law in more depth.
TBI Classification and the Glasgow Coma Scale
TBI
Traumatic Brain Injury. A disruption of normal brain function caused by an external force, including a bump, blow, jolt, or penetrating injury. TBI ranges from mild (concussion) to severe (extended unconsciousness or coma).
GCS
Glasgow Coma Scale. A standardized neurological scoring tool that measures eye opening (1-4), verbal response (1-5), and motor response (1-6) for a total of 3 to 15. Lower scores indicate more severe brain injury.
Doctors classify TBI as mild, moderate, or severe using the GCS. Scores of 13 to 15 indicate mild TBI. Scores of 9 to 12 indicate moderate TBI. Scores of 3 to 8 indicate severe TBI.
This classification happens at the accident scene and in the emergency department. EMS personnel document the GCS score in the ambulance run report. That number becomes the baseline evidence of injury severity.
Mild TBI, including concussion, often shows no abnormality on a standard CT or MRI. Insurance adjusters point to a clean scan and argue the injury is minor. That argument is wrong, but it takes expert evidence to counter. Moderate TBI typically involves loss of consciousness lasting 30 minutes to 24 hours and produces findings on advanced imaging. Severe TBI involves a GCS score of 3 to 8, often extended unconsciousness, and carries a high probability of permanent impairment.
Trey Morris Injury Lawyers works with neuroradiologists who review raw DICOM imaging files, not just the written radiology report. That review often finds missed findings.
Serving Alexandria
Served from our Lake Charles office -- serving all of Rapides Parish. No trip required: an attorney comes to you in Alexandria, at home or at the hospital, or meets by video.
4865 Ihles Road
Lake Charles, LA 70605
Open 24/7 for injured Alexandria residents
Get directions →How Do Traumatic Brain Injuries Happen in Rapides Parish?
Motor vehicle crashes are the second leading cause of non-fatal traumatic brain injuries in Louisiana. State data documents 2,490 emergency department visits and 742 hospitalizations from traffic-related TBIs in a single year. 26% of vehicle crash hospitalizations in Louisiana involve a traumatic brain injury.
In Rapides Parish, I-49 and US-71 carry significant traffic volume. High-speed rear-end collisions on these corridors produce the rapid deceleration forces that cause brain injuries. Rollover crashes generate the rotational forces behind diffuse axonal injury. Falls, workplace incidents at industrial facilities, and pedestrian accidents cause brain injuries as well.
The mechanism of injury matters legally. Your attorney must connect the forces documented in the crash investigation to the biological mechanism of your brain injury. That connection is the causation link the jury must understand. Alexandria car accident lawyers and Alexandria truck accident lawyers at Trey Morris Injury Lawyers handle the most common TBI-producing crash types in this market.
Coup-Contrecoup Injuries and Diffuse Axonal Injury
Standard CT scans miss two of the most common and serious TBI injury patterns: coup-contrecoup and diffuse axonal injury.
Coup-contrecoup
A brain injury pattern where the brain bounces inside the skull. The coup injury occurs at the site of impact. The contrecoup injury occurs on the opposite side of the brain, where it rebounds against the skull. Both injury sites require documentation.
Coup-contrecoup injuries occur when a vehicle stops suddenly and the brain continues moving inside the skull. One crash can produce two distinct injury zones.
DAI
Diffuse Axonal Injury. An injury pattern where axons (the connecting fibers between brain cells) shear and stretch across multiple brain regions due to rotational acceleration. DAI often does not appear on standard CT scans and requires advanced imaging to document.
DAI is the other commonly missed pattern. Rotational forces in rollover crashes or T-bone impacts stretch and tear the axons connecting different brain regions. A standard CT scan typically looks normal. The person can still have profound cognitive deficits.
Documenting DAI requires diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) or susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI). Some neuroradiologists also detect microhemorrhages on susceptibility sequences that standard reads miss.
Long-Term Consequences of Moderate and Severe TBI
Cognitive impairment, personality changes, seizure disorder, and chronic headache are the most common long-term outcomes after moderate or severe TBI. These are not temporary symptoms. They define what the rest of a survivor’s life looks like.
Cognitive impairment is one of the most common long-term outcomes. Memory loss, slowed processing speed, and deficits in executive function affect the ability to work, manage finances, and sustain relationships. These deficits are measurable through neuropsychological testing.
Personality and behavioral changes are often more disabling than physical symptoms. Impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, depression, and anxiety emerge after TBI at rates that are significantly higher than the general population. Families adjust to someone who is not the same person they knew before the accident.
Post-traumatic seizure disorder develops in 5 to 10% of closed-head TBI patients. It requires ongoing neurological management, medication, and driving restrictions that further limit independence. Post-traumatic headache is the most common persistent symptom after mild TBI. When it lasts beyond three months, it is classified as chronic post-traumatic headache and may require long-term specialist care.
Many TBI survivors cannot return to their prior employment level. A vocational expert documents the earning capacity reduction by analyzing the documented cognitive deficits against occupational requirements. For severe TBI, life expectancy may be shortened, which affects how the life care plan is structured. Trey Morris Injury Lawyers retains life care planners certified in catastrophic injury assessment to project needs over the adjusted life expectancy of each specific client.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes; each case is decided on its own facts. See our full case results.
The Medical Experts Who Build Your TBI Case
A TBI case is built on expert testimony. The medical evidence does not organize or present itself. Here is who builds it.
The neurologist is the medical foundation of the claim. They document the injury, interpret imaging studies, and provide the causation opinion that connects the accident to the brain injury. Without a clear neurological causation opinion, the defense challenges every connection in the claim.
neuropsychologist
A licensed psychologist who specializes in the relationship between brain function and behavior. In TBI cases, neuropsychologists administer standardized cognitive tests to document deficits in memory, processing speed, attention, and executive function. Test results are objective, but the judge decides under La. C.E. art. 702 whether the expert’s opinion comes into evidence, and the defense can challenge it.
Common tests include the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Subjective complaints become measurable scores.
life care planner
A certified professional who projects all future medical and support needs for a catastrophically injured person. The plan covers rehabilitation, medications, equipment, in-home care, and therapy over the person’s remaining life expectancy and is converted to a present-value dollar figure by an economist.
For a severe TBI, this document can support a claim in the millions. The Louisiana Department of Health provides rehabilitation resources in Rapides Parish, but private rehabilitation needs often exceed what public programs cover.
loss of earning capacity
The difference between what a person could have earned over their working life before the injury and what they can earn after it. This is not the same as lost wages. It is the permanent reduction in lifetime earning potential, calculated by a vocational expert and converted to present value by an economist.
The vocational expert calculates loss of earning capacity by comparing pre-injury work capacity against post-injury limitations documented by the neuropsychologist.
The defense will retain an IME (independent medical examination) physician to challenge your injuries. That examiner is paid by the insurance company. Your attorney should review the IME findings before any deposition and prepare your treating physicians to respond to specific IME criticisms.
Your Alexandria Injury Attorneys
Founder Trey Morris leads every injury case the firm takes.
Rapides Regional Medical Center and the Trauma System
Rapides Regional Medical Center is a Level II trauma center in Alexandria. Level II designation means the facility is capable of providing definitive care for most traumatic brain injury patients. Neurosurgical coverage is available 24 hours a day.
Complex cases requiring specialized neuro critical care may transfer to LSU Health Shreveport. That transfer creates additional medical records that document the severity of the injury and the level of care required.
Your medical records from Rapides Regional are central to your case. Emergency department records contain the initial GCS score. Neurosurgical operative notes document any interventions. ICU flow sheets track neurological status over time. Obtain these records as soon as possible. The treatment timeline builds the severity narrative that your experts reinforce.
At Trey Morris Injury Lawyers, record preservation is part of building every case. Delays in record collection create gaps that the defense exploits.
What Louisiana Law Allows You to Recover After a TBI
Louisiana law divides recoverable damages into two categories.
Economic damages include past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and loss of earning capacity. La. R.S. 9:2800.27 changed how medical damages are calculated. In lawsuits filed on or after January 1, 2026, when health insurance or Medicare paid an in-network provider for your past care, those bills are limited to what was actually paid plus the deductibles, co-pays, coinsurance and other cost sharing you paid or still owe, not the billed amount. Bills Medicaid paid are limited the same way, to what Medicaid paid plus your share. Bills that none of these paid, including an uninsured person’s bills, count at what was paid plus what is still owed.
Non-economic damages cover pain and suffering, mental anguish, cognitive impairment, personality changes, and loss of enjoyment of life. Louisiana imposes no cap on personal injury non-economic damages, except claims against public bodies and medical malpractice claims. Claims against a public body are capped: total damages other than medical care, lost earnings, and property damage cannot exceed $500,000 per injured person (La. R.S. 13:5106(B)). Medical malpractice recovery against qualified health care providers is capped at $500,000 plus interest and costs, excluding future medical care (La. R.S. 40:1231.2). Lifetime TBI care costs in Louisiana can reach $3 million. Your non-economic damages may add significantly to that economic foundation.
loss of consortium
A claim by the injured person’s close family for the loss of companionship, affection, and support caused by the injured person’s condition. It is a separate damage category from the injured person’s own claim.
Your close family may bring its own loss of consortium claim under La. C.C. Art. 2315. That claim belongs to the same relatives who could bring a wrongful death claim: your spouse and children first, then your parents if you have no spouse or child, then your brothers and sisters, then your grandparents.
Comparative Fault
A legal rule that reduces your recovery by your percentage of fault.
Under La. C.C. Art. 2323, for an accident on or after January 1, 2026, you recover nothing if you are 51% or more at fault, and below that your damages are reduced by your share. For an earlier accident, fault reduces but never bars recovery. Insurance adjusters use comparative fault as a primary defense strategy. Trey Morris Injury Lawyers addresses fault allocation by preserving crash scene evidence and retaining accident reconstruction experts.
What clients say
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Where should I start!?
Trey Morris Injury Law Firm was a great fit for me! During this wild time of getting into a car wreck, dealing with insurance, and other third parties, Mrs. Brooke and Mrs. Nerren were extremely helpful! They were there for me through the whole process and never once did I doubt their professionalism. They will fight tooth and nail for you and get you what you deserve. I would recommend them to anyone.
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Trey Morris what a great experience if I ever have to suggest a lawyer's office Morris is my first choice will be suggesting to friends and family
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Very professional and very easy to work with throughout the whole case!
Lane and Men helped make the whole process go smonthly with no stress
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Great experience overall.
Seth and Jessica were always there to help and I could tell they truly had my best interest in mind. I was overwhelmed after my incident and they walked me through every step of the way and provided a lot of relief.
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I hired [Trey Morris Injury Lawyers] to represent me with my case.
Mr. Lane Robinson, Jessica, and Yadira has been with me every step of the way, making sure I received the proper care I needed to get well. They always called emailed and text to make sure I was doing OK. I would recommend the firm to anyone. They have an amazing team. I couldn’t have made a better choice. Thank you all for everything you have done for me and my family.
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I just want to express how pleased I am with [Trey Morris Injury Lawyers].
Their caring team made a huge difference in my experience. From the moment I reached out, they were attentive and supportive, guiding me through every step of the process. They truly took the time to listen to my concerns and made me feel valued as a client. I highly recommend their services to anyone in need of a compassionate and dedicated legal team!
Testimonials do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Filing Deadlines and the 9th Judicial District Court
Prescriptive Period
Louisiana’s term for statute of limitations. The legal deadline to file a lawsuit.
The Prescriptive Period for personal injury in Louisiana is two years from the date of injury under La. C.C. Art. 3493.1, counted from the day you were hurt.
Louisiana applies the discovery rule narrowly. The clock may begin from the date of TBI diagnosis in limited circumstances where the injury was not reasonably apparent at the time of the accident. Courts scrutinize these arguments closely. Do not count on the discovery rule to extend your deadline.
Minor children get no extra time. Prescription runs against minors (La. C.C. art. 3468), so a parent or tutor has to file within the same two years, except in product-liability claims involving permanent disability.
TBI cases in Rapides Parish are filed in the 9th Judicial District Court. Missing the filing deadline means the court dismisses the case. No exception exists for being unaware of the law. The only way to confirm the deadline is to know the exact date of injury and the applicable law at that time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a mild TBI and a concussion?
My CT scan was normal. Can I still have a serious brain injury?
How long do I have to file a brain injury lawsuit in Louisiana?
What doctors do I need to see to build a strong TBI case?
What does La. R.S. 9:2800.27 mean for my medical expense claim?
Can I recover for future losses like ongoing care and lost earning capacity?
What happens if I was partially at fault for my accident?
How do I pay for TBI treatment while my case is pending?
Last updated October 16, 2026