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March has been designated Brain Injury Awareness Month by the Brain Injury Association of America for more than three decades.

This year, the Brain Injury Association of America launched a #ChangeYourMind public awareness campaign to educate the public about the prevalence of brain injuries, the needs of people who suffer from brain injuries and their families.

At the Smith Law Center, we help people who struggle to overcome traumatic brain injuries every year. Attorney Stephen Smith is the founder of the Brain Injury Law Center. He has litigated cases involving major catastrophic injuries across the United States and the world. The Virginia-based lawyer won the largest personal injury verdict in that Commonwealth’s history and the largest mild traumatic brain injury verdict ever awarded.

Every year, about 2.8 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury. About 50,000 people die from head injuries. Car accidents, falls, strokes, medical malpractice, assaults, and other illnesses are the leading causes of brain injuries. In some cases, lawsuits are brought against the party that causes a brain injury.

How a Traumatic Brain Injury Can Affect Your Life

The Brain Injury Association of America highlights how brain injuries affect the lives of sufferers and their family members.

A severe or moderate traumatic brain injury often has a long-lasting effect on the life of the victim and his or her family. The symptoms of a brain injury can last years or even be permanent. Although recovery and rehabilitation are possible, many people who suffer from TBIs face challenges for the rest of their lives.

TBI victims often end up with a range of injuries. Even patients who appear to make a recovery may end up with symptoms that never go away.

The ongoing challenges associated with a TBI can affect the sufferer’s personal life, employment, and family members. People who experience brain injuries often struggle with cognitive or “thinking” tasks such as memory, concentrating and comprehension. Brain injuries impact family relationships and put considerable strains on people’s lives.

Brain injuries can cause the following conditions:

  • Vision issues
  • Paralysis
  • Difficulties talking or walking
  • Loss of fine motor skills
  • Insomnia and interrupted sleep
  • Difficulty remembering recent events
  • Problems with social relationships
  • Irrational outbursts of anger
  • Inability to work or study
  • Impulsiveness
  • Speech difficulties
  • Confusion.

The Brain Injury Association of America states these kinds of symptoms often result in a lack of understanding toward brain injury sufferers.

The #ChangeYourMind public awareness campaign aims to educate people about TBIs by:

  1. Launching outreach campaigns to remove the stigma of brain injuries;
  2. Empowering people who survived brain injuries and their caregivers;
  3. Promoting support methods for people living with traumatic brain injuries.

The Brain Injury Association of America states TBIs are unpredictable. Brain injuries affect the way sufferers feel and act. Suffering a TBI can transform the lives of the sufferer in a matter of seconds. We should be acutely aware that people with brain injuries are human beings first rather than cases.

The brain is complex. No two brain injuries are the same. The effects of a brain injury are complicated and vary greatly from person to person.

The extent and nature of a traumatic brain injury depend on factors like the severity, location and cause of the injury.

People who suffer a TBI may not always be aware of the existence of an injury or its consequences. Doctors often miss the signs of brain injuries and scans fail to detect them. You may not realize you suffered a mild traumatic brain injury until behavioral and other symptoms appear.

It is very important to recognize the neurologically-based symptoms of a brain injury including aggression, irritability, and memory loss.

Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) is common after a loss of consciousness. The brain injury victim often suffers confusion and disorientation during this period and is unable to remember recent events.

People who suffer a TBI may require ongoing medical care for the rest of their lives. Medical bills can reach seven figures. It’s vital to hire an experienced Virginia brain injury attorney to fight the at-fault party and to recover as much money as possible.

It’s important for brain injury sufferers to hire experienced trial lawyers who fight for the rights of victims. If you or a family member suffered a brain injury, please call our experienced Virginia brain injury lawyers at (757) 244-7000.

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If you or a relative had a severe reaction to military housing mold, it might be time to talk with a toxic mold lawyer. Mold is everywhere, and can be dangerous. Researchers have linked mold to serious respiratory illnesses in some individuals.

Smith Law Center may be able to help if a property owner failed to keep you safe from mold in your military housing. We are one of Virginia’s oldest and most successful firms. We know how to hold negligent property owners responsible, especially when the military is involved.

Call us at (757) 244-700 or contact us online to set up a free consultation. There’s no fee for learning more about Virginia mold laws, your rights, and your legal options.

Mold in Military Housing

Black mold in military housing became widely known when Reuters published an investigation in 2018. Since then, the Department of Defense and the housing providers were supposed to take steps to improve the situation.

Unfortunately, a 2020 audit by the DoD Office of Inspector General found many issues, including the need for mold remediation, still persist.

Monetary Awards in Military Housing Toxic Mold Cases

If the property owner lets toxic mold run wild and continue to cause you harm, talk with our toxic mold attorneys about filing a lawsuit.

You may receive financial compensation for:

Service members and their families do not receive different types of damages than civilians. These are civil lawsuits in traditional courts of law.

Military Housing Mold Toxicity Symptoms

The Institute of Medicine discovered there was evidence connecting exposure to indoor mold with:

  • Upper respiratory tract symptoms;
  • Coughing;
  • Wheezing;
  • Asthma symptoms in individuals with asthma; and
  • Hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals with weak immune systems.

There is also limited evidence that mold causes respiratory illnesses in healthy children or causes people to develop asthma.

Understanding Exposure to Toxic Mold in Military Housing

The topic of toxic mold is complicated. This Is in part because the term “toxic mold” isn’t accurate. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains mold isn’t toxic or poisonous. However, some molds are toxigenic, which means they produce toxins called mycotoxins.

Mold is common in military housing because it’ll grow anywhere there’s moisture. That includes on and inside walls, carpet, upholstery, wallpaper, and heating and air conditioning systems. This is especially pronounced in humid conditions such as those present in Virginia.

Some people have no difficulties around mold, even large infestations in their homes. Other individuals are sensitive to molds, including those that produce mycotoxins. Someone can have a severe reaction when exposed to a large amount of mold indoors.

People may be more likely to experience mold toxicity symptoms if they have:

  • Allergies,
  • An underlying lung disease,
  • Immune suppression,
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder,
  • Asthma, or
  • Another chronic respiratory disease.

Common Types of Military Housing Mold

When you’re trying to learn more from the CDC and other resources, you’ll see the word “fungus” a lot. Mold is a type of fungus, which is something that exists all around us. Fungi are living organisms different from animals, plants, and bacteria. There are over 200,000 types of fungi and over 100,000 types of molds.

If you discovered mold in your military housing, it could be Cladosporium, Penicillium, Stachybotrys chartarum, Aspergillus, or many other types. Stachybotrys is what everyone knows as black mold. Aspergillus is a common indoor fungus, which releases mycotoxins and can cause illness. Your symptoms may resemble common allergy or asthma symptoms.

Who is Liable for Military Housing Mold?

Since 1996, most military housing has come under the management of private companies:

  • Belfour Beatty Communities: Fort Eustis and Fort Story/li>
  • Lincoln Military Housing: Dahlgren, Little Creek, Naval Station Norfolk, Northwest Annex, Oceana, Portsmouth, Quantico, and Yorktown/li>
  • Hunt Military Communities: Fort Lee and Langley AFB

Outside of Virginia, Lendlease and Corvias Military Living are two more housing providers. Together, these five companies formed the Military Housing Association.

Military families living in on-base housing must take their complaints to their private management company — not the military. The company is responsible for providing habitable conditions and making repairs, including mold remediation.

If you’re unsure about your rights, review your state law and local ordinances about mold. In general, it’s the landlord’s responsibility to provide a habitable unit, which means it has to be safe to live in. A unit isn’t safe if it’s causing a tenant health issues due to mold.

The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires landlords to disclose if there’s mold in the written report of the move-in inspection. If a tenant discovers visible mold in the unit, then the Act requires the landlord to remove the mold and relocate the tenant until it’s gone at no additional cost to the tenant.

Unfortunately, many families find their housing providers aren’t receptive to complaints. Attorney Stephen M. Smith has handled many mold lawsuits against military housing providers who fail to abide by their lease terms and the law when it comes to mold remediation and other hazards.

Other Hazards in Military Housing

Many service members and their families deal with uncomfortable, if not hazardous, conditions in privatized military housing, including:

Lead Paint: Lead-based paint can cause headaches, nausea, fatigue, irritability, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, seizures, organ damage, and in extreme cases, death.

Asbestos: Exposure to asbestos harms a person’s lungs, and can lead to lung fibrosis (scarring), lung cancer, and mesothelioma.

Radon: Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. It naturally forms underground, however cracks and gaps in buildings lead to over-exposure indoors.

Poor Water Quality: Dozens of military sites have water with detectable levels of harmful chemicals.

Other issues involve rodent or insect infestations, pesticides, and faulty electrical wiring.

What Happens When a Lot of People Get Sick?

Sometimes mold exposure impacts a single individual or family. However, when the mold spreads throughout military housing, it can impact hundreds or thousands of people.

Occasionally, a large enough group of people are injured to allow for a class action or mass tort lawsuit. A class action lawsuit is one where a class representative acts as the plaintiff on behalf of the group of hurt individuals. Not every victim participates in the lawsuit. There are rules about when a group is big and similar enough to create a class action.

Mass tort lawsuits are different. When there are fewer plaintiffs who have their own set of circumstances, each person files a lawsuit. For efficiency’s sake, one or a couple of law firms may represent most plaintiffs, and the lawsuits are consolidated in a federal court.

Call the Military Housing Mold Lawyers at Smith Law Center for Help Right Away

Mold cases come about in a few ways. You or a loved one may start getting sick, and after weeks or months of struggling to find answers, you finally realize your military housing has a mold infestation. In other cases, you struggle with visible mold and then become ill.

Once you connect the illness with the mold, it’s time to talk with a toxic mold lawyer. Reaching out to an attorney early helps you build a strong compensation claim. We know how to collect evidence, identify who is liable, and craft a successful argument for a settlement or court award.

Attorney Stephen M. Smith has decades of experience handling injury claims and has been internationally recognized for his work. He has litigated cases involving catastrophic injuries and complex legal and scientific issues. In 2019, he was inducted into the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame.

You’re in good hands when you come to Smith Law Center for help. Reach out online or call (757) 244-7000 to schedule your 100% free consultation.

Military Housing Mold Lawsuits: FAQs

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We are one of Virginia’s largest and most successful law firms.

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Use the simple form below to send a message directly to our lawyers. We will respond within 1 hour or less during business hours.
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