Head Injury From a Fall With Dizziness Weeks Later

Attorney Answer

Get medically evaluated today. New severe dizzy spells five weeks after striking your head and neck are a medical emergency question before they are a legal one, and the records from that visit will also be the backbone of any claim. On the legal side, everything depends on one fact this account does not include: where you fell.

There are two possible claims here and they run on completely different tracks.

The first is against whoever was responsible for the place you fell, if a dangerous condition there caused it. Whether that claim exists, and how long you have to bring it, turns entirely on who owns and controls that location. If you fell on government property — a city sidewalk, a county or state building, a public transit facility, a school — Nevada's notice-of-claim requirement under NRS 41.036 imposes a separate, and much earlier, deadline than any general limitations period. A notice-of-claim deadline can expire while you are still treating and still deciding what to do, and missing it can end the claim before it is ever filed. So establishing whether the location is public or private is the very first thing to do, not something to sort out later.

The second possible claim is against the providers who gave you little to no care after a head and neck injury. That is a professional negligence claim, and Nevada puts a substantial requirement at the front of it. NRS 41A.071 requires that a medical malpractice complaint be filed together with a supporting affidavit from a medical expert who practices, or has practiced, in a substantially similar area — identifying by name or by conduct each health care provider alleged to be negligent, and setting out the specific act or acts of alleged negligence separately as to each defendant. A complaint filed without that affidavit is dismissed without prejudice. In plain terms: you cannot simply file and then find an expert. A qualified expert has to review your records first, and arranging that takes real time, which has to be built into your deadline planning.

NRS 41A.035 caps noneconomic damages in a Nevada professional negligence action. The cap escalates by year — it was $350,000, then increased by $80,000 each January 1 beginning in 2024 and ending January 1, 2028, when it reaches $750,000, with 2.1 percent annual increases after that. For an action in 2026 the cap is $590,000. That is a ceiling on one category of damages in a malpractice case, not a prediction about any individual claim.

One more thing to understand about how Nevada allocates blame. Nevada reduces your recovery by your own share of fault, and bars it entirely if your share is greater than that of the parties you are suing. So how the fall happened — what you were doing, what you could see, what warnings were posted — will be examined, and it matters.

What you can do

1. Be seen today. Tell the provider you struck your head and neck five weeks ago and describe the dizziness precisely. Ask specifically whether imaging is indicated. Do not let this be another minimal-care visit. 2. Write down, before it fades further, exactly where you fell, the date, the time, and what caused it — the surface, the lighting, any liquid, any defect, whether anything was posted. 3. Photograph the location now, including the condition that caused the fall, from several angles and with something for scale. 4. Determine who owns and controls that location. A private business, a landlord, or a government entity. If it is government-owned, treat the deadline as urgent this week. 5. Notify the property owner or manager in writing that you fell, and request a copy of any incident report and any surveillance footage covering that time. Request the footage immediately — most systems overwrite it within days or weeks. 6. Collect the complete records from the visit where you received little to no care, including triage notes, the discharge instructions, and any imaging that was or was not ordered. Those records are the evidence for both possible claims. 7. Have a Nevada attorney review the records early enough to obtain an NRS 41A.071 expert affidavit if a malpractice claim is going to be filed.

⏱ Time limits apply. If your fall occurred on government property, NRS 41.036's notice-of-claim requirement may impose a much shorter and entirely separate deadline that expires long before any general limitations period — confirm who owns the location first, because that single fact can control whether a claim survives. Separately, NRS 41A.071 requires the supporting expert affidavit to be filed with a malpractice complaint, and arranging that expert review takes weeks, so it must be started well before any filing deadline. Which deadlines apply to you depends on your specific facts, including the location of the fall and the dates of your care.