Traumatic
Brain Injury Lawyers
Traumatic brain injury lawyers
practice in a specialized area of medical
malpractice. A brain injury lawyer specializes in TBI (traumatic
brain injury) cases and sometimes spinal chord injury cases as
well.
A traumatic brain injury lawyer
must have a comprehensive understanding of brain injury trauma
from the medical perspective as well as the legal perspective.
A
traumatic brain injury lawyer is well aware that many trauma survivors
do not receive adequate medical treatment since minimal outward
manifestations may be evident and most medical practitioners are
not well trained in neuro-behavior.
When hiring a traumatic brain injury lawyer to take on a case
it is important to make sure your brain injury lawyer has the
experience, expertise and financial backing to take on the case.
Assuming that the case will be worked on a contingency basis,
a brain injury lawyer needs to be able to incur upfront expenses
in the range of $20,000 to $75,000 or even more to prepare for
trial including fees for all of the expert witnesses that will
need to be called.
Some of the experts that a brain injury lawyer may call are neurologists,
neuropsychologists, consulting neuropsychologists, rehab physicians,
life care planners and vocational planners as well. In addition,
it may be required to retain the services of a biomechanical engineer
and a PET scan and brain-imaging expert along with other experts
in the field of the maturation process of brain injury survivors
if the case involves a child.
As far as experience goes, a traumatic brain injury lawyer needs
to be a litigation attorney with a good number of trials and positive
outcomes under his belt. Being well-published and versed in the
literature, active in conferences and a member of various brain
injury organizations are other signs that your attorney is an
expert in his field. Just because a brain injury lawyer has a
ton of experience, does not necessarily mean, though, that this
has been a good experience for him. Look for someone who is well-regarded
by other attorneys and medical professionals with whom he deals.
Also, make sure your brain injury lawyer will be handling the
case himself rather than referring it out to another attorney
or firm.
A TBI lawyer must know the following brain
injury information in order to represent you effectively:
1. A blow to the head is not necessary to receive a brain injury
(in cases of whiplash the brain may itself hit the inside of the
skull)
2. A person may have a negative MRI, CT Scan or EEG and still
have a brain injury
3. A person may be pronounced neurologically sound by the defense
doctor
4. The injured person may give different versions of what happened
in the accident because of the injury
5. The survivor may be able to continue to work or go to school
6. Nuances of post-concussion syndrome and other effects such
as speech or sensory impairments, headaches, paralysis or seizure
disorders, cognitive disabilities such as memory deficits or concentration
deficits, emotional impairment including mood swings, anxiety,
depression, sexual dysfunction, loss of emotional control
7. The differences between Coma, Vegetative State, Persistent
Vegetative State, Minimally Responsive State, Akinetic Mutism
and Locked-in Syndrome
Once you've made sure your brain injury lawyer has the experience,
expertise and financial backing to do an effective job in representation
is it time to move forward. Remember that a traumatic brain injury
may have long-term affects not anticipated now, so make sure that
you're compensated adequately for the long-haul.
For more information on brain injuries see the Brain
Injury Association of America
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