Brain Injury Law Blog : Head Injury : Coma : Personal Injury : Las Vegas Nevada Lawyer & Attorney Tim Titolo

Las Vegas, Nevada Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog

If you had a traumatic brain injury as a child, there are indications that you carry it with you into your adult years.  This could complicate a subsequent traumatic brain injury.

A new study found a group of 50 adult survivors of child TBI with ongoing problems over 13 years after traumatic brain injury.  Results show:

 Intellectual and personality measures indicated good outcomes, with mean scores for all groups in the average range and few severity-based findings. In contrast, those with more severe TBI were more likely to have educational and employment problems. QOL was significantly reduced in the context of severe insult, with lower IQ and personality factors most predictive of outcome in this domain. Mild and moderate TBI were generally more benign. 

The study concluded by saying:

Findings suggest that, while TBI is a lifelong problem, its impact is most dramatic in the domain of QOL, where a complex interaction occurs between injury factors, cognition, and personality.

Neuropsychology
Volume 25, Issue 2, March 2011, Pages 176-184 

You need a traumatic brain injury attorney.  The problem is most car wreck attorneys fancy themselves as traumatic brain injury attorneys.  One way to test your attorney's knowledge is to ask if they know the difference.

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 Depression is something that can be related to brain activity.  It is frequently associated with traumatic brain injury as a sign, symptom or consequence.

The frequency of depression can also be affected by external situations.  Recent data reveals that depression for Men due to Social and Economic Environment is prevalent.  Emory University School of Medicine experts write in the  British Journal of Psychiatry about the tendency.

"Dubbed by some the 'Mancession', the economic downturn has hit men particularly hard because of its disproportionate effect on traditional male industries such as construction and manufacturing. Research has shown that roughly 75% of jobs lost in the United States since the beginning of the recession in 2007 were held by men. There is little reason to believe that traditional male jobs will return in significant numbers with economic recovery.

 Neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and UC San Diego (UCSD) have collected evidence suggesting that a previously overlooked portion of the brain could be a prime locus of human depression. An upcoming article in the journal Nature will contain the findings.

 "It covers an area only about 1-2 mm across." So far only two brain imaging studies have implicated the LHb in depression because of the difficulty in resolving it using existing technologies such as PET and fMRI.

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Colleague and friend, Steve Gursten, is this months guest blogger.  Steve and I were recently discussing the problems we both see with lawyers from different jurisdictions trying to represent folks in states other than the states they practice in.  Here is what Steve has to say:

 Accident lawyer explains how people recover in out-of-state car accidents

Tim and I have gotten to know each other pretty well. He is a top-notch Las Vegas injury lawyer. And as a Michigan lawyer who specializes in car accidents and truck accidents, I’ve had to call him on a number of occasions when Michigan residents on vacation in Las Vegas have gotten hurt.

Although Tim and I have seen our share of accidents and injuries, including collapsing stools in casinos, the most common personal injury accident case still involves car accidents.   At Tim’s request, here's a quick overview of what Michigan residents can expect if they're injured in out-of-state car accidents in Las Vegas.

If a Michigan resident is injured in an auto accident in another state, he or she will still qualify for Michigan No-Fault (PIP) benefits. Accident victims, and especially those who suffer catastrophic spinal cord or traumatic brain injury, will almost always want to collect Michigan PIP insurance benefits, because of its unlimited medical care and three years of wage loss —  even if injured in a pure tort state like Nevada. 

However, here’s an important warning: you should always speak with an experienced accident lawyer first. Decisions on where to file and what benefits to claim or forego in a personal injury lawsuit are critical strategic decisions. An experienced Michigan accident attorney should be discussing these tactical issues with an excellent out-of-state lawyer of the venue where the accident happened, such as Tim.

When Michigan residents are injured in car accidents in pure tort states (h2)

Michigan residents injured in pure tort states like Nevada can sue the tortfeasor (the person who causes the car accident) for all of his or her “damages,” such as property damage, pain and suffering, economic losses like medical bills and wage loss, etc. In tort states like Nevada, there's no injury threshold that must be exceeded to be able to sue if you are injured in a car accident, unlike Michigan’s tough car accident threshold law.

However, as with any out-of-state car accident, the Michigan insurer has a lien on the third-party (pain and suffering) recovery for any No-Fault benefits that it has paid for the car accident. Again, tactical decision of whether to claim and receive No-Fault insurance benefits depend on the facts of each case. Speak to an experienced accident lawyer so you do not lose important legal rights. 

Michigan No-Fault (PIP) insurance benefits for out-of-state car accidents (h2)

PIP insurance benefits for an out-of-state car accident are governed by MCL 500.3111. For out-of-state car accidents, there must be a Michigan No-Fault (PIP) policy involved somewhere in the order of priorities (all possible eligible insurers). Review the order of priority with an experienced accident lawyer, but in most situations:

1. A Michigan resident injured in an out-of-state car accident will turn to your own No-Fault insurance carrier first. 

2. If there is no Michigan auto policy where the accident victims is a named-insured (not the same as being a named-driver), you would go to a spouse or resident-relative's Michigan auto insurance policy.

3. If no such policy existed, the accident victim would go to the insurer of the owner/registrant of the vehicle involved in the accident, as long as the vehicle was insured by a Michigan auto policy. 

4. If you were in an employer’s vehicle or a vehicle for hire, you would go to that vehicle’s policy first, only if insured by a Michigan policy. 

The Michigan Assigned Claims Facility does not cover out-of-state accidents with no fault insurance benefits, so there must be a Michigan auto insurance policy somewhere in the normal order of priorities for an injured person to received Michigan PIP benefits. 

What about the driver of the vehicle involved in my out of state accident? (h2)

There is also no way of receiving benefits through the driver of the vehicle, if the driver is different than the vehicle owner/registrant. 

And if a Michigan resident is a pedestrian and is hit by a car (such as the several thousand on the Strip every year? If that pedestrian does not have an auto insurance policy of his or her own, and does not have a spouse or resident-relative with a Michigan auto insurance policy, then that person would only receive No-Fault PIP benefits if the car accident involved a Michigan insured vehicle.   Long odds, indeed - even for Vegas.

Steven M. Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top auto accident attorneys. Steve has received the top car accident or truck accident personal injury trial verdict in Michigan in five of the past ten years. He is a past-president of the AAJ Truck Accident Litigation Group, and holds leadership positions in several state and national legal organizations helping auto accident lawyers with traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injuries. 

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MSNBC covered a piece on brain injury recently.  With reference to Congresswoman Gifford, and other notable survivors of traumatic brain injury, the story looks at the progress we have made concerning the identity of brain injury and how to treat it.  Even with the progress, however, there remains much more about the brain we do not know than what we do.

Click here to be directed to the piece by MSNBC.

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 Helmets have had a substantial impact on traumatic brain injury prevention.  However, another concern stemming from using helmets was whether the helmet actually increased the incidence of spine injury.  The weight of the helmet is was thought suffered the neck to linear and rotational injury with trauma.

A new study debunks the myth that helmets increase neck injury. A review of U.S. National Trauma Databank information on more than 40,000 motorcycle collisions between 2002 and 2006, and found that riders wearing helmets were 22 percent less likely to suffer cervical spine injury than those without helmets.

The study could prompt legislatures and lawmakers to revisit the issue of mandatory helmet laws. Over the past 15 years, a number of states have repealed their mandatory motorcycle helmet laws after lobbying from anti-helmet activists who often cite a small, 25-year-old study that suggested that the weight of a motorcycle helmet increased the risk of spine injuries. However, many experts say the study used flawed statistical reasoning.

To read more from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Motorcycle Safety click here.

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