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

What is a Brain Injury Case Worth? Episode 2

Brain injury comes in many shapes and sizes. The proverbial “one size fits all” does not apply. Although there are many similar characteristics with most brain injuries they are not all the same. For instance, brain injury often results in short term memory loss and difficulty processing information. How that emerges between individuals varies but often it is seen at work and in social situations. Often the difficulty requires more energy for processing information and results in fatigue.

Depression is common both from the injury itself and psychologically as a result of the affects of the injury. This is especially true in cases of mild and moderate traumatic brain injury when those around you simply have difficulty believing you are suffering when you look otherwise normal. This adds to the frustration, anxiety and irritability.

If you have been in a traumatic event that caused a concussion and brain injury, you may wonder about the value of the legal case. A legal case value depends on many things other than the injury and its affects. Many people do not understand this. Sometimes an injury can be worse in one case but valued lower than another case with a lesser injury. On the other hand, too often cases with a higher value are settled for less because the person making the evaluation does not understand brain injury. Since traumatic brain injury typically results in difficulty making decisions, it is a good idea to have someone you trust help you find a lawyer.
Finding the right lawyer is critical to getting a proper verdict or settlement. Lawyers have different interests and talents. Long ago lawyers could be general practitioners handling wills, business matters, divorce and criminal matters. Today the law is very specialized. That is, what a lawyer spends most of his time doing is what he is best at. If your lawyer handles one or two brain injury cases a year, he is not a good choice to handle your injury. If your lawyer’s practice is devoted to over 90% brain injury cases, you’ll have a much better outcome.

The first thing to understand is all lawyers are not made the same. And just like other folks, if a lawyer untrained in brain injury does not see an injury on standard diagnostic tests or by simple observation, they are not likely to believe it exists. On the other hand, if your lawyer is versed in how mild and moderate traumatic brain injury affects victims, they will know where to look and how to maximize the value.

Traumatic Brain Injury typically has medical costs associated with care in the past and in the future. Determining what the future costs are likely to be is important in valuing the case. Likewise, past lost earnings from being out of work are simple enough to calculate, but what about the loss of future earning capacity? This is very tricky since a person with brain injury may be able to do a job but staying consistently employed is an entirely different matter. Again, unless your lawyer has extensive experience on how and why a brain injury can cause loss of future earning capacity, she may sell your case short.

There are many other things to consider when hiring a lawyer and that is why you should seek out assistance from someone you trust; your spouse, parent, child, relative, or good friend. You should not simply take the advice of someone who tells you about a lawyer they used in a case. That lawyer may be a very talented divorce lawyer but that is not what you need. Your friend’s lawyer may even be personal injury lawyer, but that does not automatically qualify her as a brain injury specialist. Personal injury lawyers rarely limit their practice and research to traumatic brain injury. You are entitled to hire a lawyer that does.

I wrote an article entitled a Guide to Selecting a Lawyer in a Traumatic Brain Injury Case. I attempt to guide non-lawyers in choosing a qualified lawyer to handle their case. Much of what I propose are simple questions that you have a right to ask. Lawyers who profess skill in handling traumatic brain injury cases typically have blogs they publish. For instance my blog is entitled Brain and Spine Injury Law Blog. You may want to research your lawyer’s web site as well.

With the help of a trusted companion, look up organizations like the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), www.biaa.org. Visit their site on the internet or call them and ask for a referral to a lawyer in your particular state. There are organizations whose purpose is to assist victims of brain injury. Consult them rather than simply relying on the recommendation of a friend who may mean well but does not understand the nuances of brain injury.

These organizations will also assist you in getting the right care and treatment in your area. Most hospital emergency rooms do not treat or even diagnose mild or moderate traumatic brain injury, so you will benefit by talking to folks who understand. Other groups include individual State Brain Injury Associations, and the North American Brain Injury Society (NABIS), www.nabis.org.

Not only will these organizations assist you in getting help, they provide literature and videos to help explain what you are experiencing and how treatment can help.
If you or someone you know has suffered traumatic brain injury, please accept my best wishes and prayers for a maximized recovery. I hope something I have shared here will assist you in your journey.

Timothy Titolo copyright 2010
 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

It's hard to explain and it seems cold. When a client from another state wants to know why they have to pay an out of state cost bond; or why they need to fund certain expenses regarding their own medical care or case costs; I explain that the cost of the case comes from funds, typically mine, that do not earn interest and are not guaranteed to be returned. Therefore, out of state clients need to show their commitment to the case by making an upfront financial contribution to the case.

Injuries that occur in Nevada need to be pursued from Nevada. Many times tourists who are injured in Nevada consult with lawyers from the state they live in. Too many times lawyers do not refer them to or consult with Nevada counsel. They "settle" as much of the case as they can and then pass off the client or send them to Nevada counsel demanding a referral fee. This puts me in an awkward position.

Whatever money was settled is no longer available to reimburse costs and expenses (not fees). The settling lawyer does not explain this to their client. Unknowingly, the client expects a different lawyer (in Nevada) – who has not been paid from any settlement – to put up the costs of pursuing the case. The settling lawyer never offers to assist the client by sharing those advanced costs with the Nevada lawyer.

The cost of proving the TBI case is high; especially the mild or moderate TBI case. While clients with TBI already have inherent cognitive limitations, explaining the reality of funding their case is difficult. Costs of filing suit, retaining experts, taking numerous depositions can rise very quickly since the burden of proof is on the injured party. Typically, in TBI cases I handle, those costs will reach $30,000 within the first 6 months. By the time trial approaches costs easily near $100,000. Taking the matter through trial increases the amount another $50,000.

I recently found myself explaining to an out of state client that the liability aspect of a case against one defendant was tenuous. That the local state lawyer took the "easy money" settling a portion of the case against an “easy” defendant and left the client without options for collecting on the "bigger picture" and the remaining defendant. Filing a lawsuit was absolutely necessary.

The local state lawyer should have explained that they were not able to pursue the case against any defendant in Nevada (because filing a lawsuit requires a Nevada license) and that in order to fund the litigation, part of the settlement portion of the case could be used. Instead the local state lawyer pockets the fee and abandons the client to pursue the matter with another lawyer in Nevada. The client comes to me having paid the out of state local lawyer who never intends to fund the case at all. He never intended to protect the clients interest by filing a lawsuit and could not have even if he wanted to.

I explained that insurance coverage was questionable since liability against the remaining defendant was tenuous. Without it, the case could be worth millions based on the injury but the value, based on liability and coverage, could be nothing. Again, the local lawyer left that information out of the legal advice to the client.

Not all situations are like this. Many times I am consulted by out of state counsel who really is concerned about their client. They desire to bring in Nevada counsel immediately. I wish all situations were like this but unfortunately they are not. This is when I find myself having to explain the hidden cost of a TBI case.

If you are out of state and get hurt in Nevada, be sure to ask your lawyer whether they can file a lawsuit in Nevada or pursue the case without the assistance of Nevada counsel. If not, you may want to consider contacting Nevada counsel first so that the cost of the lawsuit can be borne by the lawyer who you retain to represent you in Nevada.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link