We have years of success litigating traumatic brain injury cases.

Traumatic Brain Injuries can occur in almost any type of accident. To handle these types of injuries requires a thorough understanding of the different causes, signs and symptoms of a brain injury. A full analysis from both a legal and medical point of view must be conducted to properly evaluate the trauma to the brain. We have worked with clients who suffer from mild, moderate and severe Traumatic Brain Injury. MTBI is especially difficult because it is a destructive, debilitating injury that can exist but is often not diagnosed until years after the incident.

In the last several years, our firm has handled a wide range of traumatic brain injury cases, ranging from the most severe – where a person cannot even move; to mild – where only certain specific diagnostic and neuropsych testing showed evidence of this type of injury.

If you or a family member has been injured and believe that person may have a traumatically caused brain injury, please contact uto receive a free consultation.

 

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New York, NY 10016

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(212) 425-1020

 

More on brain injury cases…

Signs of a Traumatic Brain Injury

The injured person experienced loss of consciousness or cognitive confusion at the scene or within 48 hours of the accident.

  • The person seems different from the way he used to be. This might be in the way the person acts, talks or in the way he performs simple tasks.
  • The person is experiencing symptoms of changed personality, problems getting along with others, the inability to hold onto relationships or a job where previously there was no problem.
  • There was head trauma such as facial injuries, skull injuries, contusion to the head or neck, or experiencing of severe acceleration or deceleration forces.

Be aware that a negative MRI or CT Scan is not proof of a lack of a Traumatic Brain Injury. It may take time for a head injury to manifest itself as a positive showing on an MRI so an early negative MRI of the brain is not necessarily indicative of anything but is all to common.

Traumatic Brain Injury Cases

All of the below cases required extensive knowledge regarding the diagnosis treatment and effects of brain injuries as well as the potential treatments available now and in the future. These cases ranged in recovery for the plaintiffs from $2 million to $9.5 million.

  • Woman was walking on sidewalk when a truck backed into a lamp post which knocked over and struck her in the head.
  • Man was driving his car when truck made right turn from middle lane causing the death of his passenger and severe head trauma and post traumatic stress disorder.
  • Woman was walking across street and was struck by a bus causing massive head injuries.
  • Woman was pulling out of her driveway struck by off duty fireman who had been drinking causing her head to strike the drivers window.
  • A man was struck when an enraged husband fled his house drove recklessly smashing into our client and flipping over his car.
  • A young girl was submerged underwater causing severe devastating catastrophic injuries due to drowning injuries.

 

CDC DEFINITION

The CDC defines traumatic brain injury as: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious public health problem in the United States. Each year, traumatic brain injuries contribute to a substantial number of deaths and cases of permanent disability. Recent data shows that, on average, approximately 1.7 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury annually.

A TBI is caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head or a penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Not all blows or jolts to the head result in a TBI. The severity of a TBI may range from “mild,” i.e., a brief change in mental status or consciousness to “severe,” i.e., an extended period of unconsciousness or amnesia after the injury. The majority of TBIs that occur each year are concussions or other forms of mild TBI.

CDC’s research and programs work to prevent TBI and help people better recognize, respond, and recover if a TBI occurs.

 

  

The Neuropsych Exam: The Plaintiff’s Right to a Representative

Personal injury litigation today is linked to ever increasing discovery requirements imposed by Court rule and decision, as well as constantly broadening concepts of what discovery is, what is discoverable, and to what extent plaintiffs must lay bare their entire existences as the result of having brought a claim for damages. Nowhere has this become more apparent over time than in those situations where a hapless plaintiff alleges a neuropsychological injury, malady or cognitive impairment as the result of the wrongful act of another. Defendants have been quick and relentless at recognizing and exploiting their rights to neuropsychological examinations of plaintiffs, which in this type of case, bear little resemblance to corporeal exams for other injury profiles. This article and its accompanying Memo of Law examines the rights plaintiffs have and the strategies plaintiff’s counsel should consider in cases such as these.

The plaintiff has the right to have counsel and/or a third party attend a Defense Medical Exam. (This is also known as an IME – independent medical exam – but since there is usually nothing independent about it, in our office we refer to it as a DME. In Court or when dealing with defense counsel, the term “Insurance Medical Exam” keeps the acronym intact yet lets all sides press their point a bit.) There have been several issues that have arisen as to who would be an appropriate third party observer. In New York the judiciary has been reluctant to permit qualified medical personnel to attend the DME on behalf of the plaintiff.  At the Supreme Court level the issue is often decided in a “knee jerk” reaction to immediately deny the request with no real basis for the denial. Interestingly, in speaking with attorneys in other jurisdictions, the reactions there are often the same: the answer to this request is usually “no” because “that is the way we have always done it.”

(Download the full PDF article)

  

  

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