The Brain Injury Case with Psychological Overtones
Many personal injury lawyers are afraid to try the mild traumatic brain injury case when their client has not recovered and now has a psychiatric diagnosis of a condition such as depression, post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, or chronic pain syndrome along with the diagnosis of persistent post concussive syndrome.
In my opinion, some lawyers take an approach too defensive to these cases. It has been my experience that a good trial lawyer can win many of these cases with the right case theme and sensible approach to the client’s problems.
I’d like to share some thoughts with you concerning how to put these cases together.
To begin with, let’s talk about the mild TBI case with psychological overtones that I am most comfortable trying. In a good mild TBI case, I usually have four things going for me:
1. A determined plaintiff
2. Witnesses who support that the client has tried to recover since his/her injury
3. Tests showing my client is not a malinger
4. A sympathetic client
Developing the case theme:
In the mild TBI case, it is critical to define the case on your terms and to frame the issue your way – not the defendant’s way. The defendant is going to try to engage you on his or her turf. He or she will do this by challenging you to prove that all of the plaintiff’s problems are the result of permanent structural brain damage.
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This article was written by Jeff Eisenberg, for more information please click here.
