Articles Posted in Brain Injuries

 
New York personal injury lawyers like me welcome this news:  The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new kind of blood test that can detect concussions and identify possible brain injuries.  It’s called the “Banyan Brain Trauma Indicator” (“BBTI”).  The test works by measuring the levels of proteins, known as UCH-L1, and GFAP, that a damaged brain releases into the blood. Higher levels of these blood proteins indicate intracranial lesions.

There are several advantages of BBTI over traditional CT scans (which is how brain lesions at present are usually detected).  First, the blood test does not expose the brain to radiation as a CT scan does.  Second, the blood test will make for a speedier diagnosis of a brain injury.   But my hope is that the test will one day also be used to detect small lesions that today’s CT scans cannot detect.

Why is this last thing important?

They say that justice is blind, but anyone who believes that is truly blind. Examples of inherent bias in our judicial system abound. For example, blacks get the death penalty and heavy sentences far more often than whites for the same crimes. Poor people – who can’t afford a “dream team” of lawyers and instead rely on assigned counsel — have far less success in court than their wealthier “lawyered up” counterparts.

And unfairness does not plague just our criminal justice system. Our civil justice system is also contaminated with it. Although statistics are not available locally, it is common belief among the local bar in Central New York that if you are black, poor, excessively overweight or just plain ugly, you are likely to get a smaller money award in your New York personal injury or medical malpractice case than if you are white, well-off, thin and good-looking. That’s why most competent personal injury trial lawyers will talk to a jury – in the jury selection process – about these prejudices, and try to weed out of the jurors who are more likely affected by them.

Like it or not, judges and juries are just regular people with regular prejudices. But courts – and your lawyer – nevertheless have a duty to try to combat them – to even out the scales of justice. A recent case illustrates this.

I tried a traumatic brain injury case about a year and a half ago in Syracuse, New York. Although I got a “verdict”, it was not the one I wanted. The jury did not think my client was very hurt, and thus awarded him a lot less than we believe he deserved and needed.

Misery loves company. Traumatic brain injury cases are statistically among the toughest to win for a plaintiff’s lawyer, as a very recent – and well reported — Syracuse New York brain injury verdict bears out.

Before I go into the case, why is this kind of case so tough? The symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury are often “invisible” to a jury: headaches, cognitive slowdown, depression, blurred vision, memory or concentration problems, mood swings, confusion, and balance issues. Nothing you can show the jury on an MRI slide.

I have two TBI (traumatic brain injury) cases going to trial early next year. In both cases, the defense claims my clients have suffered no TBI at all, or else it was mild, and resolved long ago. In both cases my clients own physicians and traumatic brain injury specialists have the client totally disabled.

TBI cases are complex and often vigorously defended. Because you can’t “see” a traumatic brain injury, defense lawyers often try to convince the jury that the injured plaintiff does not have it. They try to convince the jury that the symptoms (which can include concentration problems, headache, dizziness or loss of balance, sensory problems, such as blurred vision, ringing in the ears, fatigue, mood changes or mood swings, depression and anxiety fatigue or drowsiness) are being faked, or else stem from pre-existing depression.

So this Central and Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer has already started beefing up. This past March the American Association for Justice hosted a “Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group Meeting“, which I could not attend. BUT, I have ordered the DVD and course materials. They are sitting on my desk, right now, staring at me, just begging to be viewed. As they sit there, I can almost sense the pearls of wisdom from other TBI lawyers emanating from them.

I have two TBI (traumatic brain injury) cases going to trial next spring. In both cases, the defense claims my clients have suffered no TBI at all, or else it was mild, and resolved long ago. In both cases my clients own physicians and traumatic brain injury specialists have the client totally disabled.

TBI cases are complex and often vigorously defended. Because you can’t “see” a traumatic brain injury, defense lawyers often try to convince the jury that the injured plaintiff does not have it. They try to convince the jury that the symptoms (which can include concentration problems, headache, dizziness or loss of balance, sensory problems, such as blurred vision, ringing in the ears, fatigue, mood changes or mood swings, depression and anxiety fatigue or drowsiness) are being faked, or else stem from pre-existing depression.

So this Central and Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer has already started beefing up. This past March the American Association for Justice hosted a “Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group Meeting”, which I could not attend. BUT, I have ordered the DVD and course materials. They are sitting on my desk, right now, staring at me, just begging to be viewed. As they sit there, I can almost sense the pearls of wisdom from other TBI lawyers emanating from them.

Some of our former Central and Syracuse New York personal injury clients become lifelong friends. One example is Mary. Even six years or so after we settled her case, she keeps in touch, stops by the office, and emails us regularly.

Mary suffered a terrible traumatic brain injury (“TBI”).. She was a passenger in a snowmobile that collided with another snowmobile. About 6 years ago, my partner, David Kalabanka, got her a 7 figure settlement against the responsible party’s insurance carrier and worked out a structured settlement that will pay her several millions of dollars, in monthly installments, over the rest of her life. David did an awesome job representing her.

Mary can’t work a conventional job. No one would hire her. Her brain injury has left her noticeably “different”. She talks with an unsettling voice and intonation. She speaks whatever she thinks, and this, of course, is not socially acceptable. She sees double, too.