Law Offices of Arne J. Nelson

Traumatic Brain Injury

 

Our office has had great success in prosecuting brain injury cases. Working with a treating physician, typically a neurologist or a neuro-psychologist, testing can be utilized to diagnose the existence of a "closed head injury." Because these injuries can be overlooked or ignored, it is critically important for the victim/client and lawyer to develop and carry out a plan to confirm, prove and quantify a brain injury.

 

In brain injury cases, our expert witnesses routinely testify that "the brain has the consistency of yogurt," and that this most fragile organ "sits in the equivalent of a stone bowl (the skull), with sharp bony ridges on its interior." The brain is subjected to severe trauma when there is a direct impact to the head or a series of exceptionally violent impact forces coming from different directions. Brain injury will be obvious in instances where there has been a skull fracture. Brain injury may also be present where there are no obvious signs of visible injury to the head. With a "closed head injury," the victim may appear, to look at him or her, just fine, but the reality can be a very different matter. Symptoms which should not be overlooked, include: severe headaches, changes in vision, a marked loss of short-term memory (e.g., can't remember SSN, driver's license, or phone numbers; can't find keys, etc.), a new inability to multi-task, unusual changes in personality such as a "hair trigger temper", and word-finding problems during speech. Often the victim, or family members, will suffer through these symptoms, without directly relating their cause, to the victim's exposure to violent forces in a recent car accident, or a fall.