Why consider a lawsuit?
Not every brain injury is appropriate for a lawsuit. But if carelessness by an individual or corporation has caused a serious injury, a lawsuit should be seriously investigated. What can a lawsuit accomplish?
- A lawsuit is usually the only legal means to hold careless individuals or companies accountable for what they have done.
- A lawsuit can provide money to pay for the substantial needs that brain-injured persons have. These needs are never fully covered by insurance. They vary from patient to patient but can include things such as: attendant care in the home, modifications to a home to make it handicapped-accessible, special therapies, and other help.
- A lawsuit can replace the income that the injured person no longer has, if the injury has disabled them from work.
- A lawsuit can bring closure to a life-changing event and help the injured person and his or her family open a new chapter in their lives.
What kind of lawyer should you look for to represent someone with a brain injury?
A patient with a brain injury will encounter numerous health care specialists in trying to achieve the best recovery and adaptation to their injury. These specialists can include neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuropsychologists, cognitive therapists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, neuroradiologists, and more. Another important specialist for a patient with a brain injury is a lawyer who has a track record of success in representing brain-injured clients.
Bringing a successful lawsuit on behalf of someone with a brain injury is not easy. The obstacles include:
- The defendant in the lawsuit will usually try to minimize the severity of the injury, or at least dispute that their conduct had anything to do with causing the injury. They will often hire multiple expert witnesses in various brain-related specialties to create plausible defenses.
- Sometimes a patient’s own therapists will not understand the seriousness of the injury. Or the therapists will want to believe that their treatment will produce great improvement in the patient’s condition, when that is not always a realistic hope.
- The lawyer for the brain-injured person must advocate for a realistic appraisal of the full extent of the injury, taking into account the injured person’s lifetime needs for therapies, care and assistance in daily activities.
- For all these reasons, brain injury lawsuits can be expensive and difficult to prosecute. They require lawyers who have significant financial resources to retain high quality expert witnesses in multiple fields relating to brain injury. Those same lawyers must have the expertise to be able to converse knowledgeably with brain injury experts, and must have the ability and track record to convey this complex information to juries.
Patrick Malone & Associates’ track record for brain injury lawsuits.
Investigating your legal options
If you or a family member has suffered a serious, permanent brain injury related to an accident, trauma or poor medical care, you may want to talk to a lawyer. The law firm of Patrick Malone & Associates has lawyers who specialize in brain injuries. We provide in-depth consultations, at no charge, to help determine if you have a valid personal injury or malpractice case. We will need to obtain complete medical records to do a good analysis. Contact our lawyers with this form to provide basic information to get the process started.
Contact Us or call 1-202-742-1500 or toll free at 1-888-625-6635 for a free case evaluation.
