How Brain Injury Differs from Normal Personal Injury Law
By Stephen Zwick | Published on July 28, 2011 | 0 Comments
When someone has been injured in a personal injury case, often juries will attribute different values to parts of the body, reflecting on how much productivity or enjoyment one loses from loss of that bodily function. But there is no singular organ or body part that is more valuable to a human being than their own brain. While losing an arm or leg is always unfortunate,a brain injury could leave the victim without use of any of their faculties. However, a brain injury can also be one of the most difficult injuries to prove. If you are a California resident who has suffered from a brain injury, it is extremely important to contact a Mission Viejo brain injury lawyer who can help your case.
With over 36 years of practice, there are few brain injury lawyers in California with as much experience as Stephen Zwick, an attorney with the Stephen Zwick Law Offices. He says that another difference when dealing with a brain injury is that it can last for a lifetime. “When somebody suffers from a brain injury usually it results in a cognitive deficit so they can’t continue with life as usual for the remainder of their life, or at least for a very long time.”
According to Zwick, when someone suffers from a reduced level of cognitive function following a brain injury, this doesn’t only hurt their ability to continue working, but it can also affect their social life and mental health as well. “As opposed to another injury like a back injury, someone might find that they can’t function as a normal husband any more, let alone calculating the loss of economic value in a business relationship or in his work lifetime.”.
Zwick says that this inability to function as a normal productive person is a very important feature of brain injuries, and it is how the law most differs from other serious injuries. “If someone has had a serious back injury and needs a laminectomy or a titanium vertebrae, he’ll be out of practice for a couple months but then be able to go back and function provided he’s not a professional boxer. But a brain injury is much more severe.”
It is this severity of the injury that requires Zwick to consult with everyone from neuropsychologists to neurosurgeons to determine the extent of the brain damage. This can also be made doubly difficult by the fact that in order to be thorough, one has to project the long-term effects of the injury. “This is not just the situation where a guy gets an MRI. We have to talk with experts as well as people who knew the individual from before the accident and can testify on how they’ve changed.” Zwick says that knowing who to talk to is itself one of the big challenges of being a Mission Viejo brain injury lawyer, and it is why experience is so necessary in dealing with such a traumatic situation.
So if you or a loved one is suffering from brain damage inflicted on the job, in a car accident, or due to another person’s negligence, consider hiring the best in Mission Viejo brain injury law and call Stephen Zwick today.
*Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.