How Expert Testimony Can Make or Break a Brain Injury Case in MA

Traumatic brain injuries are some of the most devastating injuries an accident victim can suffer. Moderate and severe injuries can leave victims struggling to communicate, ambulate independently, regulate their emotions, or maintain cognitive function. Severe cases often leave victims with permanent limitations that keep them out of the workforce and physically dependent on loved ones or caretakers. This is why it’s so important to seek legal help when you suffer a traumatic brain injury. A strong brain injury lawyer can help prove your case, utilizing the guidance and experience of expert witnesses and medical evidence. Find out how we can help now by calling the Law Offices of Gerald J. Noonan.

Challenges of proving a brain injury in Massachusetts

Victims often face significant challenges when trying to secure fair compensation for a traumatic brain injury. They have to prove the at-fault party’s negligence, which means demonstrating that:

• The other party had a duty of care to them
• The other party failed in that duty of care
• Their failure led to the victim’s injury
• The injury has left the victim with measurable damages

One of the hardest parts of these claims is proving the extent of your injuries. While there are many types of medical imaging that may detect traumatic brain injuries, there are serious injuries that don’t show up on any scans, making them very difficult to prove

On top of that, many TBI symptoms are dependent on self-reporting. It’s very difficult to prove a lack of emotional regulation, memory failure, brain fog, and other symptoms with standard medical tests. This, unfortunately, gives insurance companies lots of wiggle room to question the severity of your injuries—and if they’re real at all.

The fact that TBIs can affect every part of your body’s functioning can also work against you in these cases. If you have any pre-existing conditions at all, the insurance company may try to pin your current symptoms on them. Imagine you suffer a TBI after a serious car accident, but after discovering that you were diagnosed with ADHD in seventh grade, the insurance company insists that the ADHD diagnosis is to blame for your sudden poor memory or inability to concentrate.

How expert testimony supports your case

Expert testimony is one of the strongest tools that brain injury lawyers have to fight back against an insurance company’s tactics. They can strengthen your claim in a variety of ways:

• Establish a clear diagnosis: Neurologists and other traumatic brain injury specialists are some of the first experts that your brain injury attorney may turn to as they build your case. These professionals can explain the nature of your injury, how these injuries occur, why certain abnormalities and issues are hard to detect on imaging, and how subjective symptoms are still indicative of physical trauma. They can explain this in a way that any average person can understand, which is especially helpful if your case goes to trial.
• Connect symptoms to the accident: Neurologists and accident reconstruction experts can also do a lot to connect your symptoms to the accident you were involved in. An accident reconstruction expert can explain the physics of the collision and how it may have impacted your brain. From there, a neurologist can point out which parts of the brain would have been physically impacted and how those parts of the brain may respond to physical trauma.
• Demonstrate cognitive or physical impairments: Proving physical and cognitive impairments can be difficult, as insurance companies may try to claim that impairments are exaggerated or completely falsified. Neuropsychologists can step in at this stage and use standardized cognitive testing to evaluate an individual’s memory, recall, attention, executive function, language comprehension, emotional regulation, and behavioral symptoms that are common with TBIs.
• Outline long-term effects with life care planning knowledge: Once you’ve successfully proven an injury, you must also be able to show how it will affect you long-term and what type of compensation you need to be made whole. A life care planning expert can quantify the long-term impact of your injury and what type of financial burden comes with that.
• Prove loss of earnings: Medical expenses are obviously a massive part of TBI cases, but lost earnings are also a large chunk of many settlements and jury awards. If your TBI leaves you unable to work in your current position or at all, you have to demonstrate that. A vocational expert may explain how your specific injuries negatively affect your ability to work and calculate your lost earnings over the span of your career.

What happens without expert testimony

Without expert testimony, you are largely at the mercy of the insurance company, and they take advantage of any weakness they can find in a claim. Be prepared for them to argue that your injury is exaggerated, unrelated, or entirely made up. Medical documentation may not stand up to aggressive questioning without expert testimony, and your damages may appear exorbitantly high to juries or insurers. You could be left with a painfully low settlement offer, not because your claim isn’t strong enough, but because you did not bring the expert testimony to back up your claims.

When expert testimony swings a case in your favor

Many brain injury lawyers have extensive networks of expert witnesses specifically because of the power they carry in complex personal injury claims. Insurers are more likely to take a claim more seriously if it is backed up with objective cognitive testing, in-depth medical explanations, lifetime cost projections, and strong evidence of reduced earning capacity. Insurers won’t do the right thing just because it’s morally right; they’ll only take that step if there’s financial risk associated with not providing a fair settlement.

Take the first step in your claim with the Law Offices of Gerald J. Noonan

If you’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury and you need fair compensation, it’s time to talk to a brain injury lawyer. Call us or get in touch online to schedule a consultation now.