Role of a Lawyer in Maryland Traumatic Brain Injury Cases

A lawyer will get typically get involved when a client reaches out to a Maryland traumatic brain injury lawyer to retain them to work on their case.  So whenever a client retains an attorney, they will meet with them and go over all the ways that their life has been affected by the TBI.

They will go over all of their medical records for all the providers that they have seen.  They will go over any of the person’s own history for any mental impairments or any kind of psychological or psychiatric treatment.  They will go over any kind of family related issues or family history as to any mental or psychological instabilities that are present in their family tree to try and determine whether any of the mental or cognitive impairments could be caused by something other than the traumatic related event.

They will also go over the mechanism of injury to ensure that the person who is claiming they have a traumatic brain injury actually suffered a blunt traumatic force to the brain or head area.

What Attorneys Look For in Initial Consultations

During the initial consultation, attorneys usually would have to establish that one, the person was injured and, two, to determine if it’s a traumatic brain injury. After determining that there is an actual injury to the brain and as a result of that, the attorney would need to try and determine what the deficits or impairments resulting from that injury were

After that discussion about the damages that have taken place you will talk about establishing liability or in other words that someone else besides themselves was wholly responsible for the event that caused the person to have a traumatic brain injury.

Behind-The-Scenes: How Attorneys Help Build a Case

What attorneys do behind the scenes is to gather all the pertinent medical records, review those medical records and contact expert witnesses to support the plaintiff’s case. These experts are sometimes the treating doctors but sometimes they are independent expert witnesses that will provide an opinion to the court regarding the causation of the injury, severity, extent and duration of the injuries as well as any future and lasting effects.

These future effects will include any anticipated or expected future medical treatment, the cost of that medical treatment. These expert witnesses will also provide an opinion as to the timeline for what tests need to be conducted in the future and what if any specialists need to be contacted to further evaluate the severity of the injuries and to provide treatment and care to the injured client.

Attorney Client Relationships in Traumatic Brain Injury Cases

An attorney would be involved from day 1, meaning the first day that the injured client contacts an attorney.  He/she will be constantly involved in the follow-up and monitoring of the person’s treatment so that they can ensure that their client is receiving the right and proper course of treatment, and that the doctors are providing or scheduling all the right tests, studies and procedures.

The attorneys also make sure to have frequent contact with the client to make sure that the client is following up with their prescribed course of medical treatment. This is important because it is very important to document the extent of the injury as well as the deficits someone sustains following a traumatic brain injury.

Responsiveness to Client Questions and Concerns

If the client has a question then the attorney will answer the question as soon as possible. The attorneys at our firm are available 24 hours per day via email and by phone during office hours. The client should never feel like they can’t ask a question and the attorney should not ever ignore a client or encourage them not to ask questions because the client hasn’t done this before and the attorney likely has.

Additionally, an attorney should have sympathy and empathy for their clients going through something that can be incredibly scary. A client suffering a traumatic brain injury may have to re-learn to speak, listen, solve problems and do everything else that they were formerly able to complete so easily. If the client has a question, then the attorney should do his/her best to answer the question or at least update the client with any information that they have and if they are unable to answer the question right away, then the attorney should let the client what steps are being taken in order to find that answer.

Attorneys’ Responsibilities To The Client

A lawyer’s responsibility is to help the client as best they can, maximize the value of their case and to make the case be as painless and go as efficiently as possible for the client in helping them recover from their injury.

A lawyer acts as a guide and a counselor for the client to help them through this difficult period in their life, and he/she should be there to listen to the client, and to guide the client as best they can so that the client can make their own decisions that are best for them and their family.