[Music] Welcome to the Millennial Lawyer Podcast with personal injury attorney Mark Shirian. I am your

host Kevin Rosenquist and in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about TBIs, or traumatic brain injuries, and how proving them differs from other personal injury claims. Mark, welcome back. 

Thank you, happy to be here. 

Traumatic brain injuries, TBI, very, you know, common these days, unfortunately. We’re certainly

seeing a lot more education and understanding of these and things are getting better in that realm. What are the potential long-term effects of a TBI and how do you factor those into determining the compensation you seek for your clients? 

TBIs can cause lifelong cognitive impairment, memory loss, emotional instability, and chronic pain, and many victims also develop PTSD or depression. But when calculating damages, we factor in long-term care costs, loss earning capacity, and emotional suffering to ensure the settlement or verdicts accounts for the full impact of the injury. 

There’s various causes, obviously, for TBIs, it’s just hitting your head for the most part, but from your

experience, what specifically are the common causes of TBIs in personal injury?

Well obviously we have car accidents, so that high collision type of impact tends to cause TBIs. You also see them slipping, trip and falls, where someone’s falling and they hit their head on whatever in the workplace. 

Injuries, assaults and battery, are the most common causes. Even low impact accidents can cause TBIs due to whiplash or sudden head movement. Do you find that it’s a lot of times the sideways into the window of a car?

Yes that happens, those side swipes definitely that low impact type of collision can also cause TBIs. Obviously they’re more difficult to prove, at least certain aspects of a TBI are more difficult to prove.

What are some of the challenges you face when advocating for your clients with TBIs when the symptoms maybe aren’t that noticeable to the naked eye? 

The biggest challenge is the invisible injury aspect. Victims may look fine, but they suffer severe cognitive defects. Insurance companies downplay TBIs, so we have to rely on neuro psychological testing, MRI scans, and testimony from medical experts to prove the full extent of the damage. I would also add to that, having your own friends and family or co-workers come in and testify. This is how they change, this is, this was their personality before the incident, this is how they are after the incident, or you

know, I take that back. Kind of, not necessarily a family member or a friend but a co-worker who may not have an incentive to come in and embellish. So someone who, but I say coworker, somebody who

sees you every day who can attest to a major personality change before and after the accident. So we see that a lot. 

I said at the top of the show there’s a lot more awareness of these types of things, you know, especially when you think about sports and the NFL and how head injuries have come around. Are you finding that there’s more, that they’re getting easier to discuss or easier to prove  as time moves on? 

Well you mentioned the increased awareness of TBIs due to sports like the NFL, and I think as time goes on, more people are aware of the symptoms. There’s more testing that’s being done. I think there’s more literature, there’s more education on these types of head injuries. So if you compare it to 50 years ago, there’s just more education and literature out there and awareness out there for these types of injuries. And I think with more people educated and aware of TBIs, it becomes easier to detect these symptoms whereas before if people weren’t aware of the effects or the symptoms. Then, you know, it

becomes harder to diagnose and get treatment for these types of ailments so I just think there’s just more awareness now than there was before. You know, maybe before someone was moody or in a certain

mood I guess they chalk it up to the person just having a bad day and not looking at the underlying issues that are going on, That could be reflective of a TBI injury. 

I’ve read before that there are, you know, it can take a little time before symptoms really become apparent or before people start to really realize what’s going on and just from your experience what can people look for that might be a change in somebody that may seem subtle but could be a sign of a TBI? 

Irritability is definitely something that would be indicative of a TBI. Like I said earlier, personality changes can be indicative of a TBI. Obviously if you’re thinking of physical symptoms, headaches, dizziness, stuff like that. 

How does the process of proving a TBI case differ from other personal injury claims? Are there specific pieces of evidence that are especially important for these? 

Absolutely, so unlike broken bones, TBIs don’t always show up on standard imaging, so we use advanced diagnostics, like DTI diffusion sensor, imaging, and neuro evaluations to establish the injury’s impact.

How about testimony? You’ve mentioned neurologists or neuropsychologists, you know, besides those, what other expert witnesses play a role in TBI cases? How strongly does their testimony impact a claim? 

The role of expert witnesses are crucial, you know, so a neurologist can explain the physical damage while a neuropsychologist can actually detail the cognitive impairment. So, both of their testimonies help bridge the gap between the medical evidence and the jury’s understanding. 

We’ve talked a lot about insurance companies in the past episodes of this show, and how they’ll do a lot to try to not have to pay and all that. How do you ensure that they take the severity of a TBI seriously when negotiating a settlement and what kind of tactics do they try to pull in these cases? 

So it is incumbent upon us to present indisputable medical evidence, expert opinions, and real life impact statements. If necessary we take the case to trial to force insurers to acknowledge the full extent of the injury. That’s the only way to get full value on these cases which tend to be significant amounts of money.

Do you find that insurance companies try to downplay TBIs? 

Insurance companies are taking it more seriously or working better for fair settlements because of what we talked about earlier with more understanding, more awareness, more literature. I absolutely believe that insurance companies are taking these injuries and claims more seriously now than they ever have because of the significant verdicts that have been rendered by juries across the nation for TBI injuries.

How does it work as far as insurance goes because if, you know, if coverage runs out at some

point, how do you handle that as far as, you know, long-term care and the long-term impacts of these injuries?

Securing fair compensation when insurance coverage is limited is incumbent upon us to ensure that

we’re getting the full value on a case. So if there is a limited policy we always request either an Affidavit of no excess insurance or we’ll do a property asset search on the ATA parties to ensure that we’re leaving no stone unturned and to make sure that we’re getting as much as we possibly can. 

Do these cases typically take longer in your experience? 

Not necessarily longer, but, like I said, because it’s not a broken bone or an ailment that is

readily apparent, it could take longer because the symptoms just take longer to manifest. That is a good

question and it could very well take longer because of that. 

If somebody you know might be listening, maybe they were in a wreck, you know, they might not, they might just think they got their bell rung. I think we’ve talked about this before like, you know, played sports growing up, definitely had my bell rung a few times. It wasn’t a big deal in my mind, but we know more now. So pretty much like, do you just kind of recommend if you’re feeling a little funky at all just go get checked out? 

You know it’s interesting that you said that because I played football in high school and I also was on the wrestling team. I wrestled in college, but my school doesn’t have a football team. So it makes you think, you know, how dangerous are these activities. But yeah if, using your term, if you get your bell rung, it’s incumbent upon you to get checked out. At least undergo testing to ensure that everything’s okay. Anyone who “gets their bell rung” should seek medical evaluation. 

Yeah and do you have a success story of a TBI where you help the client receive the compensation that they needed? And for treatment and long-term care? 

Yeah so one of our clients suffered a TBI in a rear end collision, didn’t really have any visible head injury but through an expert medical testimony and MRI evidence we were able to secure a $1 million settlement. Covered long-term rehabilitation. 

Alright, well interesting stuff for sure, thank you very much for joining us on the Millennial Lawyer podcast with personal injury attorney Mark Shirian. To connect with Mark, visit shirianpc.com and please

like and subscribe to our channel and leave us a review. Mark, thanks so much for talking about this topic with us. It was really insightful. 

I appreciate it. Thank you so much. 

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