Why Lawyers in Brain Injury Cases Get Fired
How Not to Make the Mistake that Gets you Fired in a Brain Injury Case
By Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
I personally have focused on brain injury cases for more than twenty years. A brain injury case requires expertise beyond what the best personal injury lawyers have. The attorney ideally should be a brain injury attorney. The best guidance I can give is don’t take a brain injury case because you think the case will be easy. It will not be easy. If you do manage a brain injury case, I think it will help you to know what not to do. These mistakes can get you fired within legitimate reason.
- The lawyer is in too big of a hurry to get the check to understand the complete extent of your client’s brain injury case.
- The lawyer has too many cases in the office.
- The lawyer doesn’t understand brain injury and brain injury survivors.
- No one in the lawyer’s office seems to care.
- The lawyer doesn’t accept the fact that a brain injury case will require substantially more time than a typical rear end case.
- The lawyer doesn’t make all efforts to find a deep pocket. Deep pockets are important because every brain injury case has potential to be life altering.
- The lawyer isn’t prepared to invest $50,000 to $100,000 to prove the full extent of the brain injury disability.
- The lawyer believes that a normal report on a CT Scan on the date of injury eliminates all question of permanent brain damage.
- The lawyer believes what the ER report says about the diagnosis, or lack thereof.
- The lawyer believes a neuropsychologist who says that labeling your client with a brain injury will be harmful to them.
- The lawyer doesn’t demand Magnetic Resonance Imaging to be done by someone who is doing research in the field of brain injury.
- The lawyer thinks because the client has a job after the brain injury, that there is no loss of earning capacity.
- The lawyer values the case based on some ratio to the amount of the medical bills.
- The lawyer thinks neurologists are brain injury experts.
- The lawyer takes at face value what the survivor says about his or her problems without talking to family members.
- The lawyer thinks brain injury is strictly a cognitive problem and doesn’t consider the behavioral, mood and physical deficits that make up the most significant problems in a brain injury case. Click here for the understanding the full spectrum of brain injury deficits.
- The lawyer doesn’t get the 911 tapes as soon as retained.
- The lawyer doesn’t have an end game as to how to continue to negotiate after mediation fails.
- The lawyer doesn’t retain the right experts.
- The lawyer doesn’t keep in touch with your client.
- The lawyer hasn’t been to the client’s home.
- The lawyer doesn’t return the clients’ phone calls or respond to their emails.
- The lawyer doesn’t understand the client’s all consuming passion for his or her case.
- The lawyer was hired when the client did not understand the nature of the contract for your services.
- The lawyer doesn’t get a guardian appointed when your client was in a coma or unable to contract.
- The lawyer has given up on the case and not told the client.
- The lawyer thinks defense experts understand brain injury better than the brain injury client does.
- The lawyer doesn’t believe the client when they tell you that they are different.
Gordon Johnson
Attorney Gordon Johnson is one of the nations leading brain injury advocates. He is Past-Chair of the TBILG, a national group of more than 150 brain injury advocates. He has spoken at numerous brain injury seminars and is the author of some of the most read brain injury web pages on the internet.
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