Head and brain injuries can be devastating and are often some of the worst that our clients — and their entire families — deal with. Just like injuries to other parts of your body, a brain injury can change your ability to move, work, and take care of your family. Most dramatically, however, a brain injury can change who you are. A brain injury is often considered a catastrophic injury – and our concussion lawyers specialize in these injuries.
Sadly, brain injury is often permanent. Through therapy and rehabilitation, you may be able to regain a lot of functioning, or learn how to adapt to your injuries, but both may take a long time and you may never fully recover.
Serious and moderate brain injury claims require attention to detail, a team effort. Our Concussion lawyers, law clerks and paralegals are one seamless unit focused on maximizing our clients’ physical, mental, emotional and financial recovery.
The true strength of a law firm shows in how it represents clients with mild traumatic brain injury. Bergeron Clifford’s reputation is built on active listening, empathy and action. Our attorneys are experienced concussion lawyers with a successful track record at getting our clients compensation they deserve.
Key Takeaways
- Brain injuries can cause mild to permanently debilitating symptoms that can make it challenging, or impossible to ever work again.
- Brain injury victims often never fully recover from their injuries.
- Experienced brain injury lawyers can increase your chances of getting fair compensation.
PURSUING A BRAIN INJURY CASE
Head and brain injuries can be devastating and are often some of the worst that our clients — and their entire families — deal with. Just like injuries to other parts of your body, a brain injury can change your ability to move, work, and take care of your family. Most dramatically, however, a brain injury can change who you are. A brain injury is often considered a catastrophic injury – and we specialize in these injuries.
Sadly, brain injury is often permanent. Through therapy and rehabilitation, you may be able to regain a lot of functioning, or learn how to adapt to your injuries, but both may take a long time and you may never fully recover. Our concussion lawyers have you covered.
Serious and moderate brain injury claims require attention to detail, a team effort. Our concussion lawyers, law clerks and paralegals are one seamless unit focused on maximizing our clients’ physical, mental, emotional and financial recovery.
The true strength of a law firm shows in how it represents clients with mild traumatic brain injury. Bergeron Clifford’s reputation is built on active listening, empathy and action.
We will work towards recovering compensation for the following:
- Pain and suffering
- Support for loss of income and inability to work
- Cost coverage for physical, emotional and mental rehabilitation
- Reimbursement for the cost of assistive devices
- Long-term medical and home care cost coverage
A LIFE CHANGE
Damage to the head and brain doesn’t just cause pain and disability. It may affect your ability to perform basic everyday cognitive tasks, like reading, writing, speaking, remembering, focusing, control emotions and even understand social cues. All of this can severely affect your personal life, social life, independence and career. You may suffer from depression or anxiety as you struggle to adapt.
Our concussion lawyers can help you determine what help you need, both legally and medically. We can connect you with qualified medical professionals to determine the extent of your losses, financial professionals to calculate your economic losses over your lifetime, and rehabilitation specialists to help you recover or adapt to your injuries.
Because of the complexity of these injuries and the need to make sure you are adequately compensated for the full extent of your losses, these cases may take a long time to resolve. We will pay for the cost of building and running your claim until we get a settlement or court award for you.
This is an area of particular interest to us. We are strong advocates of the Ontario Brain Injury Association and Brain Injury Association Quinte District, and Ted is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Brain Injury Association of Southeastern Ontario. Please contact us and our concussion lawyers will be happy to represent your personal injuries.
A Brain Injury Case Explained by Ted Bergeron
What’s the difference between a great lawyer and a good one?
Not much. The same applies for almost every area of the workforce. The margin between career success and failure can be razor thin for some.
Brain injury can move the needle just enough to bring careers, lives and worlds crashing down.
Bergeron Clifford represented an internationally renowned researcher (IRR) who was sought out for her expertise by companies and academics worldwide. Little did she know, she was going to need a concussion lawyer. As her life changed on a beautiful afternoon in September 2016.
IRR sat in her red Toyota Rav4, facing southbound on Sir John A. MacDonald Blvd at its intersection with Princess Street in Kingston. The light was red. She waited patiently. The light turned green and she began to move her car forward.
From her left hand side, a black Nissan Rogue flew into the intersection, through the red light, and smashed into her driver’s side door.
Our client was dazed and confused. She was in terrible pain but nothing was broken and she hoped her symptoms would pass. And they did, the physical symptoms in any event. But not the most troubling of her symptoms.
When the two cars collided, IRR’s head was twisted, whipped and rotated. Her brain smashed into the bony surfaces of the interior of her skull. The damage to brain tissue was not life-threatening. As is often the case, medical imaging, including MRI, did not show any physical damage to her brain. Most concussions do not show up on medical imaging, yet they are the product of physical brain damage, sometimes at the microscopic level. IRR was diagnosed with a minor traumatic brain injury.
The phrase used for this diagnosis is grossly misleading. IRR’s minor traumatic brain injury causes a host of problems, including cognitive fatigue, headaches, irritability, visual disturbances, impaired attention and memory difficulties. These are difficult symptoms for anyone to manage, but for a world-class scientist, they can spell the end of her career.
Our brain injury lawyers had two jobs. The first was to ensure she had access to all the medical care and therapy she needed to make every effort to save her career. It was her life. The second was to ensure that the at-fault driver and her insurance company provided fair compensation for IRR’s loss.
To ensure IRR has full access to rehabilitation therapy and medical care, we helped her qualify for premium no-fault accident benefits. The insurance industry has worked hard to close down access to this funding, throwing up roadblocks to qualification. We hired a case manager for IRR to build a treatment team and help quarterback her rehabilitation and medical care. The work this group did as a team helped IRR qualify for premium accident benefits. IRR has been able to leave no stone unturned in her effort to regain her health and function.
Convincing the at-fault driver to provide fair compensation can often be difficult in MTBI (minor traumatic brain injury) cases.
IRR walks upright. She has no visible injury. She is a bright, warm and intelligent person. She can do anything she tries, but she can’t do anything for long. Any sustained mental exercise leaves her exhausted. This is a common feature of mTBI. Working with the rehab team we built for her, IRR was able to reach maximum medical improvement.
She has recovered as fully as modern rehab medicine can manage. But it’s not enough to put her back in the lab. Back in control of world-class experiments and investigations.
Conclusion
Through the tort liability system, our brain injury lawyers were able to negotiate a significant settlement on IRR’s
behalf that included compensation for pain and suffering, loss of income, housekeeping
expenses and for those medical expenses that fell outside the accident benefits system.
In the end, a good concussion lawyer knows the law. A great concussion lawyer knows that a ten percent drop in function can result in the complete loss of a career.
Contact us at 866-384-5886 or fill out our online form if you have had a concussion or other head injury in Eastern Ontario. We can meet you at our office locations in Kingston, Ottawa, Whitby, Carleton Place, Perth or other local offices, or wherever is most convenient for you.
Living with spinal cord injuries may be challenging.
Recovering from, or adapting to, a serious injury can take time. However, given enough time and proper care, many injured people are able to return to a life very much like the one they knew before suffering the injury.
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