Tag: Selecting a Brain Injury Lawyer

In selecting an attorney to represent you, it is essential that that attorney have the ability to incur the necessary expenses to properly represent a client with an acquired traumatic brain injury. Pretrial expenses in these types of claims can run between $20,000-$50,000 and sometimes more. Trial expenses can exceed $25,000 or more. In my experience, it is impractical to prepare the traumatic brain injury case utilizing solely a neurologist and/or a neuropsychologist. Quite often, not only do you need a neurologist and a neuropsychologist, but you will need a consulting neuropsychologist to review the defendant’s testing data, a rehab physcian, a life care planner and a vocational economist. In many instances a biomechanical engineer and quite often an expert in PET scans and neuroimaging will also be required. When dealing with a child who has suffered a brain injury, it will be necessary to get a doctor with expertise in traumatic brain injury and its effect on maturation and education. When retaining an attorney, you want to be sure that that attorney and his/her law firm has the ability to forward the necessary costs and expenses to properly prepare the traumatic brain injury case, to be able to hire all the necessary experts and prepare the case the case for trial.

I recently attended a traumatic brain injury support group in Sussex County, New Jersey. I had the pleasure of being their invited guest speaker for that month’s meeting. Present at the support group meeting, besides a number of survivors were their elderly family members, who in many cases served as the survivors primary care giver. A number of these family members expressed concern for who was going to take care of their son or daughter after they passed away. I explained to them that the time to deal with that issue was now, not later, and certainly not after they had passed away. It is important that care givers retain an attorney who specializes in elder law that can help them establish the necessary trusts, guardian papers and other legal documents that will be needed to help resolve these issues when they ultimately do occur. The time to plan is now, not later.

First, it is important to realize that in virtually every state in the United States, personal injury attorneys are paid on a contingency fee basis. That means you will only be charged a legal fee if the attorney is successful in obtaining a recovery for you. Under a contingency fee, the attorney will be entitled to a percentage of the recovery. In New Jersey, for instance, an attorney is entitled to 33 1/3 percent on the first $500,000.00 recovered. In a future post I will go into further detail about how contingency fees are determined as the amount of monies recovered in a suit increases. For now lets discuss things you should know about hiring a personal injury attorney. Read More about What you should know about hiring a personal injury attorney

Stark & Stark brain injury lawyers help those who need it most. With over 28 years of experience in the area of head and brain injuries, nationally recognized attorney Bruce Stern devotes himself to obtaining the compensation their brain injured clients deserve and to providing them with personal guidance to coordinate and promote the healing process.