Dickinson Solicitors is a niche personal injury firm specialising in subtle brain injuries and the anxiety disorders that often present following head injury.
These types of case are aggressively defended by Insurance Company Solicitors so the correct choice of Solicitor and expert is paramount. The pool of medical experts capable of assessing such injuries is extremely small.
For this reason most people who have a subtle brain injury are never diagnosed, and if they bring a legal case it is usually just for the obvious physical injuries alone and their cases usually settle at a huge under-value. The reason for this is because their legal teams don’t recognise that a subtle brain injury may be present and fail to investigate it, and so do their medical experts who fail to diagnose it.
What exactly do we mean by ‘subtle brain injury?’ Most of the time these brain injuries do not involve any loss of consciousness and are so subtle that they are usually missed by hospital staff and doctors. No blow to the head is necessary, and in many cases the mechanism of injury is no more significant than the violent fore and aft movement of the head that results in a whiplash injury. The violent decelerations often involved in a whiplash are sufficient to cause microscopic damage to the brain not capable of detection even on an enhanced MRI scan. Any previous head injuries make the individual more susceptible to further trauma to the brain. This is why sometimes fairly minor impacts can result in significant cognitive symptoms developing.
The brain injury is usually characterised by subtle cognitive and behavioural deficits, disinhibited temper outbursts and persistent mental fatigue that often will only be noticed by close family members and friends who know the injured person well. Often the victims will be able to carry on working, even full time, by concealing their defects at work from those who matter, forcing themselves through pervasive fatigue only to collapse in the evenings and at weekends. Often the individual is able to keep this up for a year or two before finally collapsing under the strain.
Most people who suffer traumatic brain injury (TBI) also develop anxiety disorders such as PTSD, OCD and depression. Specialist Neuro-rehabilitation and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is essential in order to maximise the best possible recovery. In addition, until all psychological disorders are successfully treated the Defendant is always able to argue that the symptoms are due to anxiety (which can be treated) as opposed to brain injury which is often permanent. Given that the person often can’t work full time after a brain injury the distinction is crucial.
Normally these subtle brain injuries are only picked up during the medico-legal process by extremely specialised clinical psychologists and neurologists who specialise in detecting subtle brain injury. Many people with these injuries fall under the radar due to the lack of availability of first rate medical experts and lawyers who understand subtle brain injury.
Dickinson Solicitors are committed to changing this state of affairs.