Retaining a Lawyer: Six reasons to promptly retain a lawyer after a family member suffers a severe brain injury
By R. Brian Webster, LLB
If the injury is a traumatic brain injury, all of the following reasons are twice as important; patients cannot recover alone, and must rely upon family to look after things while they concentrate on healing.
- To provide peace of mind so the family can concentrate
and devote all their time and attention to the patient's
other needs.
- To provide advice on any of the numerous issues
which may arise (and usually do) concerning insurance
benefits and post-hospital care.
- To promptly investigate circumstances of the
injury, including locating witnesses, and to prevent the
destruction of physical evidence for later consideration.
Witnesses' memories are ephemeral; they tend to forget.
They also tend to be most helpful to the person who first
speaks to them. Witnesses may disappear after a few days
or weeks.
- Insurance companies' investigators may locate witnesses
and obtain evidence but will not make this information
available to the injured person- it is only used for
their own purposes.
- If a motor vehicle collision is involved, motor
vehicles themselves may soon be repaired or crushed,
which eliminates all possible evidence from those
vehicles. Skid marks disappear quickly and cannot
be investigated.
- To ensure various benefits are claimed promptly,
and to make sure that where there are conflicts between
benefits, decisions are made so that an election to take
one benefit does not eliminate the right to another benefit.
- Typical benefits will include motor vehicle insurance,
Part 7, UIC, WCB, CPP, social assistance, private
insurance and out-of-province non-residents' issues.
- Each of these claims has subtleties, dos and don'ts,
and there may be elections, deadlines, pitfalls, conflicts.
The family of someone who is seriously injured may
feel obliged to provide information which may not
be correct and which may result in long-term losses
or ineligibility.
- To act as an advocate to ensure that rehab planning,
and post-hospital discharge, planning commences. Of course,
not everyone follows a clear post-acute rehabilitation
path, particularly with traumatic brain injury, and a
longer-term view and/or case manager should be put in
place soon, thus ensuring the smooth transition to another
facility or to private home support with the proper funding.
The correct lawyer will assist with the above and provide
continuity, because he/she is there for the long term.
- For protection. Seriously injured people, particularly
those who are suffering traumatic brain injuries, and
their families, need protection from outside agents who
may appear to offer assistance but have a different long
term agenda. As well, there may be competency issues which
should be considered, likewise, offering protection for
someone who is seriously injured.
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