Headstrong: The Goldfinger Guide to Understanding Brain Injury :: London, Ontario Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

Headstrong: The Goldfinger Guide to Understanding Brain Injury ©

Acknowledgements

To my beautiful wife who I admire
To my brain injured clients who inspire
Your strength is my strength.

A Note From Brian Goldfinger

If you’ve picked up this Guide, then no doubt that either you, or a loved one has been involved in a bad accident resulting in a brain injury, or head trauma. I’m sorry about the accident, and I hope that things to get back to normal for you and your family.

Brain Injury is scary. It’s not easy for anybody to cope with, let alone understand. Accident victims and their families experience deep frustration in trying to get back to the routines of daily life which they knew before the accident. But getting back to those routines is an uphill battle. Even the best doctors across Ontario have problems understanding, treating, and managing brain injury. Like I said, it’s not easy for anybody involved.

Doctors, therapists, social workers, nurses and my fellow lawyers have asked me all sorts of questions throughout the years in terms of how our law firm manages brain injury clients and cases. This has brought me to write this second installment of the Goldfinger Guide Series; Headstrong: The Goldfinger Guide to Understanding Brain Injury ©. After the success of The Goldfinger Guide to Fair Compensation, this seemed like a natural fit to write this guide to brain injury considering how complicated the world of brain injury really is.

Just like living with a brain injury, managing these sort of cases is very difficult to do. Accident victims are forgetful, moody, depressed, mercurial, and often don’t understand simple instructions. This sometimes plays a toll of the family or guardian of the accident victim which makes handling these files even more difficult for our law firm.

I preach to my team and to people who live with brain injured people the fundamentals of understanding, compassion, patience and hope.

UNDERSTANDING that our brain injured clients weren’t brain injured before they met with us. They were, and remain normal people like you and me. They just process information a little differently now.

COMPASSION knowing that the lives of our clients and their families have been devastated on account of a serious accident. They never expected this to happen. Nobody would wish such a result on anybody.

PATIENCE to explain, re-explain, and go over the message as many times as necessary to ensure that everybody understands what’s trying the be conveyed. And then do it all over again. Communication is key, and dealing with brain injured clients and their families requires the utmost patience.

HOPE This is probably the hardest principal to hold on to during the course of brain injury litigation, but the most important. One of the biggest problems with brain injury is that it’s an invisible killer. There’s no cast, walking boot or crutch for the brain which is visible to the world. Nobody can see what’s going on inside your head. Nobody knows if the accident victim was born with symptoms like stuttering, blurred vision, dizziness, forgetfulness, depression, memory loss, headaches, or if they arose on account of the accident. Nobody can tell if these symptoms are getting better or worse over time. Because of this, some lawyers, some doctors, some insurers might call you a liar, a faker or a malingerer. They won’t believe a word you’re saying. They will try to beat you down into the ground so that don’t come back to fight another day. Stay positive. There is light at the end of that tunnel. While I can’t guarantee any specific results, because that’s simply impossible to do; I can guarantee that clients and families with positive outlooks with hope for a better tomorrow almost always come out on top; one way or the other.

Never give up.

Brian R. Goldfinger B.A., JD., Esq.

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