Brain Injury from Car or Truck Accident?

This video features Christy Childers, a Personal Injury attorney based in Georgia.

Macon, GA Brain Injury Lawyer Explains

Video Transcript:

Christy Childers: 

So that's why it's important to have a lawyer on your team to really tell the whole story because these doctors, they don't spend much time with you and they don't know what you're like. It's really a bigger picture that we have to put together for the jury.

Molly Hendrickson: 

When it comes to brain injuries resulting from a vehicular crash, what should you know? We're talking to attorney Christy Childers about that on today's episode of Ask a Lawyer. Christy, thanks for joining us.

Christy Childers: 

Thank you for having me.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Can you tell us a little bit about your experience representing injured clients that have been diagnosed with a brain injury after a car or truck accident?

Christy Childers: 

Yeah, absolutely. So, it ranges the spectrum of a mild traumatic brain injury all the way to... I've had a client who had severe issues even speaking after a traumatic brain injury. They're very common.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Are brain injuries always diagnosed right away after an accident? And if not, why not?

Christy Childers: 

So they're not always diagnosed right away and the reason is, because a lot of times people don't even realize that they have a TBI. In my cases, sometimes it can be after they get home and after they've been shaken up in the crash and they're talking to their family members, and their family members start noticing some inconsistencies in how they're acting. And I've even come to a client meeting before where a husband and wife were sitting at the table and the husband was getting so angry with the wife, and the wife was like, "He's never like this. He's the sweetest man." And then we had to talk about how brain injuries can sometimes cause behavior changes in the client.

Christy Childers: And of course, what's so frustrating for the brain-injured client is they don't believe it, they're like, "No, I'm not. I'm fine." And so sometimes, it's a conversation that I have to have outside of the room where the person without the TBI is not there, just with the family members to really keep an eye on things and talk to me frankly about what they've noticed since the wreck.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Yeah, I can imagine it's really a tough conversation to navigate. Can you tell us about some of the challenges that your clients have had with brain injuries? Maybe people don't realize some of the challenges that they have.

Christy Childers: 

So, one of the challenges that one of my worst brain-injured clients had was when she would meet people new, having to explain it and sometimes even when she would see experts and her doctors, they would discount her and I remember reading in the records sometimes that they just felt like maybe she wasn't that bright to begin with, which I found very offensive. I'm like, "You don't even know this person and you're just assuming she was like that?" And so our job as your lawyer is to tell your story and to bring in people to say, "No, mama never talked like that before." And even if she didn't have the best grades in school, she wasn't facing these kind of obstacles that the brain injury has now put on her.

Christy Childers: 

So that's why it's important to have a lawyer on your team to really tell the whole story because these doctors, they don't spend much time with you and they don't know what you're like. It's really a bigger picture that we have to put together for the jury.

Molly Hendrickson: 

And these brain injuries, they don't just affect the victim, it's really a wide sweeping effects that can be had on the entire family. What have you seen? How does it affect the entire family and friends too?

Christy Childers: 

You know, I see a lot of people who get divorced, if it's a spouse. And ever since that happened in one of my clients in a case, I now try to give the spouse a little bit of counseling ahead of time, the spouse who doesn't have the TBI. And I say, "You're gonna notice changes, this is not him. He's undergoing some treatment right now that might help him and he's gonna learn how to live his new normal, but he needs you now more than ever, so just know if he lashes out at to you in anger, he's doing the best he can right now." And I just try to get those messages, because there's just not a lot out there as far as patient resources after this happens.

Christy Childers: 

And so sometimes, I'm just noticing it happen in my conference room and thinking, "What can I say to potentially save this marriage?" Which I know is not my job, but if there's one thing that I can say is just to kinda help these people empathize with other people that have been in their position.

Christy Childers: 

When it's a child, uff, I mean, that's when you really want the mama bear lawyer in the room to talk about what it would be like if you brain-injured my child. Now, we're not allowed to use those same words because it might violate the golden rule, but you can tell the story in a way that shows the jury that I'm connecting with this family and their story on the mama bear level. Because I do have kids of my own and cannot imagine if they were now faced with a brain injury that caused them to potentially fall behind in school or even worse.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Can any lawyer handle a brain injury case? And for people out there watching, what should they look for when deciding to hire a lawyer?

Christy Childers: 

That's a really good question. So, the truth is that there are lawyers out there who don't even do injury work at all; And they sign up these cases and then they refer them out to another lawyer, because they can get part of the fee. And so, I would not handle a criminal case, you do not want me on your death penalty case because I have never handled... I've handled one criminal case, but I'm not a criminal lawyer. And in that same way, you don't want an attorney who doesn't really do brain injury cases on your case. And so, what you can do to avoid that is to look at their website, although that also sometimes can have information on there that you might wanna verify. You can look at their results page. I don't love results pages because to me, my cases are very personal to my client that I wanted people to know that I've done these types of cases, so I add case types and verdicts and settlements to our results page as well.

Christy Childers: 

But those are the kinda things... And look at their social media. I mean, if somebody... If you know I'm a Trucking lawyer, because like, you're gonna see me in a truck or trailer, driving truck or trailers, and you're gonna be like, "Why is this lawyer doing that?" You're gonna see me teaching other women about trucking law and you're gonna see me talking at conferences about it. So, I mean, looking at those kinda things can really tell you whether or not a lawyer really does practice in that area. And there's nothing wrong with lawyers taking in a case, especially if it's a lawyer you trust, who doesn't do brain injury law. Like, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that practice, they're required to stay involved from a client communication standpoint.

Christy Childers: 

And so, what you don't want is to get left high and dry like you thought you were hiring this one lawyer and then you ended up with another one, but good lawyers who you have a great connection with and who you trust, it's fine to talk to them about who a good brain injury lawyer would be and then they'll bring in somebody else, perhaps somebody like me and we'll work together.

Christy Childers: 

But in that situation, it's a lawyer you trust who's gonna still stay involved and help us keep up with client communication and do other things in the courts to help out on your case.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Yeah, just like any industry, it pays to do your research. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.

Christy Childers: 

Thank you so much, Molly. I've enjoyed being here with you today.

Molly Hendrickson: 

And that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask The Lawyer. My guest has been Christy Childers. If you wanna ask her about your situation, you can call the number on your screen. Thanks for watching. I'm Molly Hendrickson for Ask The Lawyers.

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