Should advocates be mandatory for brain injury clients in the legal system. Can Headway read this please.

Hi not posted for a while.

I am coming to the end of the legal process following my brain injury in 2017. The experience is traumatic, stressful and difficult to comprehend with cognitive issues. Headway have a list of recommended solicitors but these are only accessible if you know about them in advance. Switching to them later is very difficult.

If you have an accident that comes under insurance with legal expenses cover the process starts automatically and is up and running within a few days. You will be sent to a medco legal doctor and diagnosed with suspected neurological problems and referred to a neurologist. After this the process gets very complicated and difficult to understand especially with a brain injury.

From experience this process becomes a battle of will between yourself and the people representing you.

The process could be made easier and less stressful if there is an advocate or representative independent of the legal team that could help deal with the case. This person should be appointed automatically if there are suspected neurological problems.

Chris Bryant MP brought a private members bill to parliament which led to a statement by the government where a consultation period will identify issues involving brain injuries. questions-statements.parlia...

It does not specifically mention the legal system but it should be included in the wider scheme. Everything has a legal basis.

This difficulty with the legal process should be brought into the open, people with brain injuries have a right to proper legal process. Cognitive issues hamper that process.

Does Headway have any input in the consultation process? If so can they bring this issue up. Mandatory Advocates for suspected brain injury in the legal process, criminal or civil.

If anyone has been through any legal process with a brain injury please comment on your experience whether good, bad or indifferent. Would an independent advocate have been helpful in that process?

[Jowood29]

Hi, there is a law firm called Cfg Law, they have a brain injury advocate called Michelle Munt , she also has a blog called @jumbledbrain.com. It’s worth following her on Instagram, her blog and Facebook. She has walked (and still does) in our shoes having a brain injury from a road traffic accident, she uses her experience too assist and advice from a brain injury perspective with Cfg law.

[Pairofboots]

I've only been through a divorce. That was confusing enough, the law is difficult to understand, let alone knowing what is relevant. The fact that you go head to head (sorry) with a non-brain injured person is unfair. It does come down to he said, she said.

I was seen by two relatively hostile judge's, luckily both of us had made enough legal screwups to be referred on as not able to progress legally.

The third judge was far more sympathetic, and guided us through, by us, I mean me. I came out of the process scarred, but I think relatively unscathed. My ex, and her family relied on slur tactics, I was on the defense trying to prove what didn't happen, didn't happen. I think the judge could see not only the legal aspect, but also, the imbalance of interpersonal dynamics.

To a point I did in the initial aspects have a solicitor that took pity on me as far as the forms, and submissions went, and gave me free advice, but from the actual face to face, I was on my own. At the end, true to form, it was my ex's greed that tipped the balance in my favour.

I could have done with someone just to keep track of what was going on. Got to admit I struggled with retaining the flow. If it had been heard by either of the first two judge's, I really think that I would have come out far worser (is that a word?) off.

[headwayuk Partner Headway]

Hi Pinkvision,

Many thanks for your post and for the suggestion of making an advocate available to people who are going through the legal process after brain injury.

We agree that the system can be complex and hard to navigate for people with brain injury and their families, a problem that can be all the more difficult in the early stages after injury when many people start a legal case during an extremely stressful period.

As you mention, a new Acquired Brain Injury Strategy is being developed but we don’t yet have detail on exactly what areas it will include. There may well be an opportunity for people to share their experiences and views via a consultation process as the strategy progresses, and we will share more details of this when the opportunity arises.

In the meantime, we continue to work to promote the Headway Brain Injury Solicitors List as a key way to help people find the right support. The directory includes nearly 200 local and national firms with experience in brain injury cases.

Thank you again for taking the time to raise this and we will take your comments on board along with the views of other members.

Best wishes,

Andrew

[Hidden in reply to headwayuk]

Hi Andrew

Headway is a life saver for many. We all appreciate everything you do.

I've been through the legal process and having an advocate or some kind of real support in helping untangle the legal web would have been helpful. An important point also to remember is that the legal firms may benefit too. The people dealing with me found it difficult and stressful themselves. My case for most of the time was more a battle of will between myself and the legal firm representing me. I'm sure an advocate in the middle could have smoothed the process.

Because this consultancy period of the government is going on it would be good to push problem areas into the open. May be you should produce a questionnaire for people to fill in and gauge the real life problem areas people face. It's a good idea.

Thanks for replying.

[Leaf100]

Hi PinkVision,

I agree that an advocate should be assigned right from the get go.

I do not live in the UK, in Canada, but it seems the system is very similar.

In my case I had a horrible time even applying for my work pension, who delayed and delayed, and in hindsight I could see how for a lot of people getting a brain injury is pretty much an automatic ticket to homelessness - even if you, as a well person, thought all your ducks were lined up if something happened. It is also true that many employers and even those in insurance companies that determine ability to return to work do not get it, either.

The cost of homelessness to society is huge.

It is also true that in general lawyers do not understand brain injury, and unfortunately there are also some that do - and use it as a way to generate income for themselves more than acting fairly for clients.

I would even go further to suggest that advocates need to be available to help brain injured person with their work insurance claims and helping people not get ripped off by those who come out of the woodwork to take advantage of their inability to process as fast as they might. It is also so that sometimes some of us have to do home maintenance or perhaps make major purchases and we really do need someone in our corner so we don't get ripped off.

[Hidden in reply to Leaf100]

I had contacts in Canada and the US along my recovery journey and they all went though this process. Figures from the US show that at least 70% of homeless people had suffered a brain injury and also at least 70% of all suicides had a previous brain injury.

You may want to get in touch with the folks at McGills in Montreal concussionmtl.com/

Emily (BI recoverer) runs live online concussion meet ups, other brain injuries would not be excluded.

[Kentbraininjury]

Hi Pinkvision,

I am a personal injury lawyer and specialise in acting for people with brain injuries. I'm sorry you had a bad experience but at my firm one of the first things we consider is if the client has capacity to give instructions. Secondly, is it in their best interests to deal with the litigation at the outset. If someone does not have capacity to litigate then the firm cannot take instructions from them. They may have capacity but need support so there is the option to appoint a litigation friend and the injured client can take over once they feel up to it or not at all. So there are options available but many firms do not consider these issues. I would anticipate the issue with just appointing someone immediately is not everyone with a brain injury wants another person to deal with, plus the costs of someone being appointed could be an issue. You do rise valid concerns.

[Hidden in reply to Kentbraininjury]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I explicitly mentioned that someone should be appointed at the outset if the primary medco legal expert suspects a neurological problem. The reason for this is that many people in the NHS system find it hard to get a referral for assessment, or it can take years for the assessment from referral. Until the NHS assessment is done the firm dealing with the claim have no idea what is potentially wrong. They then tend to rely on the second medical expert, a neurologist, who relies on the medical records to make their assessment. This results in a confusion because the medical records have no information until the NHS assessment is done. This leads to a medical report that has no relevant information concerning the effects of the brain injury.

An addendum report can be gathered at a later date but the neurologist is unlikely to change his first opinion.

One answer to this problem is to have the second, neurology, report arranged after the NHS assessment is done. To an extent this comes down to competence of the legal team to recognize this. Many claims at the outset are dealt with by file handlers who are paid for completion of the process and arrange the medical reports asap so they can get paid.

Depending on the type of firm dealing with the claim will depend on the competence of the file handler and also to what lengths they will go to in getting the claim processed. If they are dealing with someone with cognitive issues the file handler will realize and try to manipulate the situation.

These are some of the issues I experienced. I learned to get free advice from the many solicitors offering this service and also the power of the legal ombudsman and the SRA. My case ended up a war between myself and the legal firm, the injuries were almost irrelevant and the legal process became the priority. I went to the ombudsman to get them to act properly and won. I have a file of written examples of lies and manipulation, running the case out of time, deleting records, 'losing' documents and manipulating the court process. The next stage is the SRA complaint procedure or a negligence claim.

If there was an advocate from the outset, on recognition of neurological issues, many problems for myself and the legal firm could have been avoided. Both client and legal firm could benefit.