He’s currently using the solicitors that came with his insurance and after two years, they are advising him to settle his case, including lost earnings, for £30,000, but no-one is taking any notice of how my son is behaving.
Prior to the accident, he was a normal, happy 22 year-old young man with a lovely girlfriend, a good collection of biker mates and a good job as a welder. Everything was great.
Now he’s rude and obnoxious. He’s driven his girlfriend away by being all over every girl he meets, right in front of her. He gets angry over nothing, he can’t be civil and doesn’t care who he upsets. He’s lost pretty well all of his friends.
He was unconscious for about a week after his accident and he has a big memory loss. He can’t hold a thought or even read a newspaper.
Why has no-one taken this into account? My whole son’s attitude is, “I don’t give a shit!” which is something he says about just about everything. He also swears all the time, even in front of me and his Nan, something which he never did before his accident.
What has happened to my son? Why aren’t his solicitors helping him more than they are?
Name and address withheld
It seems to me that your son has absolutely classic symptoms of something called ‘frontal lobe syndrome’. In a sudden deceleration, the brain moves inside the skull, and the front of the brain laps into the bone on the inside of the forehead.
I’m sorry to be talking to you about your son in such graphic terms, but the truth of the matter is that the front of the brain which controls inhibition, understanding and empathy with other people, manners, concentration and to a degree language skills has been damaged in the accident.
He is not going to get better. Damage to this part of the brain is almost always permanent, and whilst your son, with help, might learn to moderate his behaviour, both as he gets older, and as he learns to control himself better, the physical damage to his brain has already been done.
Over the years, I’ve been involved in very many cases just like your son’s, and I’m afraid that unless somebody is very used to dealing with motorcycle injuries and subtle symptoms of this type of brain injury, and your son’s are pretty extreme, they are not obvious to somebody who isn’t looking for them.
Your son needs to change solicitors to one with genuine expertise in head injury claims. Unfortunately, he is extremely unlikely to get one of these with his legal expenses insurance solicitors, who tend to use unqualified non-lawyers, who simply will not have the experience or skills to deal with this type of work.
Andrew Dalton
Fast Bikes Magazine
Andrew Dalton has been writing articles for Fast Bikes Magazine for a considerable period and have condensed what we believe are the most useful articles to you. White Dalton Motorcycle Solicitors deal with personal injury claims and our sister company, Motor Defence Solicitors, deal with any road traffic offences.
