Traumatic brain injury cases are won or lost based on knowing what fight you’re in.

“Mild” and “severe” traumatic brain injuries are not two different points on a spectrum. Classifying a traumatic brain injury as mild, moderate, or severe does not describe how much harm was ultimately caused to your client. Rather, it is a clinical triage assessment measuring how the injury first presented, based on the Glasgow Coma Scale, loss of consciousness, and post-traumatic amnesia. It does not measure the long-term damage to your client.

The defense understands this divide and uses the “mild,” “moderate,” and “severe” labels to fight on the ground that favors them. With a severe injury and clear imaging, the existence of harm is rarely contested. The real war is over apportionment and value. With a mild injury and normal scans, the war is fought over whether there is any injury at all

In this webinar, Taylor Ernst breaks down what the TBI degree labels actually measure, why the severity label rarely tracks case value, and how to recognize which fight you are in so you know how to wage the battle.