If you have a trauma or brain injury of the head and were in a car or bike accident crash you may have a closed head injury or be suffering from neurological damage. Head injury trauma is difficult to figure out or diagnose even by doctors. Head injury trauma or brain injury (as its called) includes symptoms like headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, auditory interference or hearing impairment, memory loss, concentration issues and vision loss.

CT and MRI tests for head injury trauma fall short in getting you a good diagnosis but new test like PET and SPECT scans are getting more and more common. PET and SPECT scans provide images of blood flow as well as cellular metabolism.

As with any head injury case figuring out if what early trauma caused the head injury in the first place will be important in order to tie in the injury to the car crash case for money damages as we do in all our cases in Oregon and the state of Washington.

A car driver who pulls a boat with decouples or dehitches is negligent if the boat is not adequately secured. Especially if the boat crashes into another car and injures you. Car boat crashes are often serious and longterm injuries are commonplace.

An investigation is needed early on to figure out if the insurer will cover the claim. Most car insurance policies in Oregon and Washington will exclude coverage for boating injuries unless the boat is not properly secured and if the crash occurs off water.

There are numerous statutory and common law areas that one should look in order to establish a recoverable injury claim in any boat car crash which occurs in Oregon and the state of Washington.

Getting ordered by your insurance company to go and attend an IME is scary because you may be poked and prodded by a doctor whose interest is not the same as yours. In fact he or she is getting paid by the PIP (personal injury protection) insurance company. IME’s are not independent and trial lawyers and injury lawyers like me call them defense medical exams.

Should you go to the IME exam? If you do not attend an IME scheduled exam the pip will cut off pip benefits. If you attend a IME you also risk having the IME doctor generate a negative IME report that could deep six your injury case against the responsible driver.

More and more we see IME’s closer and closer to the mva accident date. IME’s within three month’s following a crash in the state of Oregon and Washington are now much more common.

One benefit of having an injury lawyer on your side is that the pip carrier insurance agent may be more hesitant to send you to an IME in the first place. When my injury clients get an IME notice my practice calls the pip carrier and attempts to cancel it.

A final note on IME exams is always make sure the IME doctor is credentialed the same as your treating doctor. An example is if you have a chiropractor than the IME doctor should be a chiropractor, same as an orthopedic or other medical personal.