This video discusses the importance of evaluating scars and disfigurement in personal injury cases. It highlights how these injuries can affect the value of a case, particularly for women. The video also shares real-life examples of dog bite incidents and emphasizes the role of plastic surgery in recovery.
Scars and disfigurement can significantly impact the value of a personal injury case. They affect not only the physical appearance but also the mental well-being of the injured party, especially for women.
Dog bites can cause severe injuries that result in scarring and disfigurement. These injuries often require medical attention and can leave lasting marks on the victim's body.
Plastic surgery can help minimize the appearance of scars and improve the physical and emotional recovery of the injured person. It is an important aspect of the rehabilitation process for those affected by disfigurement.
When evaluating the case, you'll have the injury that's in front of you, be a broken bone, torn ligament that needs surgery, a spinal injury, but there's other injuries that you have to evaluate in order to maximize recovery for your client, and those are scars and disfigurement. Now, in these types of cases, I'll tell you in our world that for men who are scarred due to surgery or an injury, unfortunately, the world considers those battle scars. It's almost like men are supposed to be scarred, but for women, it's different. For women who scarred due to an injury or surgery, it changes the value of her case because women focus on beauty, they focus on their looks, and anything that takes away from that hurts the lady, hurts her psyche, and increases the value of the case. Now, one of the areas that we see a lot of disfigurement, scarring type cases, unfortunately, are dog bites. Throughout my years of practicing personal injury law, I've represented both families of minor children and adults who unfortunately have been severely attacked and ravaged by dogs. One case in particular, I had a young boy who was playing in his grandmother's front yard and the neighbor's German Shepherd came across the line, attacked the boy, and ravaged his face. Another case that I had just recently was for a college-age girl who was visiting some friends and they were having a cookout. She had gotten her sandwich and was sitting on the steps of the deck eating her burger. When a neighbor's dog escaped the fence and came over and as she went to bite into her burger, the dog snapped at the burger in her face and tore down her lips and the bottom part of her chin. Now, she was a 22-year-old, just recently graduated college, and this injury unfortunately left her horribly scarred around her mouth. It also did nerve damage to her mouth so that she couldn't tell when she was drinking. But in these cases, what I do for my clients is work with them to get them to the best plastic surgeon and reconstructionist that I can so as we can try and minimize the scars, and helps minimize the trauma. But as an attorney, when I'm valuing a case, yes, I have to look at the actual injury, but also have to look at the scarring and the disfigurement and add the value to those. How does that affect the person? And for a lady, you know, scarring, not only is it a physical injury, it's a mental injury. This young lady who had the dog bite her lips, she's going to carry those scars the remainder of her life. Although she's had multiple plastic surgeries and the scars are not as apparent, if you look it's still there. And that's why as an attorney, not only do you work with a client, but you work with your plastic surgeons, you work at finding the best surgeons and the best reconstructions to help your client, not only monetarily, but physically and mentally as well.
