Author: John Young

 At Young and Young, we care about the health of our clients and about Hoosiers all over the state.  We have spent a lot of time with experts from all over the Country to educate ourselves about brain injury.  We think this knowledge is essential to becoming the best Indiana Brain Injury Attorneys we can be.   John P. Young, of Young and Young, is a 15 year plus member of the Brain Injury Association of Indiana.  He serves on the Board of Directors and is a former Chair of the Board of Directors.  The mission of BIAI is to educate Hoosiers about brain injury and to be the entry point for all Hoosier families dealing with Brain Injury and who require information about resources.  The most important piece of information about brain injury is prevention is the key.  Brain injury is a very difficult injury for families and it is very difficult to treat.  This does not mean that we do not have excellent treatment, but treatment is not perfect.  Therefore, prevention is the most important thing about brain injury.  You can help prevent brain injury by wearing a helmet.               

Another way to avoid brain injury, for children and young adults is to avoid using Energy drinks.   A recent study has linked the use of energy drinks such as Red Bull, NOS and others, to strokes.  A stroke is brain injury caused by bleeding in the brain.  The bleed can be caused by increased blood pressure caused by the use of energy drinks. The study was recently published in the medical Journal Pediatrics.  There is no final consensus on the use of energy drinks and their safety.  However, given that your brain is so vital to the quality of your life, we recommend that people err on the side of caution.  Please take the doctor’s advice, prevent brain injury by avoiding energy drinks until their safety can be thoroughly reviewed.  Heck, it saves you money and may protect the quality of your life.

As your Indiana Drunk Driving Accident Attorneys, we want to discuss the recent problems being revealed with chemical testing at the Indiana State Department of Toxicology.  Included in this category of Indiana Drunk Driving Accident Attorneys are those that drive under the influence of marijuana, illegal street drugs and abused prescription drugs.  All these chemicals impair the judgment and the reaction time of the driver, putting all other users of the roads at risk for serious personal injury and or wrongful death. We represent Hoosiers who are seriously injured or who suffer wrongful death regardless of whether the driver is intoxicated because of alcohol or drugs.  They are the same to us and result in the same types of injuries to our clients.

The Indiana State Department of Toxicology is under investigation for returning questionable test results.  What’s worse is that these results may have been, in some instances intentionally altered to reach the desired result rather than the true result.  This means that some workers at the lab have been intentionally altering test results to show a positive result.  These findings are a problem for Hoosiers in many ways.  First it diminishes the confidence of citizens in or criminal justice system.  If we cannot trust the system to be fair, then the system is not working and must be altered. Second, the victims of drunk driving accidents may be victimized twice.  The first victimization is the injuries from the crash.  The second is from having to know that a person who really was drunk driving is going to have the charges dismissed because of shoddy work performance by the lab.

The only bright side to this mess is that Scott Newman, former Marion County Prosecutor, a man respected by his peers for his honesty is taking the lead in the investigation and is honestly assessing the damage caused by problems at the lab.  In addition, many tests were performed at subcontracted labs.  These test results do not appear to be in doubt.

If you, or a loved one, has been seriously injured in a drunk driving accident, and you have questions about the lab and these issues, and you are not currently represented by an attorney, please feel free to call and discuss your concerns.

Ever since Charles Woodson’s injury (he broke his collar bone in the last few minutes of Super Bowl XLV) I have been thinking about what we saw on his face every time he moved.  In one scene, a Green Bay Packers player made a tough catch.  After the play, the camera panned to Woodson, he reacted to the play and immediately winced from the pain.  This is a pro athlete, at the top of his game, and the pain from the broken bone stopped him in his tracks.  

 The collar bone is technically known as the clavicle.  It makes up part of the shoulder. In the diagram below on the left we see a diagram of  a healthy collar bone.  It is in the upper most bone in the diagram. The picture on the right is an x-ray of the broken collar bone. 

If you were watching Charles Woodson closely, you could see that his injured shoulder was lower than the healthy shoulder.  Fortunately for Charles Woodson, his collar bone will heal. Most likely his collar bone will be stronger because of the additional bone growth to repair the fracture.  Unfortunately the injury is very painful in the first few weeks after injury. It is painful because bones are innervated, meaning that nerves were damaged when the bone was injured.  The nerves send pain signals to the brain as a defense mechanism which, in part, stops the person from moving the injured bone so that healing may take place.

We have worked with some of the finest orthopedic physicians in the United States to learn about the medicine associated with bone fractures, and broken bones.  We do this because it helps us describe, accurately your injuries to a jury.  It is all part of a day’s work at Young and Young, your Indiana Serious Injury Lawyers.

As Indiana Serious Injury Lawyers, practicing all over the State of Indiana out of our Indianapolis offices brings many surprises.  Something that never ceases to amaze us is people who drive with ice on their windshield and on the others widows in the car.  We are amazed in kind of the same way we were amazed when Christine Aguilera got the words of the National Anthem wrong before the Super Bowl.  I mean she knew she had to sing it in front of 100 million people, we would think that she would put a little work into preparing, say like memorizing the words.

In that same vein you would think that anyone who plans on driving on the roads would want to prepare by cleaning the ice off all the windows to maximize visibility.  We have all seen the car driving down the road with just a small round area scraped off the front windshield.   We know the driver can barely see what is in front of them.  However, there is a lot more to safely driving a car than going forward.  If you are changing lanes, you have to be able to see out the back and the sides of the car.  Just checking the side view mirrors is not enough.  Every car has a blind spot.  You have to turn your head and look out the side windows.  If those windows are covered with ice, you are putting everyone else on the road in danger.  What’s more simple and effective tools are available at a reasonable price to clear the windows.  What we really think is happening is that people are either in a hurry or they have not purchased a scraper or both.

What is the worst that can happen you say?  Well consider this sad scenario.  Driver has not cleared the windshield of ice.  Driver is taking the regular route to work, the same one taken every day, well known to the driver.  However, today, the city is working on a sewer problem and the workers are working at a manhole.  They have erected warnings and barriers, but our driver can’t see them through the ice.  The driver hits a crewman and throws him against his parked truck.  He breaks several bones, might have a brain jury and is in danger of paralysis.  This is a very serious injury which could have been avoided had the driver taken a little time and car.  The worker would have appreciated going home that night, but instead was in the hospital.

Drivers, take a minute and clear all those windows.

Now that the Midwest is  mired in one of the worst ice and snow  storms in recent times, it is good for homeowners and invitees of homeowners (including social guests) in Indiana, to know what to expect from the Courts if someone were to fall and be injured on the homeowners premises.  The good news for invitees is that Indiana law requires homeowners to exercise reasonable care to protect them against physical harm.

The good news for homeowners is that their responsibility to protect invitees on their property is the exercise of reasonable care.  The homeowner does not guarantee the safety of his/her invitee.  Even if someone is hurt on the property, there is no liability so long as the homeowner has exercised reasonable care under the circumstances.

The legal requirements for liability are as follows:

An owner/occupant of property is liable for injury caused to an invitee by the property’s condition only if the owner/occupier:

1. Knew that the condition existed and realized that it created an unreasonable danger to an invitee, or should have discovered the condition and its danger;
2. Should have expected that the invitee would not discover or realize the danger of the condition, or would fail to protect himself or herself against it ; and
3. Failed to use reasonable care to protect the invitee against the danger.

The end result is good for everyone.  The invitee knows that the homeowner is not guaranteeing his/her safety but will exercise reasonable care to protect them from physical harm caused by the condition of the property.  In the same way, the homeowner knows that he/she is not guaranteeing anyone’s safety, but must do what common decency requires—exercise reasonable care for the safety of his/her invitees.

The lawyers of Young and Young travel all over the state of Indiana representing Hoosiers who have been seriously injured in drunk driving accidents.  We are your Indiana Drunk Driving Accident lawyers.  It makes no difference if the drunk driving accident was a car accident, a truck accident or a motor cycle accident, we are relentless in pursuing those who make terrible choices such as getting behind the wheel after drinking and causing injury to our beloved Hoosiers.  Young and Young has been representing Hoosiers since 1903.  We have had a continuous legal presence from then until now.  Our ancestors first settled in what is now Johnson county in the 1820s and we have been Hoosiers ever since.  Our great great grandfather, looking for work, walked from Johnson County to Indianapolis.  He had a son, Howard S. Young, who would become an Indiana Supreme Court Justice before starting Young and Young.

Howard taught his son, who taught us, that there are two essentials to representing Hoosiers, hard work and a dogged determination to understand medicine.  The hard work involves getting to the scene of the accident as soon as you are hired, taking pictures, talking to witnesses and documenting all the facts of the case.  The medicine is essential to informing the jury about the severe nature of the injuries.  We work with nationally renowned doctors who have taught us the medicine of serious injury including brain injury, spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis such as paraplegia and quadriplegia, severe burns, back injuries, broken bones, blindness and wrongful death.

If you have been drinking, call a cab, use a designated driver, call a friend, walk, or rent a room.  Do anything but get behind the wheel.  You cannot undo the harm you do in  a severe drunk driving accident, so prevention is the best answer.  Love yourself, love your family, love your fellow Hoosiers, do not drink and drive.

At Young and Young, we pay special attention to brain injury and the science of diagnosing the injury. As your Indiana Brain Injury lawyers, we want to bring to your attention new studies about the effect of hits to the head.  If you are a football fan, and have been following the National Football League, you know that the NFL recognizes that players are in danger from significant blows to the head.  Philadelphia Eagles fans remember Harold Carmichael, the six foot nine receiver who had to quit the league because of too many concussions.  San Francisco 49ers fans remember losing their quarterback to concussions.  Indianapolis Colts fans watched in horror as Austin Collie lay helpless  on the field with his arms drawn up like he was paralyzed.  The NFL has instituted new rules to try and minimize the danger associated with hits to the head.  We think going back to leather helmets would encourage players to not lead with their head or to enter contact so violently.

In this month’s copy of National Geographic Magazine further evidence is discussed that places even more emphasis on protecting the brain. A study being conducted at the University of North Carolina is pointing out that a lot of small hits may be just as bad as a few large hits.  The scientist are quick to point out that it is too early to draw conclusions from the study, but some theories are emerging. It has long been known that repeated blows to the head causes brain injury.  In boxers it was called being punch drunk. Now we know this as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The study is attempting to determine the effect of repeated smaller blows to the head with the idea of trying to prevent injury to future athletes.  For now, we encourage all athletes to wear their helmets, including when skiing and biking. Be careful, the best way to treat brain injury is to prevent brain injury.

As you know from our recent talks, we have been taking this time to defend the civil justice system against those who would rather strip the American public of their rights than have to make up for the harm they do.  We, as Americans, have done a poor job defending our right to jury trial.  Our founding fathers thought enough of this right to specifically place it in our constitution.  We should be defending it more vigorously than the gun lobby works to defend the right to bear arms.  We have let the insurance companies and the moneyed interests chip away at our rights over the last 40 years.  These interests have been very effective with ad campaigns and smear tactics to redirect our attention away from our rights so they be taken away from us without us really know or understanding why it is happening.  Imagine, if you are involve in a serious automobile accident or seriously injured in a drunk driving accident, not being able to demand, yes I say demand that the person whose negligence caused your serious injury be required to make up for the harm they cause, to fully make up for the harm they caused.   You may think this is impossible but we are sliding ever closer to this reality.  In Indiana, hundreds of immunities now exist in our law to protect those who cause injury from having to fairly make up for the harm they cause.  We see stories in the papers and on TV telling us another out of control jury has awarded outrageous damages for no injury.  These stories are believed despite the fact that the jury heard all the facts, were controlled by the judge and strict rules of evidence and made their decision based on those facts rather than the inflammatory accusations made by those who stand most to lose by a fair jury, the Insurance companies, and vested interests.  We are barraged by false stories about lawsuits, such as the Stella Awards, and instead of checking the facts, we believe the hype and condemn the system, the very system designed by our founding fathers to protect us.  If guns were assaulted as heavily as our right to a jury trial America would be howling.

For this reason, I want to recommend you watch a new documentary entitled “Hot Coffee.”  It tells the story the jury heard about the McDonalds Hot Coffee case from 20 years ago, and then goes into other examples of “Tort Reform.”  Most important, it explains why the lies have been told for over 20 years about our Tort system, and the corporate interests behind the public relations nightmare.  The documentary is so good that it’s been accepted at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.  Here’s a link to the first official critique of the film:  Sundance Review:  Hot Coffee

I do not ask you to swallow whole what you see in this documentary.  I ask you to think about what you see.  Check the facts and make your decision.  After doing so, I am confident that you will have a renewed respect for jury trials, the civil justice system and your rights.  Pass on what you learn.

At Young and Young we are serious injury lawyers representing seriously injured Hoosiers all over the State of Indiana from our Indianapolis Offices.  We defend the civil justice system from unfair and unfounded attacks by people of corporations who want to attack the system for their own benefit.  The benefit they seek in attacking the civil justice system is to close the Court House doors to deserving Hoosiers who have been injured by others negligence.  These people will say that they do not want to close the doors to legitimately injured Hoosiers, but their actions speak louder than their words.  These people want to give immunity to all sorts of businesses so even if these businesses are negligent and their negligence  results in serious injuries to deserving Hoosiers, the business will not be responsible for making up for the harm they cause.  Honestly, most of these businesses are insured against such claims, so it is really the insurance industry that benefits.  These same people want to cap the damages a person can recover.  Say this injured person has a million dollars in medical care costs caused by the malpractice. This injured Hoosier cannot recover more than $1,250,000.00  Thus, this injured Hoosier will have to apply for Medicare and Medicaid, and instead of the doctor making up for the harm he/she caused, you and I will be taking care of this unfortunate seriously injured Hoosier for the rest of his life.

Another way these people attack the civil justice system is by making up outrageous stories that make the system look like it is the problem.  Of course, by and large these stories are false.

Take for instance the Stella Awards. About this time every year we start getting the “Stella Awards” email (thestellaawards.com) from friends who think the examples cited are outrageous and somehow want us to comment or justify  the attack on civil justice that these “Awards” put forth. If you get the “Stella Awards” in your email, please, before giving it any credibility or passing it along to your contacts click onto www.snopes.com and learn how this is totally false and untruthful. The only thing worse than making up false damnation’s about our civil justice system is to pass that untruth onto your contacts as if it were true. The truth is that we are blessed with the best system in the world to determine the truth and protect parties in either our civil or criminal justice system. Many people have sacrificed ,which has included giving  up their lives, to obtain and preserve our right to trial by jury.  Our state and federal constitutions recognize this rights importance and are  written to preserve our basic rights including our  right to trial by jury.  We also have a freedom of speech which those same people sacrificed and died to obtain and preserve. It is not the freedom of truthful speech.  Unfortunately that freedom allows and often protects untruths and distortions to be spread just as easily as the truth. It is our duty to look with a critical eye when we read things like the “Stella Awards”, because while our freedom of speech protects its dissemination it does not guarantee it truthfulness… Thanks for your consideration in stopping this outrageous attack on our precious right to trial by jury which so many sacrificed to preserve.