Can You Prove “Soft Tissue Injuries”?
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 7:28PM 
Matthew D. Powell,
Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney - Florida
Matthew Powell is a board certified civil trial lawyer in Tampa, Florida, who started his career representing over 20 insurance companies. After learning the defense side, he quickly found he could not represent insurance companies and started out on his own to represent injured victims. He has had the honor of obtaining $1,000,000 verdicts for his clients. He can be reached at matt@EPTInjuryLaw.com.
Soft tissue injuries are the most common types of injuries that chiropractic physicians treat. As a personal injury trial lawyer, I have had many opportunities to represent clients who suffered these permanent and debilitating injuries. Almost every trial lawyer will tell you, that “soft tissue” types of cases are the hardest and most difficult cases to win at trial. You may ask, why are soft tissue injuries so hard to prove?
Let’s consider what type of tissue “soft tissue injuries are”. First, the most common tissues are muscles, ligaments, and tendons. But what about nerves, the spinal cord, the brain, our heart, our organs, and our skin? When you think about it, most of the human body is comprised of soft tissue.
How do we, as trial lawyers prove soft tissue injuries? The answer is, by objectifying, or visually documenting, and demonstrating soft tissue injuries in such a way that the jurors can see the injury. Most jurors are very skeptical, however, their skepticism is won over easily when they can see objective proof of an injury. Today’s jurors are familiar with such shows as CSI, and expect high tech, sophisticated, scientific evidence that will prove the claim. And the good news is, that this type of evidence is readily available, easy to use, and produces a great impression upon jurors. There are many great software packages available that generate high quality reports that clearly demonstrate vertebral subluxations, instability angulations and translations, and all sorts of improper alignments and injuries caused by car accidents. The best example of this software is thePostureRay™ computerized x-ray analysis system developed by CBP Researchers on behalf of PostureCo (www.postureco.com or email sales@postureco.com).
As a trial lawyer, I have great respect and appreciation for the doctors who go the extra step and help document these injuries through reliable and valid mensuration techniques. Their reports and images make my case, by easily educating the jury.
We have all heard the term seeing is believing. It certainly makes it a lot easier for a juror who is not trained in reading x-rays to appreciate what is normal, and what is abnormal when it is in a black and white, or sometimes colorized photograph.
And it is so much easier for my expert witness, physician to show and explain to a jury that the reason the bones are out of position is because the “soft tissue” which is supposed to keep the bones in place have been permanently damaged. The soft tissues designed to keep the skeleton healthy and in alignment have been destroyed or seriously compromised, and now, the patient will have constant pain, need more care, and will develop arthritis “right here” at the damaged joint.
In trial, I frequently use normal x-rays and MRIs, and I compare them with my client’s x-rays and MRIs. Additionally, we have computerized measured documentation of the actual condition of our client’s spine with the help of software such as PostureRay (www.postureco.com).
By giving the jury something concrete to hold and examine, and to look at, it makes it quite easy for them to understand the nature and severity of a client’s injuries. Once they appreciate the seriousness of the injury, it is easy for them to figure out the damages.
These sophisticated, scientific high quality images takes the wind out of the defense sails when they try to say that this is purely a subjective injury, that cannot be documented. You can help the lawyers show the jury the injuries with pictures and computerized measurements rather than a non-illustrative report. This will more certainly add credibility to the lawyer, your patient, and your testimony at trial.
Editor’s Note: Attorney Matt Powell was one of the key speakers at the CBP Whiplash Injury Conference held Feb 26-28th, Park City, UT. If you missed this important conference, we are planning on a similar conference for February 2011, see www.idealspine.com for coming details.