Brain Injury Puts Lawyer at a Loss for Words

18.05.12

Struck on the head when a heavy piece of camera equipment fell on him as he was attending a music festival with his girlfriend, a Texas lawyer went to the emergency room, got stitched up and initially thought he had simply suffered a flesh wound.

Then, a few days after the March 19, 2011 accident, Patrick Fagerberg, now 42, began having difficulty speaking even in short sentences. His emotions changed, too, he and his girlfriend say; he was distant with her and made some impulsive decisions that obviously weren't good choices, they tell Texas Lawyer .

A well-known figure in Austin courtrooms, Fagerberg had to stop practicing law because he could no longer represent clients adequately. Eventually, he was diagnosed with an injury to his frontal lobe, which controls both mental processes such as concentration and thinking and emotions.

Like many solos, he had opted not to purchase long-term disability coverage; the only really disabling injury to an attorney is a brain injury, a relatively rare event for a lawyer. He is, however, pursuing a tort claim over the accident, something he had thought he would never be involved in as a plaintiff, the article recounts.

Source: ABA Journal