Thirty years ago, Dr. Arthur Croft's best selling textbook Whiplash Injuries: The Cervical Acceleration/Deceleration Syndrome was published, ushering in significant changes in the medical and scientific fields devoted to traumatic auto injuries. Dr. Croft’s most recent book—Whiplash and Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries—is written primarily for lawyers, and covers spinal injuries and mild traumatic brain injuries caused by a motor vehicle collision.

In the book, Dr. Croft outlines the anatomy involved in spinal injuries, in terms understandable for lawyers. He also explains the mechanics of rear-end crashes, side impact crashes and head on impacts and how each of these result in different types of injuries. Croft debunks the "junk science" used by the insurers to mislead jurors in low vehicle damage or MIST cases. There are three things that should be of particular use to personal injury lawyers:

A discussion of how the insurance defense doctor opinion that every traumatic spinal injury heals within 4-12 weeks has zero substantiation in the scientific literature, as well as a list of over 70 peer reviewed journal articles supporting that there is chronic permanent pain in the population after a traumatic spinal injury. These resources are great for refuting adjustor responses and the direct and cross examination of medical experts;
A list of all known risk factors for injury in a motor vehicle collision, including references to the peer reviewed journal articles. Again, these are great for substantiating injuries to your client as well as for direct and cross in litigation cases;
A list of all known risk factors for permanency of injury after a motor vehicle collision, including references to the peer reviewed journal articles. These are good for discussing permanent injuries with the adjustor, mediators, arbitrators, medical experts and a jury.

The book goes beyond spinal injuries to discuss mild traumatic brain injuries, as well as injuries in the pelvis, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, and more. If you are struggling with causation issues, Dr. Croft has answers from his live human crash testing studies at SRISD about how those injuries occur. There is also information on how injuries occur in crashes where there is little or no visible vehicle damage - often referred to by insurance adjustors as “minor impact” or “MIST” cases.

Diagrams and illustrations accompany the more complex explanations. Dr. Croft details testing, diagnosis, and treatment of injuries, to determine whether your client does or does not have a particular injury.

In order to obtain full justice for your client, you must understand all of the injuries present, how to properly document them for the insurer, and how to support causation of those injuries. Discover what you're missing, and how to make what might initially seem like a "small" case much more valuable.

This book is distributed by Trial Guides through a distribution agreement with the Spine Research Institute of San Diego.

Forensic Epidemiology