As a brain injury lawyer, I often wonder about the best ways for me to contribute my support in the early stages of being retained by the client or their family member.  At that early stage, the primary goal of the client is to recover, and the legal tasks are voluminous and time consuming.  In addition to those tasks, such as investigating the accident, talking to witnesses, and educating myself about the specific injuries suffered by the client, I find myself wanting to support the family in other ways.  Simply listening to their frustrations, offering resources of which I am aware because of my experience with brain injuries, and simply letting them know that there is a recovery to be had, are some of the most important things I can do.  family members and friends need to know that a brain injury is complex, and often hard to come to grips with, because many times there is no obvious injury on the outside, even though there are substantial differences on the inside.  The brain injured person can act completely inconsistently with their personality that existed before the wreck.  Experts will tell you that spouses of a brain injured person must become used to the idea that the person they married is not the same person they are married to now, and there can be significant differences pre- and post-injury.  Ultimately, however, these differences can be overcome with the proper support systems, the proper medical treatment, and the proper understanding.