Plaintiffs attorney Stewart Casper's practice deals almost exclusively with traumatic brain injuries, and he knew he had a good case in the matter of Anne McDonald, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after a fall at the Noah Webster House Inc. museum in West Hartford.

The problems, though, were twofold: liability and getting experts to prove the severity of McDonald's injuries.

"There was potential liability because no one saw the incident, and she had no memory of the incident," said Casper of Casper & de Toledo in Stamford. The liability issue, Casper said Friday, was resolved because McDonald's co-workers, even though they did not witness the incident, were with her on the tour. Casper was able to put the pieces together through their testimony, and demonstrate just how unsafe the stairway to the museum attic had been.