A personal injury lawyer can review your case and explain how much your spinal cord injury should recover in a lawsuit. Each spinal cord injury has a different value, so a lawyer will need to investigate your accident, injury, and losses.
Spinal cord injury attorneys will consider several factors when determining the financial cost of your injury, including medical expenses, pain and suffering, and your recovery timetable. Whether your injury disabled you will play a key factor in the cost of your case.
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Spinal Cord Injuries Often Come with a Sky-High Cost
While each spinal cord injury presents different challenges and financial burdens, the cost of a serious spinal injury is immense. In fact, the most serious injuries can cost more than $1 million in the first year of care alone, and six figures in each following year.
Spinal cord injuries can be particularly costly because:
- Injuries affecting the spinal cord can cause paralysis and other serious symptoms
- Spinal cord injuries are often disabling
- Even if a spinal cord injury can heal, the victim may need to undergo long-term rehabilitation to regain full health
- Spinal cord injuries can interfere substantially with one’s physical routine, profession, and other areas of one’s life
Medical care associated with spinal cord injuries also tends to be expensive. All of these factors make for high-cost spinal cord injury lawsuits. This makes the stakes of losing your case sky-high.
How Do I Get Fair Compensation for My Spinal Cord Injury?
To secure compensation for a spinal cord injury, your lawyer may explore:
- An insurance settlement
- A settlement obtained after filing a lawsuit
- A jury award obtained as part of a trial
A spinal cord injury lawyer will lead your case, striving to achieve one of these three outcomes. Various factors will determine how your lawyer seeks (and ultimately obtains) the compensation you deserve.
The Benefits of Hiring a Spinal Cord Injury Attorney
Those who suffer spinal cord injuries often:
- Face a massive life change without warning
- Face depression, anxiety, and other severe forms of pain and suffering
- Have to dedicate a huge amount of time to their recovery
- Have substantial physical limitations
- Are psychologically and emotionally overwhelmed
These are all reasons to consider hiring a personal injury lawyer.
Many other benefits come directly from hiring a lawyer, which include:
- A lawyer’s legal training and experience: Understanding the law is a strong start to a spinal cord injury lawsuit. Attorneys’ years of legal training and experience, therefore, may greatly benefit you and your case.
- A law firm’s abundant financial resources: Those with spinal cord injuries often lack financial resources or flexibility. Let a law firm put its resources behind your case. Your attorney and their team will pay filing fees and take care of other expenses, so you don’t have to. Your firm should also go above and beyond, paying for tests, exhibits, and other resources that benefit your lawsuit.
- A law firm’s ability to lead lawsuits and trials: Most people with spinal cord injuries cannot simply “file a lawsuit.” They don’t have the legal knowledge or experience to do so. On the other hand, lawyers can promptly file lawsuits and take cases to trial when necessary. Therefore, having a lawyer ensures all legal options are available to you.
- A law firm’s expert network: Experts can take spinal cord injury cases to greater heights. An expert’s education and experience can lend credibility to your case that helps with an efficient and favorable resolution.
You should be realistic about how much time you must dedicate to your recovery. Handling an insurance claim or lawsuit may not be realistic for most with a spinal cord injury, so hire a lawyer to do your case justice.
Your Injury Lawyer Will Lead Your Claim or Lawsuit from Start to Finish
Lawyers, paralegals, and support staff work together to build the strongest claims and lawsuits possible. Your legal team will carry your case on their shoulders by:
Obtaining Evidence Right Away
Your legal team will establish fault for your spinal cord injury. Evidence can vary from case to case. For instance, a lawyer will gather different types of evidence in a car accident case than in a slip and fall case.
Your legal team will act quickly to secure evidence, as they may have a limited time to obtain it before it becomes unavailable.
Making a Detailed Account of Your Damages
Spinal cord injury lawyers document clients’ damages in as much detail as possible and may do so using:
- All medical images of your injuries
- Doctors’ diagnoses of your injuries
- Pre-injury income statements proving your lost income
- A mental health professional’s assessment of your pain and suffering
Your own explanation of how your spinal cord injury has affected your life may also help your lawyer value and document your damages.
Establishing a Case Value
Every spinal cord injury has a unique value. Attorneys will calculate the cost of economic damages including medical bills, lost income, and rehabilitation-related costs. Your attorney will also use legally recognized calculations (usually, the per-diem or multiplier method) to value your pain and suffering.
Negotiating with Insurance Companies
If insurance companies are a part of your spinal cord injury case, your attorney will likely seek a fair settlement from those companies. Negotiations usually involve presenting evidence of fault, explaining your damages, and presenting a demand letter.
Insurance companies do not always extend fair settlements, but most civil cases end with a settlement agreement. If liable parties do not offer a suitable settlement, your lawyer will explain the next steps in your case.
Filing a Lawsuit if Necessary
Filing a lawsuit can be necessary whenever liable parties do not offer a fair settlement.
You may choose to file a suit if:
- Those responsible for your spinal cord injury do not have insurance
- The amount of insurance available does not cover your losses
- Insurance companies will not negotiate a settlement in good faith
- You do not receive a fair settlement offer for any reason
Your lawyer will likely take every opportunity to negotiate a fair settlement. Still, your attorney should not hesitate to file a lawsuit on your behalf once it is clear that liable parties will not offer the settlement you deserve.
Leading a Trial if Necessary
Filing a lawsuit does not necessarily mean your case will go to trial. Your attorney can still negotiate a settlement after filing the suit.
Trial is where many lawyers thrive. Non-lawyers don’t know how to complete trials, but hiring a lawyer will allow you to proceed to court if necessary.
Taking Every Other Case-Related Responsibility Off Your Hands
Spinal cord injury cases present unpredictable demands and challenges. When you hire an attorney to lead your case, you free yourself of these obligations.
Your lawyer will manage every detail of your case, update you regularly, and fight for the financial recovery you deserve.
Damages Often Associated with Spinal Cord Injuries
Few injuries can change your life as much as a spinal cord injury. The harm of your injury may take both financial and non-financial forms, and your damages may include:
Diagnostic Procedures
Diagnosing a spinal cord injury may require:
- Physical evaluations, including tests of the patient’s sensation
- Breathing, responsiveness, and weakness tests
- MRIs
- X-rays
- CT scans
You may need to see one or more specialists to properly diagnose your injuries. Your attorney will work closely with your doctors to document and value your medical expenses, including diagnostic procedures.
Medical Treatment
Once you know what your spinal cord injury entails, your doctors will provide a treatment plan. Your lawyer will include all prescribed treatments in their settlement demands.
Professional Damages
A spinal cord injury can contribute to:
- Lost income
- Lost performance bonuses
- Missed opportunities for promotions
- Diminished earning power
If you must change positions, lose your job, or retire because of your injuries, you may also lose benefits you previously received through your employer. An attorney will account for all your professional damages as they fight for your financial recovery.
Pain and Suffering
A spinal cord injury can cause intense, long-lasting pain and suffering that includes:
- Physical pain
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (which may result from the way your spinal cord injury happened)
- Sleep disturbances
- Lost quality of life
- Substance use issues
Pain and suffering may form a significant part of your case.
Mental Health Treatment
Those who seek mental health treatment for the effects of a spinal cord injury should demand fair compensation for that treatment. If you hire a spinal cord injury lawyer, they will include the cost of counseling, medications, and other mental health treatments in your lawsuit.
Disability-Related Costs
Many spinal cord injuries cause long-term symptoms that qualify as disabilities. If your injury is disabling, you may need a wheelchair, long-term caregiver services, and have other damages that demand compensation in return.
Spinal Cord Injuries Can Be Devastating, and You Should Not Gamble on Your Case
Spinal cord injury victims may permanently lose sensation, control of extremities, and various physical abilities.
Those who fail to secure the compensation they need and deserve for a spinal cord injury risk:
- Having to pay out of pocket for the cost of medical care
- Being unable to earn an income indefinitely (and not having the compensation to offset their lost earnings)
- Going into steep financial debt because they failed to secure fair compensation from liable parties
- Suffering the psychological and emotional hardship that accompanies financial difficulties
A lawyer can never guarantee that they will secure compensation for a client with a spinal cord injury. However, a skilled injury attorney can handle your case better than most people can, especially after life-altering injuries. Don’t wait to hire your spinal cord injury attorney.
Can I Afford to Hire a Lawyer for My Spinal Cord Injury Case?
Hiring a spinal cord injury lawyer is no problem due to contingency fees.
This fee structure is fairly standard among personal injury attorneys, as it:
- Means that those with spinal cord injuries pay no upfront cost to hire their lawyer
- Means that the attorney only receives a fee if they succeed in their client’s case
- Entitles the lawyer to receive a percentage of the client’s settlement or jury-awarded verdict
- Requires the law firm to cover all case-related costs
In this pay-for-performance structure, attorneys only receive payment if they deliver results for their clients. This structure also means that anyone who suffers a spinal cord injury can hire an attorney regardless of their financial circumstances.
How Do I Choose a Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
Your spinal cord injury lawyer should have a proven track record of securing compensation for clients like you.
You can rely on several criteria as you choose your lawyer, including the attorney’s:
- Results: Consider what results a law firm has secured for clients with spinal cord injuries. You may also consider settlements and verdicts the firm has obtained in cases unrelated to spinal cord injuries.
- Reviews: Former clients will share insights about a law firm. Look for a law firm with overwhelmingly positive reviews.
- Experience: All things being equal, you may choose a lawyer with more experience than one who has handled fewer catastrophic injury cases.
You should also evaluate a firm’s performance during your consultation. This performance may tell you how the law firm will treat you once it is handling your case.
Complete a Free Consultation and Hire Your Spinal Cord Injury Attorney Today
Do not wait to hire your personal injury lawyer. Time is always a key consideration when seeking a settlement or judgment. Seek your free case evaluation today.
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