Compensation for the Life-Long Impacts Spinal Cord Injuries
How a Spinal Cord Injury Accident Can Change Your Life Forever
Spinal cord injuries can have severe impacts on a person’s everyday quality of life. Not only can it completely change life as the individual knew it before, but it is also a costly financial burden for the victim and their family.
However, spinal cord injury victims don’t have to go in alone. If their injury was caused in an accident for which somebody else was at fault for causing, they can hold that person liable to compensate them for the damages suffered by the injury and its impacts.
West Coast Trial Lawyers’ experienced team of spinal cord injury attorneys understands what a life-altering experience spinal cord injuries can be and are here to guide you through the legal processes of getting the compensation that you deserve.
How Spinal Cord Injuries Happen
Spinal cord injuries can result from a number of different ways, including accidents. Accidents resulting in personal injury can occur abruptly and unexpectedly.
Some common forms of accidents that result in personal injury include:
- slip or trip and fall accidents, when a person slips on a slippery surface or trips over an object on the floor that causes them to fall and injure their spinal cord
- car accidents, especially high impact ones in which an individual’s back is badly hit against a surface in the vehicle or when their body is flung out of control
- pedestrian accidents, when a pedestrian is hit by a motorist, bicyclist, scooterist, or another pedestrian on the road that knocks them to the floor and/or impacts their back
- shootings, when an individual is shot in the back, their spinal cord is impacted by the bullet
- premises liability assaults, when a person is violently attacked on a property in such a way that their spinal cord is damaged
The Impacts of Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injuries can be life-changing. Not only is a person physically impacted by spinal cord injuries, but their overall quality of life and emotional state can be direly affected as well.
There are different levels of severity when it comes to spinal cord injuries, which range in level of impact from mobility issues to complete paralyzation. Essentially, the two larger categories of spinal cord injury are incomplete spinal cord injury and complete spinal cord injury.
Incomplete spinal cord injury refers to when a person still has feeling and some function in the areas beneath their spinal cord injury. This means that the spinal cord is still functioning to a degree that it can send receptors to the brain. This can also be understood as partial paralysis.
Complete spinal cord injury refers to when a person no longer has feeling and cannot function the areas beneath their injury site. This means that the spinal cord is no longer functioning at a capacity to which it can send receptors to the brain. This can also be understood as complete paralysis.
Whether the spinal cord injury is incomplete or complete, one thing for certain is that with these physical changes, comes an emotional and mental health impact. Victims of spinal cord injuries often feel out of control and mourn losing the more mobile life they once had.
These are some common ways that spinal cord injury victims are impacted physically, mentally, and emotionally:
- loss of mobility, which can lead to greater dependency on others to conduct day-to-day activities
- feelings of sadness or depression, as they are processing the drastic changes in their life
- Restlessness and soreness from decreased mobility and movement
How Compensation for a Spinal Cord Injury Can Support a Victim’s Lifelong Medical Needs
If a person received a spinal cord injury as a result of an accident, they are entitled to compensation for their losses. Damages is the legal term for compensation. Spinal cord injury victims are entitled to both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages refer to those that can be readily calculated based on the past and future tangible financial costs and losses related to the spinal cord injury, such as:
- medical bills, which can be costly as spinal cord injury victims may require life-long treatments
- lost wages, which refer to the income lost when the spinal cord injury victim got hurt
- lost earning capacity, due to losing mobility when becoming partially or fully paralyzed
- household services, such as having a live-in caretaker to assist the spinal cord injury victim to conduct their daily activities and care for needs
Non-economic damages refer to those that are calculated on the invaluable losses that a victim of spinal cord injury faces upon getting hurt. This can include compensation for:
- pain and suffering, which refers to the emotional and physical pain resulting in the spinal cord injury
- loss of companionship or consortium, which refers the ability to enjoy their relationships, intercourse, and ability to have children
- loss of enjoyment of life, which refers to the drastic impact that spinal cord injuries have on a victim’s overall enjoyment in the interaction of their day-to-day living
Recovering compensation for a spinal cord injury cannot amend the damage that is experienced by the spinal cord accident victim, but it can cover the costs associated with the impacts of the spinal cord injury.
These damages can be recovered by filing an insurance claim and/or lawsuit against the party at fault for causing the accident and injury. What this compensation does is relieve the victim from the financial burdens caused by the negligence of the person at fault for their injuries.
West Coast Trial Lawyers is Here to Help
If you are the victim of a spinal cord injury caused in an accident for which another party is at fault, you have the right to a personal injury claim and compensation for your losses. Our kind and compassionate team of spinal cord injury attorneys at West Coast Trial Lawyers are here to help guide you through your case and get the compensation that you deserve for your losses. Contact our team for a free, no-obligation consultation by calling (213) 927-3700 or emailing [email protected].