How Do I Get Compensation for a Spinal Cord Injury?

What Are the Most Common Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries?

You can sustain a spinal cord injury in car, boating, truck, slip-and-fall, or medical malpractice accidents. The injury can have devastating and life-altering effects on your life. You may become incapacitated and unable to lead an everyday life, leaving you to rely on others for daily living tasks such as feeding, grooming, and moving around.

Skilled lawyers from a reputable Chicago injury law firm can help you pursue compensation for various types of spinal cord injuries. The injuries depend on the degree of damage to this critical organ and will determine its ability to carry nerve signals after the injury:

• Complete injuries: The spinal cord gets severed, causing total paralysis below the damage. Complete injuries include paralysis from the neck down, known as quadriplegia, or paralysis from the waist down, known as paraplegia.
• Incomplete injuries: These sever some of the nerves, causing partial paralysis, such as weakening your legs without completely paralyzing them. It can also cause permanent nerve pain or Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome.
• Spinal cord compression: An accident can cause the vertebrae or discs to compress the nerves without severing them. Symptoms of a compressed spinal cord include weakness, numbness, pain, and loss of dexterity. You may also suffer sexual dysfunction, and loss of bowel and bladder control

Treating and Recovering from Spinal Cord Injuries Can Be Costly

A spinal cord injury can have traumatic, life-changing effects if it is an accident due to someone’s negligence. Recovery could take a long time, and treatment and rehabilitation can be costly. In some cases, you may not fully recover from spinal cord injuries, resulting in a life of ongoing medical care and support.

You may need regular anti-inflammatory injections to relieve the symptoms temporarily. Surgery may also be necessary to remove bone fragments compressing the spine, which may lead to spine degeneration. All these consequences can be costly and may adversely affect your life.

An experienced spinal injury lawyer in Illinois could help you file a lawsuit to recover compensation for the damages. Damages you could receive in a spinal cord injury lawsuit include the following:

Economic Damages

Economic damages are the monetary losses you incur as you treat an injury. They are relatively straightforward to calculate and include the following:

• Past and future medical costs for medical and emergency treatment
• Physical therapy and rehabilitation
• Prescription costs
• Lost income from missed work
• Loss of future earning capacity
• Cost of medical devices

Skilled Illinois spinal injury attorneys can help you prove economic damages with financial records like medical bills and pay stubs.

Non-Economic Damages

Your lawyers could also help you pursue non-economic damages to compensate you for the following:

• Ongoing pain and suffering
• Loss of consortium and enjoyment of life
• Inconvenience
• Inability to perform tasks such as driving
• Disfigurement and scarring

Non-economic damages are often not straightforward to determine, but skilled personal injury lawyers know what factors to consider when arriving at a fair settlement amount.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are not awarded in every case, but if the defendant engaged in exceptionally bad behavior to cause your injury they may be available. Pursuing punitive damages requires you to prove that the party responsible for your injuries acted with conscious disregard for your safety. Your lawyer will evaluate your case and advise if punitive damages are relevant to your case.

What is the Role of a Personal Injury Lawyer in Helping Me Pursue Compensation?

Spinal injury lawsuits require extensive resources that you may not have to completely pursue the compensation you deserve. That’s why you should work with lawyers from a reputable injury law firm in Chicago to help you follow up with the negligent party or their insurance company.

The lawyers’ role in your case is to:

Determine Liability

Aggressive lawyers can help you determine who is liable for your injuries by showing how their negligence led to the accident. Proving negligence is a factor of four critical elements:

• Showing that the negligent party had a duty of care towards you. For example, a driver has a responsibility toward other road users.
• Proving that the liable party breached their duty of care by acting unreasonably. For example, drunk or distracted driving constitutes a breach of duty.
• Showing that the breach falls in the events that resulted in your injury. Your lawyer can achieve this through eyewitness testimony or police report to prove the accident directly caused your injury.
• Showing that you sustained injuries as a direct result of the breach of duty by the negligent party.

Collect Evidence Related to the Accident

For your case to be successful, your lawyers must present the necessary evidence that supports your claim. They can help you collect video or photo evidence, accident reports, employer memos, and eyewitness accounts to show why you have a strong compensation claim and why you deserve to be compensated for the injuries.

Ensuring You Receive the Compensation You Deserve

Lawyers can fight to ensure you receive the total compensation you deserve for the injuries you sustained due to another person’s negligence. Insurance adjusters often try to shortchange personal injury victims to pay them less than their case is worth. Luckily, lawyers know how to navigate this complex issue to maximize the compensation you can receive.

A Skilled Spinal Injury Lawyer Fighting for Your Rights

Sustaining a spinal injury can alter the course of your life forever. While compensation cannot restore you to the condition before the injury, it can help you cope with the aftermath of the damages. That’s why you should contact lawyers from a Chicago injury firm immediately after the accident. They can help you file a compensation claim to help you recover damages.

At Kramer Law, we provide legal counsel and representation to personal injury clients. We aim to protect their rights and help them recover the maximum compensation they deserve for their injuries. We can help you in your case. Call us at (312) 775-1012 for a FREE case evaluation.

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