Spinal cord injuries can encompass a range of traumas, from herniated or slipped disks to partial or total paralysis. When a spinal injury is due to the negligence of another party, the victim has the right to sue to recover compensation, which can include the extensive medical and therapeutic services the victim will need, as well as lost wages and pain and suffering.
Explore your options for legal recourse by speaking with a New York City spinal cord injury lawyer at Friedman, Levy, Goldfarb, Green & Bagley, P.C. With a powerful, results-driven legal ally in your corner, you can optimize your chances of a successful settlement. We have the knowledge and experience to show how negligence harmed you, as well as the full range of costs and expenses that you will face as a result of a spinal injury. In New York, we have recovered multi-million dollar damages awards for back and spinal injury victims. Schedule a free consultation today.
Spinal Cord Injuries and Their Impact
A spinal cord injury is any trauma to the nerves that run through a person’s spinal column. Most spinal cord injuries are caused by a sudden blow to the victim’s spine. For example, this injury is common in car accidents or slip-and-fall mishaps.
The Physical, Emotional, and Financial Impact of Spinal Cord Injuries
The impact of a spinal cord injury cannot be understated:
- Physically, the victim will lose some or all sensation and the ability to move and control body functions below the spinal injury. The victim might also need a respirator to assist in breathing, experience chronic pain or discomfort, and suffer skin ulcers from constant pressure on immobile parts of their body.
- In the immediate aftermath of a spinal cord injury, many victims experience grief, denial, depression, and anxiety. Feelings of guilt, embarrassment, and low self-esteem can lead to long-term depression and anxiety. Disability from a spinal cord injury is also associated with feelings of anger and hopelessness.
- The initial medical costs associated with spinal cord injuries can be between several hundred thousand and upwards of one million dollars. After that, annual medical costs and expenses can exceed $100,000. Spinal cord accident victims often suffer substantial additional financial burdens from loss of income and expenses associated with mobility systems.
Legal Aspects of Spinal Cord Injury Cases
In a spinal cord injury (SCI) case in New York, several legal aspects play a critical role in determining the course of action, potential liability, and compensation, including the following:
What Constitutes Negligence in Spinal Cord Injury Cases?
In New York, as in every other state, proving negligence will depend on four elements:
- The negligent party owed a duty of care to the injured party.
- The negligent party breached that duty.
- That breach was the direct and proximate cause of an accident that caused the victim’s spinal cord injury.
- The injury imposed financial losses and expenses on the victim.
Damage awards are intended to make you whole for those losses and are the basis for compensation. The stronger these elements, the better your ability to be reasonably and fairly compensated.
Common Scenarios Leading to Negligence Claims in Spinal Cord Injuries
The causes of traumatic spinal cord injuries include:
- Car, truck, and motorcycle accidents
- Slip-and-fall mishaps
- Violent confrontations
- Overzealous law enforcement personnel
- Medical and surgical errors
- Nursing home abuse or neglect
- Injuries from contact sports, diving, skiing, cycling, and other athletic endeavors
- Exposure to certain types of poisons, infectious diseases, drugs, and other toxic substances
- Spinal bone and disc degradation from repetitive motions and other stresses.
The Role of an Experienced Lawyer in Proving Negligence in a Spinal Cord Injury Lawsuit
It may be obvious that your spinal cord injury is due to the negligence of another party. However, insurance companies often go to great lengths to challenge presumptions of negligence, particularly the element of causation in a spinal cord injury lawsuit.
An insurance company defense lawyer might argue, for example, that:
- The victim had a pre-existing medical condition or some other intervening event that caused the spinal cord injury.
- The victim was partially at fault for causing the accident.
- The negligent party did not owe a duty of care to the victim. This argument is common in slip-and-fall cases where a landlord or property owner might attempt to shift blame to a tenant or claim they were not authorized to be on the property where the accident occurred.
An experienced spinal cord accident lawyer will anticipate and fight against these and other possible challenges with narrative evidence disproving the insurer’s defenses.
Gathering and Preserving Evidence
It may not be feasible to gather evidence of a spinal cord injury immediately after an accident. Nonetheless, the victim and their family should be mindful of the types of evidence that will be crucial to support a significant damages award:
- Evidence of how the accident happened can include eyewitness testimony, video footage from CCTV cameras, police reports, statements from individuals involved in the accident, and accident reconstruction reports from experts.
- Medical reports and records of X-rays and other diagnostic scans that show the spinal cord injury, physicians’ reports of how an impact caused the injury, and invoices and bills showing the medical costs and expenses associated with treating the injury
- Documents reflecting loss of income, such as pay stubs, tax returns, and bank statements
- Personal statements from the victim and their family depicting the victim’s pain and suffering and the effects of the spinal cord injury on the victim’s and family’s lifestyles.
A knowledgeable New York spinal cord accident lawyer will establish the full range of evidence required to verify the compensation that the victim is entitled to recover on account of the negligently inflicted injury.
Using Evidence to Establish a Clear Chain of Causation
A personal injury attorney will also present evidence to show how the negligent accident directly and proximately caused the victim’s spinal cord injury and how that injury led to the financial and other losses that the victim suffered. This proof is more readily established when a healthcare provider treats the victim, and their injury is diagnosed immediately after the accident.
This will foreclose any question of whether an intervening event caused the injury. Medical records and other reports about the victim’s health and well-being immediately before the accident can also prevent questions about whether an injury is associated with a pre-existing condition.
The Role of an Experienced Lawyer in Building a Strong Case for Compensation in a Spinal Cord Injury Lawsuit
Under New York State law, a spinal cord injury accident victim can recover both economic and non-economic damages for losses caused by the injury. To build a case for economic damages, a spinal cord accident lawyer will use objective evidence such as medical bills and pay stubs to show the victim’s out-of-pocket losses and expenses. The skills and persuasive experience of that lawyer will be more critical to demonstrate the full extent of the victim’s non-economic losses for things like pain and suffering.
A skillful lawyer can advocate for a substantial non-economic damages award with:
- Journals kept by the victim and their family that describe the extent and duration of pain and the impact of that pain on the victim’s life and relationship with their family.
- Medical records that depict the long-term ramifications of the victim’s spinal cord injury.
- Expert opinions describing the psychological impact of the injury.
- Testimony from family members about the victim’s activities before and after a spinal cord injury.
Further, Friedman, Levy, Goldfarb & Green leverage extensive expertise in complex personal injury litigation and counsel victims on the soundest strategies for holding liable parties responsible. Our legal team understands the medical and rehabilitation complexities involved in spinal cord injury claims. We work closely with your medical team to properly calculate the full value of your lawsuit.
Schedule a Free Consultation Today
The personal injury law firm of Friedman, Levy, Goldfarb, Green & Bagley, P.C. was founded more than 50 years ago to help injured New York accident victims recover the compensation they need to make their lives as whole as possible after a catastrophic accident. Our spinal cord injury lawyers have recovered millions of dollars in damages for spinal cord injury victims in New York City’s five boroughs and throughout Westchester and Rockland Counties and the Hudson Valley.
Please call our Manhattan offices as soon as you can after you or a family member has suffered a spinal cord injury. We offer complimentary consultations in all spinal cord injury cases. If we accept your case, you will pay no legal fees unless we recover compensation on your behalf.
