Dealing with the fallout of a spinal cord injury can be a severely stressful time in your life, especially if you are attempting to pursue a legal claim for it without the help of an accomplished injury lawyer. A good lawyer can help establish grounds for a strong case and assist you in holding the right people accountable for what happened to you. Spinal cord injuries are often irreversible and lead to more problems. A Santa Monica spinal cord injury lawyer can help. If you have additional legal questions or concerns, a local Santa Monica personal injury lawyer can offer guidance and support as you seek compensation.
It may take you some time to decide to file a legal claim against the negligent party. Your reasons are your own, but when you decide to take that plunge, you will want to hire an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer who has handled cases like yours in the past and succeeded in them.
Additionally, you will want your lawyer to understand the difficulties of your current plight and be brutally honest with you about your chances of victory. You want someone you can trust and rely on.
Choosing an experienced injury lawyer to take control of your case allows you to devote the majority of your focus to recovering from your condition and following your doctor’s treatment plan.
Depending on how significant your injury was, and spinal cord injuries usually are significant, you could be looking at a substantial settlement. Keep in mind that there are never any guarantees, but your lawyer will certainly do what they can to get you an appropriate settlement.
Dealing with a spinal cord injury can be one of the most devastating conditions you will ever face. Aside from the obvious physical damage it can cause to your body, it can also affect your mental and emotional health in profoundly negative ways. It can also cause additional health problems you have to be prepared to deal with, impact your personal relationships, cause you to lose out on job opportunities, and make you feel helpless.
When you decide to pursue a personal injury claim against the party who caused your condition, it is vital to your case that you pay attention to the state’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims in California, which is two years. The state gives you two years to establish grounds, build a case, gather evidence, speak with a lawyer, and file a claim for damages. If you can’t file before two years have passed, your case may be dismissed entirely.
Failing to file a damage claim within the established two-year window can result in losing the opportunity to seek damages at all. It can take a lot more time than you might think to develop a strong spinal cord injury claim, so you may want to get started as soon as possible. If you are worried about the strength of your case, bring it before a lawyer and see what they have to say.
The main job of the spinal cord is to take messages from the brain and send them throughout the body, allowing your organs and muscles to move. It also sends messages from the body back to the brain. If that signal relay is interrupted by a spinal cord injury, the devastation it can wreak in your body can be astonishing. Spinal cord damage can halt those messages for good, resulting in a failure of bodily functions, most notably paralysis.
Your treatment plan will depend on whether your injury is complete or incomplete. Both versions are serious and can cause you lifelong health problems:
It can be difficult to know which kind of spinal cord injury has the most positive prognosis, as every spinal cord injury is different. People tend to respond differently to trauma, as every person’s body is different too. Generally, injuries to the lumbar spine have a better prognosis than injuries to other parts of the spine. The prognosis is also usually better in an incomplete injury.
When the C7 cervical nerve is damaged, the results throughout the body can be catastrophic. A person with a C7 injury may have nearly no feeling or movement below the neck, resulting in quadriplegia. This kind of spinal cord injury will effectively cause you to lose control over almost your entire body.
Generally, the symptoms of a spinal cord injury are apparent almost instantly. All it takes is for the spinal cord to be slightly fractured, and the effects are readily apparent throughout your body. Depending on the severity of your injury, symptoms might not be noticeable for a few days after the injury. If you suspect you have an injury to your spinal cord, you should seek medical attention immediately.
Full recovery is exceedingly rare, but it has happened. It really depends on the degree of injury. Full recovery from an incomplete injury is possible, though it can take years. Full recovery from a complete injury is impossible, as there is no known cure for healing a totally severed spinal cord.
Deciding to seek legal action for your spinal cord injury is a big decision, and an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer can help make that decision with you. Pursuing such a claim can be difficult without a lawyer to help you. It’s important to consider hiring someone you trust to handle your claim.
The legal team at Heimanson & Wolf, LLP, knows the kind of legal assistance you will need to pursue a spinal cord injury claim. We can help by looking over your case, helping gather evidence, and representing your interests throughout. Contact us to schedule a consultation as soon as you can.