Accident victims often stand to lose a lot after sustaining severe injuries. Among these are spinal injuries resulting in permanent disability and a drastic lifestyle change. Despite this, you are entitled to receive damages from the party liable for your injuries based on the losses suffered. Therefore, you want to familiarize yourself with the damages recovery process to help you receive monetary compensation for the harm done.
Thanks to the benefits you receive, you are in a better position to lead a comfortable life and have a chance to retry your previous engagements. Working with a well-experienced personal injury attorney is the best way to start your damages recovery. Their input in your case will go a long way in raising your chances of receiving the highest compensatory amount possible for your benefit.
Circumstances Prompting Recovering Damages for a Spinal Injury
You may be exposed to a hazardous environment through different factors and conditions, so learning of circumstances that justify recovering damages is essential. This way, you will know when to approach a personal injury lawyer to pursue the matter on your behalf, and eventually, receive compensation.
Since your injury may occur from various causes, you also need to have all the details before the accident well set out, as they will be useful in finding the party liable for your condition. Some common causes of spinal injuries are:
Work-Related Accidents
Employees who suffer an accident at their workplace are entitled to compensation provided the accident occurred during the regular onset of professional duties. For example, if you work in a construction company and suffer a spinal injury when undertaking duties, presenting a compensatory claim will be valid.
Nevertheless, you should ensure that your employer includes the worker’s compensation benefits in your employment contract. Alternatively, you can seek compensation under the insurance cover provided by your company, if any.
Car Accidents
Accidents among motorists are also a common way to sustain spinal injuries, especially in high-impact incidents. Typically, one or more drivers will be at fault, meaning they are the primary cause of the accident.
Common road malpractices resulting in accidents and subsequent spinal injuries include drunk driving, high speeds, and failure to observe traffic light regulations. If you are a victim of any negligent road practices, your attorney will help you identify the liable persons for further action in recovering damages.
Upon identifying the liable party, you want to ensure you consolidate sufficient evidence against them for use in justifying your claim for damages.
Medical Malpractice
Furthermore, your spinal injury may occur after medical professionals engage in grossly negligent practices that result in severe damage. As the patient, you will have a right to claim damages from the liable parties, as they are held to a strict professional standard. Under the expectations, medical professionals should apply the highest duty of care when undertaking their responsibilities. Therefore, their lack of care is your primary justification for receiving compensation.
Slip and Fall Accidents
If you sustained your spinal injury by slipping and falling, you could also claim damages from the liable party. Most cases involve negligent actions, whereby a safety hazard results in your fall. For example, if a cleaner fails to put a slippery floor sign in a public access place, they may be liable for your injury. Additionally, leaving hazardous items that may cause a fall warrants responsibility for any harm caused.
How to Establish Negligence When Recovering Damages for Your Spinal Injury
Most claimants will cite the law of negligence in justifying their need to recover for the spinal injury, rightfully so. As a result, your attorney will guide you through the various prerequisites to meet when holding a party liable for your damages.
Under Tort law, a party will only be negligent if the judge finds that their actions touched on the four main elements of negligence. Thus, you should work closely with your attorney to ensure that each component is proven sufficiently to avoid any room for reasonable doubt to ensue.
The four elements of negligence to satisfy are:
The Liable Party Owed You a Duty of Care
Firstly, you should prove that the party you intend to claim damages from owes you a duty of care. Usually, duties of care are imposed by statutory regulations like bills and policies. However, common practice and general societal expectations may also influence imposing a duty of care on specific members of society.
A duty of care will require you to act in a specific way to uphold safety and other people’s wellbeing. You should also note that duties of care may apply to particular individuals or the general public. For example, a doctor has a specific duty of care to you to ensure they administer quality treatment.
Conversely, the liable party may have owed a general duty of care. For example, all road users have a duty to drive carefully and follow traffic regulations to avoid causing accidents. Similarly, supervisors owe their employees a duty of care to provide conducive working conditions that include safety enhancements. Thus, you can use the standard available to gauge whether the liable party in your case adheres to their duty of care.
The Party Breached Their Duty of Care
Upon establishing that a duty of care existed, you will need to prove that the liable party breached it. This can happen in two main ways; by action or non-action. Subsequently, the law applicable in Las Vegas does not limit you to suing liable parties for only specific activities.
An example of breach by action includes engaging in high speeds on the road, creating a safety hazard resulting in your injuries. On the other hand, breach by non-action involves failure to perform your duty, like failing to warn passers-by of slippery or wet floors.
When presenting the liable party’s breach of duty, your attorney should provide evidence to support your claims for better credibility. This strategy works best in court, although you may also incorporate it when meeting with an insurance representative.
The Breach of Duty Caused Damages
The connection between the breach of duty of care and the damages you suffered (spinal injury) must also be clear for the judge or insurance company to award compensation. Subsequently, you need to ensure that the line of argument is straightforward and does not leave any doubts about the liable party’s involvement in causing the accident.
A great way to ensure you do not miss out on any details is to ensure that the collected evidence represents the direct impact of the breach on your current circumstance. Further, the argument should eliminate any other potential causes of the incident to justify the party’s liability.
Some cases involve multiple causations, where the actions or inactions of various persons are attributed to your injuries. If so, your personal injury attorney should also capture the events related to the incident sufficiently to help you recover. However, you should note that multiple causation cases are often more complex and may take longer to resolve.
You Suffered Damages
Finally, you will need to expound on the damages suffered from the negligent actions. In this case, your claims will revolve around your spinal injury. Subsequently, you need to present sufficient and relevant evidence on the spinal injury onset and how it has affected your life so far. For example, you can provide medical records to show the diagnosis and treatment you have received.
Moreover, you need to touch on the disadvantages you have faced resulting from the spinal injury to ensure your claims are well received. Afterward, you can present the specific claims you would need to be included when receiving the compensatory sum.
Recommended Claims to Include When Seeking Damages for a Spinal Injury
After you present your argument justifying the liable person’s negligence in your case, you will have a chance to submit your claims. During this stage of the case or settlement, you want to bring out all hardships and disadvantages you have suffered, as it increases your chances of receiving the desired amount.
Thus, meeting with your personal injury attorney to establish the best claims to present is essential. The following are commonly accepted claims for spinal injury victims:
Recovery for Medical Expenses
Doubtless, a spinal injury is one of the most severe medical conditions that jeopardize your mobility and ability to fully recover. Due to this, you will be subjected to numerous medical procedures and prescriptions to help you get back on your feet.
When you first sustain your injury, you are likely to be held in hospital and an inpatient. This enables doctors to monitor you closely and detect any mishaps in your recovery journey. Consequently, you will have to cater to inpatient care costs that often accumulate to expensive figures. Even where your medical insurance provider shares the costs, you may still have to pay a large amount, creating high losses for you.
Additionally, treatment procedures may lead to incurring additional expenses, depending on the severity of the injury. For example, your doctor may direct you to receive stem cell treatment, a procedure that ranges in the thousands for every session. Other procedures like invasive surgery and radiofrequency ablation will also increase your financial load over time.
Moreover, you may be unable to afford all the follow-up medication required to help you make a full recovery. This is especially because most doctors will prescribe powerful pain relief medications like opioids, Fentanyl, Codeine, Morphine, and Oxycodone for effective treatment. Without comprehensive insurance coverage, you may run out of funds to purchase medication as required.
Since your spine is a key component in upholding upward posture, you may also need to purchase a wheelchair or crutches for support until you fully recover. Further, you will need a caregiver to help you navigate your home after release from the hospital, which also adds up to the cost.
You should also note that spinal injury recovery requires additional follow-up treatments, adding to the total expenses. For example, you will need to attend physical therapy sessions or remain in rehabilitation centers to help you relearn how to walk. Your doctor may also schedule numerous follow-up visits to ensure you are making a recovery as expected.
Subsequently, your claim for medical expenses is well justified and can include additional factors depending on your experiences. When presenting the claim in court, you want to present all medical reports, receipts, imaging, and prescription documents in their original form. Doing so will build on your credibility and increase the chances of recovering damages.
Losing Your Source of Income
Naturally, you will be unable to work for an extended duration after suffering a spinal injury based on multiple factors. For example, you may need to attend physical therapy sessions for a few hours every day, which collides with working hours. Other patients are advised to remain in rehabilitation centers for months or weeks until they can support themselves again.
Due to this, you are likely to lose out on wages or your salary, especially if your compensation scheme is hourly-based. Additionally, your absence from work limits your chances of receiving bonuses, promotions, or advancements. Most patients will therefore have to deal with challenging financial circumstances until they return to work or receive compensation.
When you present this claim, you want to prepare an elaborate structure on the specific monetary figures you have lost after the accident. To do this, you can multiply the number of days you have been unable to work with the estimated earned amount per day. The result will be an accurate reference point to help the judge or insurance provider justify your compensation.
Additionally, you can include witnesses to testify on your inability to work, especially where the liable party tries to downplay your current position. Further, you should include the number of dependents you have, if any, for perspective when the judge or insurance company awards damages.
Loss of Future Earning Capacity
You are also entitled to recover for the loss of future earning capacity, particularly if the spinal injury left you disabled. This is because you may have been a professional in a specific line of work that requires physical engagement. For example, a professional athlete, constructor, or dancer may have a difficult time adjusting their career after the injury.
Thus, the court allows you to recover in these circumstances provided the projected amount is reasonably arrived at. Mostly, your attorney will use your age, current professional experience, and work potential to calculate the specific monetary figure that would be ideal as compensation.
They will also factor in whether you were likely to receive a promotion and the age you would have retired when determining the figure. This way, your personal injury lawyer ensures you receive a fair sum for all the career opportunities you miss out on. If the judge or insurance provider approves compensation claims, you can expect to receive the requested amount.
Punitive Damages
In cases involving gross negligence, you can also request punitive damages directly from the liable party. Unlike other types of damages, this category is available to you as punishment to the liable party for their complete disregard for your wellbeing.
The court authorizes punitive damages if the judge is satisfied that the respondent could have conducted themselves better but failed to. Furthermore, you do not have to justify your claim for punitive damages, as the judge holds discretion on whether to award them. Despite this, you can expect the judge to have your interests first as you are the spinal injury victim.
Punitive damages amounts range depending on multiple factors, including the severity of your case and the respondent’s level of negligence. Some judges may use a percentage system to award you extra damages as a percentage of the primary compensatory figure. For example, the liable party may have to pay an additional 20% of the initial damages as punishment.
Damages for Pain and Suffering
Having undergone intense medical procedures, physical therapy, and intense medication periods, you are bound to have dealt with pain and suffering. Therefore, you can also recover from the ordeal you faced, as it is convertible to monetary figures. The judge will issue specific guidelines on converting your negative experience into a numeric value.
Often, they will assign a number to the extent of suffering you faced between a scale of one to ten. Afterward, they will calculate the figure by the number of days you were in pain or suffered from the injury to determine the total cost.
Contact a Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney Near Me
When you or a loved one suffers a spinal injury, your life may change dramatically for the worse. This is because you may lose your mobility, fertility, and overall good health. Despite this, you have a chance to receive damages for the harm caused to help you rebuild your life. The best way to begin the procedure is by partnering with a skilled personal injury attorney who has your best interests in mind.
At Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney Law Firm, we have a skilled and experienced team that is ready to handle your case as required. Over the years, we have helped hundreds of clients looking for personal injury attorneys’ help in Las Vegas, Nevada, receive compensation for spinal injuries, giving them a chance to start over comfortably. If you or a loved one requires the services of a personal injury attorney, call us today at 702-996-1224.
