Personal injury lawsuits can cover a wide range of accidents and injuries, but one of the most traumatizing, complicated forms of personal injury cases involve spinal injuries. After suffering a major spinal injury, it can difficult to live and work as you normally would, and unlike other injuries that you could suffer, spinal injuries usually do not improve. Because spinal injuries result in lifelong ailments, many people choose to file a personal injury lawsuit.
As with any major decision, filing a personal injury lawsuit requires having the right level of information and understanding. Here is some important information about a spinal injury lawsuit that you should know, including why you need to hire a Paterson personal injury lawyer.
How Was Your Spine Injured?
Spinal injuries occur when you suffer a traumatic blow on or around your spinal column. The nerves contained within your spinal column are very sensitive, and even minor accidents can result in serious long-term damage.
When planning your spinal injury lawsuit, it’s important that you identify exactly how you suffered your injury. Almost any major accident can cause a spinal damage, but the most common causes of these injuries are auto accidents, major falls, violent acts or collisions while playing recreational sports.
Identifying the exact cause of your spinal injury will go a long way towards telling you whether you have grounds for a spinal injury lawsuit.
Proving Your Case in Your Spinal Injury Lawsuit
Before you file your spinal injury lawsuit, you should be sure of the potential grounds for your case. In spinal injury suits, the two most common reasons people decide to file suit are negligence and defective products.
If your case involves negligence, you must be able to demonstrate that the actions of another directly caused your spinal injury and its resulting effects. For example, if you were in a car accident, you could seek to prove that the other driver was drunk or was operating their vehicle erratically.
It is also possible for a person to suffer a spinal injury due to a defective product. Staying on the theme of car accidents, you get into a wreck because of improperly designed or manufactured brakes that failed to engage in time to stop your vehicle.
Watch Out for Common Defenses
A common pitfall of any personal injury lawsuit is being unprepared for possible defenses, which is why it’s important to examine some of the ways your case could be undercut.
The primary defense in a spinal injury lawsuit will be trying to hold you partly responsible for your spinal injury. If the defense can prove you hold some liability in your wreck, then it can reduce your compensation, if not eliminate it completely.
Another way your case can be derailed is based on the activity that caused your injury. For some activities, there is what is called “assumption of risk”, meaning you knowingly engaged in a risk behavior like contact sports. Should the defendant in your case attempt the assumption of risk defense, you will need to show that the circumstances that led to your injury were more than you could expect, even while participating in a risky behavior.
What About Compensation?
Spinal cord injuries, because they have lifelong impacts, often are eligible for a higher level of compensation than you would expect from a typical personal injury case. If you are awarded damages in your spinal injury lawsuit, they may be given to you to cover such expenses as medical bills, assistive mobility equipment and anything else you might need to recover from your injury as much as possible.
Hire a Paterson Personal Injury Lawyer
Before filing your spinal injury lawsuit, you should consult with a Paterson personal injury lawyer from The Law Offices of Peter N. Davis and Associates. Our legal team has experience in multiple areas of personal injury, including spine injuries, and we can help you with your case.