Tacoma Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

Most spinal cord injuries are preventable. If you have suffered because someone else was careless, it’s time to call a Tacoma spinal cord injury lawyer. Sometimes, victims can seek justice by pursuing financial compensation. A qualified attorney, such as one from our team, could help manage this process for you.

On this page, we’ll cover a few of the basics you should know about personal injury law and spinal cord injuries, such as:

Situations where spinal cord injuries involve negligence
Why prompt and thorough medical care matters to your case
Factors that impact settlement values
Why you need legal representation

Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries

A spinal cord injury happens anytime your vertebrae, ligaments, or discs become crushed, compressed, or fractured. In other situations, the injury occurs when the spinal cord itself is penetrated, such as a gunshot wound.

Here are some common scenarios where this type of catastrophic injury could happen:

Motor vehicle accidents. According to the Mayo Clinic, almost half of all spinal cord injuries are due to car crashes.
Falls. Elderly persons are particularly susceptible to serious harm after a fall.
Violence. Wounds inflicted from guns and knives can also damage the spinal cord.
Sports. Diving in shallow water poses a particular risk.
Birth injuries. Doctors must be skillful when using tools or force to remove a baby during a stalled childbirth. (Learn more about childbirth injuries.)
Diseases. Some cancers and degenerative diseases can damage the spine.

As the list illustrates above, most spinal cord injuries are preventable!

Common Spinal Cord Symptoms

The severity of a spinal cord injury depends on how your injury happened and the location on the spine. Often, a doctor won’t have a true prognosis for several days until the swelling and bleeding around the site calms down. Even then, understanding the full impact of the injury may take months to assess.

Symptoms of your injury might include:

Numbness and tingling
Loss of motor function
Paralysis
Breathing problems
Sexual dysfunction
Lack of bladder and/or bowel control
Depression

Additionally, you might develop secondary medical complications. Examples include pneumonia, pressure ulcers, and blood clots.

The Importance & Urgency of Medical Care

We urge you to seek medical care anytime you suspect you are dealing with an injury to your spinal cord!

Contrary to popular belief, spinal cord injuries are not always immediately obvious. If you delay seeking care, your injury may worsen.

Additionally, it’s important for your personal injury case that you get evaluated as soon as possible. Medical reports from doctors and hospitals lend crucial third-party insight to your injury claim. Besides this, make sure to keep all your follow-up appointments. Any lapse in treatment could be used by the defense to discredit the seriousness of your injury.

Bottom line: timely medical care is good for both your recovery and your personal injury case.

Value of Spinal Cord Injury Settlements

Catastrophic injuries, such as those involving the spinal cord, tend to have high settlement values. Even so, every case is different.

Many factors can affect the potential value of your case, such as:

Severity and permanence of your injury
Medical costs
Impact to your lifestyle
Impact to your work
Insurance policy(ies) held by negligent party
Your pre-injury health, lifestyle, and age
Settlement amounts in similar cases
Estimated lifelong care needs
If you contributed to your injury in any way

One final factor to consider is the experience of your attorney. Choosing the right attorney is critical to your case’s success. Remember, once you’ve received your settlement, you can’t go back and ask for more money later. Thus, it’s important to have experts estimate the lifelong financial impact of your injury before you settle.

Why to Involve a Personal Injury Lawyer

Simply put, you need legal representation anytime you’re facing a life-changing injury. You cannot trust that insurance companies will act in your best interest.

Some of the services we provide our clients include:

Collecting key evidence
Interviewing witnesses, experts, and others related to your case
Filing all paperwork on your behalf
Negotiating a fair settlement with the negligent party and their representatives
If needed, filing a lawsuit and taking your case to court

At the end of the day, a lawyer works for you. While we will always tell you if we think an offer is fair or not, you get to make the final decisions.

Get Started Today – Give us a Call

The sooner you can involve a Tacoma spinal cord injury lawyer on your case, the better! Ready to learn more and see if we can help? Just give our office a call and ask for a free, no-obligation case review.