Unlike most other parts of the body, the spinal cord—a bundle of nerves inside your spine that connects your brain to the rest of your nervous system—can’t heal from injuries on its own. Unfortunately, this means damage to the spinal cord is often irreversible. Since this sort of injury results in the brain being cut off from the rest of the body below the injury site, irreversible damage often manifests as permanent and total paralysis.
This is a severe outcome for an accident, and if you’ve been hurt in this way due to someone else’s negligence, they should be the one who pays for the negative effects of your injury. Getting that kind of result from a civil lawsuit or settlement proposal can be impossible without a skilled catastrophic injury attorney’s guidance, and especially without the support of a seasoned Eatontown spinal cord injury lawyer with years of experience fighting and winning similar cases.
How Valuable is a Spinal Cord Injury Lawsuit?
Regardless of the circumstances that led to an injury, the financial value of a lawsuit or settlement proposal is determined by how severe the injury is and how dramatically it will affect the injured person’s life moving forward. Two main factors determine how serious a spinal cord injury is and what kind of compensation an Eatontown attorney can help you recover for it: completeness and location.
A complete spinal cord injury involves the spinal cord being completely severed at the injury site and causes permanent and total paralysis in every part of the body below that point. Incomplete injuries like bruises and minor tears will sometimes give injured people prospects of long-term recovery. Spinal cord injuries closer to the tailbone may cause paraplegia in the legs and lower torso, while injuries closer to or inside the neck may cause quadriplegia in both legs, both arms, and the entire torso.
Getting Past Legal and Procedural Roadblocks
Proving that you suffered a specific type of spinal cord trauma because of someone else’s misconduct is not always easy. You may also need to prove that you weren’t to blame for causing your injury through your own misconduct, or you may miss out on much-needed compensation due to the modified comparative fault system.
You also need to formally file suit within two years of when you first got hurt. In most cases, that’s the filing deadline set by the statute of limitations for personal injury claims. Avoiding these and other obstacles on your road to fair financial recovery is one of many things a spinal cord injury lawyer in Eatontown can give you vital assistance with.
Talk to an Eatontown Spinal Cord Injury Attorney About Legal Options
No one deserves to lose any amount of bodily function because of reckless or careless conduct by someone other than themselves. Unfortunately, that exact scenario plays out every day—and if you try to handle it without support from respected legal counsel, you risk not getting the money you need to make up for the losses you shouldn’t have suffered.
A conversation with an Eatontown spinal cord injury lawyer will provide confidence about how to enforce your rights. Call Ostroff Godshall Injury and Accident Lawyers today to learn more.
