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Spinal Cord Injury Recovery: How Can a Lawyer Help?

Written by AskTheLawyers.com™

Spinal Cord Injury Recovery: How Can a Lawyer Help?

Written by AskTheLawyers.com™

AskTheLawyers™

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Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) tend to be severe and life-altering, and the recovery process can be grueling both financially and emotionally. Returning to everyday life after an SCI can be a difficult transition. Returning to your old life may be impossible as many SCIs involve the partial or even total loss of mobility, which could affect the type of job you are able to work as well as the daily actions you are able to do, like throwing a football or picking up a young child.

From the cost of medical bills to the damage of wages lost while unable to work, not to mention the overall emotional and mental stress a spinal cord injury presents in a person’s life, SCI recovery can be deeply traumatic. If you or a loved one have suffered a spinal cord injury, it’s important to know that you are not alone.

On average, between 250,000 and 360,000 people are living with a spinal cord injury in the United States at any given time according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center.

If you are working through SCI recovery, there are multiple areas in which a lawyer may be able to provide you with significant help and comfort, allowing you to focus more fully on your health and recovery rather than the legal complications often involved in these cases.

Contacting a personal injury attorney can be extremely helpful to the recovery process.

A quality personal injury attorney will have the experience, know-how, and compassion necessary to seek adequate and necessary compensation for you and your family to aid in the recovery process, as well as to compensate for the permanent changes in lifestyle which may occur after an SCI. An experienced personal injury attorney knows how to evaluate your case and determine the value of it based on the damages incurred to a victim’s health, wellbeing, and overall life.

An experienced attorney will be able to identify damages a victim might not see on their own.

Not only are spinal cord injuries traumatic in a variety of ways, but they are also incredibly expensive to treat in a hospital and recuperate from through rehabilitation. Physical and financial damages are only part of the damages which should affect the value of a case, and an attorney will be able to identify other damages as well which may include changes to the victim’s quality of life, ability to enjoy life, ability to return to work in their chosen field, etc. The intangible damages to a person’s life after a spinal cord injury can be just as harmful as the economic damages and should be accounted for when seeking compensation. It’s also important to pursue compensation, which can cover continuing expenses into the future as a result of the chronic problems created by an SCI.

Vehicle collisions and falls are the two leading causes of spinal cord injuries.

Since vehicle collisions and falls usually involve more than party (i.e. another driver, 18 wheeler company, employer, property owner, etc.), the legal process by which a victim can seek compensation may be particularly complex, as there may be multiple parties involved, each with a different legal obligation to the victim. It is essential that the particularities surrounding fault in a spinal cord injury case be understood and addressed to pursue fair compensation; an experienced personal injury lawyer will be well-versed in dealing with these particularities, whereas an everyday person may not even be aware they exist.

You are far more likely to achieve adequate compensation with an attorney than without.

Insurance companies are just one of the parties that know how to low-ball victims with inadequate settlement offers. Companies know the intricacies surrounding personal injury claims as well as knowing that most personal injury victims are unaware of these intricacies. If speaking to a personal injury lawyer regarding your spinal cord injury case seems out of your price range, you may be surprised to learn that reputable personal injury attorneys work on contingency, which means you won’t owe your lawyer any money unless and until they win your case.

Your focus after a spinal cord injury should be healing and returning to daily life above all.

You owe it yourself to pursue healing above all else as you become accustomed to daily life with all the changes which may be necessary after your injury. While there are many valid emotions involved when working to recover from a spinal cord injury, it is wise to resist the desire to handle the situation all on your own. Resources including support organizations and legal experts exist to support you in your recovery, and take away the stress and distraction of a lawsuit in order for you to focus more fully on recovering your overall health and sense of peace.

Life will be different after a spinal cord injury. An attorney cannot undo what happened; however, an attorney can make sure you’re moving forward into this next stage of your life with as much help and assistance as possible.

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