Salt Lake City Spinal Injury Lawyer

If the nervous system were a series of paths through the human body, then the spinal cord would be a superhighway. This long, tubular structure is responsible for routing a majority of sensory and motor information to and from the brain.

It plays a role in every sensation we experience, whether directly or indirectly, and relays instructions from the brain, allowing us to respond to the environment. We would not be able to experience the world as we know it without this incredible organ.

And this is why damage to the spinal cord, no matter how minor, can lead to devastating consequences. A person might be able to survive without a functioning spine, but there is no doubt that they wouldn’t live.

Spinal injury is any damage to – or degeneration of – the tissue in the spinal cord.

Symptoms of spinal injuries can be as simple as passing pain or numbness in certain areas of the body or as grievous and life-altering as total paralysis. In the worst of cases, recovery is impossible, leaving victims disabled for life.

What do you do then, when you or a loved one are caught in the struggles following a spinal injury?

Valley Law Accident and Injury Lawyers can help you receive the maximum amount you are entitled to so you can pull your life back together. We can handle the paperwork, the legalities, and the entire process of dealing with your insurance provider to get you what you are owed.

And if you need justice for the struggles your injuries put you through, we can represent you in a court case against the responsible party.

Call Valley Law at 801-810-9999. Our professional attorneys offer legal aid to help you recover finances in the aftermath of a spinal injury.

The Advantages of Working With a Salt Lake City Spinal Injury Attorney

Anyone can file an insurance claim. Anyone can file a lawsuit.

But not everyone is good at it. No one really expects the average American citizen to read the terms and conditions of products and services, much less understand the minute details found in legal documents or insurance law.

And even if people did, a spinal injury will probably stop most victims from taking action anyway. Who wants to file paperwork and confront aggressive insurance representatives when medical recovery is a big enough hassle on its own?

Attorneys such as ours at Valley Law, on the other hand, study, and train for years specifically to master the legal system. Legal information is our business, and we use it to stand for the best interest of our clients.

We handle the stress, the paperwork, and the negotiations so you can focus on the things that matter, such as recovery, family time, and getting back to work.

Making Your Spinal Injury Insurance Claim

Insurance companies work with insurance adjusters who evaluate your claim and determine how much money the company owes. They also work have lawyers who protect their interests in the event you dispute the adjuster’s findings.

They are, after all, a business, and it benefits them for you to walk away with as low an amount as they can get you to accept. And while this is just good business practice, it runs counter to your interests as a spinal injury victim.

Working with a spinal injury lawyer means you are represented by a professional with the expertise to rival that of those who work for your insurance provider. The difference is that your lawyer holds no loyalty to the company and puts your interests first.

This means you have someone on your side who can argue against your insurance provider’s team and get you a fairer settlement than they would have offered you initially.

Filing a Spinal Injury Lawsuit

Accepting a settlement from your insurance company usually means you don’t have to confront the person responsible for your injury. This is because your acceptance of a settlement is taken to mean the amount you are given is sufficient compensation.

Sometimes, however, your lawyer’s duties might extend beyond dealing with the insurance company. Sometimes, you will have to address the opposing party directly.

Let’s say, for instance, that your insurance policy just doesn’t cover the extent of your damages. Or perhaps, your injury is the result of someone else’s negligence, such as medical malpractice or drunk driving, or even illegal activity, such as assault.

In these situations, you can work with a Salt Lake City personal injury lawyer to sue the liable party for punitive damages. In doing so, you stand a chance to claim extra resources to help you recover from your injury.

Spinal Injury Settlements

Of course, not every lawsuit ends in court. In fact, only a minority of cases ever reach a trial.

For the most part, parties reach some form of agreement beforehand. This makes sense because trials are often far more expensive and exhausting than settlements, as well as far more risky, given there is always a non-zero chance of losing.

If you or your lawyer determine a trial is not a good option for you, they can instead help you arrange an agreement with the opposing party. Your settlement may allow you to claim money directly from them or from their insurance provider, depending on the case.

What Causes a Spinal Injury?

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 90% of all spinal cord injuries worldwide are caused by preventable physical trauma to the back. The remaining 10% are caused by degenerative conditions such as cancer or other diseases.

Of trauma-induced spinal cord injuries, these are the most common causes:

• Slips and falls: These account for 41.7% of all spinal cord injury cases, with slips and falls in public areas accounting for 17% of them.
• Road traffic accidents: Traffic accidents trail closely behind slips and falls as the leading cause of spinal injuries, accounting for 36.8% of cases. Sometimes road traffic accidents even pass slips and falls, such as in 2015-2018.
• Sports: 11.6% of spinal injuries are caused by sports-related accidents, including impacts, torsion, stretches, and more. Makes sense, given the strenuous forces athletes are exposed to at peak performance.

How Spinal Injuries Can Affect Your Life

How a spinal injury affects your life depends on several factors, most notably, its severity and its location on the spine. Victims will, of course, have to deal with symptoms and medical care-related difficulties, but these can raise connected issues outside the medical sphere.

Symptoms and Direct Effects

Victims of spinal injuries have to deal with a host of symptoms, including paralysis, pain, or loss of some bodily function. Some of these symptoms may be short-term, but because nerves do not regenerate, heavy enough damage is quite often permanent.

Almost everything your body does, from the neck down, is controlled through the spine.

It’s hard to think about having to live a few days without control of your bladder. Now try to imagine living the rest of your life without any feeling or movement below your shoulders.

Not all these problems can be fixed with any amount of money, but there is some fortune in knowing that because these effects are easy for medical professionals to observe and record, they are also easy to include in your damages claim.

Financial Struggles

Medical bills, therapy, and lost wages are all examples of complications in life victims of a spinal cord injury can face. This mix of direct expenses and loss in potential earnings can reach a range of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s bad enough when the victim has to deal with the consequences on their own life, but if they are the breadwinner of their family, then financial struggles become a burden an entire household has to bear.

Insurance companies do not always include every expense and/or loss when evaluating a case. A professional spinal injury attorney, however, does.

Lost Time

Spinal injuries can cost you time you would otherwise have spent on better things. Being bedridden for indefinite periods means you potentially miss out on work, family, leisure, and on life in general.

Couple this with the aforementioned financial struggle, and victims may be demoralized enough not to even try getting back up. It is difficult to argue for the insurer to include lost time in your damages, but your lawyer may be able to factor this in when negotiating a settlement.

Pain and Suffering

The physical, emotional, and mental suffering of a victim of a spinal injury matter just as much as any other effect the damage has on their life. However, these are also difficult to quantify.

Your spinal cord injury lawyer will push the insurance company to account for pain and suffering to the extent that your plan allows because alleviating pain and suffering is exactly why you got yourself insured in the first place.

Contact a Salt Lake City Spinal Injury Law Firm Today

Spinal cord injuries can take incredible amounts of time and money to recover from. In the worst of instances, people never do.

It shouldn’t be hard to claim the resources you need to put your life together, especially when you’re already dealing with the struggle of the injury itself.

We at Valley Law Accident and Injury Lawyers want to help. Our spinal injury attorneys offer our services to aid you in getting the money you need to make it through the turmoil of a spinal cord injury.

Call us today at 801-810-9999 for a free consultation, or fill up this online form.