Greenville Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers

Greenville Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers

An injury to the spinal cord is often life-altering, requiring adjustment on not only a physical level, but mental and emotional levels as well. If you’ve suffered this type of catastrophic injury because of someone else’s carelessness, you deserve to find out if you are owed compensation.

If you’re reading this, you may have had your life turned around by a spinal injury. You’ve probably been unable to work and may not yet know if you’ll ever be able to return to your former income. You are probably stressed, anxious, and possibly depressed. You are probably looking for answers and unsure where to turn.

We are here to help with free legal advice. Call our Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers today.

Don’t procrastinate in reaching out because you’re afraid you’ll need cash to pay for answers up-front. Give us a call as soon as you can and schedule your free legal consultation.

Spinal Injury Has Many Causes and Can Take Many Forms

Spinal cord injuries are a risk in many types of accidents. The most common involve motor vehicle collisions, falls, sports, violence, and medical/surgical conditions. They can also take many forms and exhibit a variety of symptoms. Though many people envision a spinal cord injury as leaving a person without feeling below the injury, the injured person may also experience tingling or numbness, or even persistent pain. Other symptoms may include paralysis, with loss of feeling and bodily functions. Spinal injuries are often very serious and can easily lead to permanent disability.

Signs of a Possible Spinal Cord Injury

Whenever a spinal cord injury is a possibility, it’s critical to keep the accident victim immobilized until medical assistance arrives. Assume you’re dealing with a spinal cord injury, just in case, if the following symptoms are apparent:

• There is an obvious head injury accompanied by the victim going in and out of consciousness
• The victim has severe pain to the neck or back
• The injury has made a considerable impact to the back, head, or neck
• The body or neck is twisted or positioned in an odd way
• The victim complains of numbness, weakness, or paralysis
• The victim lacks control of limbs, bladder, or bowels

As with any serious accident, it’s important to call 911 for emergency medical help for a potential spinal cord injury. Keep the person as still as possible so that they can be moved properly when transported to a hospital.

The Two Classifications of a Spinal Cord Injury

Injuries to the spinal cord are classified in two types: complete and incomplete.

Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: This type of injury means the person has retained some ability to send messages from the brain to the body. A person may keep some of their motor function and feeling (sensory function) below the injury.

Complete Spinal Cord Injury: A complete injury to the spinal cord, on the other hand, indicates a total loss of sensory and motor function below the level of the injury. This may mean chronic pain, lack of control over bladder and bowels, and vulnerability to heart and respiratory complications.

Spinal cord injury of either classification is challenging, at best. If you’ve suffered a spinal cord injury because of the negligence of another person, reach out to us for your free legal consultation. It’s time to find out if you deserve to be compensated for your damages.

Why Should I Hire a Lawyer to Handle My Spinal Cord Injury Claim?

Retaining our Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers provides you with two over-arching benefits. The first is the ability to hand over the stress and burden of taking on a claim against the insurance company to a trained professional who can bring you the best possible results. This allows you to rest and put your energy into your recovery.

The second benefit is that hiring one of our Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers gives you the strongest chance of receiving the highest compensation possible. People who consider filing spinal cord injury claims sometimes wonder if they’ll save money by taking care of their claim on their own. This is almost always not the case. In fact, most people who file their claim without the help of an attorney end up with many times less in compensation than people who retain experienced legal help. This is largely due to all the ways hiring our experienced Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers helps to protect the value of your claim:

• Our Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers have the ability to investigate your accident to identify all responsible parties. This is crucial to making sure you don’t miss out on compensation you deserve.
• Our lawyers have the skill to make the necessary connections to prove causation. This means they will seek to prove the negligent parties caused the accident, the accident was the cause of your injuries, and your injuries were the cause of your damages. Connecting these points is necessary to winning your spinal cord injury claim.
• Our Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers have the ability to carefully determine your damages. We work in close communication with your doctors to determine how your recovery is progressing and to identify all the ways your life has and will be affected by your spinal cord injury. Getting your damages right is essential to making sure you ask for what you deserve in compensation.
• Our Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers can take on all claim communications for you, avoiding costly mistakes during recorded claim interviews. When the insurance company comes calling, the best thing to do is let your lawyer handle communications to ensure consistent messaging.
• Our lawyers will help you review settlement offers and decide which ones are worth considering and which are far too low to spend your energy on. This is difficult to do without a lawyer to provide you with an accurate value for your spinal cord injury claim. If you don’t even know whether you’re asking for enough from the insurance company, how can you know when an offer is acceptable? In addition, without a lawyer, it’s common for a claimant to worry that if they pass up a settlement offer, there won’t be another. Having our capable Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers is the best way to know where you stand and make settlement decisions with confidence.
• Having an experienced lawyer will make it clear to the insurance company that they can’t get away with delaying and denying your valid claim. They’ll know that if they try it, they’ll be sued.
• In the event that the insurance company does refuse to meet your lawyer’s settlement request, you will have the option to file a lawsuit. This goes beyond showing the insurance company you are serious. It gives you the leverage to bring your fight to a jury, if necessary.

If you’re struggling with life after a spinal cord injury that you suspect was the result of negligence, contact us to find out how we can help you. Let us answer your claim questions in a free no obligation legal consultation.

Christian & Christian Law assist people with personal injury matters in the following locations: Anderson, Clemson, Easley, Fountain Inn, Greenville County, Greer, Mauldin, Simpsonville, Spartanburg, and Travelers Rest.

Common Mistakes That Can Derail Your Spinal Cord Injury Claim

In addition to hiring a lawyer for all the protections they can lend to your claim, you, too, can participate in ensuring your claim’s value remains as high as possible.

Seek Medical Care Immediately

Don’t wait to get yourself to the hospital. If you’ve been in an accident, it’s best not to take any chances that there may be a bone fragment or misalignment in your spine that can slip further and cause you serious and possibly permanent injury. Don’t assume that if you aren’t in a great deal of pain, you are uninjured. Let medical professionals determine whether you are okay, to protect yourself from further injury.

Getting treated quickly also creates strong proof that it was the accident that caused your injuries, and not some unrelated event afterward. Remember that the insurance company will use any information you “give” them through your own failure to act quickly. Any doubt they can cast on how or when you were injured will be used to try and drop the value of your claim.

Be Diligent About Your Treatment Plan

Don’t take any risks when it comes to your treatment plan. All too often, people think that list of medications and exercises they are given when they leave the medical facility is optional. They don’t believe it will have any bearing on their claim either way.

This is not true. In fact, no matter how useful your treatment plan is to your physical recovery, following it is going to be key in protecting your claim. If you are discovered disregarding your treatment plan, your claim will be jeopardized.

If you are caught on video by an insurance investigator, for instance, shoveling snow with a spinal cord injury and you are not supposed to be bending or lifting, the insurance company will try to blame you if your back doesn’t heal completely. They’ll say your lack of recovery is your fault, not theirs, because you failed to follow your treatment plan.

Any blame that can be shifted from the liable party to you will give the insurance company the chance to lower the value of your claim. Stick to your plan for the sake of your recovery and for the value of your claim.

Refuse the Interview with the Insurance Company

Assume you’ll be receiving a call from an insurance adjuster not long after the accident report is filed. They will ask you for a recorded statement about the accident. Agreeing to give them one will put your claim’s value at risk.

The reason for this call is to gather information the insurance company can use to cast doubt on your claim. They will ask you the same questions over and over in different ways, in hopes of tripping you up. If you answer inconsistently, most likely out of sheer confusion, they may find a way to twist your words against you to imply you are lying or exaggerating.

This is certainly not fair to you and may actually help them to lower your claim’s value. Assume that anything you say on such a call will be used against your claim, if possible. You have the right to refuse this interview without the guidance of your attorney.

The best thing to do when the insurance company calls is to hand over all communications about your claim to your Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers. They will know how to effectively communicate with the insurance company without putting your claim at risk.

Hire an Attorney as Quickly as You Can

It’s reasonable to expect you to feel far from ready to think about finding a lawyer right after a spinal cord injury. It’s important, however, to allow your attorney as much time as possible to gather evidence and build your claim. This includes having access to any evidence early to ensure it doesn’t disappear.

Witness testimony will be most reliable right after the accident, before memories fade. The longer you wait to start a claim, the more at risk you will be of losing witness testimony because someone left the area or changed their contact information.

If you do not have the energy or ability to search online for lawyers, consider recruiting a friend or loved one to do so for you. They will probably be happy to have a way to contribute to your recovery.

Make Sure Your Lawyer Is a Good Fit for Your Spinal Cord Injury Claim

When you do begin your search, it’s vital to remember that not every lawyer is going to be the best person to take on your claim. Just because a lawyer is successful doesn’t mean they have experience getting results in cases like yours. Think of it the way you would when seeking a surgeon. No one signs up with a surgeon for an important operation without confirming that surgeon has plenty of experience and a history of success in the type of surgery they need.

You need someone focused in the practice area of personal injury who has a record of success with spinal cord injury claims. You also need to make sure this person has won cases in court in addition to successfully negotiating settlements. Chances are, your claim will settle, but in the event the insurance company puts up a fight, you need someone willing and able to take them on at trial. Don’t assume every lawyer will do this. Make sure.

South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Client Story

We are sharing this client story to help illustrate the aspects of a spinal cord injury claim. Names and specifics have been edited to protect our client’s privacy, but the information remains useful. Please read it through, and then call to schedule your free legal consultation so we can answer your questions about your own claim.

On a rainy night in Greenville not long ago, a drunk driver changed Megan Rowan’s life forever. She was riding in the passenger seat as Paul drove them home from their weekly dinner date. Paul remembers they were holding hands, and Megan was turned toward him, laughing about something he’d said, when a blinding light filled her window like a halo around her face. He recalls in that split second frozen in time marveling at what a beautiful person he’d married.

They both woke up in the hospital with injuries after a drunk driver had come off of a side street, slamming directly into her door. Megan took the brunt of the collision, suffering a fracture in her thoracic vertebra. It was unclear how much mobility she’d be able to regain below the injury.

Megan would spend three weeks in the hospital before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility for three more months. Paul, who had been treated for a concussion, whiplash, a broken arm, and a cracked rib, was released after two days and would return every day to be with his wife on her recovery journey. They were both devastated by Megan’s circumstances. Her independence had completely evaporated, and they had no idea if it would ever return.

Two weeks into her hospital stay, Paul suggested Megan meet with spinal cord injury attorney Josh Christian, of Christian & Christian Attorneys at Law. He said they offered a free legal consultation and would come to her hospital room to answer their questions about a spinal cord injury claim.

Megan was still dealing with the shock of the accident but agreed that it was sensible to at least find out about pursuing compensation for damages, because this injury had put them into completely unknown territory. They didn’t know if she’d regain mobility. They didn’t know if she’d work again, or how they would afford necessary adaptations if she needed to change everything about her environment going forward. They called and set up the consultation.

How much does it cost to hire a lawyer for my spinal cord injury claim?

Attorney Christian sat down with Megan and Paul soon after. “I guess the first thing we need to know is how much it would cost if we were to retain your firm,” Megan began.

“That one’s easy,” smiled Attorney Christian. “We don’t charge anything up-front. The firm works on a contingency-fee model. This means we front all case expenses from start to finish. When your claim wraps up, we only get paid when we successfully resolve your claim.”

“So, no out-of-pocket?” Paul asked.

“No out-of-pocket,” Attorney Christian confirmed. “And this is a completely free consultation, so ask away.”

What is my spinal cord injury claim worth?

“What is a claim like this worth?” asked Megan.

“We take great care in accurately determining the value of your claim,” said Christian. “We start with an investigation into your accident, which we can begin right away. We establish all responsible parties and gather evidence to connect the negligence of those parties to the damages you have suffered because of your injuries.

“The investigation is the first necessary step in determining your claim’s value. The second step involves you reaching maximum medical improvement, Megan, or ‘MMI.’ This is just shorthand for describing recovering to the highest possible level of health you can reach, given your injuries,” Christian said.

“For you to reach MMI, you’ll need to be done with surgeries and your doctors will need to be confident they know how your health will be impacted by your injuries in the future. We’d be in contact with your doctors in determining when you’ve reached this point.

“Your part in this is focusing your energy on rest, recovery, and following your treatment plan. Getting better is your full time job now. When you reach MMI, we’ll understand your damages, which are all the ways your injuries have negatively impacted your life — economically and otherwise. This means the cost of injury to you in medical bills and the loss of income from being out of work, as well as all the non-economic damages, like pain and suffering, mental anguish, we look at all of it.

“We combine the information we’ve gotten from the investigation with your damages to arrive at an accurate claim value. That’s when we can tell you the true value of your claim,” said Christian.

Megan absorbed what Attorney Christian told her and nodded. “I understand. That’s much more realistic than if you’d just tossed out a number without any information to go on.”

“That’s true,” said Christian. “You should be very skeptical of any attorney who tells you what your claim is worth without anything to base that value on. It won’t mean anything if it’s not based on fact, and you’ve got enough unknowns right now.”

“You’ve got that right,” she said, quietly, thinking. “You mentioned identifying all responsible ‘parties,’ plural. What do you mean by that?”

“Good question. Since your accident involves being hit by a drunk driver, there is the possibility that a dram shop — meaning a restaurant or bar, may have served alcohol to the driver at a point at which they were already clearly intoxicated. If they knowingly contributed to the driver’s inability to operate their vehicle, they, too, may be found liable for the accident.

“Making sure all at-fault parties are held accountable for your damages is critical to getting you the compensation you deserve.”

How long will my spinal cord injury claim take?

“How long should we expect a claim to take?” Paul asked.

“That’s going to depend first on how long it takes you to reach maximum medical improvement,” Christian said, turning to Megan. “Since we need you to reach MMI to determine your damages, we can’t move faster than the speed of your recovery. Naturally, this can’t be rushed, especially with a spinal cord injury. We’re aiming for steady, lasting recovery.

“Once you get there and we arrive at your claim’s value, we’ll send the insurance company or companies a demand letter. From there, the second part of your claim’s timeline will depend on the insurance company. If they agree to our demand for compensation, your claim can wrap up quickly. But if they refuse to agree to a reasonable settlement, we’ll sue them in court.

“A trial would take additional time, but given all you’ve been through and may yet have to deal with, we believe fighting for what you deserve is worth it. Our firm is more than willing and capable of pursuing compensation in front of a jury, if necessary, to bring you justice.

“Not every law firm will do this, so I urge you to make sure whomever you choose is an experienced trial attorney. Don’t go to a firm that settles all their claims for cheap just to close them out. Hire someone who will fight for your rights,” Christian urged.

Can two people hire the same attorney to represent their claims?

“Can Paul file his own accident claim as well, or would he need a different attorney?” Megan asked.

“If neither of you is at fault for the accident that injured the other, there is no conflict of interest and both of you can file claims for your injuries with the same lawyer.”

Can I file a claim if the defendant is facing criminal charges?

“Even if the woman that hit us is facing criminal charges?” Paul asked.

“Yes. Even then. The burden of proof for a civil case, which your injury claim falls into, is also lower. You’d be seeking to prove “a preponderance of evidence” of guilt rather than the criminal standard of “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Christian answered.

“In any case, the fact that the driver was found to be legally intoxicated at the scene serves to support your claim rather than eliminate you from eligibility for a civil case,” he added.

Megan and Paul were satisfied with the information they received in their free legal consultation and retained Christian & Christian. Attorney Josh Christian won both their claims, bringing them many times the initial offer made by the insurance company.

Call Our Greenville Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers Today

It’s our hope that this page has given you a better understanding of what is involved in a spinal cord injury claim. Every claim is unique in many ways, so please call our Greenville spinal cord injury lawyers and schedule your free legal consultation. Let us answer your specific claim questions free of obligation and free of charge. Call today.