Catastrophic injuries are serious, often permanent, and take months or years to heal. Catastrophic injuries usually happen suddenly and unexpectedly, and the consequences can be life-altering as they often demand long-term medical support and rehabilitation. A victim of a serious car accident, workplace incident, or fall might have to change careers, stop working, or change their lifestyle.
Life might not be the same after a serious accident. If another party’s negligence caused the accident that resulted in your catastrophic injury, you might be entitled to significant compensation to help with your medical bills, rehabilitation, lost wages, and living expenses. A catastrophic injury lawyer with Constant Legal Group can be a compassionate legal resource and advocate to help with your catastrophic injury case.
What Is a Catastrophic Injury?
Catastrophic injuries cause severe physical trauma and damage to the body and usually need considerable, long-term medical treatment. Catastrophic injuries can be temporary and take months or years to heal, or they are permanent. In any case, these injuries often have a lifelong impact on a person’s quality of life, as there is likely a need for ongoing surgeries, painful treatment and rehabilitation, and medical support.
Serious accidents like truck collisions, boating accidents, or workplace slips and falls can lead to a disability or disfigurement and significant medical debt. Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), spinal cord trauma, motor function loss, chronic pain, scarring and disfigurement, sensory loss, organ damage, and amputation are all examples of life-altering catastrophic injuries. An experienced catastrophic injury lawyer will aggressively pursue compensation to change your financial future and fight to see that justice is served.
What Are the Different Types of Catastrophic Injuries?
There are many different types of catastrophic injuries, including:
Traumatic Brain Injuries
A violent blow, bump, or jolt to the head or body after a car crash, fall, or another serious accident can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Trauma to the brain can affect brain cells and cause bruising, torn tissues, bleeding, and other physical damage that leads to prolonged issues, disability, or sometimes death. Falls lead to nearly half of traumatic brain injury hospitalizations.
Spinal Cord Injuries
A catastrophic spinal cord injury damages the spinal cord or nerves. A blow or cut to the spine after a traumatic fall or medical malpractice incident can result in permanent loss, sensation, and function at or below the injury site. Recovery after a spinal cord injury requires a team of physicians, specialists, therapists, and rehabilitation experts to help a person heal, which could take six months to a year or more.
Head or Skull Injuries
Head injuries are among the most common causes of disability and death in adults. Symptoms can range from mild bumps and bruises to concussions, deep cuts, open wounds, or skull fractures. Serious head injuries might show up later without symptoms, resulting in bleeding or brain damage that leads to death.
Scarring or Disfigurement
A person’s appearance can be impacted by an accident, like a car collision or a boating accident, if they sustain burns or nerve damage. Burns from an explosion, chemical or electrical burns, road rash, severe dog bites, and animal attacks are examples of potential causes of scarring and disfigurement.
Third-Degree Burns
A third-degree burn is a serious wound that burns through all three layers of a person’s skin. They have a high risk of infection and are usually treated with skin grafts. Third-degree burns left untreated with skin grafts can take months or years to heal, and the skin and a person’s appearance are usually never the same.
Lost Limbs/Amputation
Amputation is the loss of a body part, such as a finger, toe, arm, or leg, following an accident or injury. If a person gets trapped in a car after a collision and cannot free a leg or another body part, and the impact is too significant, they might have to get a limb amputated.
Broken Bones
Painful fractures that occur in such areas as the ribs, arms, hands or wrists, and legs, can cause mild to severe trauma like swelling, bruising, deformed appearance, or extreme pain.
Paralysis
Pressure or force during a car collision can lead to a traumatic blow that crushes, dislocates, and injures the spinal cord, resulting in loss of muscle control and function and, ultimately, paralysis. Sometimes an arm or leg injury during a serious car accident can result in partial paralysis of a limb.
Other Life-Altering Injuries that Demand Long-Term Care
Birth injuries, facial trauma, organ damage, and hearing or sight loss are possibilities after a severe accident and usually warrant long-term medical and rehabilitation support to assist with recovery and improve a person’s quality of life.
What Can Cause a Catastrophic Injury?
Catastrophic injuries can be caused by several different types of accidents. They can include:
- Car Accidents: More than two million people are injured in car accidents every year. A human error like distracted driving is the number one reason car accidents happen, and the most common type of auto accident injuries include strains, sprains, tissue damage, bruises, and broken bones.
- Trucking Accidents: Truck rollovers, head-on collisions, t-bone accidents, sideswipes, and jack-knifes are examples of dangerous accidents that can result in truck accident injuries like organ damage, back strains, and whiplash, among others.
- Motorcycle Accidents: Motorcycles offer less protection than passenger vehicles, and collisions account for 58 percent of fatalities. Motorcycle injuries include head and neck injuries, traumatic brain injuries, burns, road rash, and bone fractures.
- Construction Accidents: On the construction site, burns, chemical exposure, knee, ankle, or back injuries, and spinal cord injuries are possible and can lead to paraplegia or quadriplegia, as well as illnesses caused by toxic chemical exposure. Construction workplace injuries can vary, and some lead to temporary issues, disability, or death.
- Medical Malpractice: When doctors, nurses, and other practitioners fail to meet a high standard of care during childbirth, women and babies can experience complications. Birth injuries might include brain damage, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord trauma.
- Defective Products: Products with design, manufacturing, and marketing defects can expose people to harm, like explosions, choking hazards, unstable structures, or products prone to melting. Defective products are a liability and danger to adults and children alike.
- Falls: Slips and falls are common at commercial properties, on the job, in retail stores, and more. They can result in severe issues like head trauma.
- Dog Bites: Some dogs can display aggressive behavior and cause harm to adults and children with puncture wounds, broken bones, eye injuries, scars, face injuries, and disfigurement. A dog bite personal injury lawyer can help a victim pursue justice after an attack.
- Acts of Violence: When a third party injures a person, the injured person may be able to file a lawsuit against the property owner where a criminal injury happened, like a violent assault. A personal injury lawyer can be a legal resource to help build a case on your behalf if you were hurt on another person’s property.
The Benefits of Filing a Catastrophic Injury Lawsuit
Most injury victims hire a personal injury lawyer when they can no longer tolerate financial distress or cannot support themselves because of mounting medical bills and lost wages, among other things. Sometimes injury victims cannot get the care they need or improve their quality of life because the financial aspect of an injury becomes too great to bear. Avoid settling for a lesser settlement with an insurance company.
Filing a lawsuit has benefits, and it can be worth it for injured victims in a difficult financial position. A successful lawsuit can help people:
- Recover their financial losses related to medical bills and treatment.
- Gain future financial compensation through a settlement to cover living expenses, lost wages, and medical support.
- Hold a person or company accountable for their negligent actions.
- Avoid accepting a lesser settlement if they worked directly with an insurance company without legal assistance.
There is much to gain by filing a lawsuit, and personal injury lawyers with Constant Legal Group can advise you on your next steps.
Damages for Catastrophic Injuries
A catastrophic injury lawsuit can help a person pay off past and future medical expenses and cover lost wages and living expenses so they can adequately care for themselves. Damages for catastrophic injuries might include:
- Past and Future Medical Expenses: Victims of catastrophic injuries face significant medical debt as they often require multiple surgeries, therapy, rehabilitation, and ongoing medical support, sometimes for life.
- Lost Wages: If you have to change careers or can no longer work because of a severe disability or personal injury, a catastrophic injury lawsuit can help you recover lost and future wages.
- Property Repairs: Sometimes, property repairs might be in order if an accident involves physical injuries and property damage. A victim can sue for property repairs for any residential or commercial property damages.
- Punitive Damages: Additional compensation might be available if extreme negligence is involved. For instance, if a drunk driver was caught driving at excessive speed and caused another driver to become paralyzed, a personal injury lawyer can use this evidence to sue for punitive damages.
How to File a Claim for a Catastrophic Injury
The process for filing a catastrophic injury claim may seem daunting, but with the right lawyer by your side, it doesn’t have to be. Here is what you can expect before and after filing a catastrophic injury lawsuit.
1. Consult an Attorney Who Specializes in Catastrophic Injuries
Catastrophic injury cases are complicated, and it is wise to consider a specialized and experienced injury law firm with knowledge and successful case results specific to your case type. Constant Legal Group can tell you if you are within the statute of limitations in your state and if your case may have merit.
2. Gather Evidence
Evidence is needed to prove the extent of your injuries and damages that resulted from an accident and injury. Personal injury lawyers can use information such as medical records, witness testimony, and expert opinions from different fields depending on the type of accident.
3. Your Attorney Files Your Lawsuit
Using the gathered evidence, your personal injury lawyer will build a strong case for compensation on your behalf. They will file a lawsuit and all of the necessary relevant paperwork to ensure it will hold up in court.
4. The Legal Process Begins
The legal process is sometimes cut and dry, and there are often bumps in the road. The good news is that there are fewer surprises when you retain the services of a personal injury lawyer, as they will represent you, work with your insurance company and physicians, and coordinate with the opposing attorney, among other things.
5. Fight for Fair Compensation
The goal of any personal injury case is to win a fair settlement for the injured victim so they can move on with their life. Constant Legal Group can negotiate with the defense and take your case to trial if necessary, as we always fight to attain the best outcome for our clients.
Catastrophic Injury Law FAQ
Here are some of the more common questions we receive. If you need answers, we’re here.
How Can a Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Help?
Catastrophic injuries can be devastating. The team of catastrophic injury lawyers with Constant Legal Group will fight for your rights and a favorable outcome so you can have a brighter financial future. We can help you build a strong and compelling case so you have the best chance of securing a fair settlement or verdict for your injuries.
How Much Do Personal Injury Lawyers Charge?
Personal injury lawyer fees vary. Many injury lawyers work on a contingency basis and only get paid if they get you a settlement. Constant Legal Group is an excellent example of this, as we take on your case for free and get a certain percentage only if your case is successful.
Is There a Statute of Limitations on Filing a Catastrophic Injury Claim?
Catastrophic injury victims usually need to file a claim within two years of sustaining injuries. However, every state is different, and the statute of limitations can range from three to six years. A personal injury lawyer will know your respective state’s specific laws and filing requirements.
Get Help Now. Contact a Catastrophic Injury Lawyer
Our clients often turn to Constant Legal Group when they need a solution for the mounting medical bills and a financially better way of living in the future. With a catastrophic injury lawsuit, we can help you recover your losses and gain stability with a fair settlement.
We want to help victims of injuries thrive again, and just as we have helped many other people in the same position, we will do everything in our power to reach a fair outcome. Pick up the phone and contact Constant Legal Group for a free consultation today.