Spinal cord injuries can be devastating and often have lasting consequences from which you may never fully recover. When someone else’s negligence causes your injury, you need the support of an Atlanta spinal cord injury lawyer who is well versed in the unique circumstances that often surround spinal cord injuries. The Atlanta personal injury lawyers with Munley Law are prepared to help you recover the compensation you need to adjust.
Atlanta Spinal Cord Injury Claims: The Munley Law Approach
When you work with our team of Atlanta attorneys to help with your spinal cord injury case, you can expect a team who is knowledgeable with Georgia law and familiar with DeKalb and Fulton County Courts. This knowledge allows us to provide exceptional services and creative solutions to help you get justice.
Our track record of successful case results and client victories demonstrates our commitment to our clients. We have gotten some of the largest personal injury recoveries for our clients, including more than $32 million dollars for an airplane accident.
At Munley Law, we promise to bring the highest level of client service to each of our cases. And, we do not charge for our services unless we win your case. If we don’t succeed in obtaining a recovery for you, you owe us nothing. Call today to schedule a free consultation.
There is no fee unless we win your case.
Why You Need a Spinal Cord Injury Attorney
If you have suffered a spinal cord injury, you might not know whether you need legal representation. Spinal cord injury cases are complex and high-stakes. They often involve long-term medical costs, specialized rehabilitation, and major life adjustments. An experienced spinal cord injury lawyer understands how to prove liability, document future damages, and negotiate or litigate for maximum compensation. At Munley Law, our attorneys have decades of experience handling catastrophic injury claims and standing up to powerful insurance companies and corporations.
Building Your Case
A strong claim depends on detailed documentation. Your lawyer will collect medical records, accident reports, witness statements, and expert testimony to prove how the injury occurred and who is responsible.
Our team can work with you to obtain the necessary documents and help you take the right action to strengthen your case.
Insurance Company Negotiations
Insurance companies are focused on minimizing payouts. Your lawyer will communicate and negotiate directly with them, pushing back against low offers and ensuring all your current and future losses are included in any settlement
Take Your Case to Trial if Necessary
If the insurance company refuses a fair settlement, a skilled trial lawyer can present your case before a jury and fight for maximum compensation.
What if I can’t afford an attorney?
Munley Law works on contingency for our personal injury cases, meaning you will not pay a penny for our services until we recover compensation for you. Our fee is a standard percentage of the final recovery, and if we don’t win your case, you owe us nothing. This lets you avoid financial risk in pursuing your case, and reinforces our commitment to winning justice for you.
How Do You Establish Negligence in an Atlanta Spinal Cord Injury Case?
The crux of any personal injury case is establishing negligence on behalf of the responsible party by meeting he burden of proof. This threshold is based on a preponderance of the evidence which means you must make it seem more likely than not to have happened as you tell it. To establish negligence, we must show 4 things to be likey or true.
Duty of Care
We must establish that the person who injured you had a responsibility to you. In a car accident, this may be the responsibility to follow traffic laws. While it may be a landowners responsibility to maintain a safe property in a slip and fall.
Breach of Duty
Next, you must show that the individual failed to meet that duty. For example, the driver who caused the accident may have been breaking Atlanta’s handsfree laws, causing the accident, or a property owner may have failed to repair a railing they knew to be damaged or unstable.
Causation
To show causation, we must connect their breach of duty with your accident. In our car accident example, it may be evident that the person was texting while driving, causing them to run a red light and hit your vehicle. Similarly, you may present evidence that the faulty railing had been reported to the property owner and ignored shortly before it gave, causing you to fall and injure yourself.
Damages
Last, you must show that the injury caused you to suffer damages. Spinal cord injuries often require lifelong care. Your attorney will work with medical experts, economists, and life-care planners to assess the cost of ongoing treatment, assistive technology, lost income, and pain and suffering.
Atlanta Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injures are often debilitating, even at their most mild. Regarding these injuries, victims often have the benefit of esteemed treatment facilities such as Grady Hospital and The Shepherd Institute which identifies a spinal cord injury as an injury that damages the spinal cord to the degree that communication is disrupted between the brain and body.
They go on to identify that common causes of spinal cord injuries include traumatic injuries like Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVAs), falls, or acts of violence. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center reports that more than 300,000 people in the United States live with a traumatic SCI. Non traumatic causes can include things like tumors, infections, or other degenerative conditions.
The severity of the injury often depends on the location on the spinal cord. Disruption higher up typically has more debilitating symptoms. Though it also depends on the degree of damage and mechanism of injury. For example, a completely severed spinal cord with likely experience more dire symptoms than a SCI born of inflammation and infection.
Types of Spinal Cord Injury
When we discuss the severity of injury and how it is dependent on the location, this is broken into two categories:
Complete SCI: A complete loss of motor and sensory function below the injury level
Incomplete SCI: Partial loss of motor or sensory function below the injury
These types of SCI can occur in one of the three segments of the spinal cord which include the cervical (neck), thoracic (mid back), and lumbar or sacral (lower back).
Diagnosing and Treating a Spinal Cord Injury in Atlanta
Spinal cord injuries are often one of the first things that paramedics or emergency medicine teams evaluate. Initial evaluations can include observation and self reporting symptoms. For example, numbness of loss of feeling in parts of the body, extreme pain in the neck or back, among other complaints, according to the Mayo Clinic. When doctors suspect a spinal cord injury, they often use imaging to confirm the type and location of injury.
The course of treatment for SCIs will vary heavily depending on:
mechanism of injury,
severity
location on the spine
Some may require therapies and medications, while others may include surgical intervention.
Once the initial injury heals, the rest of the recovery process is often related to physical therapies and adapting to your new challenges and limitations.
How long do I have to file a spinal cord injury claim?
The state of Georgia imposes statutes of limitation for filing civil claims. While the limitation is often 2 years, it can be significantly less or sometimes a little longer depending on who the claim is against and how the accident happened. An Atlanta injury lawyer can review the details of your situation and identify the statute of limitations that applies in your case.
What if I am partially at fault for the accident that caused my spinal cord injury?
Georgia observes modified comparative negligence policies regarding fault in civil cases. This means that you are able to recover compensation as long as you are not more than 50% responsible. However, your recovery is reduced by your responsibility. For example, if damages are $100,000 and you are considered to be 25% at fault for the accident, the payout is reduced by your percentage of liability, resulting in a payout of $75,000.
This motivates them to investigate you and use anything they can to suggest you were partially to blame for the accident, or to discredit your claim.
How much is my spinal cord injury case worth?
There is no way to determine the value of your case without a thorough inspection of the situation. However, you may gather a general idea of where to start by considering your measurable financial losses such as medical costs and time from work. These are not all of what our team will help you recover, but can provide a starting estimate.
The insurance company called me after my accident, do I have to speak with them?
Our team heavily advises you to avoid speaking with the insurance company without speaking with us first. They will likely ask you for a recorded statement, and this can quickly work to your detriment if you are not prepared. While If you feel compelled to speak with them before our without an attorney, try to stick to answering only what is asked and stick to observable facts only.
Damages You Can Claim for Your Atlanta Spinal Cord Injury
A spinal cord injury can leave you facing significant costs and losses. Working with an attorney allows you to thoroughly evaluate the situation and identify all possible avenues to compensation. Some of the more commonly identified damages in these cases include:
Medical costs (past and anticipated)
Lost wages
Loss of earning capacity
Property damage
Pain and suffering
Cost of assistive medical devices
Loss of consortium
Loss of quality of life
Cost of accessibility modifications to your home or vehicle
The specific damages for which you are eligible will vary based on your situation and an attorney can help you determine the types and amounts appropriate to your case.
Call Munley Law Today for the Support You Deserve After a Spinal Cord Injury
When you suffer something as severe as a spinal cord injury, it can be overwhelming to think about how to move forward, particularly when the injury is likely to come with significant life adjustments and cost.
You should not have to face this alone. Call our Atlanta spinal cord injury lawyers today to schedule a free consultation for the advocate you need. Hold the responsible parties accountable and recover the resources necessary for you to get your life back.
