If you are living with paralysis or other lasting effects from a spinal injury, our team may be able to help you seek and secure compensation to cover your care costs and other expenses. A Lake Charles, LA, spinal cord injury lawyer from the Morris Bart law firm knows how to build a case against the party who caused your injuries.
When another person’s negligence is to blame for an accident and injuries, the victim can pursue a personal injury case against them under Louisiana law. Our lawyer will review the facts of your case and determine your legal options for free today.
Why Choose Our Lake Charles Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers?
- We have obtained over $1 billion in successful settlements and verdicts for our clients. Our personal injury lawyers know how to get the results our clients need for spine injury claims.
- Our Lake Charles personal injury lawyers have more than 40 years of experience. We understand Louisiana’s laws and are prepared to go to trial for maximum compensation when necessary.
- We operate on a contingency fee basis, with no upfront fees. You won’t pay our lawyers a cent unless we secure compensation for your spinal cord injury claim.
For a free legal consultation with a Spinal Cord Injury lawyer serving Lake Charles, call (337) 377-0514
Seeking Compensation for Your Lake Charles, LA, Back or Neck Injuries
When we pursue justice for a client with a spinal cord injury, our attorneys are aware of the numerous ways these injuries affect their lives and the lives of their family members. We consider a wide range of financial and intangible damages when we take these cases.
We can often settle on fair compensation via negotiations with the at-fault party’s insurer, although a lawsuit may be necessary.
We generally seek damages that include:
- Medical care and support to date
- Future medical treatment and rehabilitation costs
- Ongoing care and support
- Medical and mobility equipment
- Lost income and benefits from time missed at work
- Reduced earning capacity for lasting impairments
- Renovations to the home for mobility purposes, such as building ramps
- Property damages, such as car repairs after a crash
- Pain and suffering
- Other intangible damages
What if My Loved One Died After Suffering a Serious Spinal Cord Injury?
When an immediate family member suffers a spinal cord injury, it affects every family member. If they die, the whole family endures financial and emotional losses, as well.
If the victim had a valid personal injury claim but died before taking legal action, their surviving family likely has a wrongful death case against the liable parties. Under La. Civ. Code Art. 2315.2, the surviving spouse, children, or parents of the victim can claim damages that include:
- Financial expenses and losses
- Non-economic losses suffered by surviving family members
Morris Bart Represents Spinal Cord Injury Victims in Lake Charles, Louisiana
Our personal injury attorneys fight for compensation for victims living with spinal cord injuries in Calcasieu Parish. We represent our clients and pursue compensation based on their range of expenses and losses and ongoing and future care needs.
We are a contingency fee law firm. Our clients pay nothing upfront and no attorney’s fees until we recover a settlement or other compensation. If we do not win, our attorneys collect no fees.
We have 15 locations across the Gulf South to serve our clients. This includes Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama. Our Lake Charles location is:
3307 Ryan Street
Lake Charles, LA 70601
Click to contact our Lake Charles Personal Injury Lawyers today
Spinal Cord Injuries Are Often Costly to Treat, Rehabilitate, and Live with
Spinal cord injuries are often among the most expensive personal injury accident outcomes. Both the immediate costs and long-term management expenses add up quickly.
Medical journal Neuroimmunology and Neuroinflammation puts the average cost of the “acute phase” of initial treatment and recovery from a spinal cord injury at about $142,366. Many people rack up medical bills significantly more during their hospitalization, rehabilitation, and therapy. Those who require surgery and have a better chance of recovery often have more expensive bills from this time.
Over a lifetime of care expenses, those with lasting paralysis and other impairments may easily reach and exceed $1 million or more in essential equipment, such as lifts and wheelchairs, and nursing care.
Negligence Is a Common Cause of Spinal Cord Injuries
Negligence often plays a role in spinal cord injury accidents. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC), the top two causes of these injuries are also two of the most common reasons people hire personal injury lawyers:
- Vehicle crashes (38 percent of all spinal cord injuries)
- Slip or trip and falls (32 percent of these injuries)
Other causes of spinal cord damage that may support a personal injury claim include:
- Boating accidents
- Swimming pool and diving injuries
- Pedestrian and bicycle crashes
We also handle cases that involve:
- Workers’ compensation
- Offshore injury and the Jones Act
- Premises liability
- Defective products
- Medical malpractice
We must prove negligence to recover compensation for our clients in any of these cases. There are four parts to building an insurance claim based on negligence:
- The at-fault party was responsible for acting in a specific way to keep our client—and possibly others—safe.
- They failed to act accordingly.
- This caused an accident or incident.
- Our client suffered harm as a result.
We document and value our client’s financial, physical, and emotional harm and seek damages based on their current and future care needs. We can present this evidence to the at-fault party’s insurer and negotiate a settlement or the judge and jury at a civil trial in Calcasieu Parish.
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Spine Injury?
Liability for a spinal cord injury in Lake Charles will go to one or more parties deemed responsible for causing the injury. To determine causation, an investigation may be conducted by an insurance company, the police, a law firm, and other parties. Investigative tactics often involve interviewing witnesses, returning to the scene of the accident, analyzing photographs and videos, recreating the accident, and hiring experts.
Investigators will attempt to reconstruct the accident to determine how and why it took place. From there, they will identify the individuals or entities at fault for causing the victim’s spinal cord injury. In most cases, the parties identified as defendants will have contributed to the injury through negligence or the failure to use a reasonable level of care. For example, in a car accident case, the responsible party may be a careless or reckless driver who violated a traffic law.
Liability in a spine injury lawsuit may be assigned to a negligent individual, such as a motorist, property owner, criminal assailant, or health care provider. It may also go to a corporation or entity, such as an employer, the government, or the manufacturer of a defective product. In some cases, multiple defendants are each allocated a percentage of fault for the accident and injury. An attorney from Morris Bart can help you identify the defendant(s) in your spinal cord injury case.
Understanding Common Types of Back Injuries
The back is composed of many different parts, including the spinal cord, vertebrae, disks, nerves, muscles, and soft tissues. One or more of these parts can sustain serious injury in an accident, leading to symptoms such as pain, swelling, immobility, numbness, and tingling. In the most severe cases, back injuries can cause permanent paralysis.
Common types of back injuries are:
- Soft-tissue damage: sprains, strains, and tears of ligaments, muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues in the back.
- Disk injuries: slipped, herniated, or bulging disks (the rubbery cushions located between the vertebrae).
- Vertebrae fractures: broken or cracked vertebrae in the back, also known as a compression fracture.
- Paralysis: a complete spinal cord injury that removes feeling and function in the affected area, such as paraplegia or quadriplegia.
- Whiplash: soft-tissue damage to the uppermost part of the spinal cord or cervical spine, located in the neck. This injury is commonly seen in Lake Charles car accident cases.
Back and spine trauma in a fall, motor vehicle accident, or act of violence can lead to life-changing injuries. While even a minor back injury can be painful and cost thousands of dollars in medical care, more serious back, neck, and spine injuries could lead to millions of dollars in lifetime treatments.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Spinal Cord Injury Attorney?
After suffering a spinal cord injury in Lake Charles, you may already be dealing with major expenses, such as back injury treatments and lost wages. You might think you cannot afford to hire a high-quality personal injury lawyer. At Morris Bart, this is not the case. We proudly operate on a contingency fee basis, which means you will pay us $0 out of pocket, win or lose.
Using a contingency fee arrangement means we do not charge our clients a dime for our legal services unless we win the case. If we do not secure the client’s financial compensation during a personal injury claim, our attorney’s fees are $0 for legal services already rendered. We do not charge any fees, such as a retainer, upfront.
If we are successful in achieving a settlement agreement or a judgment at trial during an injury case, we charge our fee as a percentage of the money recovered for the client. This percentage is set and agreed upon before you sign the initial contract at Morris Bart. We are not in the practice of hiding fees or surprising our clients with unexpected costs. The percentage rate of our fee can vary from case to case.
There are many benefits to operating on a contingency fee basis; not only will you not be required to pay us upfront or from your own pocket, but our lawyers will also be incentivized to achieve the best possible outcome for your case. This is because the amount our lawyers get paid depends on how much you receive in financial compensation for your spinal cord injury.
You Can Recover Damages if You Are Partially at Fault
If you believe you may have contributed to an accident that caused your spinal cord injury, do not admit fault at any stage of the insurance claims process. Do not apologize to the other party involved or state that you are to blame for the accident to a police officer or insurance claims adjuster. Instead, wait for an official investigation to determine fault and identify the responsible party/ies for you. There may be external factors involved that you are unaware of, such as the negligence of a third party.
Even if an investigation determines that you are partially at fault for the incident, you can still qualify for financial compensation under Louisiana’s comparative fault doctrine. La. Civ. Code Art. 2323 states that in any action for damages where a person suffers an injury, death, or loss, the percentage of fault for all parties who caused or contributed to the injury will be determined. If any degree of negligence is allocated to the injured individual, his or her amount of damages recoverable will be reduced in proportion to the degree or percentage of negligence attributable.
For example, if you are allocated 10 percent of the fault for your spinal cord injury and the total amount awarded is $100,000, your recoverable damages will be reduced by 10 percent ($10,000) to a sum of $90,000. Some states use a modified comparative negligence rule that applies a cap on the victim’s percentage of fault; typically, if the victim is found to be 50 percent or more at fault, he or she will be barred from making a financial recovery. Louisiana, however, uses a pure comparative negligence doctrine with no fault cap.
Are There Deadlines for Suing the Person Who Caused My Spinal Cord Injuries?
Louisiana has short deadlines for suing the at-fault party in a personal injury case. In general, you likely only have up to one year from the accident date to sue under La. Civ. Code Art. 3492.
Some cases have extended time or less time, but this is not as common. Our team can review how long you have to sue based on the details of your case during your free consultation.
Connect with Our Lawyer in Monroe for Free Today
At the Morris Bart law office in Monroe, you can speak with one of our attorneys about your rights, legal options, and next steps for free today. We provide complimentary consultations and answer questions for potential clients. Reach out to our spinal cord injury team today to learn more.
Call (337) 377-0514 to get started.
Questions?Call (337) 377-0514
to find a Morris Bart office near you.
