Your Legal Rights

A spinal cord injury (SCI) may affect your legal rights and lifestyle in many ways.   It has been shown that the length of stay and hospital charges are higher where admission to the SCI system is delayed beyond 24 hours, meaning that proper decision-making at this juncture is critical to future care and costs of care.  However, the average hospital stays for both acute and rehabilitative care are significantly shorter than they were a decade ago.  Is this a result of improvements in medical care, or is it the influence of insurance companies and HMOs in trying to control costs at the expense of patient care? 

Even after discharge, fully one-third to one-half of SCI victims find themselves re-admitted to the hospital each year.  Moreover, sixty-three percent of people with SCI remain unemployed eight years after their injury.  Single people with SCI or more likely to stay single than their non-impaired counterparts, and married persons with SCI are more likely to get divorced.

For the victims of SCI, perhaps the most pressing and immediate concern is the ability to access and pay for proper treatment.  Medical expenses in the first year following an SCI will often exceed $100,000, and over a lifetime, can exceed one million dollars.  Significantly, these figures are just medical expenses and do not include lost wages.  The emotional trauma of a spinal cord injury and the often daunting prospect of lengthy rehabilitation are difficult enough without the added stress and anxiety over whether you will be able to afford the best, or even adequate, care and treatment.  A qualified attorney can help in this arena in a number of ways.

Negligence

If you were injured in a motor vehicle or other type of accident, another party may be at least partially responsible for your injuries.  The negligent or reckless driving of another may have caused or contributed to the accident, or a vehicle may have been defectively designed or manufactured, either causing the accident or causing the injuries to be much more serious than they should have been.  Rollovers and roof crushes and seat back failures are especially prone to causing spinal cord injuries.

In almost all states, even if your behavior contributed to the accident, you may still recover a portion of the damages from another party who was also negligent.  Different states have different standards of contributory negligence or comparative fault, so it is important to speak with an experienced attorney who is familiar with the laws in your state. 

SCI can also occur as a result of improper medical treatment in a surgery or other procedure involving the spinal area.  In these cases, the doctor and the hospital may both be liable for committing medical malpractice.

In a personal injury, products liability, or medical malpractice lawsuit, you are able to recover for present and future medical expenses, lost wages for work missed due to the injury now and in the long-term, and non-economic damages such as emotional distress and pain and suffering.  The precise nature of available damages differs from state to state and often differs between medical malpractice and general liability.

Insurance

Even if you were the only one responsible for the accident or injury, you probably maintain different types of insurance to compensate you in the event of an injury.  Health insurance is the immediate source of payment for your medical expenses, treatment and care.  Apart from your deductibles and co-pays, the insurance company pays the hospitals and doctors directly without forcing you to pay the entire bill out of your pocket.  Medical payment coverage (Med Pay) is another type of insurance intended to cover current medical expenses incurred as a result of an injury.  Statistics show, however, that 48% of all SCI victims are not covered by private health insurance, so for nearly half of all SCI patients, other avenues must be explored to pay their medical bills.

You or the entity responsible for causing the injury may also have some form of liability insurance that applies to your injury.  All drivers are required by law to carry liability insurance, although the rates of uninsured drivers on the road can still range from 10 to 20 percent, depending upon which state and locality you are in.  To guard against this fact, insurance companies are required to offer uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, which will pay you in the event you are hit by an uninsured driver or one whose coverage does not adequately compensate you for your injuries.  Other types of insurance which may be applicable include homeowner's and umbrella coverage.  Liability insurance may compensate you for the cost of present as well as future medical expenses.

Other sources of payment include workers' compensation if you were injured on the job, social security disability (SSD) and other disability plans, ERISA, Medicare, and Medicaid, depending upon your eligibility. 

Experienced Legal Representation

All of these instances require the assistance of an attorney to maximize your recovery.  Even when dealing with your own insurance company or a government agency, aggressive negotiations or effective representation by someone who "knows the ropes" may be necessary to make sure your claim is adequately addressed and dealt with in a timely fashion.  Just because you are dealing with "your" insurance company, do not be mistaken in thinking they are looking out for your best interests; all insurance companies are looking out for their bottom line, which may motivate them to downplay the nature and cost of your injury.  Government agencies and insurance companies often seem set up to make the job of obtaining compensation so difficult that many people simply give up without getting what they deserve. 

Whether dealing with another's insurance company in settlement talks or in the courtroom, your own insurance company or the government, make sure that your attorney is a skilled negotiator and experienced litigator.  While trial is not always necessary, being prepared to take a case all the way to judgment is essential to effective advocacy in many settings.  Equally important is that your attorney be particularly experienced in spinal cord injury cases.  An experienced SCI attorney will make sure that the proper medical experts examine and diagnose your condition and estimate the anticipated costs of your rehabilitation.  An attorney will know how best to deal with critical issues of damages, liability, and fault in a lawsuit, and understand the proper parameters in obtaining compensation from an insurance company or other bureaucracy.

The Cartwright Law Firm has decades of experience in dealing with spinal injuries in the courtroom and at the negotiating table.  Our skilled trial lawyers are available to represent clients anywhere in the country.  If you or a loved one has experienced a spinal cord injury, and you are concerned about medical payments or your legal rights, contact the Cartwright Law Firm today for a free initial consultation.

\