Duluth Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

Duluth Spinal Cord Injury Attorney

Spinal cord injuries are devastating injuries that can change an individual’s life and their family’s future. While each spinal cord injury differs in severity and impacts, even a minor spinal cord injury is likely to cause intense pain and stress and to bring about astronomical medical expenses.

If you have suffered a spinal cord injury in Duluth because of another person’s intentional, reckless, or negligent actions, you should not have to deal with the burdensome repercussions on your own. At the Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we our Duluth spinal cord injury lawyers are here for spinal cord injury victims, ready to provide experienced legal representation to get them the justice and damages they deserve.

Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers—About Us

Your spinal cord injury may have come about any number of ways—an auto accident in Downtown Duluth, a fall at the Duluth Target store, or a workplace injury at the University of Minnesota-Duluth or St. Luke’s Hospital. Whatever caused your spinal cord injury, reach out to Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers to talk about how we can help you obtain the compensation you deserve for your injuries.

Since 2007, our personal injury attorneys and legal team have helped thousands of clients in cities across Wisconsin and Minnesota after horrific accidents that rendered them severely injured or disabled. Our firm is passionate about protecting our community, and we have done so by helping those who are in their most vulnerable state seize back their lives by obtaining the compensation they need to recover and move on with their lives the best they can.

Our clients can trust us to deliver the high-level legal services they need. Our results speak for themselves—we have helped over 3,000 clients collect over $40 million in settlement and court awards for compensation. Even though we cannot guarantee these types of results for every case we take on, you can rest assured when you work with the Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, our legal team can fight hard to go after every last dollar your injury has cost you. Contact us today for a free case evaluation.

What Is A Spinal Cord Injury?

Spinal cord injuries can result from many different kinds of impacts. However, the most common cause is external trauma. This may be from any kind of impact, from falling to being thrown against a hard surface in an auto accident.

External trauma can cause damage to the spinal cord, leading to a loss of feeling, mobility, or function.

Spinal cord injuries often occur because of a sudden blow or cut to the spine and generally result in one or more of the following signs and symptoms:

• A loss of movement
• A loss of bladder or bowel control
• Exaggerated spasms or reflex activities
• Changes in sexual function, sensitivity, and fertility
• An altered sensation, including the ability to feel heat, cold, and touch
• Pain caused by damages to the nerve fibers in the spinal cord
• Difficulty coughing, breathing, or clearing secretions from the lungs.

Unfortunately, depending on the severity of these spinal cord injuries, the effects can fundamentally change a person’s life. Victims often do not know right away just how much their lives will change due to their spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injury patients normally require the following services after their injury:

• Surgery
• Injection treatments
• Rehabilitation therapy
• Wheelchairs
• Diaphragm pacing
• Special medical devices

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

Generally, spinal cord injuries are divided into two types—complete and incomplete.

• Complete Spinal Cord Injury: This spinal cord injury results in permanent damage to the area of the spinal cord that is affected. Complete spinal cord injuries are likely to result in paraplegia and tetraplegia. About half of all spinal cord injuries are complete.
• Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Incomplete spinal cord injuries refer to partial damage to the spinal cord, which can impact one’s ability to move and feel depending on the area of the spinal cord that was injured and the severity of that injury.

Different Levels of Spinal Cord Injuries

A spinal cord consists of four sections, including the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral sections. Each of these sections protects a unique group of nerves that control the body. For these reasons, the effects of a spinal cord injury depend on which section is harmed.

For instance:

• Cervical Injuries affect the head and neck region above the shoulders, and this type of spinal cord injury is often considered the most severe.
• Thoracic Injuries impact the mid-back, upper chest, and abdominal muscles. Usually, with this type of spinal cord injury, the hand and arm functions remain normal.
• Lumbar Injuries affect the hips and the legs. Victims that have suffered this type of spinal cord injury often need a wheelchair or leg braces.
• Sacral Injuries affect the buttocks, pelvic organs, hips, and the back of the thighs. However, victims with this type of spinal cord injury are often able to walk.

Common Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries can occur in almost any situation, but more commonly result from the following types of accidents:

• Motor vehicle crashes
• Trucking accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• ATV accidents
• Snowmobile accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Assault
• Dangerous property conditions

If you suffered a spinal cord injury in any of these kinds of accidents, due to no fault of your own, reach out to an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer at Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, as soon as possible. Our lawyers can evaluate your case and advise on the viability of your claim. If we proceed to represent you, we can quickly investigate your accident to determine what happened and who all may have been responsible, and pursue maximum damages to account for your injuries and expenses.

Duluth Spinal Cord Injury Lawsuit—What You Need to Prove

In a spinal cord injury case, you will need to prove a party was at fault for the accident leading to your spinal cord injury. To prove fault, you must show that another person engaged in an intentional, reckless, or negligent, or negligent manner, leading to your injury.

In most spinal cord injury cases, the at-fault party engaged in negligent behavior—i.e. they failed to exercise a reasonable amount of care in their conduct in a given situation. To prove negligence as a matter of law, you need to demonstrate that a party owed you a duty of care. In any given situation, everyone has a duty of care to one another. You also must show that the party violated this duty of care, and that it directly led to your spinal cord injury and the damages (compensation) you are seeking.

Some common situations that can constitute a negligent act in spinal cord injury cases include:

• A truck colliding with a car, motorcycle, or pedestrian because the truck driver was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or was distracted and not paying attention to the road
• A property owner failed to fix or to warn their guest of a dangerous condition on the premises, and a guest subsequently stumbled upon the condition, leading to injury

Damages Available After a Duluth Spinal Cord Injury Accident

If you can prove spinal cord injury was due to another person’s wrongful or negligent actions, filing a lawsuit could help you get the much-needed financial compensation to address the immense expenses these injuries tend to result in, from medical bills to the increased costs of living with a spinal cord injury disability, such as requiring home modifications and paying for services you can no longer do yourself. The law refers to compensation for these expenses and impacts as “damages.”

Following a spinal cord injury accident, you may be entitled to the following types of damages:

Economic Damages: These damages refer to verifiable expenses resulting from an accident.

They include:

• Medical expenses, including past, current, and future medical bills, such as emergency medical services, ambulance rides, hospital stay, surgeries, doctor visits, and prescription medications
• Lost wages
• Lost earning capacity
• Personal property damages
• Rehabilitation costs
• At-home nursing care
• Replacement services.
• Other out-of-pocket expenses

Non-Economic Damages: These damages refer to the more subjective losses that result from the accident, and that are not as easy to quantify.

They include:

• Pain and Suffering
• Mental anguish
• Loss of companionship
• Loss of consortium
• Loss of enjoyment of life and activities
• Loss of reputation
• Loss of a limb
• Scarring
• Disfigurement

Punitive Damages: Unlike the aforementioned damages, which compensate a victim for their expenses and losses “make them whole,” punitive damages punish a defendant for egregious wrongdoings and deter them and others from committing such acts. However, courts only award these damages if the victim can produce evidence showing that the defendant acted maliciously or with an intentional disregard to a victim’s rights.

Actions to Take Following a Duluth Spinal Cord Injury Accident

Following a spinal cord injury accident, a spinal cord injury victim's health and legal rights may depend on a loved one to:

Contact 911

After a spinal cord injury accident, you should call 911 immediately. This is the fastest way to notify emergency medical services that you need medical assistance and get your accident on record. If you are unable to move, ask someone in your car or nearby to call 911. Once the police arrive, they can investigate your accident and write down their findings in the police report. If you decide to pursue legal action, this report can provide you with valuable information regarding what happened and who was at fault.

Gather Evidence

Although it is not always possible following a spinal cord injury accident, if you are able, collect evidence at the scene of the accident, such as pictures and videos. Again, if you are too injured to do so, request that someone nearby assist you. Your photos may include your visible injuries, the scene of the accident, the weather conditions at the time of the accident, and any other evidence that can help show what happened.

Obtain Witness Statements

If there were people at the scene who saw what happened, try to get their names and contact information. Even if they do not provide a statement at the scene, these individuals might later be willing to provide you with a statement of what they saw. Witness statements can provide information about how the accident occurred and help back up your claim. However, if witnesses do not want to give you their details, do not press them. Once you retain an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer, your attorney can find a way to obtain witness testimony by other means.

Get Checked Out By Your Doctor

Even if you believe you do not require emergency medical care following the accident, you should still get checked over by a doctor as soon as possible. Spinal cord injuries are not always immediately apparent, and they can take days to weeks to manifest. Yet, the longer you wait to get medical treatment, the more serious the injury can become. For this reason alone, it is important to have a doctor examine you promptly after your accident.

In addition, getting prompt medical treatment can be important to your legal claim. Generally, the responsible party will pay for your claim through insurance. In turn, insurance companies are looking for any reason to deny your claim. By not getting immediate treatment following a spinal cord injury accident, the insurance company will argue that your injury is not as serious as you say or that its severity was a result of a subsequent event, and thus not their insured’s fault.

When you get checked over by your doctor right after an accident, a medical professional can document your physical state, providing evidence to directly link your spinal cord injury to the accident.

Get the Legal Help You Need Following a Duluth Spinal Cord Injury Accident From Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers

To bring a successful case following a spinal cord injury accident, you need strong evidence and sound legal arguments showing what happened, who was at fault, and what the impacts have been on your life. When you work with an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer at Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, you do not have to take on the burden of establishing these things yourself.

Our firm can:

• Go over your case in detail, advise you of your legal options, and help you decide the best way to move forward given your situation
• Answer any questions you have about your claim
• Investigate your spinal cord injury accident and gather the necessary evidence to prove fault and damages
• Obtain experts, as necessary, such as accident reconstructionists, engineers, and doctors to substantiate your claims
• Handle negotiations with the responsible party and their insurer to fight for a fair settlement, sufficient to cover your expenses and impacts
• Take your case to trial if the other side refuses to settle for a fair amount, and secure a court award of damages to ensure you recover compensation

If you or a loved one suffered a spinal cord injury because of another’s wrongdoing, do not wait any longer to get legal help. Reach out to Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers today for your free case consultation, and let our Duluth spinal cord injury lawyers help you fight for your legal rights.

Duluth Office
306 West Superior Street, Suite 606
Duluth, MN 55802
Phone: 218-217-0698