Spinal Cord Injury Attorney in Wisconsin
Dealing with spinal cord injuries can be incredibly traumatic. When someone else’s negligence causes your spinal cord injury, you may have to file a claim or lawsuit against them. Trying to handle a claim on your own could bring you frustration, stress, and even reduce how much compensation you might recover for your injuries.
To protect your right to seek compensation, contact Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers. We offer legal assistance to victims of spinal cord injuries in Wisconsin and can help you feel confident as you move forward with a claim. We ensure that our clients understand their options and relentlessly pursue the justice they deserve.
Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers: Experienced Wisconsin Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we understand the trauma associated with catastrophic spinal cord injuries. We provide comprehensive legal representation to our clients and many services to make managing injury claims accessible. In many cases, we have helped our clients recover significantly more compensation for their injuries than they might have recovered on their own.
We make sure you know how much compensation to expect for your injuries.
Insurance companies use tricky tactics to reduce the money they pay accident victims—especially after severe accidents like a spinal cord injury. As a result, you may fight an uphill battle to get the compensation you deserve. Sometimes, insurance companies will quickly pressure you into accepting a low settlement offer, often by approaching you soon after the accident.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we make sure our clients understand their financial losses and, as a result, how much compensation they should seek for their injuries. With the cost of spinal cord injury treatment sometimes exceeding $1 million in the first year after an accident, victims need every cent they deserve to help them handle medical bills and other financial challenges.
We help our clients avoid insurance company tactics to ensure that our clients do not make decisions without knowing all the facts.
We help our clients seek out all evidence related to their spinal cord injuries.
After a spinal cord injury, you will need evidence proving how your accident happened and identifying liable parties.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, our experienced legal team can uncover all of the details of your accident. Although most cases settle out of court, we start gathering evidence that could help in a trial from the get-go so that we have everything we need to pursue your case to the fullest.
We deal with the insurance company on your behalf.
After a spinal cord injury, interacting with the insurance company can be incredibly stressful. In many cases, victims deal with an insurance company that wants to pressure them into accepting a low settlement. Worse, the insurance company may try to deny the victim’s claim, leaving them struggling to recover the compensation they deserve.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we deal with the insurance company on our clients’ behalf. Our goal is to reduce stress and lower the risk that the insurance company will deny a claim outright.
We represent our clients aggressively and comprehensively in court.
While most injury claims settle out of court, catastrophic injury claims like those for a spinal cord injury have a higher risk of going to court. At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we aggressively represent our clients in court as we fight for a just compensation award.
Injured in Wisconsin? Get Nicolet.
Wisconsin Spinal Cord Injuries: How Do They Occur?
Spinal cord injuries can occur in many types of accidents, often resulting from catastrophic negligence of the liable party.
However, some types of accidents commonly result in spinal cord injuries, including:
- Auto or Motorcycle Accidents: A severe auto or motorcycle accident involving a drunk driver, a semi-truck, or high speed can cause spinal cord injuries. The liable driver may have chosen to drive while distracted, drive aggressively, or break laws, resulting in an accident causing spine damage.
- Premises Liability Incidents: Falls on public and private property can lead to severe injuries, including spinal cord injuries. A minor slip and fall will not result in spinal cord injuries most of the time. However, a fall from a height, like falling down a flight of stairs, can easily result in spinal cord injuries.
- UTV or Snowmobile Accidents: In Wisconsin, many people enjoy spending time outdoors on UTVs in the warm months and snowmobiles in the winter. Riding these vehicles is a fun and practical way to get around. However, colliding with an obstacle, running off a path and flipping, or being crashed into by another driver can throw a victim off the vehicle and severely injure them.
Recovering Compensation for Wisconsin Spinal Cord Injuries: What to Expect
When someone else’s negligence causes your spinal cord injury, you may be able to pursue compensation through a personal injury claim.
At Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers, we cannot guarantee how much compensation you will ultimately recover for your spine injury. However, we can help you estimate how much compensation you deserve. When we work on a case, we break down the client’s losses to ensure that we include everything. Common damages that spinal cord injury victims seek include:
Compensation for Medical Costs
Medical treatment costs for spinal cord injuries can rise quickly. Spine injuries often cause paralysis or partial paralysis and may also impact organ function, requiring extended medical observation and care. For this reason, spinal cord injury victims often stay in the hospital for a long time after the initial accident.
Due to their injuries, they may spend time in the ICU or have a long road to recovery in a rehabilitation facility. In addition, they may need durable medical equipment, like a wheelchair, to help them get around.
Spinal cord injuries may also necessitate ongoing therapy, like physical and occupational therapy, to help maintain strength in other areas of the body and give victims as much independence as possible. Medical costs may continue indefinitely.
Compensation for Necessary Home Modifications
Spinal cord injury victims may need to modify their homes to increase independence. They may need to install a wheelchair ramp or widen doorways to make it easier to get around. In addition, they may need special equipment in the bathroom to get in and out of the shower more easily.
Talk to your lawyer about what home modifications you may need and how you can include them as part of your spinal cord injury claim.
Compensation for Lost Income or Earning Potential
Spinal cord injuries can interfere with employment. You may have to take time off work for weeks or months while recovering from your injuries. Some people may never fully return to work following a spinal cord injury. They may lose the capacity to work altogether or lose the ability to work in their former profession or industry. Talk to your lawyer about your lost income or lost earning potential and how you can include them in your claim.
Compensation for Pain and Suffering
Spinal cord injuries can cause a great deal of suffering. Many victims find that their spinal cord injuries create substantial limitations, changing their relationships and preventing them from engaging in many of their favorite hobbies. Because spinal cord injuries interfere with mobility, they can keep victims from accessing things they once took for granted. Victims may also struggle with changing relationships with friends and loved ones. Furthermore, spinal cord injuries may decrease life expectancy and overall quality of life.
As part of a spinal cord injury claim in Wisconsin, you can include compensation for the suffering you faced as part of your injuries. Talk to a lawyer about how to calculate pain and suffering in a spinal cord injury claim.
Wisconsin Spinal Cord Injury FAQ
Here are some common questions asked about spine injuries and who is at fault.
Who Bears Liability for Spinal Cord Injuries in Wisconsin?
To file a spinal cord injury claim, you must determine who bears liability for your injuries. Liability may vary based on who caused your accident or if more than one factor contributed to your injuries. A lawyer can examine evidence from your accident and determine which parties share liability for your losses. To determine who is liable, a lawyer will ask several questions, such as:
Who owed you a duty of care during your accident?
A duty of care is an imperative to reduce or prevent injury to another party. For example, drivers automatically bear a duty of care to others on the road: they must abide by driving laws and engage in safe driving practices to reduce the risk of accident and injury.
How did the party violate the duty of care?
Your lawyer will also need to show that the liable party violated their duty of care to you by acting negligently. For example, a driver who chooses to drive while distracted, speed, or ignores the rules of the road violates their duty of care to another driver. When their negligent actions cause an accident, they may be liable for the accident.
How did that party’s actions cause your accident?
Your lawyer must show that the negligent party’s actions caused or contributed to your accident to establish liability. Suppose, for example, that you see another driver texting as you head down the road. They slam into you a few seconds later, causing a severe accident resulting in a spinal cord injury. Because the distracted driver caused or contributed to this accident, you could probably file a claim against this driver.
Talking to a lawyer can help you determine what parties may have caused or contributed to your accident. This issue can become tricky when multiple parties and employers are involved, so speak to a professional to ensure you file claims against the appropriate parties.
Do You Need a Wisconsin Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer?
If you sustained a spinal cord injury in Wisconsin due to someone else’s negligence, reach out to Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers.
Our award-winning legal team understands the hardships that spinal cord injuries cause. We have experience helping spinal cord injury clients win the compensation they deserve and take great pride in helping members of our community get their lives back on track.