Spinal cord injuries can be life-changing. Effects like a loss of muscle control and sensation can make it impossible for you to live as you used to. Instead, you may require extensive help or complete care that your family members may not be able to provide. The cost of care for spinal injuries is astounding. Spinal injuries are often caused by the negligence of others: common causes of spinal cord injuries include slip and fall accidents, work accidents, auto accidents, and deliberate violence. The people who caused your injury should pay the costs. 

That’s where Fisher & Talwar can help. We use the law to help you get compensation for your injuries so that you and your family can build a new life. It might not be what it was before, but it can have room for love and even joy. The path to a new normal can begin with a consultation about your legal options. It’s free, completely confidential, and there’s no obligation. 

Get Compensation for Spinal Cord Injuries

If someone else caused or contributed to your spinal cord injury, you should not have to pay the cost of dealing with this injury. Under California’s comparative liability system, you can get compensation for spinal cord injuries even if you’re partly or mostly to blame for the accident that caused them. You can also seek compensation from everyone who shares the blame for the accident that caused your injury. 

The expenses related to spinal injuries can be staggering, and most families simply cannot handle them without the help of a spinal cord injury lawsuit. In addition, other people in your family can make claims for things they have lost as a result of your injuries. The loss of consortium claim is a specific and illustrative example of this type of claim.

The Scale of Spinal Cord Injury Costs

It’s hard to fathom how much spinal cord injury costs. According to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, the first year’s expenses for a spinal cord injury could be up to $1.5 million (2014 figures adjusted for inflation to 2025). Lifetime costs for a 50-year-old suffering a spinal cord injury could be $3.6 million. For a 25-year-old, the lifetime costs of care could be $6.5 million. 

These costs are astronomical when you consider that the median lifetime income for an individual in the US is about $1.5 million. How can the average family hope to cover the care expenses for an injured loved one and still have anything left? That is an almost impossible burden, and an unfair one to put on people who were not responsible for their injuries. 

The only way many families can hope to cover these costs is by getting compensation from those who caused the injury to help bridge the gap. With a spinal cord injury lawsuit, you might be able to get money to help cover:

  • Medical bills
  • Lost wages and diminished earning ability
  • Accommodations around the home
  • Equipment to help with disability
  • Additional help around the home
  • Caretakers’ expenses
  • Physical therapy and other rehabilitation expenses
  • Diminished quality of life

The exact compensation available in your case will depend on its specific circumstances. During your consultation with a spinal injury lawyer, you can talk about what you might be able to get compensation for. 

Loss of Consortium Claims

In addition to claims on behalf of the injured person, other people can make claims for what they have lost because of the spinal cord injury. This doesn’t mean that they can claim things like the money the injured person would provide (those are already covered in the injured person’s lost wages). Instead, it means that they can claim noneconomic damages because the spinal cord injury changed their life for the worse. The most common type of claim in this category is loss of consortium claims, in which a spouse files a claim for the loss of love, companionship, comfort, moral support, and the enjoyment of sexual relations. They can also make a claim if they lost the ability to have children.

These harms are subjective, but they are real, and in California, the law says they deserve to be compensated.

Spinal Cord Injuries Are Complex

Like the brain, the spine is a complex nerve system. We don’t fully understand how spinal injuries work, and why some injuries result in more significant impairment than other injuries that seem the same or even worse. 

Especially mysterious is recovery. Although only about 1% of impacted people experience complete recovery by the time of discharge, most people see some level of recovery. Most recovery happens shortly after the accident, within the first six months, but it is normal to see continued improvement for up to 18 months after injury. Recovery tends to be limited. People see an improvement of 1 or 2 grades of muscle function (see below). 

Signs and Symptoms of Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury will often be immediately apparent. However, sometimes you might not realize the severity of your injury at first. Instead, you might become aware that your injury is more serious when you notice:

  • Intense back pain
  • Bowel or urinary incontinence
  • Loss of movement
  • Tingling or numbness
  • Stinging sensation or hypersensitivity
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Spasms or uncontrolled movements
  • Impaired sexual sensation or function

If you notice these symptoms after a back injury, you should seek care immediately. Many moderate spinal injuries can worsen without proper care, whereas early care can improve the odds of recovery. 

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries come in many different types and degrees. There is a complicated system to classify these injuries in an attempt to gauge their seriousness and how they impact a person’s life. 

The simplest classification of spinal cord injuries is the division between paraplegia and tetraplegia (also called quadraplegia). In paraplegia, a person has lost control of their legs as well as some parts of their abdomen. In tetraplegia, a person has lost control of their arms as well, and it likely includes a loss of function of at least some function in the torso and abdomen. In this system, the injuries are also described as either “full” or “partial,” depending on whether the person still retains some function of the affected limbs. 

In a more complex classification, spinal cord injuries are divided by the vertebra where the highest part of the spinal injury is located. Since spinal cord injuries typically affect everything located below them, this can also serve as a shorthand for the systems affected by the spinal cord injury:

  • Cervical (C1-C7): This is an injury to the spinal cord in one of the seven neck vertebrae, and is the most likely to cause tetraplegia as well as a loss of control of many body functions, especially bladder control.
  • Thoracic (T1-T12): This is an injury to the spinal cord in the vertebrae of the upper back. This injury will most likely result in paraplegia, but it could also impact a person’s ability to breathe on their own. However, people with lower thoracic spinal cord injuries can sometimes be independent. They may use a wheelchair, and can stand or drive a car with special equipment. 
  • Lumbar (L1-L5): This is an injury to the spinal cord in the lower back, where the largest vertebrae are. Lumbar spinal injuries may impact the feeling and control of the feet and legs. It may include a loss of bowel and bladder control.
  • Sacral (S1-S5): Technically, the spinal cord ends at the L2 vertebra, but nerves still travel through the vertebral column, and injuries even through this section can still have impacts on sensation and function through the groin area, thighs, and buttocks. 

In addition, spinal injuries may be graded by their severity. The American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) has developed two interlacing classification systems for injuries. The first is a simple letter grade system:

  • Grade A: Total spinal injury. The injured person has neither sensation nor function via any of the injured parts of the spine. 
  • Grade B: Some sensation in the affected area, but no motor control. 
  • Grade C: Some motor function in the affected area. 
  • Grade D: Although motor function is not normal, more than half of the muscles in the affected area are at a 3 or above on ASIA’s muscle function scale (see below).
  • Grade E: Normal muscle function and sensation in the affected area.

To further refine the above system, ASIA developed scores for both muscle function and nerve sensation:

Muscle function grading:

  1. Total paralysis
  2. Palpable or visible muscle contraction
  3. Active movement, with full range of motion (ROM) if gravity is removed (such as with flotation)
  4. Active movement with a full range of ROM against gravity
  5. Active movement with a full range of ROM against gravity plus moderate resistance
  6. As expected for an unimpaired person.

Sensory grading:

  1. No sensation
  2. Decreased sensation or hypersensitivity
  3. Normal

Muscle function will normally be tested for key muscles, and sensation will be tested in different regions to gain a full picture of a person’s true functionality. 

You Need Experts on Your Side

Whenever your lawsuit touches on a highly complex subject, you need to have experts on your side. This is true of spinal cord injury lawsuits. 

Defendants and their insurance companies routinely try to minimize the severity of your injuries. This is a common tactic, and to make it sound convincing, they will employ experts who will testify that various aspects of your injury are implausible or inconsistent, even though they’re real. They will use this tactic to get you to accept a lower settlement or get a jury to award you less money. They will also employ legal maneuvers to try to limit the types of expenses you can get compensation for. 

You need experts on your side who can dispute the assertions of the defense experts so that you can get the full compensation you are due. A law firm with a history of success in this area should have access to experts who can make a convincing case on your behalf.

Why Choose Fisher & Talwar for Your Spine Injury Case

There are many law firms that are trying to get you to trust them with your spinal cord injury case. However, Fisher & Talwar offer advantages that we believe make us the best choice for your spinal cord injury case. 

We Have a Record of Success

One of the best reasons to choose Fisher & Talwar for your spine injury case is that we have a record of success in helping people in situations just like yours. We have won verdicts and settlements for millions of dollars for our clients. Check out our list of notable verdicts and settlements here. 

We Give You Personal Attention

When you hire some law firms, you may not know who is actually handling your case. The big names on the door bring you in, and you might even consult with one of those famous attorneys. However, when it comes time to research, negotiate, and even plead your case, the big name might not be there. Instead, it might be some junior attorney whose experience might not be what you would have chosen. 

When you hire Fisher & Talwar, though, you can trust that we will always handle your case personally. We never take more cases than our partners can handle themselves. This also means that we can be highly selective in the cases we take. We won’t take your case unless we’re convinced that we can get better results for you than you would get on your own or working with another lawyer. 

We Won’t Charge Fees If We Don’t Win

We take spinal cord injury cases on a contingency basis. This is a “no win, no fee,” agreement. If we don’t win money for you, we won’t charge you a fee. Your family is dealing with enough bills right now–you don’t need a lawyer’s bill on top of it unless we get you more money to help.

We Never Pass Expenses On

In addition, we don’t pass our expenses on to you. Our fee is our fee, and we will handle our expenses as part of that fee. What you pay us is what you agreed to at the beginning. There’s never a surprise bill from us. 

Not all lawyers handle expenses in this way. Many will charge you a fee and expect you to pay for their expenses, too. At the end of a complicated lawsuit, like a spinal cord injury, these expenses can be considerable, and they can cut into the earnings you need to pay your bills. Worse, some lawyers may expect you to pay their expenses even if they don’t win your case. You’ll have no more money, but more bills. 

Always remember to ask any potential lawyer how they handle expenses as well as fees. 

Contact Us for Free Consultation

You are struggling to handle all the complexities after the accident that caused a spinal cord injury to you or a family member. Let Fisher & Talwar take some of the worries off your plate. Please contact us today for a free initial consultation. It’s completely confidential and there’s no obligation, just an opportunity to get answers to all your questions.

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