Spinal Cord Injury

If you or a loved one have suffered a spinal cord injury through no fault of your own. The experienced Baltimore spinal cord injury lawyers at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, are ready to help you fight to maximize your financial recovery. Contact our law offices at (410) 837-2144 to get started with a free consultation to learn more today.

Whether in a car accident or as a result of medical malpractice, you may be entitled to compensation. Damages for personal injury claims include medical bills, physical therapy costs, lost wages, and more.

How Our Baltimore Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Can Help You Seek Compensation For Your Spinal Cord Injury

How Our Baltimore Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help You Seek Compensation For Your Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injuries, from herniated discs to fused vertebrae, have long-term and significant impacts. You will need to have the ability to focus on recovery if you’ve suffered a spinal cord injury. Hiring a Baltimore personal injury attorney who has experience handling cases like yours can give you the time you need to do that.

At WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, our lawyers have 80 years of experience representing accident victims across Baltimore County.

We understand the ripple effects that trauma to the spinal column can have across your life, and we’re ready to fight for you. Expect us to put the full force and weight of our law firm behind you as we pursue maximum compensation on your behalf.

When you hire our firm, we will:

  • Keep open lines of communication. From the outset with a free case evaluation through the final settlement or judgment, we keep open lines of communication.
  • Complete administrative tasks seamlessly. Scheduling, document collection, or responding to emails may seem overwhelming while living with a spinal cord injury. Our office handles these tasks with ease. 
  • Conduct a thorough investigation. We thoroughly investigate the circumstances of your accident and gather evidence to support your case. 
  • Value your claim accurately. We seek both financial damages, like medical expenses and lost wages, and non-financial damages, such as pain and suffering, on behalf of our clients. To value your claim accurately, we assess all damages.
  • Expertly negotiate your settlement. Negotiation is a skill that we have honed over years of experience in Baltimore personal injury cases. 
  • Defend against claims of blame. Maryland is a pure contributory negligence state. This means that if an injured person is in any way to blame for their injury, they cannot recover. Of course, in many cases, the insurance company tries to assign blame to an injured person to prevent recovery. In our years of experience, we’ve learned how to defend our clients from accusations of blame. 
  • Provide competent court representation. It’s true that most legal claims are settled before trial. When a case cannot be settled, the skilled trial lawyers at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, are ready to go to court for you. 

When you choose a personal injury attorney in Baltimore, Maryland, you have a chance to recover the losses caused by the accident with the compensation you deserve. 

It is important to establish an attorney-client relationship as soon as possible after a spinal cord injury occurs. This is because it takes time for an attorney or law firm to investigate and prepare a case. Then, there should still be time to negotiate with the insurance company before filing a case. 

Our law firm helps injury victims in Maryland and Washington, DC. Call our office today to get started with your recovery. 

Spinal Cord Injuries: An Overview

A spinal cord injury includes damage to any part of the spinal cord or nerves in the back. 

Symptoms of spinal cord injuries include: 

  • Weakness, loss of sensation, and loss of movement below the point of injury
  • Severe or permanent neurological damage
  • Full or partial paralysis

Since the symptoms of spinal cord injuries include loss of movement and sensation below the level of injury, the damage from a spinal cord injury can depend on where it is located along the spine. 

Medical experts divide the back into three segments: 

  • Cervical spine (first seven bones from the skull are called “cervical vertebrae”) 
  • Thoracic spine (bones in the upper back and abdomen)
  • Lumbar spine (between ribcage and pelvis). 
Spinal Cord Injuries: An Overview

Spinal cord injuries can happen at any point in any of the three segments of the back.

 Herniated or bulging discs are one common injury along the spinal column.

The spinal column is the stack of vertebrae (bones) that run from the base of the skull to the tailbone.

Vertebrae are hollow in the center, and down the inside of the spinal column run spinal nerves. 

A spinal disc sits between each vertebral bone. Spinal discs have a gel-like inner layer surrounded by a fibrous outer layer. A herniated disc or bulging disc can occur when the inner gel squeezes through the outer layer. When the gel touches spinal nerves, the pain can be excruciating. 

Symptoms of herniated discs include numbness or tingling, arm or leg pain, and weakness. Herniated discs can be treated with medication, therapy, or surgery. 

Surgery for a herniated disc involves the removal of the damaged disc. After removal, the two vertebrae are fused together. 

The damage can be fatal or disabling when a fracture, dislocation, or other neck or back injury damages the spinal cord. Spinal cord injury involves traumatic, immediate damage to the spinal nerves

Potential complications from a spinal cord injury include: 

  • Immediate risk of respiratory and cardiac failure
  • Temporary or permanent paralysis; and
  • Bladder and bowel dysfunction.

Unfortunately, when a person sustains a spinal cord injury, they may suffer a lifelong disability or partial paralysis from the point of injury downward.

What Causes Spinal Cord Injuries?

To recover compensation in a personal injury case, an injured person must prove the cause of their injury.  Our experienced personal injury attorneys at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, are familiar with the common causes of spinal cord injuries and how they’re proven. 

Spinal cord injuries can be caused by a variety of traumatic and catastrophic accidents.

Some causes of spinal cord injuries include: 

  • Defective construction equipment
  • Unsafe flooring
  • Other defective products (belts, chains, pulleys)

Because spinal cord injuries are often caused by a defective product, they frequently form the basis for a product liability case. 

Boating accidents, maritime accidents, and acts of assault have been known to cause brain stem injuries. If you have suffered a spinal cord injury and you can show that it was caused by someone else’s fault or negligence, you may be entitled to compensation for your damages. 

What Compensation Can I Recover For a Spinal Cord Injury in Baltimore, MD?

The kind of damages available for a spinal cord injury depends on the circumstances of the case. It really depends on why you got hurt and how you decide to pursue damages.

Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit 

What Compensation Can I Recover For a Spinal Cord Injury in Baltimore, MD?

If you file a personal injury lawsuit, you can typically be awarded both economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damages are paid to make up for the verifiable costs associated with your spinal cord injury, such as:

  • Medical bills (both present and future)
  • Lost wages
  • Disability
  • Nursing care
  • Rehabilitation
  • Funeral and burial expenses (if a spinal cord injury is ultimately fatal)

Non-economic damages, on the other hand, are paid to compensate for consequences of a spinal cord injury that are more personal. They’re difficult ot value in terms of dollars and cents because they are so intimate and subjective, such as:

  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Loss of consortium
  • Mental anguish
  • PTSD

If your spinal cord injury is a consequnce of medical malpractice in Baltimore, your non-economic damages will be capped

Workers’ Compensation Benefits For a Spinal Cord Injury

If you suffer a spinal cord injury while working in Baltimore, you may have the option of recovering benefits from your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance policy. These benefits are awarded regardless of fault. 

In Maryland, covered workers’ compensation expenses include: 

  • Reasonable and necessary medical treatment expenses
  • Lost wages
  • Job training expenses 
  • Benefits for permanent disability 
  • Costs of medical devices, like prostheses or wheelchairs

Medical treatment expenses continue until the achievement of full recovery or until there is no benefit to any further treatment.

What is Contributory Negligence and How Can It Affect My Spinal Cord Injury Case in Baltimore, MD?

In Maryland, the rules of pure contributory negligence apply to personal injury cases. Under contributory negligence rules, any person who is in any part responsible for their injury cannot recover compensation from another person whose fault caused the injury. 

To take advantage of Maryland’s contributory negligence rules, insurance companies may try to unfairly accuse you to place you at blame for your injury. A skilled personal injury attorney, like the ones at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, can defend you against unfair claims. 

How Long Do I Have to Pursue Compensation After Suffering a Spinal Cord Injury in Maryland?

Like the laws of most states, Maryland laws govern how long a person has to file a lawsuit. In personal injury cases, an injured party has three years from the date of the injury within which to file their claim. 

This three-year period is called the statute of limitations. Once the statute of limitations ends, an injured person may forever lose their right to recover damages from their injury.

Even though three years sounds like a long time, if possible, is important to contact an attorney shortly after the accident. It takes time to investigate and prepare a personal injury case. 

Contact a Baltimore Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Today 

If you have suffered a spinal cord injury because of someone else’s fault or negligence, you should reach out to a personal injury attorney to learn more about your legal rights to recover compensation. Contact our Baltimore law firm, WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, (410) 837-2144.