Your Spinal Injury Lawyer Knows That Surviving Is Not Walking Away.

Being alive does not always mean being able to return to a normal life; return to work; or even stand on your own. Your neck and back injury attorney at The Spitz Law Firm knows the lifelong problems that can come with spinal cord injuries.

Since 2000, traffic accidents account for 46.9 percent of reported spinal cord injury cases. The next most common cause of spinal cord injuries is fall related accidents. Overall, the Center For Disease Control and the Spinal Cord Injury Information Network reports that there are about 11,000 new cases of spinal cord injuries per year in the United States.

Spinal cord injuries occur when a traumatic event results in damage to cells within the spinal cord or severs the nerve tracts that relay signals up and down the spinal cord. The most common injuries of these types include contusion (bruising of the spinal cord) and compression (caused by pressure on the spinal cord). Other types of spine injuries include severing or tearing of some nerve fibers and central cord syndrome (specific damage to the corticospinal tracts of the cervical region of the spinal cord).

Spinal cord injuries are described as "complete" (abrogation or stopping of nerve signals passing below the level of insult), or "incomplete" (abrogation or stopping of some of the signals passing below level of insult). The point on the cord below which there is decreased sensation or movement is described as the level of injury. In this regard, paraplegia results from injury or insult to the thoracic, lumbar or sacral areas of the spinal cord. Survivors with paraplegia generally lose physical and sensory capability (movement and feeling) in lower areas of the body (typically waist and lower). On the other hand, tetraplegia (formerly known as quadriplegia) results from injury or insult to the cervical area of the spinal cord. Survivors with tetraplegia generally lose physical and sensory capability (movement and feeling) in both upper and lower areas of the body with impairment extending to all four limbs.

Of those suffering a spinal cord injury, less than one percent of individuals experienced complete neurologic recovery by hospital discharge. Over time, the percentage of persons with incomplete tetraplegia increases slightly while both complete paraplegia and complete tetraplegia decreases slightly.

When assessing damages, a spinal cord injury attorney must consider more than the physical and emotional suffering, but must also take into account that spinal cord injuries cause significant financial damages. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, 65.6 percent of paraplegics and 75.7 percent of tetraplegics are unable to return to work in the eight years following the accident. Of those that were able to return to work, many could not return to the same position and/or rate of pay. These lost wages are damages that your spinal cord injury attorney can attempt to recover from the liable parties.

Moreover, your spinal cord injury attorney will address health care and living expense arising as a result of the spinal injury. We know that the average yearly health care and living expenses and the estimated lifetime costs that are directly attributable to spinal cord injury are significant. Sadly, as a spinal cord injury law firm, we also know that spinal cord injury victims also have a shorter life expectancy, which is defined as the average remaining years of life for an individual. Mortality rates are significantly higher during the first year after injury than during subsequent years, particularly for severely injured persons.

Handling spinal cord injury cases not only requires legal expertise, but medical experts to substantiate the claims made for the experience and to testify ably. At The Spitz Law Firm, your spinal cord injury attorney has access to a nationwide bank of such experts with the ability to evaluate all types of spinal cord injuries and present qualified medical expert opinion at trial together with the diagnosis, prognosis, and causal connection of the injury to the subject accident. Your spinal cord injury attorney also has access to our selected team of economists and life care planners who are prepared to evaluate and project future lost income and expenses; as well as other current and prior economic losses. Let us put our resources to work for you right now. Call the right spinal cord injury attorney. Call The Spitz Law Firm.

Call The Right Back And Neck Injury Attorney 24/7 At: 1-888-70-RIGHT or (216) 291-4744