Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries

Sustaining a spinal cord injury can be a painful and frightening experience. When an accident is due to the carelessness of an individual or company, the victim may pursue a personal injury action to seek compensation for his or her harm. The spinal cord injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Robert Dixon can help people in Miami and elsewhere in South Florida navigate the legal process. Our firm knows that a victim’s first concern is physical recovery. We are there to make sure they are not further burdened by escalating medical costs or other financial issues caused by another party’s negligence.

Spinal cord injuries can be either complete or incomplete. Complete spinal cord injuries cause a victim to lose all sensation and function below the point of injury. However, with an incomplete spinal cord injury, the victim may retain some feeling or movement below the affected area. The symptoms may be different depending on the victim and the type of injury. These symptoms can include varying degrees of weakness, tingling, coordination problems, numbness, loss of bladder control, pain, or paralysis. A trauma that compresses, pulls, cuts, or pushes against your spinal cord can lead to a spinal cord injury. Almost half of non-fatal spinal cord injuries that occur yearly are the result of car accidents. Other common causes of these types of injuries include truck crashes, product defects, falls, or motorcycle collisions. When another party negligently causes an accident, a victim may be able to recover damages by initiating a personal injury suit.

Incomplete spinal cord injuries may force a victim to alter his or her lifestyle and, depending on their severity, even redirect his or her career path. Trying to make sure that people and entities responsible for causing these types of injuries are held financially accountable can be an important part of moving forward. To receive damages, a victim or plaintiff usually must show the defendant acted negligently. This means establishing that he or she was owed a duty of care by the defendant and that this duty was violated by some careless behavior. The victim also must prove that he or she would not have been hurt if the defendant had not breached the duty of care and that actual damages arose from the accident.

Most people owe a duty of reasonable care to those who could be affected by their conduct to act as a prudent person would behave under the circumstances. For example, a driver who is violating a traffic rule or otherwise acting carelessly can potentially be held accountable for the injuries that he or she causes in a crash. Even if a victim is partly at fault, he or she may still be able to recover damages from another responsible party. Florida is a pure comparative fault state, meaning that damages are allocated in proportion to each party’s degree of responsibility. For instance, if a victim was found 60 percent at fault for an accident, he or she could still possibly recover up to 40 percent of the damages incurred from the other negligent party or parties. Damages available in personal injury lawsuits often include past and future medical expenses, loss of income or earning capacity, and pain and suffering.

Although incomplete spinal cord injuries may vary in degree of pain or other symptoms, they all require significant recovery time and sometimes an adjustment to a victim’s day-to-day life. At the Law Offices of Robert Dixon, our Miami attorneys help victims of car accidents and other preventable events try to hold accountable those who were responsible for harming them. Our firm represents residents of Miami and other cities throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. Call 877.499.4878 or contact us online for a free, no-obligation consultation about your case.