Spinal Cord Injury

You may feel a sense of hopelessness after experiencing a spinal cord injury. Fortunately, there is hope. Brannon & Brannon Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers can help you restore order.

Our Fort Walton Beach personal injury lawyers have recovered millions of dollars for our clients. This money has helped them pay expensive doctor’s bills, rehabilitation, and lost wages.

When you hire us to handle your spinal cord injury case, our Fort Walton spinal cord injury attorneys will:

• Calculate your damages
• Investigate the accident
• Find out who is responsible
• Collect evidence
• Consult with expert witnesses
• Negotiate with insurance companies
• File a personal injury lawsuit
• Prepare for and represent you at trial

We are a family-oriented law firm. Our firm includes a father-son duo. We know that a spinal cord injury will impact not just your life but your loved one’s lives as well.

Call us to schedule a free consultation today after suffering a spinal cord injury in Fort Walton Beach, FL.

A spinal cord injury is an injury to the nerves inside or structure of the spinal cord.

Our spinal cord is one of the most important parts of the body. It is part of our nervous system and the pathway for our brain to send signals to the rest of the body.

When the spinal cord is damaged, we can lose some or all of our senses. This may include our sense of touch and ability to move our limbs. Some people may recover from a spinal cord injury, while others will not. As a result, spinal cord injuries can completely change the course of your life.

Signs of Spinal Cord Injuries

Some spinal cord injuries are immediately obvious after an accident. For example, if you are paralyzed or unable to move after getting into a car crash. However, many spinal cord injuries go unnoticed and become worse over time.

As a precaution, it is always best to have a doctor evaluate you after any type of accident to make sure that you don’t have any spinal cord trauma that could become permanent and disabling.

The doctor will usually ask you about the following signs of spinal cord injuries:

• Loss of movement or feeling in certain parts of your body
• Increased or shooting pain
• Pressure in your head
• Weakness in limbs
• Loss of bladder control
• Muscle spasms
• Poor coordination or difficulty balancing

If you notice any of these symptoms after an accident, you should take them very seriously. Failure to do so could result in a permanent injury.

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries are categorized by location on the spine and impact on bodily functions.

At the top of the spine are cervical injuries, followed by thoracic, lumbar, and sacral injuries at the very bottom of the spine. In general, cervical injuries near the top of the spine are more serious than sacral injuries near the bottom of the spine.

A complete spinal cord injury is when someone loses all voluntary functions below the injury site. If someone maintains some voluntary movement below the injury site, it is an incomplete spinal cord injury.

Incomplete spinal cord injuries can be just as devastating as complete injuries. Voluntary functions and physical sensations can be limited. However, the prognosis tends to be more positive for restoring some function in the long run.

In 2022, the Florida Department of Health helped 173 people who experienced a moderate to severe spinal cord injury.

This number only includes those eligible for services through the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Program. People who experience a mild spinal cord injury or an injury so severe that they are expected to reside in a nursing home are excluded from the program.

Spinal cord injuries can happen in an instant. Most types of accidents can cause a spinal cord injury.

However, some of the most common causes of spinal cord injuries include:

• Car accidents
• Truck accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Construction site accidents
• Slip and falls
• Bicycle crashes
• Defective products
• Workplace accidents
• Boating accidents
• Sporting accidents

Brannon & Brannon Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers can help you regardless of how the spinal cord injury happened.

Spinal cord injury cases tend to be worth a lot of money. That’s because spinal cord injuries are usually severe. They can significantly alter the course of someone’s life.

Ultimately, the value of your case depends on how the injury has affected you.

The following is a list of questions to ask yourself:

• How severe is your spinal cord injury? Are you expected to recover fully?
• Have you lost the use of one or all of your limbs?
• Have you undergone extensive medical treatment or surgeries? Are you expected to need more in the future?
• Are you going through physical therapy or rehabilitation?
• Can you work or earn income the same as before the accident?
• Do you need to alter your living arrangements because of the injury?
• Has the spinal cord injury affected your overall quality of life?
• Can you partake in the same activities that you used to enjoy before the accident?
• What is the impact of the injury on your mental health and well-being?
• Are you partially responsible for the accident that caused the injury?
• Was property damage associated with the injury (such as in a car accident case)?

A Fort Walton Beach spinal cord injury lawyer can help you answer these questions and value your case. You may ultimately recover more or less than what your case is worth. However, it is important to understand a general case value at the start so you don’t accept less than you deserve.

Generally, you can recover economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damages are financial losses including:

• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Property damage
• Cost of medicine
• Nursing home care

Non-economic damages are emotional losses, including:

• Physical pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Depression, anxiety, or PTSD
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of companionship
• Inconvenience

Your attorney can help you calculate your damages at the beginning of the case.

Spinal cord injury cases tend to be expensive. As a result, many defendants and their insurance companies blame the plaintiff for causing the injury. This is their way of trying to get out of paying for damages.

In Florida, you can still recover compensation even if you are partially responsible for the accident or injury. This is called modified comparative negligence. You can get paid if you are 50% or less liable. However, if you are 51% or more responsible, you cannot recover anything.

If you are 50% or less responsible, your damages are proportionate to the defendant’s share of responsibility. For example, if you are 30% responsible, then you can receive 70% of your total damages. You are responsible for the remaining 30% since that is proportionate to your share of responsibility.

A Fort Walton Beach spinal cord injury attorney can protect you from unfair blame. This will help you recover the most money possible in your case.

The deadline to file a spinal cord injury lawsuit in Florida is called the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is two years. That means that you have two years from the date of the accident or the date that you discovered the spinal cord injury to file.

If you miss the deadline, you lose your legal right to ask for compensation in court.

Two years may seem like a long time, but it will go fast. Your lawyer will have a lot of work to do before filing a lawsuit. You should reach out to an attorney immediately after an accident so that there is adequate time to do all of this.