We help Bakersfield car accident victims and take special care with victims who are left with a frightening spinal cord injury. Our Bakersfield Car Accident Lawyers get aggressive to make sure insurance companies for at-fault drivers cover every medical bill and every service victims will need to help them maintain their lives.
To find out more about your claim, contact Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers of Bakersfield to schedule an absolutely free case consultation. It’s a way to determine what the effects an injury has had on your life are worth and how to hold insurers fully accountable.
How To Decide If You Need a Lawyer After a Spinal Cord Injury
If a careless driver hits you and you come away with a serious injury, like a spinal cord injury, it’s a good idea to speak to a local lawyer about your options.
If you suffer partial or complete paralysis due to a collision (temporary or permanent), you may want to rely on an experienced lawyer to make sure you have everything you’ll need to rebuild your life. If you suffer from sexual dysfunction due to a spinal cord injury, you should speak to a lawyer. If your injury affects your sensory abilities or your breathing, talk to a lawyer.
The increased medical costs and lifetime consequences of a spine injury will have car insurance companies seeking any way possible to escape liability. You may need the protection of a lawyer when insurers seek to shift blame in an accident or downplay how badly you are hurt.
Your attorney gets aggressive on your behalf, investigating your accident and securing evidence that keeps the facts from changing. You can always handle your claim yourself, but the experience of a great attorney often means you can count on earning more for your injury. This is often much more than you could win by handling your claim yourself.
Fighting for the Long-Lasting Compensation Spinal Cord Injury Victims Need
A car accident settlement often covers 100% of ambulance fees and emergency room expenses, but that’s just the start for spinal cord injury victims.
Any settlement in this type of case must consider the future victims may face. That must include the potential need for assistance to support themselves and simply to move around freely in their own homes.
Your attorney would demand compensation for these factors and more:
- 100% of Hospital Costs, current and future
- Surgery costs
- Physical therapy costs
- Medical equipment
- Home care expense
- Replacement of all paychecks and benefits lost while the victims are unable to work
- Lifelong support if victims left with disabilities can’t go back to work
- Help with education and training if disabled victims must find a new career
- Help with supporting the victim’s family
- Compensation for the cost of car repairs or replacement
- Money to pay for a special vehicle adapted for use by a disabled person
- Support for a patient’s physical pain endured
- Support for chronic pain
- Support for pain medication and therapies
- Support for arthritis that develops
- Support for Emotional Trauma
- Support for Anxiety
- Support for Depression
- Support for PTSD symptoms
- Support for a loss of enjoyment of life due to injury
- Support for the loss of consortium (intimacy with a partner)
This is just the bare minimum in support for victims who must live their lives with a spinal cord injury. They should earn this and more without having to beg. Yet, insurers can question everything in your case and fight over every penny of a settlement agreement.
Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers stands beside victims and fights for every dollar that shady insurance companies want to withhold. We can reject settlement claims that don’t cover everything you’ll go through. We can also file a lawsuit and drag an insurer into a courtroom when they want to focus on their profits instead of the victim’s wellbeing.
The Debilitating Effects of a Spinal Cord Injury
One glance at the incredible list of possible hardships spinal cord injury victims must live with only highlights why quick and substantial support is needed for every victim.
Johns Hopkins Medicine explains some of the most debilitating and dangerous aspects of a spinal cord injury:
- Paralysis.
- Quadriplegia: the loss of use of both arms and legs.
- Paraplegia: the loss of control over the lower body
- Loss of sensory abilities. The ability to sense temperature and pressure is taken away. Victims may experience numbness or tingling.
- Breathing Problems. Including issues with clearing mucus and an increased chance of pneumonia.
- Problems clearing mucus.
- Loss of bowel and bladder control
Victims might also deal with a partial loss of feeling in their body parts. They may have to cope with frequent muscle spasms. Any patient’s mental health can, understandably, be affected. Treatment for depression and anxiety is often helpful, and the cost should absolutely be covered by an auto insurance company.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the statute of limitations on a car accident claim in California?
Car accident victims have two years to file an injury claim. Of course, spinal cord injury victims will need immediate support, and they should never wait years to seek compensation. Contact a car accident lawyer as soon as possible. Your lawyer will want to get started immediately and investigate before the evidence disappears. Plus, the sooner you act, the sooner you can hope to receive a settlement check.
What if I need a car accident lawyer but can’t afford to pay one?
After an accident involving a catastrophic injury (one that changes your life), you may not have the money to hire a lawyer. That’s okay. You can still count on strong representation from Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers. You don’t pay us anything unless your case is successful. Then, if we win, our pay comes out of the settlement check that a car insurance company must send you.
What type of documents should I bring to my car accident lawyer?
You’ll want to bring evidence of everything you’ve been through since your accident. Turn over all of your medical receipts from hospitals like Kern Medical. This can include the money you’ve spent on medical equipment and even travel costs. Travel will be especially difficult and expensive if you are in a wheelchair or otherwise immobile. Bring any medical charts showing how serious your injuries are. If you requested the accident report from the investigating officer, bring a copy. Bring your pay stubs, too. A stub can demonstrate how much you would normally bring home in income, and how much you’ve lost since your income. Bring a receipt from your car repair shop. If you haven’t secured some of these documents, your attorney will be tracking this information down for you.
Contact a Bakersfield Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
If you have a serious injury after a crash on a Bakersfield street, and another driver caused the collision, contact us to schedule a free consultation. It’s a confidential, no-obligation review of your case with a real, local attorney.
It’s an especially important call if you’ve suffered something as serious as a spinal cord injury. We want to go over your case with you and figure out how to get you the maximum in long-term support. We also want to keep insurance companies from delaying the help you and your family are waiting for.
If we need to represent you against a giant insurance company, we’ll do so with as little disruption to your life as possible. We’ll handle the frustrating insurance claims process while giving you the time to focus on recovery and rebuilding your life.