A spinal cord injury can change everything in an instant. It changes how you move, work, care for your family, and live every day after. The costs don’t stop when you leave the hospital. They continue for years and often for a lifetime, through rehabilitation, equipment, home care, and lost income.
Florida law allows people hurt by someone else’s negligence to recover compensation for these losses. Still, the value of a spinal cord injury claim depends on documenting every one of them.
If you or a loved one suffered a spinal cord injury in a crash, fall, or other accident, our Fort Lauderdale spinal cord injury lawyer at Rosen Injury Law can help you understand what your claim should include. Call us today at (954) 787-1500 or visit us online to schedule a free consultation.
Why Spinal Cord Injury Claims Are Different
Most injury claims focus on a period of recovery. Spinal cord injury claims usually focus on a lifetime. The spinal cord carries signals between the brain and the rest of the body, and damage to it can affect movement, sensation, breathing, and basic bodily functions.
Two factors drive both the medical outlook and a claim’s value. The first is the injury level. Damage higher on the spine, in the neck, generally affects more of the body than damage lower down.
The second is whether the injury is complete or incomplete. A complete injury means no movement or sensation below the injury site. An incomplete injury means some function remains, ranging from limited sensation to walking with assistance.
Spinal cord injuries also bring secondary complications that add to their long-term cost. These include pressure sores, urinary tract infections, blood clots, respiratory problems, and chronic pain. A claim that looks only at today’s medical bills will almost always fall short.
Economic Damages for Spinal Cord Injuries
Economic damages include current and future medical expenses, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, the value of tasks you can no longer perform for your household, necessary changes to your home and vehicle to accommodate your injuries, property damage, and other financial losses.
The younger an injury victim is, the greater these damages tend to be, since they include not only today’s financial losses and costs, but also those expected over a lifetime.
The Role of a Life Care Plan
Future costs are the hardest part of a spinal cord injury claim to prove, and the easiest part for an insurer to challenge. That’s why many serious cases rely on a life care plan. A Life Care Plan is a detailed projection of the medical care, equipment, therapy, and support services a person will likely need for the rest of their life.
Life care planners work with the injured person’s physicians to estimate what care will be needed and how often. They also account for how often equipment must be replaced and how needs will change with age.
Economists can then calculate the present-day value of those future costs. Vocational rehabilitation professionals may evaluate what kind of work, if any, the injured person can still do and how that affects lifetime earnings.
Non-Economic Damages
Some of the most profound losses after a spinal cord injury don’t come with a bill. Florida law allows recovery for these non-economic harms, including physical pain, mental and emotional pain, loss of enjoyment of life, and other intangible costs.
Florida does not cap non-economic damages in personal injury cases. To maximize your non-economic damages, you must build strong evidence to clearly and honestly show how the injury has impacted your life.
That evidence can come from medical records and counseling notes, journal entries, and family members and friends who have seen the change firsthand.
Claims Your Family Members May Have
A spinal cord injury affects the whole household, and Florida law recognizes that. A spouse may bring a claim for loss of consortium, which covers the loss of companionship, affection, intimacy, and support within the marriage. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.0415, children may also recover when a parent suffers a significant permanent injury that greatly reduces the parent’s ability to care for and guide them. These claims are separate from the injured person’s own damages and should be evaluated from the start.
Florida Rules That Affect the Value of Your Claim
Several Florida laws shape how much a spinal cord injury claim is actually worth:
- The permanent injury threshold. In car accidents, Florida’s no-fault law allows pain and suffering damages against the at-fault driver only for injuries that meet the threshold in Fla. Stat. § 627.737. Most spinal cord injuries clearly meet it, but the medical records must support it.
- Comparative fault. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.81, your damages are reduced by any share of fault assigned to you. If you’re found more than 50% at fault, you recover nothing.
- Medical expense evidence. Florida’s 2023 tort reform changed how past and future medical costs are treated under Fla. Stat. § 768.0427. In many cases, the evidence ties to amounts actually paid or insurance-based reimbursement rates rather than full billed charges. Because future care is so central to spinal cord injury claims, this rule makes careful cost documentation more important than ever.
How a Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer Can Help
An experienced spinal cord injury lawyer can carefully investigate the accident that caused your injuries to identify all possible causes and all potentially liable parties to help maximize the available sources of compensation for your damages. They can build your strongest case with evidence to support the existence and accurate value of all your current and future damages.
Your attorney can work to negotiate a fair resolution of your claim as quickly as possible. And, if a fair settlement is not reached, they can take your case to trial to demand the compensation you deserve. Your chances of securing maximum compensation for your personal injury claim are much greater when an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer represents you.
Contact Rosen Injury Law After a Spinal Cord Injury
You didn’t choose this injury, and you shouldn’t have to bear its costs alone. Rosen Injury Law is ready to help you and your family pursue the full compensation Florida law allows, now and for the years ahead. Call us today at (954) 787-1500 or complete the short form on our contact page to schedule your free consultation.