Of all the injuries you can suffer in a car accident, slip and fall, or any other preventable incident, spinal cord damage is one of the worst. Depending on the extent of the damage, you could experience partial or complete paralysis, both of which can result in a lifelong need for medical care and adaptive equipment.

If you’re living with a spinal cord injury because someone was negligent, Indiana law gives you the right to pursue compensation. At Habig Injury Law, we’ve seen how these injuries affect families in the long term. Our role is to help you win the compensation needed to cover your medical bills, lost income, and the adjustments that come with life after such a serious injury.

As one of Indiana’s most trusted personal injury law firms, we’ve seen firsthand how spinal cord injuries affect victims and their families. One day, you’re living life as usual. Next, you’re relying on others for help with your most basic needs. That’s why we fight so diligently for those who’ve been injured due to recklessness or negligence. When you hire Habig Injury Law, you gain the following advantages:

• Experience With Complex Injury Cases: Our spinal cord injury attorneys have managed many claims where insurers fought hard to limit recovery. We know the measures they use to reduce payouts, such as disputing medical costs or downplaying long-term care needs, and we prepare evidence that addresses these issues from the beginning.
• Focused on Catastrophic Injuries: Our empathetic injury lawyers regularly represent clients living with paralysis or permanent disability. We know how to demonstrate the ways these injuries affect every part of your life, from the ability to work to basic personal independence, and we present this evidence clearly to insurers and courts if necessary.
• Compelling Case Creation:  We collaborate with medical experts and financial specialists to project lifetime costs. This includes surgeries, rehabilitation, adaptive equipment, in-home care, and modifications to housing or vehicles.
• Direct Attorney Guidance: When you hire our firm, your case is led by your attorney, not passed down to support staff. You will receive updates, answers to your questions, and direct guidance on decisions that affect your claim.
• Prepared for Trial When Needed: While many cases resolve through negotiation, we are prepared to take your claim to trial if insurers refuse a fair settlement. Having trial-ready representation often pushes insurers to settle on terms that better reflect your long-term needs.

The cost of living with a spinal cord injury can be huge. Victims frequently need mobility aids such as wheelchairs, lifts, or braces. Homes and vehicles may have to be remodeled for accessibility. Many people also need ongoing therapy, in-home assistance, or changes to their work situation if they can’t return to their previous jobs. 

• Immediate Medical Expenses: Emergency transport, hospitalization, surgeries, and medications create enormous medical bills in the days and weeks following the injury. These costs can overwhelm families quickly if they are not accounted for in a claim.
• Rehabilitation and Therapy: Recovery can involve months or years of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and specialized treatments. These services are essential to maintaining mobility and independence, but they come with high recurring costs.
• Assistive Technology and Equipment: Wheelchairs, lifts, accessible vans, and voice-controlled devices help restore some independence, but they must be replaced or updated over time. These expenses should be factored into any settlement or verdict.
• Home and Vehicle Modifications: Many victims must remodel their living space to make it accessible. This can include ramps, widened doorways, roll-in showers, or modified kitchens. Vehicles may also require hand controls or lifts to accommodate mobility devices.
• Personal and In-Home Care: Some victims require part-time or full-time assistance with daily living activities. Professional caregivers, nursing services, or family support all carry financial and emotional costs that must be considered in the claim.
• Lifetime Cost Projections: Depending on the level of injury, lifetime costs for spinal cord damage can run into the millions of dollars. Accurate projections by medical and financial experts are critical to ensure victims receive enough to cover long-term needs.

When a post-accident medical evaluation detects a spinal cord injury, you have choices. You could try handling your insurance claim yourself, but without legal training or experience, you risk walking away with a far lower settlement than you’re going to need. By hiring an Indiana spinal cord injury lawyer, you get an advocate who knows what your claim is worth and will fight for the results you need.

• Investigating the Cause: Your personal injury attorney will gather the evidence needed to prove fault, whether that means accident reconstruction in a highway crash, reviewing maintenance logs in a slip and fall, or compiling surgical records in a malpractice case.
• Coordinating With Medical Professionals: Your lawyer will work closely with doctors and rehabilitation specialists to document the full scope of the injury. This includes not only current treatment but also future surgeries, therapy, and in-home care.
• Calculating Long-Term Costs: A spinal cord injury can mean decades of expenses. Your personal injury lawyer will use life-care planners and economists to project costs for adaptive equipment, home modifications, lost income, and reduced earning capacity.
• Dealing With Insurance Companies: Insurers often attempt to limit payouts by disputing expenses or blaming the victim. An attorney handles negotiations directly, countering these tactics with strong evidence and well-supported arguments.
• Preparing for Court: While many claims are settled, spinal cord injury cases must be ready for trial. A trial-ready case carries more weight in negotiations and ensures you are not pressured into accepting less than what you need.

Indiana law has a framework for pursuing spinal cord injury claims, but you’ll need to file your claim on time and prove that the at-fault party owed you a duty of care. Comparative negligence can also impact how much compensation you ultimately receive.

• Statute of Limitations: Indiana generally gives you two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. If the deadline passes, you may lose the right to bring your claim unless one of the rare exceptions (such as an underage victim) apply.
• Modified Comparative Fault Rule: Indiana follows a modified comparative fault system. Your compensation is reduced by your share of fault, and if you are 51% or more at fault, you cannot recover damages.

Legal Standards of Negligence: To recover financial compensation, you must show that another party owed a duty of care, breached that duty, and caused your injury as a result. This framework applies whether the injury was from a car accident, a fall, or another preventable event.

Damage to the spinal column affects every part of your life, which means that your claim must cover both your financial losses and the personal impact of the injury. Indiana law allows victims to pursue several categories of compensation, each addressing a different type of loss.

• Economic Damages: This category covers your measurable financial losses. In spinal cord injury cases that include emergency care, hospitalization, surgeries, rehabilitation, mobility aids, home modifications, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity. Because these injuries create costs that continue for decades, projecting future expenses is critical.
• Non-Economic Damages: These damages address the personal toll of an injury. Chronic pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of independence, and reduced enjoyment of life are all compensable under Indiana law. For spinal cord injuries, these damages reflect how the injury reshapes daily living.
• Punitive Damages: Indiana law allows punitive damages only in cases of reckless or intentional conduct. These damages are not meant to compensate the victim, but to punish wrongdoing and deter similar behavior. Indiana caps punitive awards, and a portion is paid to the state.

When building a claim, it’s important that all categories of damages are fully documented and presented. Leaving out long-term care costs or undervaluing the personal impact can result in a settlement that falls short of what’s needed.

When you want fair compensation in a spinal cord injury case, you need compelling proof of the other party’s liability as well as your damages. At Habig Injury Law, we make our cases as strong as possible by gathering detailed evidence and presenting it in a way that insurance adjusters and courts can’t ignore.

• Comprehensive Medical Documentation: Medical records, imaging studies, surgical reports, and physician notes all establish the severity of the injury. Clear documentation helps connect the accident to your current limitations and future medical needs.
• Life-Care Planning: A life-care planner can project the lifetime costs of treatment, therapy, assistive equipment, home care, and accessibility modifications. This evidence shows the financial reality of living with a spinal cord injury.
• Vocational and Economic Experts: When an injury prevents someone from returning to their career, vocational specialists can explain what jobs, if any, remain possible. Economists then calculate lost wages and reduced earning capacity over a lifetime.
• Demonstrating Daily Impact: Personal injury claims are much stronger when they include evidence of how the injury changes everyday life. Testimony from family, caregivers, or rehabilitation professionals shows the personal toll of your new reality and supports claims for non-economic damages.
• Strategic Negotiation and Trial Readiness: Insurers usually try to settle quickly for less than the case is worth. Preparing for trial from the start, with strong evidence and expert testimony, tends to lead to better settlement offers and ensures the case is ready for court if needed.

Spinal cord injuries usually result from sudden, violent events that could have been prevented if proper care had been taken. From high-speed crashes to a fall on unsafe property, common causes of these devastating injuries include:

• Motor Vehicle Accidents: High-impact car, truck, and motorcycle crashes are a leading cause of spinal trauma. Proving these cases may involve accident reconstruction, traffic camera footage review, or expert analysis to show how negligence caused the collision.
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents: When a driver strikes a cyclist or pedestrian, the lack of protection makes spinal injuries more likely. Claims often highlight issues like distracted driving, speeding, or failure to yield.
• Falls on Unsafe Property: Spinal injuries frequently occur when businesses or property owners fail to keep their premises safe. Hazards such as wet floors, uneven surfaces, or poor lighting can cause falls that lead to catastrophic injury.
• Workplace Accidents: Construction sites and industrial settings put workers at risk for falls, equipment accidents, and heavy machinery failures. These cases may involve workers’ compensation, but third-party lawsuits can also apply if outside contractors or manufacturers were negligent.
• Medical Malpractice: Mistakes in surgery, anesthesia, or diagnosis can damage the spinal cord. These claims require careful review of medical records and testimony from independent physicians to show where care fell short.
• Defective Products: Faulty vehicle parts, unsafe equipment, or poorly designed consumer products sometimes cause accidents that lead to spinal injuries. Product liability cases focus on holding manufacturers accountable for preventable harm.

We understand that hiring a personal injury attorney may feel intimidating when you are already facing medical bills and financial uncertainty. At Habig Injury Law, you don’t have to worry about hourly fees or large retainers: we work on a contingency fee basis, which means you only pay if your case is successful. 

Our fee is a percentage of the recovery we obtain for you, and if we don’t win compensation for you, you don’t pay attorney fees. This arrangement makes legal representation affordable during an already difficult time.

At Habig Injury Law, we represent clients across Indiana who’ve been permanently injured due to negligence. Our attorneys handle every aspect of the claim for you, from investigating the cause of the injury to presenting lifetime care projections and standing up to insurance companies in court when necessary.

If you or a loved one is living with a spinal cord injury, don’t wait to get the legal support you need. To schedule your free consultation and learn how we can help you, call our personal injury law firm at 866-558-1139 or fill out the form below.