What You Have to Prove in Your Spinal Cord Injury Claim
To recover compensation for your spinal cord injury in Sun Prairie, you must establish that another party’s negligence caused your harm. This means proving four essential elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
Duty of Care
First, you must show the defendant owed you a duty of care. Drivers have a duty to operate their vehicles safely under Wisconsin Statute § 346, which requires drivers to exercise reasonable care. Property owners must maintain reasonably safe premises for visitors under Wisconsin’s premises liability laws. Employers must provide safe working conditions in accordance with state and federal safety regulations. This duty forms the foundation of your claim.
Breach of Duty
Next, you must demonstrate the defendant breached that duty through their actions or inactions. A driver who runs a red light breaches their duty. A property owner who ignores a broken staircase does the same. A company that fails to provide fall protection equipment likewise breaches its duty. Evidence such as traffic camera footage, maintenance records, and safety violation citations helps establish this breach.
Causation
Causation requires proving the defendant’s breach directly caused your spinal cord injury. Medical records, accident reconstruction analysis, and expert testimony establish the link between the negligent act and your injury. For example, if a truck accident caused by a drowsy driver results in your spinal fracture, we connect that driver’s fatigue to your specific injury through medical evidence and crash analysis.
Damages
Finally, you must document your damages. This includes all the losses you’ve suffered and will continue to suffer because of your injury. Medical records, employment documents, bills, and testimony from medical professionals and economists help quantify these losses.
Types of Compensation You May Recover for Your Spinal Cord Injury
As a spinal cord injury victim, you can pursue various forms of compensation depending on the circumstances of your case. Understanding what you can recover helps you better appreciate the full value of your claim.
You may be entitled to recover compensation for the following:
- Medical expenses: All past and future costs related to your injury, including emergency treatment, surgery, hospitalization, rehabilitation, physical therapy, medications, medical equipment, home modifications, and ongoing care needs.
- Lost wages: Income you couldn’t earn while recovering from your injury, calculated from the date of injury through your return to work or the conclusion of your case.
- Lost earning capacity: The difference between what you could have earned in your career without the injury and what you can now earn with your limitations, often extending for decades and requiring expert economic testimony.
- Pain and suffering: Compensation for the physical pain, discomfort, and limitations you endure daily as a result of your spinal cord injury.
- Emotional distress: Recognition of the psychological impact of your injury, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and the mental toll of adapting to life with a disability.
- Loss of enjoyment of life: Compensation for activities, hobbies, and experiences you can no longer participate in due to your injury.
- Loss of consortium: Damages your spouse may recover for the loss of companionship, affection, and intimacy caused by your injury.
The total value of your claim depends on the severity of your injury, your age, your occupation, and how the injury affects your daily life. Complete spinal cord injuries resulting in paralysis typically warrant significantly higher compensation than incomplete injuries with partial function remaining. Cases involving younger victims or individuals with high earning potential often result in larger awards because the injury affects more years of productive life.
How Can a Lawyer Help With Your Sun Prairie Spinal Cord Injury Claim
Handling a spinal cord injury claim without legal representation puts you at a significant disadvantage. Insurance companies employ teams of adjusters and attorneys whose job is to minimize what they pay you. Our attorneys level the playing field and protect your rights throughout the process.
Investigating Your Accident Thoroughly
We move quickly to investigate how your injury occurred by gathering all available evidence. This includes obtaining police reports, interviewing witnesses, photographing the accident scene, and securing any video footage that captured the incident. When necessary, we hire accident reconstruction specialists who can analyze physical evidence and create detailed reports explaining exactly how the negligent party caused your harm.Â
Building Strong Medical Evidence
Your medical records form the backbone of your claim, but raw records alone don’t tell the complete story. We work with your treating physicians to obtain detailed narratives explaining your diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and future needs.Â
We also consult with independent medical professionals who can testify about the standard of care, causation, and the extent of your permanent impairment. This testimony proves essential when insurance companies try to argue your injuries aren’t as severe as you claim or that you don’t need the level of care your doctors recommend.
Calculating Your Full Damages
Most people underestimate the actual cost of a spinal cord injury. We work with life care planners and economists who calculate not just your current medical bills but your projected lifetime medical expenses, which can easily exceed several million dollars for severe injuries. These professionals also evaluate your lost earning capacity by examining your education, work history, career trajectory, and how your injury affects your ability to work. We factor in inflation and the cost of future medical care to ensure you receive fair compensation.
Negotiating With Insurance Companies
Insurance adjusters often make lowball settlement offers early in the case, hoping you’ll accept before fully realizing the extent of your damages. We handle all communications with insurance companies, preventing you from making statements that could harm your claim. Our attorneys know the tactics insurers use to devalue claims and counter those tactics with strong evidence and persuasive arguments.Â
Representing You in Court if Necessary
While many spinal cord injury cases settle before trial, some require litigation to achieve fair results. Our attorneys have extensive trial experience and aren’t afraid to present your case to a jury. We prepare thoroughly by deposing witnesses, filing motions, and developing compelling courtroom presentations that help jurors understand the full impact of your injury.Â
Insurance companies know which law firms are willing to go to trial and which aren’t, and they often offer better settlements when they know we’re prepared to fight in court. Our track record includes achieving a landmark jury verdict in a high-stakes personal injury case, demonstrating our ability to win at trial when necessary.
Pemberton Personal Injury Law Firm Fights for Sun Prairie Spinal Cord Injury Victims
Our firm was founded on the principle of fighting for people, not corporations. Attorney William Pemberton spent years working for insurance companies early in his career, where he learned firsthand how they minimize claims and protect profits at injured people’s expense. Since opening Pemberton Law Offices in 2006, our team has secured substantial settlements and verdicts for injured clients. Attorney Pemberton has earned recognition from Super Lawyers for 10 consecutive years, placing him among the top five percent of attorneys in the nation.
Our attorneys, including Rhyan Lindley (Best Lawyers in America, 2021-2023; National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40) and Chris Duren (Best Attorney in Waunakee 2020-2023), bring decades of combined trial experience to your case. We treat every client like family and maintain open communication throughout your case, ensuring you understand each step of the legal process and how it affects your recovery. If you have suffered a spinal cord injury in Sun Prairie due to another party’s negligence, contact us today to discuss your legal options in a free case evaluation.
