Accidents and events that cause paralysis often happen suddenly. Your day-to-day activities and challenges change in an instant.
At Colling Gilbert Wright, we have been advocating for seriously injured people for more than two decades. Other legal professionals refer to us when they need a personal injury attorney. You can rely on a DeLand paralysis injury lawyer from our firm for skillful representation to ensure you obtain fair compensation for your catastrophic injury.
Negligence Is Often a Factor in Paralysis
Paralysis can result from various situations. If your paralysis could be directly linked to someone else’s negligence, you could file a legal claim seeking compensation for your losses.
Negligence is the failure to exercise the appropriate degree of care, resulting in harm to another person. The evidence a DeLand injury attorney needs to prove negligence depends on the cause of your paralysis. Our team at The Florida Firm is skilled at finding the necessary proof to secure fair compensation. We have obtained verdicts and settlements of over $1 million for several of our clients.
Vehicle Accidents
Crashes involving cars, trucks, motorcycles, and ATVs are among the most common causes of paralysis. When a driver gets a ticket related to the crash, the citation is evidence of negligence. Even if the police do not issue a citation, our legal team could review crash site photos, damage reports, witness statements, and other information to find indicators of negligence.
Medical Mistakes
Paralysis can result from strokes, anesthesia errors, nerve damage during surgery, and failure to diagnose certain illnesses and tumors. When pursuing a claim against a healthcare professional, you must demonstrate that they did not meet a standard of care equivalent to that provided by other similarly credentialed healthcare professionals in the area.
Falls on Someone Else’s Property
Falls are responsible for a significant percentage of spinal cord injuries that lead to paralysis. If you fell when you were on someone else’s property, their obligation to you depends on numerous factors. Our team could review your situation and advise whether you have a claim against the property owner.
Sports Accidents
Sports accidents are one of the leading causes of paralysis in children and young adults. Many parents first think of contact sports, such as football, causing catastrophic injuries, but paralyzing injuries can occur in many sports or games, including diving, cheerleading, skateboarding, and mountain biking. Depending on the situation, a school district, community league, coach, property owner, or equipment manufacturer may have liability for a sports injury that causes paralysis.
What If You Were Partially Responsible?
Sometimes an accident has one identifiable cause, but often, several factors combine to create a situation that causes a serious injury. If your conduct contributed to the incident that left you paralyzed, you may wonder how that will affect your legal claim.
If you are not primarily responsible for your injuries, Florida Statutes § 768.81 allows you to collect compensation from other negligent parties involved in the incident. However, you must absorb the percentage of your losses equal to your degree of fault. For example, if you are 20 percent responsible for the accident, you could collect compensation for 80 percent of your losses.
The law gives insurance companies representing responsible parties an incentive to shift as much blame as possible toward you. It is important to work with an experienced Deland paralysis injury attorney who could counter any attempts to assign an unfair portion of the fault to you.
Help Throughout Your Recovery
When you work with the team at The Florida Firm, we could assist you with numerous matters during your recovery. We have staff who could identify sources of disability payments and other benefits you may be entitled to receive, and they could help you prepare and submit your applications.
Our paralysis injury lawyers in DeLand could manage communication with the responsible parties and their insurance companies. Doing so could insulate you from pressure to accept an inadequate settlement, leaving you free to focus on healing. We could also make payment arrangements with treatment providers and other creditors to relieve financial strain while you recover.
Speak With a DeLand Attorney About Your Paralysis Injury
For over 20 years, our team at Colling Gilbert Wright has been guiding people like you through some of the most difficult times of their lives. We could help you with the legal process after a paralyzing injury, and we do not charge you anything unless we secure a verdict or settlement.
Call a DeLand paralysis injury lawyer today for assistance.