Cape Coral Spinal Cord Injury Attorneys

If you or someone close to you has suffered a spinal cord injury, you may need to speak to a knowledgeable Cape Coral spinal injury lawyer who has helped other accident victims in your area. At Lusk, Drasites, & Tolisano, our team has helped many individuals resolve their claims and we can help you as well.

The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center reports that there are an estimated 12,000 new cases of these accidents every year in the United States. Additionally, approximately 270,000 individuals nationwide currently suffer from spinal cord injuries. They can result from automobile accidents, slip and falls, medical malpractice, construction accidents, sports injuries, and violent crimes.

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

A victim can sustain a number of different spinal cord injuries, including herniated disk, crushed vertebrae, spinal cord compression, and fractured spine. These events often can lead to paraplegia, and in the most severe cases, quadriplegia.

Paraplegia is defined as the paralysis of the lower half of the body, such as both legs, due to an injury to the spinal cord. Quadriplegia is defined as the paralysis of the body below the neck. Put another way, quadriplegia renders an individual unable to move his or her arms and legs. In some cases, the individual cannot even move his or her neck.

Proving Negligence

When the negligence of another person or entity causes a spinal cord injury, the victim can potentially seek compensation from the at-fault party under the theory of negligence, which is the failure to exercise reasonable care in one's actions or omissions. In the ordinary context, reasonable care refers to the duty to act prudently in a given situation. There is a more specific standard of care in medical malpractice cases and similar incidents of negligence by a professional.

To succeed on a negligence claim, an injured individual typically must establish the following elements:

• Defendant owed the plaintiff a duty to exercise reasonable care
• Defendant violated duty of care by engaging in careless behavior
• Defendant's failure to use reasonable care was the direct cause of the accident, which must have been reasonably foreseeable
• Plaintiff must have incurred actual damages that are not too speculative

The medical costs of serious spinal cord injuries can be extremely overwhelming. Most spinal cord injuries will require life-long treatment and care, which may include multiple procedures as well as ongoing day-to-day care. As a result, an individual with a spinal cord injury may be able to seek damages from an at-fault party for medical expenses, rehabilitative costs, therapy costs, lost income, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and more.

We understand that dealing with a spinal cord injury is not easy. It can affect your quality of life as well as your ability to hold a job. Our Cape Coral spinal cord injury attorneys have years of experience helping victims of car accidents as well as slip and falls and other preventable events.

Who We Serve

You can rest assured that we are familiar with this area of the law and can put this knowledge to use in your case. We represent injured individuals in and around Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and Naples.

To request your free consultation with a spinal cord injury lawyer, call (239) 908-4930.