The Jones Firm represents people who have suffered spinal cord injuries, and their families, across Columbus and central Ohio. A spinal cord injury is not measured by today’s medical bills. It is measured by a lifetime of care, lost income, and changed circumstances, and the central work of one of these cases is proving that full future cost and securing enough to cover it.
Insurance companies understand exactly how expensive these injuries are over a lifetime, which is why they often move quickly with an offer that looks large but falls far short of what the injury will actually require. Knowing how these cases are valued, and how Ohio law treats catastrophic injuries, is what protects an injured person from settling for too little.
How Spinal Cord Injuries Happen
Most spinal cord injuries handled in personal injury cases come from a sudden, forceful event caused by someone else. The common causes include:
- Motor vehicle and motorcycle crashes
- Falls, including falls from height on a construction site and falls caused by unsafe property conditions
- Workplace and industrial accidents
- Defective products or equipment
- Acts of violence
When another person or company caused the event through negligence, the injured person may have a claim against them, separate from any insurance benefits.
Complete and Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries
Two factors shape the medical picture of a spinal cord injury: how complete it is, and where on the spine it occurred.
A complete injury means there is no function below the level of the injury. An incomplete injury means some signal still passes through, so some movement or sensation may remain. Incomplete injuries vary widely, and their long-term outlook is often uncertain for a long time, which matters a great deal when valuing a case.
The location matters just as much. An injury to the cervical spine, in the neck, can affect the arms, legs, and in higher injuries even breathing, a condition often called tetraplegia or quadriplegia. An injury lower down, in the thoracic or lumbar spine, more often affects the legs and lower body, known as paraplegia. The higher and more complete the injury, the greater the lifelong needs tend to be. For more on partial injuries, see our overview of whether you can sue for an incomplete spinal cord injury in Ohio.
The Lifetime Cost of a Spinal Cord Injury
This is where spinal cord injury cases are won or lost. The value of the claim is driven far more by future costs than by the bills that have already arrived, and proving those future costs takes specialized work.
Serious spinal cord injury cases are built around a life care plan, a detailed projection of everything the injury will require over the person’s lifetime, prepared by a qualified life care planner and supported by an economist. A thorough plan accounts for:
- Attendant and in-home care, which is often the single largest lifetime cost
- Modifications to the home and vehicle for accessibility
- Wheelchairs and durable medical equipment, which wear out and must be replaced repeatedly
- Ongoing therapy, medication, and treatment of complications such as pressure sores, infections, respiratory problems, and neurogenic bladder
- Lost income and lost future earning capacity
A claim that captures only current expenses leaves an injured person to absorb decades of cost on their own. Our overview of how catastrophic injuries are different and what you can claim for a spinal cord injury in Ohio go further into this.
Ohio’s Damage Cap and Why It Usually Does Not Apply to Paralysis
Ohio law places a cap on noneconomic damages, the compensation for pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, in most personal injury cases (Ohio Revised Code § 2315.18). For an ordinary injury, that cap can significantly limit a recovery.
Catastrophic injuries are treated differently. The cap does not apply to injuries involving permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb, or a permanent injury that prevents a person from caring for themselves and performing life-sustaining activities. Spinal cord injuries that cause paralysis commonly fall within this exception, which means the limit that restricts ordinary cases generally does not restrict the pain-and-suffering recovery in a paralysis case. This is one of the most important and least understood points in serious spinal cord litigation, and it can dramatically change what a case is worth.
The Insurance Problem in Catastrophic Cases
The lifetime cost of a spinal cord injury routinely exceeds the insurance available from a single at-fault party. When that happens, recovery depends on finding every source of coverage that applies. That can include multiple defendants, commercial and umbrella policies, and the injured person’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. Identifying all of it early is part of building a case that can actually pay for the harm. Our explanation of who pays for paralysis after a car accident covers this in more detail.
Why You Should Not Settle Too Early
A settlement is final. Once it is accepted, it cannot be reopened if the injury turns out to cost more than expected. With a spinal cord injury, the long-term outlook often is not clear for months or longer, and settling before the prognosis and life care plan are complete usually means settling for too little. Insurers know this, which is why a fast offer so often arrives before the full cost is understood. The right time to evaluate a settlement is after the medical picture has stabilized and the lifetime needs have been properly documented.
Deadlines for Filing in Ohio
An injury claim in Ohio generally must be filed within two years of the injury under Ohio Revised Code § 2305.10. If a spinal cord injury proves fatal, a wrongful death claim generally must be filed within two years of the death under Ohio Revised Code § 2125.02, and our Columbus wrongful death attorneys handle those claims. Because building a catastrophic-injury case takes time, starting well before the deadline is important.
What a Spinal Cord Injury Claim Can Recover
Compensation in a spinal cord injury case can account for:
- Past and future medical care
- Attendant care and home and vehicle modifications
- Lost income and reduced earning capacity
- Pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, which is generally not subject to Ohio’s damage cap in catastrophic cases
A traumatic brain injury sometimes occurs alongside a spinal cord injury, which can add further to the harm and the value of a claim. We handle those cases as well through our Columbus traumatic brain injury attorneys.
