Spinal Injuries
Spine Injury Lawyer in West Orange, NJ
Car accidents are the most prevalent source of back and whiplash injuries, and the impact does not need to be great to cause them. Impact at as low as five miles per hour is all it takes. More than two million people in the United State suffer whiplash injuries every year.
Your car may not show evidence of damage, but your neck and your back may. If you have been injured by a negligent driver, regardless of what happened to your vehicle, you should seek compensation for your injuries. Whiplash and back injuries can affect you and the quality of your life forever.
At the Law Offices of Mitchell R. Friedman, P.C., Attorney Friedman brings his early professional experience as an insurance defense attorney to his representation of personal injury clients today. He knows how insurance attorneys work to downplay back and whiplash injuries in an attempt to avoid paying injury victims what they deserve, and he’s passionate about it. Hundreds of clients in West Orange, East Orange, Newark, Jersey City, and throughout Hudson County, New Jersey, have counted on him for justice.
Common Causes of Back/Spinal Injuries
Some common causes of spinal cord injuries include the following:
- Motor vehicle accidents: Auto accidents are a leading cause of spinal cord injuries.
- Falls: Falls are a common cause of spinal cord injuries in people, especially those aged over 65.
- Workplace accidents: Those who work outdoors or in hazardous environments such as construction sites may be at risk of spinal damage from work-related accidents.
- Sports and recreation injuries: Poor safety equipment or a lack of guidance from coaches or trainers may lead to preventable accidents during competitive and leisure activities.
Whatever the cause of your spinal injury, the end result can be life-changing. While not all spinal injuries result in permanent damage, the short-term financial hardship caused by sudden medical costs and loss of income can be significant.
Rehabilitation after spinal damage can take a long time, and the recovery process can include demanding physical therapy. Getting back to a normal life is not easy, and depending on the type of spinal injury, you may not be able to return to your usual activities and former quality of life.
An experienced accident attorney can help you document the extent of your injuries, the medical expenses you faced, and the impact that your injuries have on your quality of life. This can help you put together a claim for financial loss and emotional damages.
What Is Whiplash?
“Whiplash” is a general term for multiple neck and upper back soft-tissue injuries. They are caused when the impact of another vehicle hitting yours throws your body forward or backward, whipping your head and neck violently in a back-and-forth motion. The movement can injure bones, discs, ligaments, nerves, muscles, and other soft tissues in your neck and upper spine.
Neck pain and stiffness, limitation of movement, headaches, tenderness or pain in the shoulders, arms, or upper back, arm numbness or tingling, dizziness, and fatigue are some of the more obvious whiplash symptoms. However, some people may experience blurred vision, ringing in the ears, memory problems, depression, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, and irritability as well.
Although many people’s symptoms may go away with exercise and pain medication, some suffer chronic neck issues forever. Complications of whiplash include permanent limited range of motion, chronic neck pain and headaches, and pain that radiates from the neck and upper back to the arms and fingers.
What Signifies a Neck Injury?
Any injury to the bones, tissues, muscles, ligaments, discs, and other structures on your neck and upper back are neck injuries. However, such injuries are not always easy to identify as, for example, a broken bone seen on an X-ray.
Examination for neck injuries will include imaging and a physical examination. A doctor will touch your neck, back, and shoulders to find tender areas, move your neck and shoulders to determine range of motion, and check for numbness, tingling, and reflexes in your arms and legs.
The doctor may order some imaging to check for fractures and damage to the spinal cord and discs. Imaging may include X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs. Soft tissue injuries themselves, though, will not be apparent on the images.
Can I Recover Damages for a Whiplash Injury?
Just because an injury cannot be detected by radiology images does not mean you cannot recover monetary damages from the person whose negligence led to your injuries. In addition to having the ability to recover economic compensation for your medical expenses and lost wages, you can recover for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of consortium or companionship, and loss of enjoyment of life. Loss of enjoyment of life is particularly critical if your whiplash injury becomes a chronic and limiting health issue.
Understanding Partial/Comparative Negligence in New Jersey
If you’ve experienced a spinal injury in West Orange, NJ, your compensation claim will be considered under a system of comparative negligence. This system means that your fault for the accident cannot be greater than that of the defendant to be eligible for financial compensation.
For example, if your spinal cord injuries were the result of an auto accident and the other party was 60% at fault, you may recover damages. If you were 51% at fault, you would not be eligible.
For this reason, it’s important to work with an experienced West Orange, NJ, personal injury attorney to give yourself the best chance of obtaining fair compensation for your accident.
What Should I Do If I Suspect a Whiplash Injury?
Regardless of whether you think you are injured, you should always seek immediate medical care after a car accident. Some injuries, including whiplash injuries, are not always readily apparent. In the rush of adrenaline in the aftermath of a collision, you can feel fine but begin to experience pain, stiffness, and limitation of movement in your neck hours, days, or even weeks later. You need to seek treatment from an emergency physician who knows what injuries are common from auto accidents and how to examine, diagnose, and treat them.
To pursue compensation for your injuries, you will need a doctor’s diagnosis that ties the injury to the car accident. You will also need medical bills and records to support your damage claim. Without them, you have no claim. Delay treatment too long and you not only risk your own recovery from your injuries but also having the insurance company devalue or deny your claim. The gap makes it easy for the insurer to allege you injured yourself some other way between the accident and the claim or that your injuries were too minor to seek medical intervention.
What Should I Do If I Suspect Any Neck or Back Injury?
Again, you should seek immediate medical attention following an accident. The same reasons apply to any back or neck injury as for those for a suspected whiplash injury. Do it for your health and recovery, to gather the proper documentation for your claim, and to eliminate the insurance company’s ability to question your credibility in a claim.
To pursue compensation for your injuries, you will need a doctor’s diagnosis that ties the injury to the car accident. You will also need medical bills and records to support your damage claim. Without them, you have no claim. Delay treatment too long and you not only risk your own recovery from your injuries but also having the insurance company devalue or deny your claim. The gap makes it easy for the insurer to allege you injured yourself some other way between the accident and the claim or that your injuries were too minor to seek medical intervention.
There are about 90,000 injuries and nearly 5,000 deaths from motorcycle crashes in the US each year according to the National Highway Transit Safety Association. Motorcycles lack many of the basic safety features found in cars like seatbelts and airbags. Because of this, motorcycle accidents can lead to serious injuries like: