A herniated disc is one of the most common and painful examples of a personal injury claim that our law firm deals within Fort Myers, FL, and the wider Lee County area. One of the most common causes of a herniated disc is a car accident, although there are other examples of ways this sort of neck and back injury can be incurred, such as slip and fall accidents.
This sort of injury to the spinal cord, despite its prevalence, is something that is frequently challenged by insurance companies – especially by insurance companies who specialize in dealing with car accident cases. The difficulty often lies in how hard it is for your personal injury attorney to prove when the injury occurred. It is often the case that this technicality will be used by insurance companies in order to devalue your injury claim. However, an experienced personal injury attorney from The Law Place in Fort Myers can help you to achieve an amount of compensation that is fair. You shouldn’t miss out on compensation for your injury, medical bills, or additional complications due to a technicality.
Our law firm has over 75 years of combined experience dealing with neck and back spinal cord injury cases. We offer a free consultation at no-obligation over the telephone, and our lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for your convenience, fully protected by the attorney-client relationship. Don’t let insurance companies intimidate you out of the money that you are rightfully owed. Contact The Law Place in Fort Myers on (941) 444-4444 today!
What Exactly is a Herniated Disc Injury?
The human spinal cord is formed from twenty-three individual bones called vertebrae. Each of these vertebrae have a curved disc that cushions the bone and acts like a shock absorber. These discs protect the spinal cord and the nerves it contains. They protect you and allow you to bend, bounce, and twist your back without sustaining any kind of injury.
Each one of these discs has a tough exterior containing a network of loose fibers in a gel substance called mucoprotein. Disc herniation occurs when the tough exterior surrounding them tears or protrudes and results in the gel-like substance leaking out. The protruding disc also pushes on the spinal cord or a nerve root, causing severe pain in the back. As the spine is linked to the rest of the body, pain can impact the whole of your body. Conditions like radiculopathy can result from pressure on the spine and cause numbness or pain that can spread through to your lower back, arms, and legs.
A severe enough injury to your back can cause pain and complications in your movements that often require a long and extensive period of recovery. In some cases, the level of movement possessed before your accident may never fully return.
For this reason, it is important that your injury is taken seriously, and you have access to the level of compensation you deserve. The Law Place in Fort Myers, Lee County, has an extensive history in dealing with back injury lawsuits like these.
For a free legal consultation with a herniated disc lawyer serving Fort Myers, call 941-444-4444
Can You Sue for a Herniated Disc Injury in Fort Myers?
The simple answer is yes. You can sue for a herniated disc injury in Fort Myers. However, as mentioned above, due to the particulars of this type of injury, it can be difficult for your lawyer to prove that you injured your back in the accident in question.
This is why it is so important to pick the correct injury attorney to take your case. Here at The Law Place in Fort Myers, we have extensive experience achieving compensation for a back injury of this kind.
We will conduct a thorough investigation of your accident and collect the relevant information, including testimonies, evidence of damage to vehicles (if your injury was involved in a car accident), your medical history, lost wage records, and testimony from others involved. A detailed and well-backed case under the correct lawyer can still win you compensation for your injury.
Fort Myers Herniated Disc Lawyer Near Me 941-444-4444
What Is the Process for Suing for a Herniated Disc Injury?
There are several factors that need to be fulfilled to ensure that your personal injury attorney wins your spinal cord injury case. These are as follows:
- Duty of care – It must be proven that somebody owed you a duty of care. However, this is usually easily proven as, in most situations, people will owe those around them a duty of care. For example, in a car accident, it is the duty of care of other drivers to ensure their driving does not endanger those around them.
- Breach of duty of care – It must then be proven that the duty of care was breached. This means that the other person was acting at a level of negligence that was unreasonable. To continue the above example, in a car accident, this can be proven if the other party ignored the rules of the road.
- Your injuries were caused by this breach – Your lawyer will also have to prove that your herniated disc injury was caused by the above breach of duty of care. This is the point in a herniated disc injury that can be hard to prove. However, with an experienced injury lawyer from The Law Place, this difficulty can be negated with thorough legal work.
- These injuries resulted in damages – The next step in your claim will be proving that the herniated disc injuries you incurred resulted in damages. The individual damages will be covered in the next section. The proof of these varies, but for some, it is as easy as retaining the correct medical and employment records.
Just because the process of claiming for a herniated disc injury is fraught with potential complications, this does not mean you should be put off attempting to recover compensation for your injuries.
Here at The Law Place, we have over 75 years of combined experience dealing with cases like yours. We have won compensation for many others, just like you in the past.
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How Much Is the Average Settlement for a Herniated Disc Injury Case in Fort Myers?
Every herniated disc personal injury settlement is different and unique depending on the circumstances of your accident, injury, and the recovery process.
However, there are certain things that are usually considered when calculating the settlement amount for a neck and back spinal cord injury. From these, it is possible to get some idea of how much your personal injury settlement could be worth.
The damages that will be taken into account for your personal injury case in Fort Myers are as follows:
- Pain and suffering – These consider the results following the aftermath of your personal injury. They will take into account the level of pain caused by your back injury and the length of time it has taken /will take you to recover from said injury. These considerations will also take into account any permanent changes to your lifestyle following your spinal cord injury.
- Medical bills – It is no secret that in Fort Myers, as with anywhere else in America, the financial aspects of a physical injury can be equally devastating. Your personal injury attorney will fight for you to be able to recoup the expenses of your medical treatment.
- Lost wages – If you have been forced to take time off from work to recover from your spinal cord injury, you may be able to claim back this lost income. It is important that you keep all correspondence with your employer concerning time off in order to get this money back.
- Mental distress – It is not uncommon for a severe spinal cord injury to cause significant mental and emotional distress. Constant levels of pain may leave you in a less secure mental position than before your injury. Additionally, if the personal injury is from a car accident, you may be left with anxiety, PTSD, or other lasting mental conditions. These factors will be considered when reaching the settlement for your personal injury case.
- Additional costs – Due to the risk of incapacitation from a spinal cord injury, it is not uncommon for victims to suffer from unexpected costs associated with additional transport, childcare, or help around the house. A personal injury attorney from our law firm can help you to achieve compensation to get the money back from these unexpected costs.
As there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the level of compensation from a back injury of this kind, the best thing to do is to call The Law Place in Fort Myers for a free consultation. One of our lawyers will be able to listen to the specifics of your case and let you know for free how much your claim could be worth. It is incredibly helpful to know what the process will look like going forward with your case, and you will be fully protected by the attorney-client relationship, so there is no risk involved in establishing the details of your case’s potential.
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What Difficulties Can I Expect to Encounter When Attempting to Achieve Compensation for My Herniated Disc Injury?
As mentioned briefly above, there are potential complications that make it difficult for everyone to achieve a fair level of compensation for this kind of back injury.
Insurance companies have a known history of resorting to underhanded tactics to devalue your claim. They have a wealth of experience in this regard and often employ teams of specialist lawyers and claims adjusters to do this. For this reason, it is very important not to speak with insurance companies extensively until you have spoken to your personal injury attorney. It is doubly important to remember that all the phone calls you have with your insurance company will be recorded. When speaking to your insurance company, only divulge what is absolutely necessary, with no additional details, and be sure never to sign any documentation without your personal injury lawyer present.
A common argument employed by insurance companies is that a herniated disc was solely caused by unrelated spinal degeneration. Unfortunately, this is an incredibly difficult argument to fight against, as it is very hard to accumulate the required evidence to prove that this is not the case. While MRI scans can show degeneration, it remains almost impossible to prove from their results when the injury occurred.
A professional personal injury attorney from The Law Place in Fort Myers, FL, will strive to attain the compensation you deserve, no matter what underhanded tricks are employed by insurance companies to devalue your claim. We understand the importance of appropriate evidence, a solid case, and honest and fair legal representation.
What If I Was Already Struggling With a Pre-Existing Neck or Back Condition?
Unfortunately, if you already struggle with a pre-existing neck or back condition, then a herniated disc claim is often even more difficult to prove. In these situations, it is even more important to have a trusted legal representative backing you.
An experienced personal injury lawyer from The Law Place in Fort Myers will ensure that all of the necessary evidence is accumulated and your case is as strong as possible. Our method will be to prove a portion of your personal injuries were indeed caused by the accident in question, using comparative documents concerning your personal health before and after the accident. From this point, we can prove that your level of pain, suffering, and complications have increased since the accident, using a combination of a daily journal kept by yourself alongside medical records and various testimonies from those around you.
How Much Will Legal Representation From The Law Place Cost Me?
You may be concerned about the cost of seeking legal representation, especially for something as difficult to prove as a herniated disc injury. The time following an accident can be incredibly overwhelming, as you are not only dealing with the pain and complications from your accident but also the financial fallout. This is why we here at The Law Place believe that there should never be any risk involved in seeking compensation for injuries that are not your fault.
All our lawyers work on a contingency basis. This means that you will incur no legal fees until the very end of your lawsuit with the finalization of your settlement. All fees incurred will be taken from said settlement. This means that you will not have to pay a single cent upfront, and, in the event of an unsuccessful claim, the entire process will still have cost you nothing. We believe that recovering compensation for any form of negligence should never involve risk on your part.
All of the contingency work undertaken by The Law Place is strictly monitored by the State Bar Association. This means that you can rest assured that you are monitored and protected from any hidden fees or costs, and your claim really is risk-free.
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer at The Law Place Today
If you have been involved in a car or other accident that has resulted in you sustaining a herniated disc neck or back injury in the past four years, you could be entitled to compensation for your injuries and the knock-on effects they may have had on your life.
Unfortunately, due to the unique complexities of this kind of back injury, recovering compensation can be a complicated process. Dealing with the complexities of Florida law can be difficult enough at the best of times, but the underhanded tactics of insurance companies with this particular type of injury are often incredibly overwhelming. Going about claiming for compensation in the incorrect way can leave you with a greatly diminished settlement, or even worse, no compensation whatsoever. Therefore it is important to have an experienced and trustworthy legal counsel.
Here at The Law Place in Fort Myers, our team has over 75 years of combined experience dealing with accident and injury cases. Unlike many other law firms in Florida, we operate each case as a team to utilize the full range and breadth of our lawyer’s skills. This means that you will benefit from the accumulated knowledge of each individual member of our team.
We have personally recovered damages for many herniated disc clients in the past and can help you to achieve the compensation you deserve for your injuries. If your life has been negatively impacted by your accident, compensation can go a long way towards getting your life back to normal or adjusting to the new lifestyle your injuries require.
All of our accident claims are operated on a no-win-no-fee basis, with our legal fees taken from your final settlement only after it is reached. This means that there is no risk involved in seeking compensation as if your claim is unsuccessful, it will cost you nothing. For more information about the specifics of your pathway to compensation, get in touch with a member of our team for a no-obligation, free consultation today, fully protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Our telephone lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means that we can work around your busy schedule. Contact The Law Place in Fort Myers, Florida, on (941) 444-4444 to find out how we can help.
Call or text 941-444-4444 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form