Many accident victims will never be the same again after their accident. Even with surgery and rehabilitation, the scope and extent of their injuries are simply too severe to ever get back to the way that life you enjoyed before the accident. When that happens, accident victims may face a lifetime of costs associated with the injury they suffered in one instant.

The person or company responsible for your injuries has a legal obligation to pay for all the damages they caused, regardless of the amount. They may try to avoid their responsibility to pay you the total amount that you deserve if they even offer to pay anything at all. Therefore, you need an experienced ​Cape Girardeau catastrophic injury lawyer to protect your legal interests and your right to full compensation for your injuries.

At the law firm of Cook, Barkett, Ponder & Wolz, we stand up for the rights of clients with life-altering injuries, including obtaining these results for our clients:

• $17.5 million for catastrophic car accident injuries
• $17 million in a serious personal injury case
• $4 million following an industrial explosion
• $3.55 million for a brain injury from an industrial accident

To learn how much you might recover for your catastrophic injury, consult with our legal team today.

Table of Contents

• How Catastrophic Injuries Happen
• How Our Lawyers Work for Accident Victims
• How You Can Win Your Catastrophic Injury Case
• Factors That Affect Your Damages and How Much You Are Owed
• Contact a Cape Girardeau Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Today

How Catastrophic Injuries May Happen in ​Cape Girardeau

Catastrophic injuries can happen in practically any type of accident. These are just a common way of describing severe injuries from which you may never recover.

You can suffer catastrophic injuries in the following types of cases:

• Car accidents – Whether an accident happens on I-55 or an intersection in Cape, the impact of an accident can severely injure many parts of your body.
• Product liability – A defective product, including cars or household items, can cause you permanent injury through a severe illness or irreversible damage to your body.
• Slip and fall – Slip and falls might happen while grocery shopping in Schnucks or Food Giant, while browsing the Sikeston Factory Outlet Mall, or anywhere else you least expect it. A fall victim can hit their head or fracture vertebrae that compress the spinal cord.
• Construction accidents – Construction workers on local projects, such as the Route 177 improvements, can suffer life-threatening injuries from vehicle collisions, a severe fall, or debris striking them in the head on a job site.
• Motorcycle accidents – Riding motorcycles is popular in Southeast Missouri, and motorcyclists have little to protect them from a severe injury. They can hit vehicles or the pavement directly when falling off their bike and suffer severe trauma.

Examples of Catastrophic Injuries

Catastrophic injuries can encompass a wide variety of harms that you can suffer. The term is another way of saying that you have suffered a severe injury that will alter the course of your life.

Catastrophic injuries can include:

• Spinal cord injuries – The accident’s impact can cause spinal cord trauma that can result in partial or complete loss of the use of the limbs. A severe SCI can lead to paralysis. Even a more moderate SCI can require extensive surgery and rehabilitation (if the accident victim can recover at all)
• Traumatic brain injuries – When the accident victim hits their head (or has their head snap forward because of whiplash), the trauma can result in permanent brain damage. The brain itself does not recover like other parts of the body. Once the brain suffers damage, there is a chance that it can be permanent. The accident victim can lose their memory and ability to process and speak.
• The loss of a limb – The accident can cause the loss of the use of a limb because of damage to the nerves or spinal cord. Other accidents can require amputation because the accident damaged the limb beyond repair.
• Burns or permanent scars can also count as catastrophic injuries because the victim will never fully heal from them.

The Losses that You May Suffer from Catastrophic Injuries

With catastrophic injuries:

• You cannot the job that you did before the accident (or you may be unable to work at all)
• You cannot enjoy the hobbies and the life that you did before the accident
• You may suffer a lifetime of physical discomfort and emotional harm because of your injuries
• You cannot thoroughly enjoy relationships with your loved ones
• You can suffer a lifetime of emotional trauma because of the accident and its aftermath
• Your injuries are permanent and can leave you with lasting physical scars and disfigurement

How Our Lawyers Work for Accident Victims

For you, everything may have changed in an instant. All it took was being at the wrong place at the wrong time and around the wrong person. Someone else’s carelessness or lousy day now means you must endure a lifetime of bad days. While our lawyers cannot undo the harm that you have suffered, we can fight for you to get full and fair financial compensation to pay for your injuries.

The Most Important Aspects of Catastrophic Injury Cases

There are two crucial aspects of every catastrophic injury case:

• Proving that someone was to blame for the accident puts you in a position to receive financial compensation from the responsible party and their insurance company.
• Obtaining the proper amount of damages, either through a negotiated settlement or by making a jury aware of your damages

How You Can Win Your ​Cape Girardeau Catastrophic Injury Case

The legal standard by which a court will judge your case is negligence. Personal injury cases require that you meet every element of a four-part test the court uses to determine whether someone else was negligent.

You have the burden to prove every one of these elements.

• The defendant owed you a duty of care to act reasonably under the circumstances.
• The defendant breached the duty of care by doing something that fell short of their duty of care.
• You suffered an injury.
• The defendant was the proximate cause of your injury, meaning that you would not have suffered the injury had it not been for their actions.

You Must Understand Your Future Damages Now

One of the many problems with catastrophic injuries is that you do not precisely know now what your future life will be like. You know that you will likely never fully recover from your injuries, but you may be unable to anticipate what may happen years from now. This challenge is part of what makes an experienced lawyer even more of a must with catastrophic injuries.

How Your Lawyer Values Your ​Cape Girardeau Catastrophic Injury Claim

Even after your diagnosis, there is still plenty of work to establish the value of your claim.

Your lawyer may work with the following to value your catastrophic injury claim:

• Medical experts – In any catastrophic injury case, you need detailed information about the extent of your injury and your future prognosis. Besides proof of liability, this may be the most critical evidence in your case.
• Vocational experts – The defendant may claim that you can still either do your job or some work. A vocational expert will give their opinion about whether you can work again and what you can do. Other vocational experts can also testify about what your earnings progression would have been like had you continued working.
• Economic experts – Economic conditions may change in the future. Your medical care costs can rise, and your earnings would rise based on the extent of inflation. These economic experts will give their opinion on inflationary factors the court should apply to your catastrophic injury damages.

Coming up with a number to represent damages in your case is not a back-of-the-envelope calculation. It is a detailed process that has no room for error. Your attorney will take this phase of your case very seriously. It is one of the primary reasons why you hire an attorney.

Factors That Affect Your Damages and How Much You Are Owed

Practically every catastrophic injury will require a lifetime of treatment and will result in high costs. For example, one recent study put the costs of treating traumatic brain injuries at up to $3 million. These are just the medical costs, and the figure does not reflect the non-economic damages you suffer or your lost income. Similarly, severe spinal cord injuries can have lifetime treatment costs that top $5 million.

Your damages stem from the extent of your injuries. It follows that catastrophic injury cases are usually worth more than the average personal injury case. Simply stated, your damages are more significant, so you deserve more money.

Here are some factors that can impact the size of your settlement check or jury award for a catastrophic injury:

• Your age at the time of the accident
• Your life expectancy in the wake of your injuries
• What your life was like before the accident
• How your accident injuries will affect your role in your family

Your attorney will consider all of this when they evaluate your case.

Speak to an Experienced Attorney to Learn About the Value of Your Case

It is difficult for us to give you an estimate or range of your settlement without knowing the facts of your case and situation. All we can do is impress upon you the critical nature of the settlement negotiations and promise to fight for you to get every dollar you deserve. You will deal with stiff resistance from an insurance company looking to save money at your expense.

Once you sign the settlement agreement or a jury decides your case, that is the end of your ability to seek financial compensation, so you must take your best shot now. You cannot go back in the future and get more money if you settle for too little now.

Getting Enough Compensation Is Crucial When You Have Permanent Injuries

When you deal with a large claim, several hundred thousand dollars is still much more than a rounding error. Every dollar represents money you will need to live on and for your medical care. While it may be in your interest to reach a settlement agreement, it is not in your interest to compromise your legal rights. You can only give so much in a settlement negotiation when you may never work again.

How an Experienced Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Helps You

You have little capacity to deal with the legal process when you have suffered severe injuries. If you are acting on behalf of a family member, you will need to focus your efforts on caring for them, and you will have little ability to do much else, let alone handle the details of a complex legal process. While this is correct for every case, it is even more true when you sustained severe injuries and the damages are larger.

An experienced lawyer will doggedly pursue financial compensation from the responsible party.

Your attorney may:

• 

  Daniel J Grimm, Cape Girardeau
  Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

  Investigate the accident and gather the evidence that is necessary to show liability

• Determine the responsible parties, so you can file a claim against them
• Handle all communications with the insurance company and protect you from being surprised and taken advantage of by them
• Work with the experts described above to come up with a dollar value for your claim
• Prepare the actual claim to present to the insurance company or the lawsuit to file in court
• Negotiate any possible settlement with the defendant
• Present your case to a jury

Not only is your lawyer a strong advocate for your position, but they are also your counselor. You need to understand your legal options in any catastrophic injury case. Then, you will need some peace of mind, which you will get from knowing an experienced attorney will represent you with aggressiveness and tenacity.

Call a Cape Girardeau Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

If you or a loved one have suffered a severe injury because of someone else’s actions, you may be entitled to significant financial compensation. First, you must contact an experienced attorney to handle your legal matter because the insurance company is not about to make things easy on you. That is because their interests are different from your own.

The lawyers at Cook, Barkett, Ponder & Wolz have a track record of getting results for clients like you when you seek to hold the responsible person accountable for what they did. Call us today at (573) 335-6651 or message us online for your free initial consultation.