San Diego Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

Vaage Law > Practice Areas > San Diego Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

A spinal cord injury affects every part of a person’s future. After the injury, your life is consumed by medical appointments, physical therapy, and difficult conversations about mobility, independence, and long-term care while families try to adjust to a future they could have never planned for.

At Vaage Law, our team takes the time to listen to what your life looked like before the injury and what it looks like now. We know how much can change after a serious spinal cord injury. When the injury was caused by someone else’s carelessness, it can make an already painful situation even harder.

If you need a clear-headed team to look at your case, a San Diego spinal cord injury lawyer from our firm can help you find answers. You can speak with a member of our team today by calling (619) 338-0505 or filling out our quick online form for a free, confidential consultation.

Overcoming a Devastating Spinal Injury With Vaage Law

When our client went to the hospital, a critical delay in diagnosing his spinal cord compression left him facing permanent, life-altering injuries. 

In this video, he describes how attorney Bob Vaage stepped in, held the healthcare system accountable for its negligence, and fought to secure a victory to fund his ongoing care and recovery.

The Value of Having a San Diego Spinal Cord Injury Attorney on Your Side

Spinal cord injury claims may involve many complex determinations of liability, damages, and other concepts. A spinal cord injury lawyer can perform many of the services and tasks that are crucial for a successful case.

After an SCI, we understand that you may not be in the best position to handle various tasks, and we empathize with your situation. At Vaage Law, we can help by providing legal services such as:

• Reviewing the circumstances and facts of the spinal cord injury
• Researching the applicable laws
• Gathering important medical records and reports
• Interviewing key witnesses, including medical experts
• Formulating a strong trial strategy
• Negotiating for the maximum amount of damages

How Can a Spinal Injury Lawyer Help Me Recover Financially?

A spinal cord injury is not the kind of injury where you pay an emergency room bill and slowly move on with your life. For many, every stage of life begins to revolve around finding ways to pay for care that never fully ends.

According to national spinal cord injury data, a person with high tetraplegia may face more than $1 million in medical and living expenses during the first year alone, followed by nearly $185,000 in yearly costs after that. Even paraplegia injuries can lead to first-year costs exceeding $500,000, with ongoing yearly expenses approaching $70,000.

For younger victims, the lifetime financial impact is often measured in millions. Estimates show that a 25-year-old living with high tetraplegia may face more than $4.7 million in lifetime care costs. 

When someone else’s negligence caused the injury, a claim may help recover the financial losses connected to long-term care and the lasting impact the injury has had on your life. A damages award may include compensation for:

• Medical expenses and treatments
• Lost wages
• Loss of future earning ability
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of companionship
• Loss of enjoyment of life

Spinal cord injuries often create additional long-term expenses as well, including:

• Nursing care or assisted living services
• Home and vehicle modifications
• Wheelchairs, ramps, and mobility equipment
• Physical therapy and rehabilitation
• Counseling or mental health treatment
• Ongoing in-home assistance

When you are dealing with a serious spinal injury, you may not have the time or energy to think about hiring an attorney while also managing medical appointments, treatment, and physical limitations. However, a nationwide study revealed that having professional legal representation completely changes both your chances of success and the size of your final payout.

In fact, 91% of injured people who hired an attorney walked away with a settlement or award, compared to just 51% of those who tried to handle their claims alone.

What Is a Spinal Cord Injury?

A spinal cord injury (SCI) involves any type of damage to the bundle of cells and nerves that extends from the brain down through the spine and into the lower back. SCI can often be caused by direct injury to the spinal cord, or due to damage to the surrounding tissue and vertebrae that encase the cord.

SCI symptoms can be severe and can involve loss of muscle function or motor coordination, loss of sensation, and other more serious conditions like paralysis. Due to the nature of such symptoms, legal action may typically be necessary if another party’s negligence caused the spinal cord injury.

In many instances, due to the connection between the brain and the spinal cord, traumatic brain injuries may also involve some degree of spinal cord injury. Also, more serious instances can lead to a wrongful death claim, in cases where the injury leads to a loss of life.

There are roughly 54 SCI cases per 1 million people in the U.S. (about 18,000 new instances each year). These types of claims can be complex, so it’s important to hire a law firm that has proven results in such cases.

Different Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

Doctors generally group these injuries into two main categories, depending on how much communication still happens between your brain and your body:

• Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: This happens when the spinal cord is bruised or partially torn, but some nerve signals can still get through. You might still have some feeling or be able to move certain muscles below the area where you were hurt. The level of recovery can vary wildly from person to person.
• Complete Spinal Cord Injury: This means the spinal cord is fully compressed, severed, or damaged so badly that the brain can no longer send signals past the point of the injury. As a result, a person loses all feeling and the ability to intentionally move everything below that specific spot.

Understanding the Levels of Spinal Cord Injuries

The location of the injury along your backbone determines exactly how your body is affected. The spine is divided into specific regions, and the higher up the injury happens, the more systems are altered:

• Cervical Spine (Neck): The cervical area includes the top seven bones in your neck (C1 through C7). Injuries here are often the most life-altering because they affect the signals to your arms, hands, torso, and legs. This frequently results in quadriplegia, which is a total or partial loss of movement and feeling in all four limbs. It can also impact your ability to breathe or speak on your own.
• Thoracic Spine (Mid-Back): This region sits in your chest area (T1 through T12). Damage here usually leaves your neck and arms working fine, but it impacts your core muscles and legs. This can lead to paraplegia, which means loss of use in the lower half of your body.
• Lumbar Spine (Lower Back): The lumbar bones (L1 through L5) carry the weight of your upper body. An injury here affects your hips and legs. People with lumbar injuries might lose their ability to walk or control their lower legs, and they often face permanent changes to their bladder and bowel functions.
• Sacral Spine (Base of the Spine): Sitting just above your tailbone (S1 through S5), injuries to this bottom section primarily cause a loss of function in the hips, pelvic organs, and the back of the thighs.

What Are Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms?

Common symptoms of a spinal cord injury may include:

• Loss of motor function
• Numbness or loss of sensation (the ability to feel in the extremities)
• Paralysis
• Exaggerated reflexes
• Muscular spasms

In some cases, symptoms may be more nuanced, since the spinal cord affects various other bodily functions. Other symptoms of an SCI may include:

• Altered sensations, such as differences in the ability to feel heat or cold
• Loss of bladder or bowel control
• Changes in sexual function
• Extreme pressure in the back, neck, or head
• Difficulty walking or balancing

What Treatment Looks Like After a Spinal Cord Injury

When a person experiences a spinal cord injury, their care plan is usually long and requires a large team of medical specialists. While every plan is tailored to the individual, treatment typically moves through three critical phases:

Emergency Stabilization

Right after the accident, doctors focus entirely on saving the person’s life and preventing further damage to the spine. This often involves:

• Using special braces and boards to keep the neck and back perfectly still.
• Medications to control swelling and keep blood pressure steady, which protects blood flow to the injured nerves.
• Urgent surgery to clear away bone fragments, broken vertebrae pieces, or foreign objects that are pushing into the spinal cord.

Ongoing Medical Management

Once the patient is stable, the focus shifts to secondary issues. Doctors work to manage long-term changes to the body’s natural systems. This includes managing changes to blood pressure, digestive issues, muscle spasms, and chronic nerve pain.

It also includes vital psychological care to help individuals process the profound emotional weight and lifestyle shifts that come with a physical limitation. According to leading medical data, a catastrophic spine injury can severely impact mental health, putting patients at a much higher risk for deep depression. 

Intensive Physical Rehabilitation

This is often the longest part of the journey. Therapists work closely with patients to maximize their physical capabilities. Rehabilitation usually includes:

• Physical Therapy: Focused on strengthening any remaining muscle control, maintaining joint flexibility, and learning new ways to move.
• Occupational Therapy: Helping patients relearn daily tasks like dressing, eating, grooming, and using technology so they can regain as much independence as possible.
• Adaptive Device Training: Learning how to navigate the world using high-tech wheelchairs, voice-activated home systems, and modified vehicles.

Who a San Diego Spinal Cord Injury Attorney Holds Liable for a Spine Injury

When someone else’s bad choice changes your life, finding out who is legally responsible is how we start searching for answers. At Vaage Law, we do not guess. We look at the hard facts to find out where the breakdown in safety happened. Depending on what caused your injury, one or more of these parties can be held legally responsible:

• Negligent Drivers: If a person was texting, driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, or breaking traffic laws on San Diego roads, they are responsible for the harm they cause.
• Trucking Companies: If a trucking company pressures a driver to stay on the road too long, fails to check the brakes, or hires someone without a proper license, the company itself can be held accountable.
• Property Owners: If you fell because a business owner or property landlord left a structural hazard unrepaired, ignored broken stairs, or failed to put up warning signs on a slick floor, they can be held liable under California premises liability laws.
• Medical Professionals: Doctors, surgeons, and hospital staff have a duty to keep you safe. If a surgeon makes a reckless mistake during a back procedure, or if a local hospital fails to diagnose a spine fracture correctly, it can lead to a medical malpractice claim.
• Government Entities: If a poorly designed road, a giant pothole that was ignored for months, or the actions of law enforcement officers or county jail staff caused your injury, a government agency like the City or County of San Diego might be held responsible.
• Manufacturers of Defective Products: If a car’s airbag failed to inflate, or a seatbelt snapped during an accident, the company that built those parts can be sued for making a dangerous item.

When your life changes in a fraction of a second, the quiet moments that follow are often the heaviest. 

At Vaage Law, we do not offer empty promises or fast, cheap answers. We offer a steady hand, decades of proven courtroom trial success, and a commitment to treat you like a person whose story truly matters. When you are ready to talk, we are here to listen.

Connect with a trusted professional today at (619) 338-0505 or fill out our online form for a completely free, private, and clear-headed conversation about your legal rights.

How Our San Diego Spinal Cord Injury Law Firm Proves Negligence in a Spine Injury Case

Winning a legal claim requires proving that someone else’s carelessness directly caused your suffering. This is a technical process, but it boils down to proving four key points:

1. Duty of Care: We must show that the other person had a legal obligation to act safely around you. For instance, every driver in San Diego has a duty to look out for other people on the road.
2. Breach of Duty: We have to prove that they failed to meet that duty. This means showing that they did something a reasonable person wouldn’t do.
3. Causation: We must prove a direct link between their bad behavior and your physical injury. We use medical records, emergency room reports from local trauma centers, and expert testimonies to show that the crash or fall is the exact reason your spinal cord was damaged.
4. Real Damages: Finally, we show the tangible losses you have experienced. This includes the medical bills, your lost paychecks from missing work, and the emotional pain your family is enduring.

Common Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries in San Diego

Spinal cord injuries can result from many causes and situations. This means that various parties can be held liable for an SCI, depending on the circumstances.

Common causes of spinal cord injuries can include:

• Motor Vehicle Collisions: Traffic wrecks are the leading cause of spine trauma nationwide, making up nearly 40% of all cases. This includes everyday car accidents, large commercial truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, and pedestrian accidents. Local traffic records show that a single year can see more than 23,000 collisions across San Diego, leaving over 5,000 San Diegans dealing with injuries.
• Premises Liability Accidents: Falling down can cause immediate, permanent harm to your backbone. Data from the California Department of Public Health highlights how common these accidents are right here in San Diego County. Recent tracking shows over 2,500 local slip-and-fall cases in a single year, which means roughly 170 out of every 100,000 residents are hurt in a bad fall.
• Sports Incidents: Contact sports like football or hockey can lead to a severe spine injury. A heavy hit, a bad fall, or a collision on the field can instantly damage the delicate nerves in the neck or back. These athletic accidents cause about 8% of all spinal cord injuries.
• Jail Injuries (such as when a detainee is mistreated by staff).

In most cases, spinal cord injuries are caused by some sort of direct catastrophic contact to the spine and spinal column.

In terms of the actual mechanism of injury, a spinal cord injury can involve:

• Broken vertebrae, which can then damage the delicate cord and nerves
• Disc abnormalities, such as when a bulging disc presses onto the cord
• Penetrating injuries, such as a gunshot that penetrates into the spinal cord
• Narrowing of the spinal cord, as can happen with repetitive stress injuries or arthritis

An experienced San Diego spinal cord injury lawyer can work with a medical expert to determine the exact cause of the SCI. This can be of tremendous assistance when determining which party is liable and what the resulting damages might be.

What to Do After a Spinal Cord Injury

The days following a severe accident can feel completely chaotic, and it is completely normal to feel unsure about what to do next. Right now, taking care of yourself is the only thing that truly matters. By taking a few deliberate steps, you can protect your physical health and make sure your family’s legal rights are fully secure for the future:

• Follow Your Medical Team’s Plan: Make it a point to attend your follow-up visits, specialist appointments, and physical therapy sessions. Staying consistent with your care helps your body heal and naturally builds a clear, undeniable medical record of your injury.
• Set Aside a Safe Place for Paperwork: You are going to be handed a lot of documents. Simply create a single physical box or a digital folder to drop everything into, including hospital charts, prescriptions, receipts for medical equipment, and bills for home modifications. We can organize it for you later.
• Keep Insurance Adjusters at a Distance: The other party’s insurance company may call you early on, appearing friendly and offering a quick cash settlement. They do this because they want to close the case before you understand the true, long-term costs of your recovery. You do not have to answer their questions or sign anything without a legal advocate by your side.
• Talk to a Dedicated Spinal Cord Injury Attorney: Catastrophic injuries require significant resources and deep experience to handle correctly. Reaching out to a firm that regularly takes complex cases to trial ensures you have a steady team building a secure foundation for your future.

Other Long-Term Legal Areas a San Diego Spinal Injury Lawyer Can Manage for You

Medical and Healthcare Legal Issues

Victims of spinal cord injuries face numerous medical and healthcare challenges, which can often lead to complex legal situations involving medical malpractice, surgical errors, or inadequate rehabilitation.

A lawyer can assist in holding healthcare providers accountable for negligence or malpractice and securing compensation for medical expenses, ongoing treatment, and pain and suffering.

These attorneys can also pursue cases against manufacturers of defective medical devices that may have contributed to the injury.

Civil Rights, Discrimination, and Special Populations

Spinal cord injury victims may face discrimination and civil rights challenges, particularly in employment, education, or encounters with law enforcement. San Diego spinal cord injury attorneys advocate and ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

They help clients secure necessary workplace accommodations, fight against wrongful termination, and address any discriminatory practices. Attorneys also assist military veterans in navigating Veterans Affairs claims and represent inmates injured due to neglect or abuse in correctional facilities.

Disability and Accessibility Issues

San Diego spinal cord injury attorneys play a vital role in addressing disability and accessibility issues. They assist clients in obtaining Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and other disability benefits, guiding them through the application and appeals processes.

Attorneys advocate for necessary accessibility improvements in public spaces, transportation, and educational institutions, ensuring compliance with laws like the ADA. They also help secure adaptive equipment and technologies essential for clients’ independence and daily living.

Why Hire Vaage Law

Vaage Law is committed to obtaining the maximum benefit possible on your behalf while minimizing the stress associated with litigation so you can focus on healing. For more than 35 years, Bob Vaage has represented many individuals and their families.

We have secured more than $190 million on behalf of clients and have tried more cases to verdict than most San Diego civil attorneys. 

We are completely transparent about our records because we want you to feel confident. For example, when the County of San Diego offered a $500,000 settlement for a catastrophic case involving jail nurse negligence, our team pushed forward and won a $12.6 million verdict at trial. We do not back down when the future of your family is on the line.

If you have suffered a spinal cord injury and subsequent discrimination or negligence, contact us right away at (619) 338-0505 or fill out our online form to schedule a free consultation. We are on hand to provide you with the legal representation and guidance you need.

Proudly Representing San Diego Residents

San Diego Spinal Cord Injury Claim FAQs

To learn about your options and rights as an injured victim, please contact our office as soon as possible.