When is a Personal Injury Considered Catastrophic?

The tragic effects of a personal injury on your life or on your physical abilities could legally classify an injury as “catastrophic”.

Within personal injury law, there is sometimes the question of whether an incident led to what might be classified as a “catastrophic” injury. This issue is relevant for several reasons, including how a claim is paid out and what damage caps might be imposed by law on the total claim.

Let’s take a look at what is considered a catastrophic injury and why the issue can end up being so critical to how a case unfolds.

Fighting a catastrophic injury

From a legal perspective, catastrophic injuries are ones that deserve a higher level of compensation than the standard personal injury case might. They are under a personal injury claim, but they meet a threshold for higher damages — a fact that’s especially important in states with no-fault auto insurance systems or that have implemented aggressive forms of tort reform.

Medically speaking, a catastrophic injury is one that leaves a person:

  • In need of life-long care or special accommodations
  • With a permanent disability
  • Severely disfigured, deformed, or scarred
  • Partially or totally incapable of continuing to make money in their profession

The logic behind providing additional compensation to victims who’ve been catastrophically injured is simple: They’re going to suffer more, and they’re also going to need more money to compensate for medical help, lost wages, and other future issues that may arise due to the accident.

Examples of catastrophic injuries

In some ways, it’s easier to think about what does not count as a catastrophic personal injury. For example, an individual involved in a slip-and-fall accident at a store might break their forearm trying to brace themselves during the fall. Barring unusual circumstances, we tend to expect a broken forearm to heal very well.

Conversely, there are severe injuries a person can expect to never recover from. While not close to an exhaustive list, these include:

  • Brain damage that leaves them comatose
  • Spinal damage that limits their ability to walk
  • Full or partial paralysis
  • Amputations of body parts
  • Injuries that result in loss of sexual function
  • Facial scars
  • Injuries to body parts that are critical to doing their job
  • Severe burn scarring

Catastrophic Injuries and the workplace

It’s the cases involving work that tend to be the trickiest to prove. First, the relationship between the disability and your work has to be already established. It can’t be aspirational. In other words, you can’t claim damages from not being able to perform a hypothetical job that you one day wanted to have.

There has to be evidence that you’ve been at least recently employed in the line of work you claim. For example, a computer programmer who suffered serious destruction of their hand that limited their ability to type would have pretty solid grounds for seeking compensation above the standard personal injury claim.

Other cases where a person might claim a catastrophic injury include:

  • Defective makeup product that scarred their face
  • A workplace accident that left them paralyzed
  • Pharmacist’s errors led to them suffering severe digestive tract damage

Why do you need an attorney?

By only pursuing a personal injury claim, you may actually be limiting the compensation you’ll obtain. Many states have damage caps in place on the number of damages that can be awarded in injury cases, but virtually all of these rules include exceptions for catastrophic injuries. Additionally, insurance companies will almost always reject a claim that an injury was catastrophic and it will be your attorney’s job to prove it is. That’s why it is important to have a good attorney fight for your rights, guide you through the process and get you the maximum compensation possible.

For anyone who has been severely injured in an incident, the question that should be at the front of their minds is this:

How much money will I need to get by for the rest of my life?

At Manuel Diaz Law Firm, PC , we know that the key to obtaining the best settlement in a Catastrophic accident case lies in rigorous preparation and hard work. We work diligently to uncover pertinent evidence and design individualized strategies to obtain a quick resolution to your case while maximizing your compensation. We’ve represented thousands of clients across the state of texas and recovered millions of dollars that would’ve otherwise not been paid out to our clients.

Please call (855) 900-3429 today for a free case evaluation with our accident lawyers, we do not charge anything on your case unless we win. Manuel Diaz Law Firm, PC serves clients throughout Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Denton, and other nearby areas.