A neck injury is one of the most dangerous and debilitating injuries that a person can sustain. Severe neck injuries can lead to lifelong complications and chronic pain.
Even minor neck and back injuries can cause a lot of pain and suffering to victims, not to mention other expenses like lost wages and ongoing medical expenses.
If you or a loved one suffered a neck injury, then you need an experienced neck injury lawyer from a firm like Zirkin & Schmerling who can represent you in a personal injury claim and help you recover compensation.
Call us at 410-753-4611 today for a free consultation. With decades of local experience and a proven track record, we are dedicated to securing the best possible results for you and your family.
Compensation for Neck Injuries in Maryland
Finding the right neck injury attorney is crucial for the success of your personal injury claim. An experienced personal injury attorney will listen to the details of your neck injury accident and help you put together a case that covers all of your neck injury damages.
What Is a Neck Injury?
A neck injury is caused when a sudden trauma, like a car accident or a fall, causes damage to the spine or the ligaments in the neck or shoulder area. Because the nervous system is interconnected, neck injuries may also refer to injuries where the spinal column or the brain is impacted.
Neck injury cases are serious matters and should not be taken lightly.
Neck injury victims should always seek medical attention so their injuries don’t worsen or lead to more serious neck trauma issues down the road. A neck injury attorney will be able to support you in a neck injury claim to recover compensation for your damages and expenses.
Impacts on Compensation
There are a few factors of neck injuries that impact the compensation you can receive, which your neck injury lawyer will go over with you.
Those factors include:
- Severity: The more severe the neck injuries are, the more compensation you can receive to cover the damages for your expenses and your additional pain and suffering.
- Impairment: Some neck injuries can leave permanent injuries, like paralysis, impairment, disability, or chronic pain. In these cases, you may be entitled to more compensation.
- Treatment: If you require extensive medical expenses to cover the treatment of serious neck injuries, your settlement could be much higher to offset those costs.
Additional Damages
While it is usually assumed that neck injury lawsuits will cover medical bills, other expenses can also add to your total compensation in a claim.
Your personal injury lawyers will have a background in these types of personal injury claims and can help you adjust your case to include these damages, including:
- Lost wages: If your recovery caused you to miss any work, you could ask for your wages to be added to your settlement so you don’t lose your expected income. If the injury happened while you were at work, you may be able to get additional workplace compensation for unsafe working conditions.
- Ongoing medical treatment: Many neck injuries require ongoing medical treatment, such as physical therapy, which may require medical attention after your neck injury claim is settled. You can plan ahead for these expenses in your initial case.
- Pain and suffering: Neck injuries can be extremely challenging to deal with. Neck pain is distressing and leads to other complications, not to mention the suffering that can arise from brain injury or spinal cord injury complications that can accompany neck injuries.
- Psychological damages (PTSD): Neck trauma can cause emotional and psychological damages like PTSD or depression. While these aren’t physical injuries, they still affect the victims of the accident and can be compensated monetarily in the neck injury claim.
- Property damage: Motor vehicle accidents or other types of accidents in which personal property was damaged can also be included in your claim to cover the costs that an insurance company didn’t include or to cover the cost of your deductible.
- Legal team payments: Most personal injury attorneys won’t ask accident victims to pay any fees unless they win their case. The legal fees and costs for pursuing a case come out of the ultimate settlement or judgment.
How Long Do I Have to File a Neck Injury Lawsuit?
If you have suffered a neck injury, then there is a time frame in Maryland in which neck injury claims need to be filed called a statute of limitations. Maryland personal injury law states that you have three years in which to file your neck injury claim. Anything past that time limit, and you will likely be rejected and will not be able to pursue your case.
It’s important to speak to a neck injury lawyer as soon as you can after your accident, as it may take time to gather all the evidence needed to file your personal injury case. The longer you wait, the less time your neck injury lawyer has to work on your claim and the longer it will take for you to receive your compensation.
Accidents That Cause Neck Injuries
Unfortunately, many types of accidents can lead to neck injuries. While not all neck injuries are going to be seriously debilitating, they must be taken seriously, as you never know when what seems like a minor issue can snowball into a serious accident with life-altering results.
Car Accidents or Truck Accidents
One of the most common causes of neck injuries is a car accident. These often lead to a whiplash injury, where the cervical spine is whipped back and forth, injuring the neck muscles and nerves. While whiplash injuries are the most common neck injuries caused by a car accident, they can also be much more severe.
Bicycle or Motorcycle Accidents
Falling off of a bike or motorcycle can lead to soft tissue injuries around the neck or head trauma. Being struck by a larger vehicle while on a bike or motorcycle is also extremely dangerous and can lead to neck fractures or other serious spinal injuries.
Slip-and-Fall Accidents
Another one of the common causes of neck injuries is slipping and falling. In these instances, a slip-and-fall can lead to back or neck injury from the impact with the ground. This can happen from slippery conditions like ice, unstable or uneven floors, lack of handrails or guards, or even from a preexisting medical issue, such as a seizure.
Sports Injuries
Sports injuries are another common source of neck pain and neck injuries, especially if you play a contact sport like football, hockey, or wrestling. Neck injuries in these sports are more common due to the force of the impacts with other players, but even without contact, you can still get a neck injury from throwing, stretching, or working out in a sporting event.
Workplace Accidents
A final common source of neck injuries is the workplace. Workplace accidents, caused by unsafe working conditions or high-risk jobs, can lead to a neck injury from a fall, malfunctioning equipment, or overwork. A personal injury lawyer will help you understand your rights within workplace law for a neck injury accident that takes place on the job. A worker’s compensation case may be something you pursue after a workplace accident.
Who Is Liable for Your Neck Injury?
Establishing liability and finding the responsible party is critical when filing a neck injury claim. If you don’t have the right party established, then you may lose your case. That’s another reason why finding the right personal injury lawyer is so important.
Your neck injury lawyers will examine the facts of your case and determine if your accident was someone else’s fault directly, like a car accident where the other driver was driving negligently.
You might be a passenger in someone’s case and that driver is driving negligently. It is critical to establish who was the at-fault driver, or who was negligent in your case. You might also get a neck injury by slipping on someone’s property that wasn’t maintained with care.
Your legal representation will work to ensure that your neck injury claim is filed against the right party so that you don’t have to worry about liability and can instead focus on your recovery and healing.
Common Neck Injuries
Not all neck injuries look the same, so it is important to establish what the different symptoms and types of neck injuries are so you are aware of what to look for in the case that you or a loved one are involved in an accident.
Back and Neck Sprain
Whiplash injuries are often sprains in the back and neck area. When the cervical spine, or the top area of your spine where your neck connects to your shoulders, is suddenly whipped back and forth, it can sprain the muscles and ligaments leading to neck pain.
Herniated or Slipped Disc
Your discs are the rubbery cushions that sit between the vertebrae in your spine and help to absorb movement. Back injury victims may experience these discs slipping out of place, which can be incredibly painful as well as limit your mobility.
Pinched Nerve or Nerve Damage
The spine protects your major nerve network, and if it is injured it can lead to some of those nerves getting pinched between vertebrae or being damaged from the accident. This can lead to neck pain, numbness, tingling, or stinging.
Fractured Vertebrae
Some whiplash symptoms are indicators of something much more severe, which is fractured or broken vertebrae in your neck or back. These neck injuries may require surgery or braces to heal and can take time in order to ensure they set back correctly.
Spinal Cord Injury
Trauma to your spinal canal from a sudden blow or impact can cut off entire sections of your body from sensation or functionality. These injuries can be traumatic and lead to permanent or long-term limitations in strength or movement, as well as ongoing pain management.
Permanent Disability or Paralysis
Some spinal injuries can lead to permanent disability or paralysis. In these cases, the damage to the neck or spine is so severe that it cannot be repaired through physical therapy or surgical intervention.
While in many cases there are still treatments available to improve the quality of life of individuals dealing with severe neck injuries, it is still important to work with neck injury lawyers who can ensure that you receive compensation for your physical and emotional damages.
Wrongful Death
In the worst-case scenario, a neck injury can be so severe that it leads to a wrongful death. In these heartbreaking cases, a personal injury law firm will work with the family of the victim to hold the responsible party financially liable for the loss. Neck injury lawyers take these cases seriously and work closely with families to respect their situation and provide the right course of action.
Signs of a Neck Injury
A neck injury might not first appear to be serious. You might not even notice that you have one at first, especially if you were just involved in a minor accident like a fender bender or a short fall. However, neck injuries can quickly become complicated, so it’s important to know what symptoms you should be on the lookout for.
Common Neck Injury Symptoms
Whiplash symptoms and neck injury symptoms have a few common characteristics that indicate something might be wrong. If you are in an accident and experience any of the following, seek medical attention right away to ensure your safety and protect yourself from more serious damage.
- Stiffness
- Neck pain
- Blurred vision
- Difficulty sleeping
- Ringing in the ears
- Pain when turning your head or moving your neck
- Mood swings
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Difficulty concentrating
- Arm pain
- Numbness
- Disrupted reflexes
- Memory loss
What To Do If You Suspect a Neck Injury
If you are in an accident and suspect that you have suffered a neck injury, there are a few key steps to follow in order to avoid further damage and do your best to prepare for a neck injury lawyer in the future.
Here is a helpful guide to follow:
Keep Still and Avoid Moving the Neck
Moving your head or neck area could cause further injury and damage. Keep as still as possible and ask those around you for help if you can.
Call 911
Call for medical attention and follow the directions given over the phone, even if you think the neck injury is minor.
Document the Scene
If you have been given the all-clear, try to document the scene of the accident with photos or collect the information of any possible witnesses.
Keep Track of All Medical Records
Make sure and seek medical treatment at the earlies possible date. Hold on to all of your medical records, including your hospital bills, follow-up appointments, specialist visits, doctor’s reports, and medication lists.
Contact Legal Representation
Reach out to a law firm and speak to a neck injury attorney about what your options are and what course of action you should follow in regard to contacting an insurance company or another involved party.
Zirkin & Schmerling | Neck Injury Lawyers
If you or a loved one has suffered a neck injury in the state of Maryland due to someone else’s negligence, then you are entitled to seek compensation.
At Zirkin & Schmerling, we provide experienced neck injury attorneys who specialize in helping victims get the settlement they deserve with exceptional legal representation.
Our experienced attorneys are committed to delivering personalized legal strategies tailored to your unique needs and circumstances.
For a free consultation, give us a call at 410-753-4611 or contact us online.
