What Is A Catastrophic Injury?

A catastrophic injury can leave a victim suffering his or her entire life with permanent disabilities that have very serious and long-term effects on the victim. Unfortunately, catastrophic injuries usually do not solely affect the victim as there is an additional serious strain and stress placed on the victim’s family due to the need for constant supervision or assistance for the rest of the victim’s life, not to mention a lifetime of rehabilitation and medical bills. Additionally, the family of a victim of a catastrophic injury is also severely impacted due to the financial losses associated with the victim’s inability to provide an income for his or her family.

A number of different circumstances may give rise to a catastrophic injury. Some of the most common catastrophic injuries include:

• Paralysis
• Paraplegia
• Quadriplegia
• Organ damage
• Burns
• Brain injuries
• Back injuries
• Neck injuries
• Blindness
• Loss of a limb

As a result of the enormous damages involved in catastrophic injuries, it is extremely important that the family or significant other of a victim of catastrophic injuries retain a law office with the exceptional expertise, available financial resources and proven success in this type of case. Catastrophic injury cases are complex and expensive to prosecute and will almost always require various experts to prove all of the monetary damages that need to be recovered in order to obtain full and fair compensation. This may include expert testimony related to economic analysis, life care planning and/or vocational economics.

We Have The Expertise And Resources To Pursue Catastrophic Injury Claims

A catastrophic injury case will usually require a significant amount of money to prosecute from start to finish inasmuch as there are many components involved in proving the extent of the injuries as well as the significant losses incurred due to the devastating injuries suffered by the victim. For example, if the victim suffered a significant brain injury, there very well may be the need to retain separate experts who have an expertise in the respective fields of neurosurgery, neurology, life-care planning and vocational rehabilitation, as well as an economist in addition to other medical and technical areas. A life-care planner will address the costs involved for those individuals who have experienced a catastrophic injury or who have chronic care needs. A life-care plan will outline the annual and lifetime costs of long-term care for the life expectancy of the victim.

A vocational rehabilitation expert can identify and determine the employability and earning capacity of a victim of a catastrophic injury if there is an anticipated defense to the lawsuit that the plaintiff may still be able to engage in some form of employment notwithstanding the injuries that were suffered.

Additionally, if there has been a substantial loss of earnings and the loss of other future benefits, whether pension-related or not, an economist familiar with economic analysis and economic damages may very well be required in order to substantiate future, as well as past, loss of earnings, profit and/or economic damages.

It is common for cases involving a catastrophic injury to require tens of thousands of dollars to prosecute up to and including the trial in such a lawsuit. The Law Offices of Ira M. Perlman, P.C. & Robert D. Rosen, P.C., is prepared to spend all necessary monies and retain all needed experts in order to successfully prosecute a catastrophic injury case.

Pursuit of All Necessary Parties

Unfortunately, the extent of injuries and monetary damage sustained by the victim of a catastrophic injury may far exceed the amount of available insurance coverage that exists for one party responsible for the accident, injury or malpractice involved. It is for this reason that it is crucial that any lawyer retained to represent the victim of a catastrophic injury pursue any and all parties that bear any responsibility for a victim’s injuries. In this regard, there may be multiple parties responsible for an accident, injury or malpractice, which gave rise to the catastrophic injuries even though the percentages of fault or responsibility are not equal. Simply pursuing a single source of insurance or recovery from a party, who is more responsible than other parties, can be a mistake. The reason is that the primary party or defendant responsible may frequently not have enough available insurance to cover the amount of monetary damages, which are necessary in order to fully and fairly compensate the catastrophically injured victim.

Thus, although it is usually very easy to identify the primary responsible party, there may be various other parties or potential defendants who do bear responsibility and should be included in such a lawsuit, especially considering the enormous amount of damages required to compensate a victim and his or her loved ones. As an example, there may be a victim of a motor vehicle accident who sustained injuries as a result of a driver of a motor vehicle disregarding a red traffic light. The motor vehicle accident results in injuries to the victim and the victim is then taken to a hospital for treatment. The hospital may cause further damage and injury to the individual as a result of malpractice committed by one or many members of the hospital staff. Now the victim is suffering from enhanced or greater injuries, which are obviously the result of a combination of errors, omissions and wrongdoing. If the driver of the automobile which initially caused the accident does not have sufficient coverage to cover all of the injuries and damages which flow from the original accident, it would be advisable for the lawyer handling such a case to include the hospital as a named defendant for any wrongdoing committed by its staff. This ensures that all necessary and proper parties are brought before the court in addition to all available resources of insurance to cover all of the wrongdoers who bear some percentage or fault.

Our Expertise

The Law Offices of Ira M. Perlman, P.C. & Robert D. Rosen, P.C., has developed a high level of expertise over the years as a result of handling many catastrophic injury cases. As a result thereof, our office is thoroughly familiar with the complex nature and financial commitment and sensitivity involved in these types of cases in addition to the high level of communication required with the victims and their families. Our office will walk you through the litigation process from day one right up to and including the trial in the lawsuit if the responsible parties and their insurance carriers are unwilling to fully compensate you and your family. Call 212-668-0100 or contact us online to get started.