After a spinal cord injury, the first offer often comes while the person is still in rehab. Next to the hospital bill it looks large. The family is tired and scared about money. Signing at that point is the most costly mistake we see in these cases. Nobody knows yet how much movement will come back. So nobody can price the years ahead.
Complete or incomplete changes the whole claim
Doctors grade spinal cord injuries on a scale from A to E. Grade A is a complete injury, with no feeling or movement below the damage. Grades B through D are incomplete, which means some signals still get through. Grade E means the nerves work normally again.
Level matters too. Damage high in the neck can reach the hands and even breathing. Damage in the lower back may take the legs but leave the hands working.
The hard part for a legal claim is time. An incomplete injury can keep getting better for months. Sometimes it takes more than a year. Doctors often say most of the gain shows up in the first year. Some people keep improving after that.
Settle in month three and the price is a guess about the rest of a life. Once you sign the release, there is no fixing a low guess later.
What a life care plan covers
In a serious spine case the most important paper is usually the life care plan. A life care planner is often a nurse or a rehab expert. The planner works from the doctors’ notes and lists what the injured person will need for life. Then each item gets a price. The list is often longer than families expect. It goes far past doctor visits.
- Help at home, from a few hours a day up to care around the clock
- A wheelchair, plus the replacements it will need over the years
- Ramps, a wider bathroom with a roll-in shower, or a move to a one-story home
- A van with a lift or hand controls
- Therapy that keeps going long after the hospital stay ends
- Care for problems that tend to follow a spinal injury, like pressure sores or bladder infections
Lost pay sits on top of all that. Someone who did physical work may never go back to the same job. A desk worker may go back part time, if at all. Our post on calculating future losses shows how lost pay gets figured. In most spine cases, those two items make up most of the claim.
Why insurers push to close early
Adjusters work these files with a budget. An early offer saves them money because the bills so far are only the first ones. They may ask for a recorded statement. They may also want a signed form that lets them pull years of your medical records.
You do not have to give either one to the other driver’s insurer. Tell them someone will call back. Then write down the adjuster’s name and the claim number.
The bigger limit is often the policy itself. Plenty of drivers carry small policies that a spinal injury will use up fast. If the other driver has low limits, look next at your own underinsured motorist coverage. An employer can be on the hook if the driver was working at the time. Finding every policy early matters more than the first offer.
Liens come out of the settlement
Did Medi-Cal or Medicare pay your hospital bills? Then it can ask to be paid back out of the settlement. Private health plans often do the same. These claims are called liens. After a long stay in intensive care they can be huge. They can often be cut down, though. Check what you would really take home before anyone signs.
The deadlines keep running while you wait
Waiting for the medical picture to settle does not mean waiting to start the case. California gives most injury cases two years. The clock is shorter when a city bus or a broken road played a part in the crash. A written claim to the public agency is usually due within six months. Our post on how long after an accident you can file a lawsuit covers these limits.
Proof goes missing long before any deadline. Camera footage gets recorded over. Data saved in a car can vanish once the car is fixed or sold.
So the case gets built now, while the proof is fresh. The value gets set later, once the doctors can say what the future holds.
What to do this week
Keep one folder for everything. Put every bill and insurance letter in it, even the ones that make no sense yet. Write down what the injured person could do before the crash. Then write what they can do now. Small things count, like getting dressed alone or lifting a grandchild. Ask the rehab team for copies of their notes as you go.
See how we handle these cases on our spinal cord injury and paralysis injury pages. Do not answer an offer until someone has looked at the whole picture with you. When you are ready, call us at 310-474-5588. Bring what the doctors have told you so far. We will explain what it means for the timing of your claim.
