One of the most serious, life altering class of injuries sustained in the United States are spinal cord injuries, including quadriplegia and paraplegia. They are among the types of injuries that carry with them the specter of lifelong alterations in lifestyle and loss of the enjoyment of many of the activities that the injured most valued and often took for granted in their lives before the accidents which resulted in their injuries. Spinal cord injuries are not rare in our



society, occurring at the rate of 200,000 every year in the United States, most commonly as the result of auto motorcycle and big rig truck accidents, but also from falls resulting from the negligent maintenance of commercial premises and residential apartment structures.

Spinal cord injuries may also result from medical malpractice, employment accidents, construction accidents and sometimes from defective products or faulty structures found in our work places.

There is an abundance of literature on the treatment of spinal cord injuries, and this will be of primary interest for those severely injured. The primary concern of those suffering spinal cord injuries and their families must be to assure the very best medical care is obtained, both in the short term and for long term. Of secondary, but still high importance, is the subject of obtaining compensation for the injuries sustained, and how an appropriately qualified serious injury accident attorney can contribute to assuring that those who have sustained spinal cord injuries in accidents may obtain the self determination in their lives that can be provided by the compensation to which they are legally entitled.

Serious injury attorneys or "catastrophic injury" lawyers, as sometimes referred to, are lawyers who concentrate on cases in which there are very significant general damages, and often lifelong medical expenses and earnings losses. General damages are often referred to by personal injury lawyers as "pain and suffering" damages. For the serious injury attorney, in a spinal cord injury case, the most poignant aspect of the presentation of "general damages" will be the "loss of enjoyment of life" damages.

While an auto accident lawyer or premises liability attorney, the latter referring to lawyers who process claims involving people who fall on commercial or residential property, may be well versed on presenting the liability aspect of auto accident or premises liability cases, they may or may not be highly experienced in presenting the highly complex damage case of a client who has suffered a serious spinal cord injury. Most commonly, the usual liability issues in an auto accident case might be no more difficult than who ran the red light. Or in a premises liability case, how long prior to his client's slip and fall the spaghetti sauce had lain on the supermarket floor. But the catastrophic injury lawyer must present hugely complicated evidence, both to establish the injury and consequences of the injury, and the full picture of every aspect of medical expense his client will likely incur over the course of his or her life expectancy. In addition the spinal cord injury lawyer must prepare and present the often highly complex evidence of the clients net earnings which he will lose as the

result of the accident over the course of his work life expectancy. As we see explain in the article , the auto accident or premises liability lawyer who is also a highly qualified serious injury attorney will need to prepare and obtain the testimony of a number of experts in order to settle or try a paralysis or other serious spinal cord injury case.

Medical experts, obviously, are required to present the general damages aspect of the case, but the serious injury lawyer recognizes that often of equal importance is the professionally produced "Day in the Life" film showing all the day to day hurdles the paralyzed client must over come in his daily life - juxtaposed against the testimony of the client, family and friends, and photographs and family films showing the client doing all the things that brought him joy in his life prior to the accident which rendered him paralyzed.

In order to present the future medical expenses in a spinal cord injury case, the serious injury auto accident lawyer or premises liability attorney must prepare and present the testimony of medical experts and perhaps most importantly a professional life care planner and economist. In order to present the loss of earnings expenses of the paralyzed client, the serious injury attorney again must present the testimony of medical experts, and perhaps most importantly a "vocational rehabilitation expert" and forensic economist.

It will be the catastrophic injury attorney's objective in developing the foregoing expert and percipient testimony to obtain the very highest settlement he can achieve for his client, or present at trial the most poignant and complete, and persuasive case establishing liability and then all of the elements of his clients general and special damages, so that he may obtain a fair jury verdict fully compensating his seriously injured client.

Raymond L. Henke, Principle trial attorney,

The author is "AV" rated by Martindale & Hubbell, the highest "legal ability" and "ethical standards" ratings awarded by the most highly respected national attorney rating directory in the United States.