Monroe Amputation Injury Lawyer

Monroe Amputation Injuries

When an individual sustains an injury due to the actions of another party, the party responsible for causing the injury is liable for the injured party’s damages. Personal injuries occur for countless reasons, and the legal cases these incidents generate can be challenging to navigate. This is especially true for catastrophic injuries that result in permanent harm. A catastrophic injury is any injury that results in a permanent disability or medical condition that negatively impacts the victim’s quality of life. Of all the catastrophic injuries a person could potentially suffer, amputation injuries are some of the most traumatic.

Legal Representation for Victims of Amputation Injuries in Monroe, NC

An amputation occurs when a victim loses a limb or part of a limb. Some amputations are medically necessary due to severe injuries. For example, if an individual sustains a traumatic injury to the arm or leg and the wound becomes infected, amputation may be necessary to save the victim’s life. Other victims sustain amputations directly in severe traumatic accidents. When such incidents occur, victims need to determine whether any other party is responsible for their damages. Amputations can easily influence the victim’s life in multiple ways, often resulting in tremendous economic losses, long-term pain and suffering, and a permanently diminished quality of life.

If you or a loved one recently sustained an amputation injury due to the actions of another party, you likely have grounds for legal recourse. A Monroe amputation injury lawyer can guide you through the process of holding them accountable for their actions. Depending on how and where the injury occurred, the victim may have more than one potential avenue of recovery. The attorneys of Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler can provide the compassionate and meticulous legal representation you need to navigate your case successfully and obtain suitable compensation for your damages.

Why Do I Need a Monroe Amputation Injury Attorney?

Navigating any civil claim can be extremely difficult, even if the at-fault party is responsible for the victim’s claimed damages. Success with any personal injury claim requires meeting strict procedural requirements in the Monroe civil court, accurately calculating and reporting claimable losses, and determining the full scope of the long-term effects the victim is likely to experience. If you or a family member recently sustained an amputation injury due to the actions of another party, you must understand how valuable legal representation is in this situation.

While you may hesitate to consider the potential cost of legal representation, the reality is that you can lose more than you spend on attorneys’ fees by attempting to handle your case alone. The average person has many daily responsibilities in their personal and professional life. In addition, the victim of an amputation injury faces a challenging and traumatic road to recovery, and their family will likely experience a host of economic effects from the incident. Attempting to handle a complex civil claim on top of these concerns would be making an already incredibly difficult situation even worse for you and your family.

Hiring an experienced Monroe amputation injury attorney will allow you and your loved ones to focus on recovery and handling your day-to-day lives peacefully, knowing a good attorney is managing your case. Your legal team can help you manage your case, identify the areas of your claim most likely to cause issues as your case unfolds, and ultimately assist you in securing the compensation you need to recover. Additionally, experienced attorneys can identify channels of compensation that the average person would likely overlook on their own. Therefore, you are not only more likely to succeed with your amputation injury claim when you have legal counsel you can trust but also more likely to secure the maximum amount of compensation possible under North Carolina state law.

How Do Amputation Injuries Happen?

Injury victims can potentially lose limbs and parts of limbs in various situations. Some of the most commonly reported causes of amputation injuries include:

• Motor vehicle accidents. Vehicle crashes can easily cause many traumatic injuries, some of which can have devastating long-term effects. In addition, amputations are possible due to crushing injuries and severe lacerations from accidents that occur at high speeds, multiple vehicle collisions, and accidents in which a vehicle strikes a building.
• Explosions. Explosive forces can cause devastating injuries because of the debris, fire, and concussion force they generate.
• Severe burns. Burn injuries are excruciating and difficult to treat. While some burn injury victims recover with skin grafting procedures and long-term treatments, others are not so fortunate, and severe burns may leave treating medical providers no choice but to amputate.
• Defective and dangerous products. Some consumer products are inherently dangerous but do not pose any dangers to consumers as long as they are used correctly. However, an unreasonably dangerous or defective product can potentially cause devastating injuries, some of which may result in amputation.
• Crushing injuries. A victim of a crushing injury can require amputation if the affected area of the body cannot be surgically restored. For example, a heavy object could fall on top of a victim, crushing a limb. If their treating physicians cannot repair the limb, amputation may be the only possible solution to save the victim’s life in the face of traumatic bleeding.
• Construction accidents. Construction is an inherently dangerous field that often requires hazardous tools and equipment and large, specialized vehicles. Construction workers who suffer amputation injuries at work are likely to qualify for extensive workers’ compensation benefits, but they may also have grounds for further legal action depending on how their accidents occurred.
• Medical malpractice. While most Americans trust medical professionals to provide safe and effective care, medical negligence and malpractice are a leading cause of accidental injuries and deaths throughout the country. For example, if a medical professional injures a patient in a manner that results in amputation, the victim has the right to pursue a medical malpractice claim.

This is not a complete list of all the ways people may sustain amputation injuries. However, when these injuries occur, the victim needs to receive immediate emergency medical care and know their legal options for recovering their damages.

Potential Effects of an Amputation

Losing a limb or part of a limb can be just as psychologically devastating as it is physically painful. The victim of an amputation injury may be unable to continue working their regular job. They may not be able to manage many other types of work due to the injury. In addition, an amputation requires a complete readjustment of the victim’s life. They will likely face an arduous recovery and will be forced to rethink various aspects of their lives down to the most minute everyday tasks.

Amputation’s psychological impact can be profound. While some people manage to maintain a positive outlook on life despite the severity of such injuries, others are not so fortunate. They may struggle with severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and a wide range of psychological disturbances following these injuries.

A unique medical condition that commonly arises among amputees is phantom limb syndrome. This condition is characterized by an individual experiencing sensations, painful or otherwise, in a limb they no longer have. For example, a victim could lose an arm and have a prolonged period of phantom limb syndrome, during which they may feel a pins-and-needles sensation or even severe pain that feels as though it is coming from the arm they lost. The severity of this condition varies from case to case, and it is often very disruptive, uncomfortable, and psychologically distressing for the victim.

Ultimately, an amputation is a life-changing injury that will force the victim to change many aspects of their life as they adjust to a complicated recovery regimen and cope with the psychological effects of their condition. Therefore, when another party is responsible for causing this type of catastrophic injury, the victim must know how to hold them accountable.

Proving Liability for an Amputation Injury

If you intend to pursue a civil claim in response to an amputation injury you or a loved one sustained due to the actions of another party, you must know how to legally establish fault for the injury. Personal injury claims require plaintiffs to prove the defendants named in their claims were negligent or intentionally harmful in a manner that directly resulted in the injury in question. When it comes to amputation injury cases, plaintiffs must identify the parties who caused their injuries and prove they were negligent in some way that resulted in the amputation. Alternatively, they must prove the defendant acted with willful disregard for others’ safety or an intentional desire to harm the victim.

Your Monroe amputation injury lawyer will be an invaluable asset in this process. They can assist you in gathering the evidence you may need to prove the defendant’s liability for your injury and the associated damages. For example, if a distracted driver caused a severe accident that resulted in your amputation, your attorney could secure traffic camera footage that shows the at-fault driver was looking at their cell phone instead of the road just before they caused the accident.

Success with a personal injury claim also requires proving the full scope of your claimable damages. For example, when it comes to amputation injury claims, the victim is likely to sustain a wide range of economic damages, including:

• Property damage. If the defendant’s behavior resulted in property damage for the plaintiff, the plaintiff has the right to seek compensation for repair or replacement costs; for example, the cost of repairing a vehicle damaged or destroyed in a serious car accident or damage caused to the plaintiff’s home by a defective product.
• Medical costs. Amputation is a significant medical procedure. Whether an injury caused by the defendant requires surgical amputation or the victim suffered a direct amputation from the force of their injury, they are likely to require extensive immediate and ongoing medical care. The defendant is liable for any immediate medical costs imposed on the victim as well as any costs for long-term medical care, including rehabilitation, physical therapy, prosthetic devices, and psychological treatment.
• Lost income. An amputation is highly likely to interfere with the plaintiff’s ability to work. They may be unable to resume their previous position and may only qualify for lower-paying jobs, or they could be unable to work at all. Additionally, the immediate recovery process is likely to be extensive and keep them from working for several months. Therefore, the defendant is liable for the plaintiff’s lost income, including lost future earning potential. A Monroe amputation injury attorney can help their client hold a defendant responsible for the future income the plaintiff would have expected to earn had their injury not occurred.

Your Monroe amputation injury lawyer will assist you in calculating your claimable economic damages and gathering the documentation you may need to substantiate your claim. In addition to these economic damages, in North Carolina the law allows personal injury victims to claim compensation for pain and suffering.

Calculating Pain and Suffering for an Amputation Injury

North Carolina state law allows personal injury victims to seek financial compensation for physical pain, emotional distress, and psychological suffering caused by a defendant’s actions. The state places no limits or caps on how much a plaintiff can seek in pain and suffering, with the sole exception of medical malpractice claims. A 2011 law capped pain and suffering compensation in medical malpractice cases at $500,000. Therefore, if your amputation injury resulted from a cause other than medical malpractice, you could potentially seek much more than this as non-economic damages in your personal injury claim.

Attorneys can use different methods to determine appropriate pain and suffering compensation for their clients. When a plaintiff is expected to make a full recovery, their attorney may opt for a “per diem” calculation that awards a predetermined amount each day until the victim reaches maximum medical improvement from their injury. This would be unrealistic with an amputation injury, so a Monroe amputation injury lawyer would be more likely to use a multiplier method.

The attorney would calculate the total of their client’s claimable economic damages and then multiply this number by one to five to reflect the severity of their injury. When it comes to catastrophic injuries that cause permanent harm, attorneys are likely to seek the maximum amount possible for their clients. For example, if an amputation victim’s total economic damages are $200,000, their attorney could reasonably seek $1 million or more in pain and suffering damages to reflect the permanent and severe nature of the plaintiff’s injury. It’s relatively common in amputation injury cases for the plaintiff’s pain and suffering damages to form the bulk of their recovery.

What to Expect in Your Amputation Injury Claim

It’s vital to seek legal counsel as quickly as possible once you determine that another party is responsible for your amputation injury. North Carolina upholds a three-year statute of limitations on most personal injury claims. This means a victim of a personal injury has three years from the date an injury occurs to file a personal injury claim against the defendant who caused the injury. This may seem like plenty of time, but it’s always best to work quickly to secure legal counsel. The sooner you hire an attorney, the sooner they can begin working on your case.

Hiring a Monroe amputation injury attorney as quickly as possible after your accident means your lawyer will have an easier time securing physical evidence and ensuring its viability for your case. Additionally, if any witnesses saw your injury occur, it will be essential to take sworn statements from them as quickly as possible to account for the fallibility of human memory. Witnesses are more likely to recount accurate details soon after incidents occur.

Your Monroe amputation injury lawyer will assist you in filing your complaint against the defendant or defendants named in your claim. Once the court receives your complaint, it will issue the appropriate paperwork to the defendant, providing them the opportunity to respond. In most personal injury cases, this is the point at which the case will transition to settlement negotiations between the plaintiff and the defendant. A swift settlement negotiation process can help the plaintiff secure the compensation they need as quickly as possible. However, if the defendant denies liability, asserts contributory negligence, or disputes the range of damages sought by the plaintiff, the case may proceed to litigation, and it will take much longer to resolve.

What Is Contributory Negligence?

North Carolina upholds a contributory negligence law. This means that if a plaintiff caused their damages, even slightly, they do not have the right to recover compensation from the defendant. Therefore, if you are concerned about contributory negligence coming into play in your amputation injury case, it is important to consult an experienced attorney as quickly as possible.

Find Your Legal Counsel Today

At Ayers, Whitlow & Dressler we have extensive experience handling very complex and emotionally challenging civil cases on behalf of our clients. If you or a loved one sustained an amputation injury due to the actions of another party, we would assist you in holding them accountable. Contact us today and schedule your consultation with a Monroe amputation injury lawyer.