Would You Like To Know Your Medical And Legal Options Following A Neck Or Back Injury?

Accidents often cause injuries to a person's neck or back.  If you hurt your spine in an accident, you may have questions about your injury, your treatment options, and your legal rights.  Please use our website to get free answers to your questions.

Does it make a difference for my case what TYPE of spine injury I have?

Absolutely.  Some neck or back injuries are more serious than others.  If you have a less serious spine injury, such as a "soft tissue" injury or a "sprain" or "strain" injury, consider yourself lucky.  This type of injury typically heals on its own, or with minimal treatment, in a relatively short period of time.  With this type of injury, you will typically be back to your pre-accident condition within a few weeks.  Accordingly, a legal case involving a spine sprain or strain injury or soft tissue injury will typically have a fairly low value.

On the other hand, most of the more serious types of spine injuries involve the discs between your vertebrae.  Doctors refer to these as "intervertebral discs."  These discs are flat and round, and serve as "shock absorbers" for your spine.  They have a firm outer shell, with a jelly-like substance inside, which is called "nucleus pulposus."  The most common types of disc injuries are:  disc herniations ("blown disc" or "pinched nerve"), disc protrusions, disc bulges, and annular tears.   

If you have a serious spine injury involving your intervertebral discs, your injury will be permanent and will most likely have a significant negative impact on your life.  Accordingly, your case will have a much higher value.

How does a spinal disc injury cause me pain?

There are two primary ways in which an injury to your intervertebral disc can cause you pain. 

First, the injury itself damages your disc and causes you to feel pain.

Second, a disc injury can put pressure on the nerves in your spine.  In your back, these nerves branch out and go in to your hips and legs, all the way to your toes.  In your neck, these nerves go in to your shoulders and arms, all the way to your fingertips.  If you feel pain, tingling, or numbness in your arms or legs, this may be a sign of a serious disc injury.  The medical term for this is "radiation."

What kind of doctor should I see for my spine injury?

You should restrict yourself to seeing doctors who are "Board Certified" in their particular field.  If you have a family doctor, you should ask them to refer you to a specialist to treat your neck or back problems.  Typically, in the early stages you will see a physical therapist who will provide you with physical therapy.  Many times, physical therapy will eliminate your pain.

If you still have spine pain after therapy, your doctor will likely refer you to an orthopedic surgeon or neurosurgeon.  These are the types of specialists who treat people with spinal disc injuries or conditions.

What kind of treatment should I get for my disc injury?

After failed physical therapy, your spine specialist will likely set you up for an MRI test.  This stands for "magnetic resonance imaging."  An MRI test takes pictures of the discs in your spine.  A radiologist will look at the MRI pictures and write a report with his or her diagnosis of your condition.  Your spine specialist will also look at your MRI pictures.  These pictures help your doctors diagnose your spine condition.  It is important to understand that an MRI test is much different than an X-Ray.  An X-Ray only takes pictures of your bones, while an MRI takes pictures of your discs and related structures.

Your spine specialist may refer you for epidural steroid injections.  This is an out-patient procedure whereby a specialist injects steroids in the area around your injured disc.  Many times, this procedure will eliminate your spine pain.

However, if injections do not eliminate your pain, most of the time your doctor will tell you that your only remaining option is back or neck surgery.  There are several different types of spine surgery.  As you can imagine, there are small surgeries, and then there are big surgeries.  Some of the common types of spine surgeries are:  laminectomy, discectomy, disc replacement, fusion, corpectomy.  If your doctor recommends any of these procedures, you should ask him or her a lot of questions so you can make an informed decision. 

How does my lawyer prove my back or neck injury in court?

Hopefully your lawyer is Board Certified.  A certified lawyer will get copies of all your medical records.  Also, many times your lawyer will obtain the testimony of one or more of your doctors.  This can be by deposition (testimony is obtained before trial by videotape and played during trial), or by calling your doctors to testify at the courthouse during trial.  An experienced injury lawyer will ask the correct questions and obtain the testimony necessary to prove your spine injury as required by law.

I had prior spine pain -- do I still have a case?

It depends.  If your current pain is the same as the pain you had before your accident, you will likely have a hard time making your case.  However, if your pain after your accident is different, or more severe, then you probably still have a case.

Your spine doctor will be able to determine whether your pain after your accident is related to any pain or problems you had before your accident.  Your doctor can determine this based on his or her physical examinations of you and review of your diagnostic testing such as MRI tests.  If your medical records from before your accident are available, many times your doctor can base this determination on those materials as well.

Please note:  the law of Texas, and most states, allows you to recover for an injury even if you had the same injury before, but the accident made it worse.  The legal term for this is "exacerbation."
How will the responsible party try to defeat my spine injury claim?

The responsible party, whether it's an insurance company or large corporation, will hire lawyers to fight against your claim.  In neck and back injury cases, the defense routinely hires a doctor.  The defense wants everyone to think these doctors are "independent," but in truth they are paid opinion witnesses who deliver what they are paid to deliver. 

There are two ways the defense uses paid opinion doctors to hurt your case.

First, they will hire a doctor who is not truly qualified to give opinions as to your spine condition.  They do this because they know a qualified doctor will agree with your doctors, which won't help their defense.

Second, they will hire a doctor, but only give them PART of the case materials.  For example, they won't give their doctor your MRI films and won't schedule their doctor to even meet you or examine you.  They do this in order to skew the doctor's opinions, because they know if they give the doctor the entire package, he or she will not be able to honestly give the opinion that is desired by the defense.

To read about two recent examples in which we succeeded in having a Judge strike a defense medical expert's opinions, please click:  Leonard J. Hershkowitz, M.D., Charles E. Bain, M.D.

How is the value of my spine injury case determined?

Every case is different, and case value is very dependent on the facts of each particular case.  Factors that are considered include:  your medical bills, the cost of medical care you will need in the future, time you have missed from work, work you will miss in the future, physical impairment, and physical pain.

In spine injury cases, one of the most important factors is how the injury has impacted you physically, and whether you are able to do physical activities that you used to do before the accident.  This factor can add signficant value in these types of cases because spine injuries are often very debilitating.

More Questions?  Contact us.

We will answer your spine injury lawsuit questions for free, with no obligations.  If you request it, we will review your case for free.  If we accept your case, you will not owe anything unless and until you win.