A car accident can happen within a short minute. However, it can cause lifetime trauma. Victims might suffer the effects of serious collisions, and in many cases, they are left with long-lasting, life-affecting nerve damage.
There are more than 100 different types of nerve injuries, and they range from mild to severe. Nonetheless, any of them can result in costly medical bills and pain and suffering.
If someone suffered from a nerve injury in a car accident, they deserve justice. This article offers valuable information they might want to consider if they're thinking about filing a lawsuit.
What Are Nerve Injuries?
People's nerves are part of their nervous system, which is a network that's involved in everything the body does.
Nerves are behind thousands of different functions, from sensing cold and heat to controlling the muscles and regulating the heart.
Overall, the body has three different types of nerves:
Autonomic Nerves: They control involuntary (and partially voluntary) body activities, for example, the heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature regulation.
Motor Nerves: These relay information from the brain to the spinal cord to control all movements.
Sensory Nerves: They control different sensations, such as pain, and relay information from the person's skin back to their spinal cord and brain.
Nerve injuries happen when trauma compresses, pinches, stresses, crushes, or splices a nerve. Since the proper function is vital for daily activity, damage to any of the three types can significantly impact someone's life quality.
Degrees of a Nerve Injury
"Nerve damage" is a term that covers numerous types of injuries because there are too many of them. Overall, for the sake of a personal injury claim, it's easier to quantify the issue depending on the severity of the injury, which is explained in three degrees:
Neurapraxia: It's the least severe nerve injury. When a person suffers from it, the nerve's structure remains basically intact, and doctors typically predict a full recovery.
Axonotmesis: This is a more serious injury. In it, the nerve's structure is compromised, and it typically results in long-term or permanent paralysis of the motor and sensory functions.
Neurotmesis: It's the most severe of all injuries. The nerve has been entirely severed and now suffers from permanent damage.
Each degree of nerve damage will affect the person differently since they'll experience various symptoms and pain levels. Recovery options may vary too.
Symptoms of Nerve Damage
Nerve damage injuries can cause numerous symptoms. In most cases, doctors prefer saying they can vary on a patient-by-patient basis.
Generally, some signs of nerve damage are the following:
Burning
Spasms
Tingling
Twitching
Weakness
Sensitivity
Severe pain
Heavy Sweating
Constipation
Inability to sweat
Dry eyes or mouth
Lightheadedness
Lack of bladder control
Muscle atrophy
Paralysis
Positional awareness problems
After a car accident, differentiating nerve damage injuries from common aches might be challenging. Therefore, seeking medical help is essential.
Causes of Nerve Damage After a Car Accident
Many people wonder if a car accident can cause severe nerve damage - the answer is always yes. It's one of the reasons why victims should hire a personal injury attorney. These professionals will help them navigate the intricacies of what happened to them and will guide them through the process of filing a claim and getting compensation.
A vehicle collision, such as a car accident, can damage nearly every part of someone's body. Nerve damage is one of the major concerns of victims, and rightly so since it can hinder their ability to perform even the most basic activities, such as walking.
If nerve damage happens, it's usually due to the severity of the car accident. The victim's body can go against the steering wheel, door, or dashboard, and they might suffer severe injuries to their nerves.
Similarly, a car accident can cause broken bones, which is often a cause of secondary nerve damage.
Many drivers suffer from injuries to their necks, legs, arms, feet, face, hands, and shoulders, depending on where they experienced the impact. The following are some car accident issues that typically cause nerve damage.
Back Injury Nerve Damage
Nerve damage is often a result of back injuries, which are among the most common consequences of car accidents. It's no surprise, then, that many of them end up being long-term issues.
If the person experiences spine injuries, they might have nerve damage too. The soft tissue and vertebrae surrounding the spine send information between different parts of the body and the brain, so these issues might be severe and completely life-altering. Schuerger Shunnarah Trial Attorneys has more information on what the average settlement for soft tissue injury car accident is.
During a car accident, the impact's force can damage fragile nerves after injuring the spine's delicate components.
Bulging or herniated discs, for example, can compress a nerve and pinch it. If there is severe trauma to the back, it might permanently cease communication between the brain and the rest of the body parts. As a result, the person might experience loss of bladder control, paralysis, and other chronic conditions.
Neck Injury-related Nerve Damage
The force of a car accident can also cause the victim's head to rapidly rush forward and back, creating a whiplash injury. It's a type of strain consisting of the tearing or stretching of the neck's soft tissue. In the worst cases, it can affect the shoulder too.
A common result of a whiplash injury is experiencing nerve damage, which will often affect the head and neck area. Nerves might tear, stretch, and compress.
Blunt-force Trauma Nerve Damage
Nerve damage due to blunt-force trauma happens when forceful impacts cause the injury, for instance, the person's body slamming against a hard surface, such as the vehicle door or dashboard.
In the most severe cases, blunt-force trauma happens when the person is ejected from the vehicle.
Hitting the arms, head, or legs can compress the nerves in that area. In particular, traumatic brain injuries might cause swelling that compresses cranial nerves.
Nerve Damage from Avulsions and Lacerations
After a car accident, lacerations and avulsions are very common. The first one is a type of wound that appears when the skin and soft tissue tear. They're typically jagged and irregular, and when they consist of deep cuts, they may sever the nerves in the area.
Avulsions, on the other hand, are injuries that happen when the body structure tears off, usually when a small piece of bone is pulled away from the main part. Separating ligaments from tendons can result in severe and long-lasting nerve damage.
The Value of Nerve Damage in Car Accident Settlements
Due to the enormous quantity of different types of car accident nerve damage injuries, the value of a car accident settlement can vary significantly.
If someone suffered nerve damage, the best alternative is to hire a personal injury lawyer to guide them through filing a car accident claim.
There are some averages when it comes to car accidents. Brain and spinal cord injuries will be costlier than broken bones, for example, and the person might also get higher compensation if they need long-term physical therapy to handle their ongoing and chronic pain.
However, the best way to determine how much they can get for sure is to file a personal injury lawsuit with a lawyer's help.
Generally, there are some primary factors to determine the average car accident settlement for nerve damage. They include the following:
Injury Severity
It consists of the amount of physical pain, permanent nerve damage, and medical care car accident victims will require after the collision. Moreover, it includes the degree to which their lives changed.
When determining the severity of a nerve damage injury, Nashville auto accident lawyers might consider:
How the nerve damage injury affects the person's ability to perform daily functions, hobbies, or work.
The effectiveness of medical care when it comes to managing or eliminating nerve damage injury symptoms.
How much pain the nerve damage injury caused and how frequently it happens.
Cost of Medical Treatment
A car accident settlement should cover all medical treatment because people shouldn't have to pay for someone else's negligent actions, especially if they resulted in severe nerve damage that now impacts their life and affects their ability to earn income and engage in their daily activities.
It's especially true for patients who suffered nerve damage with long-term effects. Therefore, filing a personal injury claim is essential since the person might recover damages for:
Prescription medicines
Surgery
Medical imagery
Doctor and hospital bills
Ambulance fees
Home care
Higher car accident settlement payouts often concur with people who suffered from brain and spinal cord injuries or other long-term nerve damage issues.
Pain and Suffering
A nerve damage injury can cause physical and emotional distress, and the name for that is "pain and suffering." The term includes body aches, pain, diminished quality of life, and mental anguish.
Putting a price tag on a doctor's bill is a straightforward process, but determining the right settlement for pain and suffering damages may be much more challenging.
Permanent paralysis or disfigurement, for example, may not be included in the physical aspects of a car accident settlement, but they could claim it under pain and suffering.
To know the correct amount of settlement for pain and suffering damages, victims should contact a personal injury lawyer who can guide them.
Liability
The basis for all civil lawsuits is liability. Victims have to prove that the other party was responsible for their (in this case) nerve damage injuries, and show evidence that they wouldn't have sustained them had it not been for their reckless and careless actions.
To be liable, the person has to accept both legal and financial responsibility for the car accident and resulting consequences, such as nerve damage injuries, pain and suffering, and more.
An essential factor when it comes to valuing settlement for nerve damage car accidents is to determine the likelihood of the other drivers being found liable at trial.
Some cases have clear liability, for example, an auto accident in which the driver hits a motorcyclist while they were in a parking lot or stopping at a red light.
In other cases, liability may not be so obvious, especially when there were multiple vehicles in the collision.
Amount of Insurance Coverage
Another massive factor that affects a settlement for nerve damage is the amount of insurance coverage the liable party has available.
Typical auto accident claims regularly go through the at-fault party's insurance company first to seek compensation. If one policy is enough to cover all the damages, taking the case to trial may not be necessary.
In other cases, multiple policies could cover the person's settlement. However, some people's policy limits might not be enough, and the victim may have to file a lawsuit.
Working with lawyers specializing in car accidents is essential because they can suggest the best alternatives and guide their clients through the legal process.
Average Settlement Amount
As a disclaimer, victims should remember that there is no specific amount everyone can get when they were in a car accident. It highly depends on the case.
However, generally speaking, victims may get $15,000 to $75,000 when they suffer mild to moderate nerve injuries. The numbers can go from $100,000 to more than millions if the issues were severe.
Seeking Legal Advice from a Personal Injury Attorney
If someone or their loved ones were in an auto accident and suffered nerve damage, they might be experiencing severe pain.
However, at Schuerger Shunnarah, attorneys are ready to handle nerve damage cases and help the person file a claim that covers their physical issues, pain and suffering, and more. Schuerger Shunnarah Trial Attorneys also have more information on what the most common construction injuries are.
Lawyers at this firm have a motto: "We'll go to war for you." Therefore, they're prepared to handle all types of cases and will do their best to get the best settlement possible.
Clients don't need to handle things on their own. Suffering from nerve damage can be traumatic and completely change someone's life, so they should trust a knowledgeable and experienced expert who can help them through the process, ensure that it's hassle-free, and guarantee the best results.