When a sudden, traumatic event causes a spinal cord injury, it rewrites every aspect of life for you and your family. The future is suddenly mapped with doctor’s appointments, questions about your ability to work, and the relentless pressure of bills that don’t stop coming.
The physical and emotional recovery is a full-time job. Taking on a legal case, proving who was at fault, navigating insurance claims, and calculating the true cost of a lifetime of needs, feels overwhelming.
At North Atlanta Injury Law, our purpose is to take the legal weight off your shoulders. We give you the space to focus on your health and your family, while we handle the fight for your financial security. If you have questions about what comes next, our experienced Milton spinal cord injury lawyer provides clear, straightforward answers.
Call us for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation at (770)988-4000.
Milton Spinal Cord Injury Guide
- Key Takeaways for Milton Spinal Cord Injury Claims
- A Record of Competence for Milton Families
- What Financial Support Can a Spinal Cord Injury Claim Provide?
- Where and How Do These Injuries Happen?
- Building a Case for a Lifetime of Needs: The Team of Experts We May Work With
- Understanding the Legal Framework
- How Should You Deal With the Insurance Company?
- What Should You Do to Help Your Case Right Now?
- Frequently Asked Questions About Spinal Cord Injury Claims
- Take the First Step Toward Securing Your Future
Key Takeaways for Milton Spinal Cord Injury Claims
- These injuries demand lifelong compensation planning. Spinal cord injuries often lead to permanent disabilities, with first-year costs exceeding $1 million. Claims must account for lifetime medical care, lost earnings, and support needs.
- Expert testimony builds the value of your case. Life care planners, vocational experts, and economists help quantify damages. Their reports strengthen your claim and show insurers the real cost of your injury.
- Insurance companies push early settlements. You’re not required to give a recorded statement or accept the first offer. Early offers rarely reflect the full impact. Let a lawyer handle communication while you focus on recovery.
A Record of Competence for Milton Families
When your future is at stake, you need a law firm that not only understands Georgia’s personal injury laws but has a documented history of succeeding in high-stakes cases against powerful opponents.
Our practice is built on meticulous preparation and a deep-seated commitment to the families we represent. We believe your legal team should offer both steady support and unshakable advocacy.
- Proven Results: Our firm, led by attorney Travis Little, obtained a $43.5 million wrongful death verdict in Floyd County, Georgia. This result shows our commitment to taking cases to trial when necessary to secure justice.
- Experience Against Major Corporations: We have litigated cases against corporate giants like Walmart, Target, State Farm, and Lyft. Their large legal teams do not deter us.
- Peer-Recognized Excellence: Travis Little holds an “AV – Preeminent” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest possible acknowledgment of professional excellence and ethical standards given by his peers. He has also been named a SuperLawyers “Rising Star.”
- Direct Attorney Access: When you partner with our firm, you work directly with our attorneys. We prioritize clear, consistent communication and are available to answer your questions from start to finish.
Our office is a short drive in Milton, at 12610 Crabapple Rd Suite 201, Milton, GA 30004, United States, located conveniently near Crabapple Chase Tennis Courts. We want you to feel confident that your case is in capable hands, freeing you to pour your energy into recovery.
What Financial Support Can a Spinal Cord Injury Claim Provide?
A spinal cord injury sends shockwaves through your financial life. The purpose of a personal injury claim is to secure the financial stability needed to cover every loss the accident caused, both the immediate costs and those that will arise for the rest of your life.
Compensation, legally referred to as “damages,” is generally broken into three types:
- Economic Damages: These are the concrete, calculable costs tied to your injury.
- All Medical Care: This covers everything from the initial emergency services and hospitalization to the long-term necessities, such as physical therapy, wheelchairs, specialized vehicles, home modifications, and in-home nursing care. The first-year cost of care alone could range from $347,484 to over $1 million, depending on the injury’s severity.
- Lost Income and Earning Capacity: This includes the wages you have already lost and, more importantly, the income you will be unable to earn over your lifetime because of the injury.
- Ongoing Rehabilitation: The cost of therapies, assistive technologies, medications, and any other long-term medical support.
- Non-Economic Damages: These compensate for the personal, intangible losses that don’t have a simple price tag.
- Pain and Suffering: For the physical pain and emotional distress the injury and its consequences have inflicted.
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life: For the inability to engage in hobbies, activities, and life experiences that you previously valued.
- Loss of Consortium: For the damaging impact the injury has on your relationship with your spouse.
- Punitive Damages: In rare situations where the at-fault party’s behavior was exceptionally reckless or intentionally harmful, Georgia law allows for punitive damages. These are not intended to compensate you for a loss but to punish the wrongdoer and discourage similar conduct in the community.
A Note on Georgia’s Fault Laws: Georgia uses a “modified comparative fault” system. This means you are still able to recover damages as long as you are found to be less than 50% responsible for the accident. However, your final compensation award is reduced by your percentage of fault.
Where and How Do These Injuries Happen?
Spinal cord injuries typically happen because of a sudden, traumatic impact to the spine. In our work with families in North Fulton County, we see these injuries arise from a few common situations.
- High-Impact Vehicle Accidents: Car, truck, and motorcycle crashes are the leading cause of new spinal cord injuries annually. The combination of heavy traffic and high speeds on major arteries like GA-400 and busy local roads like Old Milton Parkway creates conditions for serious collisions.
- Local Intersections of Concern: The intersection of Bethany Bend and Highway 9 in Milton has been noted as one of the city’s high-accident locations. In nearby Alpharetta, the intersection of Old Milton Parkway & North Point Parkway is another known trouble spot where commercial and commuter traffic collide.
- Falls: Falls are another primary cause, especially falls from heights at construction sites or slip-and-fall incidents on poorly maintained commercial or private property.
- Acts of Violence: Gunshot wounds, assaults, and other violent acts are a growing cause of these life-altering injuries.
- Medical Mistakes: In some instances, a spinal cord injury is caused not by an accident but by a medical error during surgery or a failure to diagnose a condition like a spinal infection or a herniated disc in time.
Building a Case for a Lifetime of Needs: The Team of Experts We May Work With
A spinal cord injury claim requires building a detailed, evidence-based projection of your needs for the rest of your life. To do this, we sometimes assemble a team of specialized experts to provide objective, professional opinions that an insurance company or jury understands.
- Life Care Planners: A life care planner is a certified professional, often with a background in nursing or rehabilitation, who conducts a thorough assessment of your current and future medical needs. They create a detailed plan outlining every anticipated cost, from medications and therapies to home modifications and assistive technologies.
- Vocational Experts: These experts assess how your injury affects your ability to work and earn an income. They analyze your education, work history, and skills to determine your lost earning capacity over your lifetime.
- Economists: An economist takes the information from the life care planner and vocational expert and translates it into a clear financial projection. They calculate the total amount of money needed today to cover all your future lost wages and medical costs, factoring in things like inflation and earning potential.
Understanding the Legal Framework
Several key legal ideas shape how a spinal cord injury case proceeds. Here are simple explanations of the concepts at the heart of your claim.
- Negligence: This is a legal term for carelessness. To have a successful claim, we must prove that another party had a duty to act with reasonable care, they failed in that duty, and their failure directly caused your injury.
- Statute of Limitations: This is a key deadline. In Georgia, you generally have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. If you miss this deadline, you almost always lose your right to seek compensation forever.
- Burden of Proof: This means it is our responsibility to present enough evidence to convince a jury that it is more likely than not that the other party was at fault. This is done by gathering police reports, medical records, witness testimony, and the reports from the experts mentioned earlier.
Types of Spinal Cord Injuries We Handle
- Complete SCI: This results in a total loss of feeling and motor function below the level of the injury.
- Incomplete SCI: Some sensation or function remains below the point of injury. The degree of function varies significantly.
- Paraplegia: Paralysis that affects the legs and the lower half of the body.
- Tetraplegia (also called Quadriplegia): Paralysis affecting both the arms and legs.
How Should You Deal With the Insurance Company?
Shortly after the accident, you will almost certainly be contacted by an insurance adjuster representing the at-fault party. Their job is to investigate the claim and protect their company’s financial interests.
Insurance companies are businesses, which means they must balance paying legitimate claims with remaining profitable. The claims process is long, tedious, and filled with paperwork. It’s easy to get frustrated as medical bills pile higher and higher, and you might feel pressured to accept an offer before the full, long-term cost of your injury is truly understood.
Our role is to manage all communication with the insurance companies on your behalf. We provide them with the information needed to evaluate the claim while protecting you from saying something that could be misinterpreted or used to argue you were partly at fault. We compile all the evidence and expert reports into a comprehensive demand that reflects the true value of your claim, based on a lifetime of calculated needs.
What Should You Do to Help Your Case Right Now?
- Follow Your Treatment Plan: Go to every doctor’s appointment and therapy session, and follow all medical advice. This creates a clear record of your injuries and your commitment to recovery.
- Keep a Simple Journal: Once or twice a week, make a few notes about your pain levels, physical challenges, and how the injury is affecting your daily life. This could become powerful evidence for demonstrating your non-economic damages.
- Organize Your Paperwork: Keep every medical bill, receipt, and any other document related to your injury and expenses in a single folder or box.
- Stay Off Social Media: It is best to stop posting updates, photos, or comments about your accident or recovery. Insurance companies routinely check social media profiles, and an innocent post may be taken out of context and used against your claim.
- Do Not Give a Recorded Statement: You are not obligated to provide a recorded statement to the at-fault party’s insurance company. Politely decline and tell them to contact our office.
Frequently Asked Questions About Spinal Cord Injury Claims
How long will my case take?
Spinal cord injury cases are not quick. They typically take a year or more to resolve. We cannot begin to negotiate a final settlement until you have reached what doctors call “maximum medical improvement”, which is the point at which your long-term prognosis is clear.
What if the person who caused my injury doesn’t have enough insurance?
This is a frequent concern. We will investigate every possible source of recovery. This might include your own Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage, as well as identifying whether other parties, like an employer or a property owner, might share some responsibility.
Will a settlement affect my eligibility for government benefits like SSDI?
It depends on the type of benefit. A settlement will not impact your Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, as SSDI is an earned benefit based on your work history. However, a settlement reduces or terminates needs-based benefits like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid. In these cases, we help structure the settlement using a legal tool called a Special Needs Trust to preserve your eligibility for these programs.
Will I have to go to court?
Most personal injury cases are settled out of court through negotiation. However, our firm prepares every case from day one as if it is going to trial. If the insurance company is unwilling to offer fair compensation, we are always ready to present your case to a jury.
How does a lawyer get paid in a personal injury case?
We handle spinal cord injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you pay no fees upfront. Our firm advances all the costs of building your case. We only receive a fee if we successfully recover compensation for you, and that fee is a percentage of the total recovery.
Can I still file a claim if the accident happened while I was working?
Yes. If you were injured on the job, you likely have a workers’ compensation claim. But if a separate person or company (a “third party”) was also at fault, you may have a personal injury claim against them as well. For example, if you were driving for your job and were hit by a drunk driver, you could have a workers’ comp claim with your employer and a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver.
Take the First Step Toward Securing Your Future
The legal system provides the resources you or your loved one needs to live a secure and dignified life. At North Atlanta Injury Law, our experienced Milton personal injury lawyer has the dedication to guide you through this process. Let us handle the legal work so you can focus on what matters most: your health.
For a free, confidential discussion about your case, call us now at (770)988-4000.
North Atlanta Injury Law PC – Milton Office
Address: 12610 Crabapple Road Suite 201 Milton, GA 30004
Contact No: (770)988-4000
