What Compensation Can You Receive After a Spinal Cord Injury?

After a spinal cord injury caused by someone else’s negligence, you may be entitled to compensation for your medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and more.

San Antonio is home to 1.43 million people. It’s also a major military hub, a city that traces its roots to a Spanish mission founded in 1718 and still hosts millions of visitors every year to the River Walk and the Alamo.

When an accident happens in a city as busy as San Antonio, leaving the victim with a spinal cord injury, the financial consequences can last a lifetime. Connecting with an experienced San Antonio spinal cord injury attorney as early as possible after the injury is one of the most important decisions a victim or their family can make.

What Types of Compensation Are Available After a Spinal Cord Injury?

These are the types of damages available to a victim of a spinal cord injury:

Economic Damages

These are the losses that come with a dollar figure attached, and in spinal cord cases, those figures tend to be significant.

Medical costs are usually the largest component. Emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, and rehabilitation all add up fast. But the costs don’t stop there.

Many spinal cord injury victims require ongoing treatment for the rest of their lives. Texas law allows recovery for both past and anticipated future medical expenses, provided those future costs are supported by medical evidence and expert testimony.

Lost wages cover the income you missed while you were unable to work. For victims who cannot return to their previous job, or any job, the claim extends to lost earning capacity, meaning the income you would have reasonably earned over the course of your working life had the injury not occurred.

Other economic losses that can be included in a claim are home modifications like wheelchair ramps or accessible bathrooms, vehicle modifications, transportation costs to and from medical appointments, and the cost of hiring help for daily tasks the injured person can no longer perform independently. 

Non-Economic Damages

Not everything a spinal cord injury costs you shows up on a bill. Texas law recognizes that, and it allows recovery for non-economic losses as well.

Physical pain and discomfort are compensable. So is the mental anguish that comes with adjusting to a life-altering injury.

Loss of enjoyment of life covers the activities, hobbies, and pursuits that the injury has permanently taken away. Permanent disability and disfigurement are recognized categories. And in cases where the injury has affected intimacy and companionship within a marriage, loss of consortium damages may be available to the injured person’s spouse.

Non-economic damages are more difficult to quantify than economic ones. There is no receipt for pain, and no standard formula for measuring how an injury changes a person’s daily life.

Even so, these losses are real, and in serious spinal cord cases, they can make up a significant part of what a plaintiff ultimately recovers.

Punitive Damages

Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 41.003, a plaintiff has to clear two hurdles: first, establishing actual damages, and second, proving by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with fraud, malice, or gross negligence. Ordinary negligence does not meet that threshold.

Some cases do clear it, though. A drunk driver who causes a crash. An employer who knew about a serious safety hazard and did nothing. In those situations, punitive damages can add meaningfully to what a plaintiff recovers.

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 41.008 does cap those amounts, with the limits calculated based on the economic damages awarded in the case.

Key Takeaways

• Texas spinal cord injury victims can pursue economic damages, non-economic damages, and punitive damages where the facts support it.
• Economic damages: medical bills past and future, lost income, reduced earning capacity, home and vehicle modifications, assistive equipment, and other injury-related costs.
• Non-economic damages: pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, disability, disfigurement, and loss of consortium.
• Punitive damages need clear and convincing proof of fraud, malice, or gross negligence under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 41.003.