Catastrophic Trauma / Paralysis / Spinal Cord Injury

While nothing can take the place of face-to face legal consultation with the victim's family when it comes to facing a serious or catastrophic accident injury, it is important that Horn Law act quickly to evaluate the legal issues, investigate, secure evidence, retain experts, and take care of medical issues facing the injured and his or her family.

Horn Law is a rapid response law firm and you can count on us to be on call when we are needed most. Following are 5 recommendations for the family of the seriously injured person.

1. Hospitals/Doctors

Try and obtain the business cards of any doctor who is involved in your loved one's care. At a time of crisis, there can be many different specialists attending to one patient. If possible, make sure someone in the family is there to meet with the various doctors.

If communication difficulties arise between the medical/nursing people and the family, ask the hospital administrators to refer you to a patient advocate service. In many cases, patient advocates can play a vital role in the patient's recovery and the family's comfort.

2. Legal Consultations & Investigations

It is important that the family be relieved of burdens pertaining to the legal, insurance, and financial recovery aspects of the case. While legal consultation and investigations are tailored to the specific facts, the important information page can highlight some of the general items we can cover with the family.

With a catastrophic injury, it is important that claims are maximized. That starts with special legal consultation. Doug Horn is easy to contact and quick to respond.

3. Work, Personal, & Family Matters

In many cases Attorney Doug Horn and the Horn Law team can facilitate solutions to problems that arise with job circumstances, personal responsibilities, and family-related matters. We want our clients and their family to be able to concentrate on their health recovery. Thus, it is important for Horn Law to do what we can to help in whatever way we can.

Also, a catastrophically injured person should not, under any circumstances, sign a a release or authorization for an insurance company without attorney review.

4. Medical Expenses

Every case we handle has medical expense issues. First, it is important Horn Law make sure all possible insurance claims are properly processed. Second, because medical bill issues are often resolved at or near the resolution of the case, we can take over these issues for you in order that you do not have to worry about overdue medical bills. Call us to help with medical bill issues.

5.Photographs of Injury

Pictures of bruising, cuts, abrasions, swelling, etc. can be helpful in evaluating your initial state after a disabling trauma. Additionally, hospital room pictures document hospitalizations. Horn Law can aid in any type of photography or video tape.

Legal Representation In A Catastrophic Injury Case

Legal representation is almost always necessary in catastrophic injury. Even in a case where there are limited settlement funds, an attorney can be helpful in negotiating liens and other medical expense reductions.

Also, a catastrophic injury attorney is skilled in looking for other avenues of recovery that may not be obvious.

Horn Law has a long track record in cases involving catastrophic injury, including cases involving truck accidents, medical error, and work-related accidents. In all of these cases, a lawsuit was necessary to maximize the client's recovery. One of the reasons a lawsuit is necessary is because an attorney can obtain important evidence that would otherwise be unavailable. This evidence can lead to additional claims of negligent conduct.

For instance, catastrophic accidents often occur because the defendant violated a safety policy, procedure, or protocol that was designed to prevent accidents. When the evidence supports additional negligence claims, the catastrophic injury lawyer is doing his or her job in providing a zealous legal representation. This is just one example of why a lawsuit may be necessary.

Further, as you can imagine, the medical issues can be complex in a serious injury case. These cases typically demand a host of medical experts, such as a trauma surgeon, orthopedic physicians, neurosurgeon, radiologists, physical medicine doctors, rehabilitation specialists, and life care experts. It is up to the catastrophic injury lawyer to read and fully understand the medical records and reports. From there, appropriate medical experts can be retained and offer testimony related to the long-term prognosis and future medical care needs of the injured person.

Finally, if an injured person is no longer able to work because of a traumatic injury, vocational rehabilitation testing must be done to support future lost income claims. For a number of strategic reasons, vocational testing is important to do early in the lawsuit process.

Because there is usually only one opportunity for recovery, it is crucial that a person who has suffered a catastrophic injury, paralysis, an amputation, electrocution, brain injuries, burns & significant disfigurement, have a law firm who has the ability to devote their full abilities and resources to the case from the start.