A Guide to Spinal Cord Injury Claims in California (2025)

If you or a loved one has suffered a spinal cord injury due to someone else’s negligence in California, you may be entitled to file a spinal cord injury claim. Compensation from a claim can cover your past, present, and future medical expenses and other financial impacts resulting from the injury. This guide explains the steps needed to build a claim and the factors affecting your claim’s value.

How To Build a Strong Spinal Cord Injury Claim

If you’ve suffered a spinal cord injury, we recommend that you follow these steps to support your claim:

Seek Medical Attention Immediately

Get medical care right after the accident, even if you don’t feel the injury is that severe. Serious injuries are not always immediately apparent, and complications can worsen the outcome. Do not downplay your injury. Your doctor can document your injury, linking it to the accident. Medical records show your prognosis and the treatment you’ve received or require.

Also, remember to follow up on all treatments, such as physical therapy, to prevent long-term complications. It also guards against the opposing side in your legal case claiming that your physical condition is largely due to your failure to follow your doctor’s guidelines, which could reduce the compensation you recover.

Collect Evidence

If possible, gather and preserve evidence to support your claim, such as the following:

Photographs and videos of the accident scene
Medical records
Accident reports
Witness statements
Dashcam or surveillance camera footage

You can use evidence to prove negligence and show the impact of the injury on your life.

Report the Accident

After an accident, contact the relevant authorities. For motor vehicle accidents, call 911 as soon as possible. A police officer will complete and file an accident report, which can lead to valuable evidence of negligence. In the case of an accident on someone’s property, notify the property owner or manager.

Also, notify your insurance company about the accident as soon as possible. Prompt reporting ensures you preserve your rights and don’t miss any deadlines.

Consult Expert Witnesses

In spinal cord injury cases, expert testimony from medical professionals can establish the full extent of your damages. Orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, rehabilitation specialists, and other experts can explain complex facts to the jury. They may provide insights into the cause and nature of your injury, the prognosis, and the necessary treatment.

However, the defendant may hire experts to argue that your injury was pre-existing. Your attorney can counter this by cross-examining their methodology or seeking to exclude unreliable testimony.

File Within the Statute of Limitations

California’s statute of limitations requires you to file a lawsuit within two years of the date of injury. If you miss this deadline, you risk losing your compensation benefits.

How Much Is a Spinal Cord Injury Claim Worth?

Spinal cord injury claims cover economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover the quantifiable expenses and losses, such as past and future medical bills, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity. Non-economic damages compensate for more subjective damages such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. Severe cases, such as permanent paralysis, typically yield higher settlements or verdicts.

A skilled and experienced personal injury attorney can analyze your case and determine the damages you are entitled to.

Example Compensation for a Spinal Cord Injury

$7.6 Million Verdict

JURY VERDICT FOR MEDICAL MALPRACTICE – UC DAVIS REGENTS

Medical malpractice jury verdict—one of the largest in Sacramento County—on behalf of a young woman who suffered a spinal cord injury after doctors failed to diagnose a tumor on her spine

What Factors Affect the Value of a Claim?

Several factors influence the value of your claim. Each impacts your compensation claim differently. The following are some of the major factors impacting the value of a spinal cord injury claim.

Severity of the Spinal Cord Injury

A spinal cord injury can be either complete or incomplete.

A complete injury results in total loss of all sensory and motor function below the level of injury. Here, the injury completely damages the spinal cord.

An incomplete injury happens when an injured victim still has some control of movement or feeling below the affected area. The spinal cord can still send some messages to the brain.

Lost Earning Capacity

Spinal cord injuries often make returning to work difficult or impossible. If your earning potential is permanently affected, you can pursue that loss in your claim. Younger victims usually face higher losses due to longer projected careers.

Courts typically consider your age at the time of the injury and your future ability to work or retrain.

Lifetime Medical Treatment Costs

Permanent paralysis increases medical expenses and drives up the value of your claim. Document every injury-related expense to strengthen your case. Common long-term costs include:

Mobility aids and home accessibility upgrades
24/7 caregiving or assisted living facilities
Physical therapy and pain management
Future surgeries and hospitalizations

An experienced spinal cord injury attorney can consult medical professionals and other experts to estimate the full financial impact of your injury.

Comparative Negligence

In the 1975 case Li v. Yellow Cab Co., California’s Supreme Court adopted a pure comparative negligence rule. Under that rule, accident victims can pursue compensation for their damages even if they were partially responsible for their accidents. However, their compensation is reduced proportionally to their share of the blame.

For instance, if you’re 20 percent responsible for an accident that results in a spinal cord injury, you can recover 80 percent of your damages.

Examples of Negligence in Spinal Cord Injury Claims

Negligence causes many spinal cord injuries in the U.S. These examples show how negligence can lead to spinal cord injury claims in California. Each highlights a real-world case you might relate to.

Motor Vehicle Accident

A drunk driver speeds through Sacramento, hitting your car and leaving you with a serious spinal cord injury and paralysis. As a result, you are unable to return to work. You would have a claim against the drunk driver.

Establishing liability involves gathering evidence to demonstrate the driver’s reckless behavior. This may include police reports, witness statements, traffic camera footage, and toxicology results.

Defective Product

A defective product, such as a faulty vehicle airbag, can cause a spinal injury. For instance, if an airbag fails to deploy properly, you may sustain spinal cord injuries. In addition, a defective medical implant, such as a metal-on-metal hip replacement, may lead to complications that damage your spine.

In such cases, you can file a product liability case against the product manufacturer or seller. The claim may allege design defects, manufacturing defects, or the failure to warn of potential risks.

Medical Malpractice

Suppose you underwent surgery, only to learn later that your surgeon committed an error during surgery that damaged your spinal cord. In such a situation, you might be eligible to pursue a medical malpractice claim.

In a medical malpractice claim, you must prove that the surgeon deviated from the prevailing professional standard of care and directly caused your injury. This generally requires expert testimony to establish the standard of care and how the surgeon failed to follow the accepted protocols.

Swimming Pool Accident

Suppose you go for a swim in the hotel where you are staying. You dive straight into the pool, only for your neck to hit the bottom. The swimming pool has no depth markers. In such a scenario, you might be eligible to file a premises liability lawsuit against the hotel for failing to install safety signage.

Establishing liability in a swimming pool accident requires evidence such as photographs of the pool area and witness accounts. State swimming pool safety regulations can also be used to prove the owner’s failure to provide adequate warnings.

Trip, Slip, and Fall Accident

Say a fall in a poorly lit parking lot. You trip and fall because it was too dark to see your path. You might be entitled to file a slip, trip, and fall lawsuit over the owner’s failure to install adequate lighting.

To prove negligence, demonstrate that the owner knew or should have known that the poor lighting posed a hazard. For instance, patrons may have previously voiced complaints about poor lighting to the owner or management.

Construction Work Accident

Construction accidents in California frequently result in spinal cord injuries. Falls from heights and caught-in-between accidents are some of the causes of these catastrophic injuries.

Employers’ workers’ compensation insurance generally covers injured workers in such incidents. Workers’ comp rarely covers the full extent of a construction accident victim’s losses. However, if a third party is responsible for your accident, you might also be entitled to pursue a construction accident lawsuit. For instance, if a property owner or contractor ignores safety regulations, such as installing proper fall protection systems, they may be liable for damages.

How Can a Personal Injury Attorney Help?

An experienced spinal cord injury attorney can guide you through California’s complex claims process. They gather evidence to prove negligence and consult medical experts to build a strong case. A knowledgeable lawyer will ensure you file your claim before California’s two-year deadline.

At Cutter Law, we understand your challenges. Our California legal team is ready to listen to your case and answer any questions you may have. Contact us today to schedule your no-fee consultation.

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