Proving Liability in Paralysis Cases

Paralysis involves loss of muscle function in a portion of a person’s body, and it can be partial or complete. It occurs if something goes awry in the messaging between your brain and your muscles. Sometimes paralysis is the result of a serious accident. Many people are unsure of whether they have recourse after suffering catastrophic injuries, such as paralysis, after a serious accident caused by someone else. It may be appropriate to hold the responsible party accountable. If you need to prove liability in a paralysis case, you should call the seasoned personal injury attorneys of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys. We have more than 30 years of experience seeking the best results.

The circumstances will determine how our lawyers prove liability in your paralysis case. In vehicle accident cases, we will need to show it’s more likely than not: (1) you were owed a duty of reasonable care, (2) breach of the duty of reasonable care, (3) causation, and (4) damages. For example, if you were in a car and T-boned by a car at an intersection where you had right of way, such that you were paralyzed on one half of your body, it is likely the jury would find the other driver breached the duty of reasonable care, such as following traffic signs and signals. For another example, if a drunk truck driver drifted into your lane, making an unsafe lane change, and causing your SUV to be tipped over.

Sometimes people are paralyzed due to a dangerous condition on another’s property. The property owner may be held accountable if it knew or should have known about the dangerous condition. For example, if there were a rotting step in the outer staircase of a hotel where you were staying, and you fell one-hundred feet, such that you were fully paralyzed, and a surveillance video or documentation of the property shows that the hotel owner knew about the step for a year and had complaints but didn’t fix it or provide warnings to hotel guests, our attorneys may be able to establish liability for your paralysis. Often, evidence of prior knowledge by a property owner is hidden or difficult to find. Accordingly, it is crucial you immediately retain counsel.

In order to establish professional liability for paralysis, we will need to show by a preponderance of the evidence: (1) you were owed a professional duty of care by the defendant, (2) the defendant departed from the professional standard of care, (3) causation, and (4) damages. For example, during a spine surgery, your surgeon would owe you a professional duty of care; that is, he would need to abide by accepted standards and practices of other reasonably competent surgeons in or around Syracuse. If, instead, he nicked your spine and failed to immediately address it or monitor you for signs of problems after the spine surgery when a reasonably competent Syracuse surgeon would have, we may be able to show that he failed to do what other surgeons would have done under the circumstances and establish liability. To make that showing, however, we would need to retain an expert surgeon even before we filed your case, to make sure your case is meritorious. We might also need to retain additional experts to testify on the nuances of liability, and on your damages as a result of the surgeon’s professional negligence.

We have offices in Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Buffalo and throughout Upstate, NY

The Syracuse lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys may be able to represent you in a claim for damages based on truck accident injuries. We have more than 3 decades of experience representing the injured and we’ve recovered more than $200 million in personal injury awards and settlements. We represent clients in Oneida, Herkimer, Rochester, Auburn, Wampsville, Watertown, Oswego, Lowville, Canandaigua, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Utica, Binghamton, and Elmira. Complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.