Lower back pain can be brought on by a variety of different reasons from workplace accidents to car collisions. This pain can be debilitating and can interrupt your ability to work or perform daily tasks. The cost of treatment and medication can add up quickly if you are left to pay for these bills on your own. But what do you do if this pain was brought on by your job or due to someone else’s negligence?
Hiring a personal injury lawyer can help. An attorney can help you get the compensation you need to cover your medical bills and the cost of missing work due to injury. In this article we will take a look at common causes for back injuries and what a lawyer can do for someone suffering from lower back pain.
What Qualifies As A Back Injury?
There are a number of different factors that can qualify for a back injury in which a lawyer can help you get compensation. Back injuries come in many different forms, such as:
- Strained or torn muscles, ligaments, or tendons
- Bruising or soreness from impact trauma
- Herniated discs
- Fractured or broken vertebrae
- Pinched nerves
- Spondylolisthesis
These injuries can lead to serious and debilitating lower back pain that may prevent you from being able to work or even do routine daily tasks. Back injuries that have occured while working or as the result of someone else’s negligence could qualify for compensation from the responsible party.
Keep in mind that you must be able to prove that your injury was directly caused by another person, business, or other entity in order to be awarded compensation. Some examples of this are:
- Injury sustained during a car accident when another driver was at fault
- Impact fracture caused by a slip and fall on a unmarked wet floor of an office building
- Herniated disc caused by repeatedly lifting heavy crates in a packaging facility for work
The Costs Associated With Lower Back Pain
Any type of serious injury that causes significant lower back pain will also bring its own set of financial burdens as well. An injury that prevents you from being able to work means a loss of wages while you are recovering. And if your injury keeps you out of work for a long time, those lost wages will really add up.
Medical bills can also create mounting financial trouble after a serious back injury. Back and spine injuries can sometimes persist for months or even years after the initial accident. Depending on the severity of the injury, you could need expensive surgery to repair the damage, physical therapy for rehabilitation, or ongoing treatments that can prove extremely costly.
Some people may not even realize they have a back injury or may ignore the signs of injury until it becomes severe. This can happen for people who develop injuries due to the nature of their work. They often avoid treatment because they want to keep working until it becomes too much to tolerate. Unfortunately, this can lead to worse injuries and more expensive treatment.
Always seek medical treatment right away if you have been involved in an accident. Not only is it better for your recovery and health to get treatment as soon as possible, but having proper medical documentation of your injuries and the recommended treatment can help strengthen your case for compensation for damages. And having a lawyer on your side gives you an even better chance to secure compensation.
Common Causes Of Lower Back Pain
As we have mentioned, lower back pain can come in all shapes and forms. This pain is typically characterized by discomfort, inflammation, decreased range of motion and flexibility, sharp pain that starts in the lower back (lumbar) and radiates down the buttocks and back of the legs to the feet.
Lower back pain is often difficult to manage and can have a major impact on your quality of life. There is no predicting what might lead to a serious back injury, but some common causes of lower back pain include:
- Lifting heavy objects
- Standing or sitting for long periods of time
- Overexertion
- Repetitive stress or movement, such as bending or twisting repeatedly for work
- Medical malpractice during back surgery or treatment
- Impact trauma to your back or spine
- Automobile accidents
- Toxins that lead to nerve damage or spinal pain
Who Can Be Held Liable For Lower Back Pain?
The person or party that is held liable for lower back pain in an injury claim depends on who is ultimately responsible for the injury. Some common examples of lower back injury claims filed to hold liable parties responsible include:
Work-Related Injuries
Workers compensation claims are some of the most commonly filed lower back injury claims. A claim filed for a work-related or on-the-job injury can hold an employer or supervisor liable for the costs associated with the injury. This is especially true if the employer or supervisor were aware of the dangerous working conditions and did nothing to try and fix the situation.
Medical Malpractice
In a medical malpractice claim, a doctor can be held liable for any lower back pain that was brought on as a result of a botched procedure or prescribing the wrong type of medication.
Slip and Fall Injuries
When someone is injured on privately owned property by a slip and fall accident or some other type of accident, several entities can be held liable for the injury. The property owner, business that exists on the property or an employee that caused a hazard and did nothing to warn to address the hazard or warn the public may be liable for any injuries that result.
The same is true for injuries that occur on government owned property. The government agency with ownership of land or a building where an accident took place can be held liable in an injury claim.
Automobile Accidents
People who have suffered a lower back injury following an automobile accident can hold the at-fault driver liable for their injuries. A driver that was negligent in the accident, either by driving while impaired, speeding, or some other reason, is ultimately responsible for the accident and for the costs associated with any injuries that were caused.
Negligence Injuries
As with other types of injury claims, a person or entity that was responsible for your injury due to negligence can be held liable in a lawsuit.
An example of this could be a person who was knocked over on the sidewalk by a large dog and injured their spine. If they were walking by a neighbor’s yard and the neighbor’s dog jumped on them knocking them down because there was no fence around the yard, the neighbor could be held liable for their injury.
In this example, the neighbor had a duty of care to people walking past their yard on the public sidewalk. This duty of care was breached by allowing the dog to be outside without a leash and without a fence to keep the dog from reaching pedestrians walking by. This would make the neighbor negligible for the injury and ultimately responsible.
The key factor in any injury claim is proving that the liable party had a duty of care to you. You must prove that the liable party breached that duty of care due to negligence and that your injury resulted directly from that breach of duty of care.
How Can A Lower Back Pain Lawsuit Benefit You?
The financial repercussions of a serious back injury can be quite difficult to manage. You could end up paying for the cost of treatment yourself and suffering the loss of income from being unable to work if you chose not to file a lower back pain lawsuit.
An injury lawsuit can help you recover damages for your injury, allowing you to pay for your medical bills and treatment as well as recover compensation for lost wages. You don’t want to get left picking up the bill for an injury caused by someone else’s negligence.
Hiring An Attorney Can Help Your Lower Back Pain Claim
If you have suffered a serious back injury while on the job or due to another person’s negligence, hiring an attorney can help you get the compensation you need for your pain. An experienced lawyer can help you properly file an injury claim and set you up for the best chance of success.
Injury claims can involve a lot of nuanced litigation and can be extremely difficult to navigate if you are not familiar with the laws that govern them. Your attorney can help advise you on what options are available to you and what your best course of action is. Additionally, your attorney can act as your legal representative in legal negotiations and in court if your injuries prevent you from attending in person.
Another benefit to hiring a professional legal council is that an experienced lawyer will set you up for a better chance at winning a successful outcome from your claim. A good lawyer will perform a thorough investigation of the incident that caused your injury and will gather all the pertinent information to build the strongest possible case for your claim.
If you are interested in a legal consultation with a board-certified attorney, you can learn more here.
