A spinal cord injury is rarely disputed. What gets disputed is the number, and whether that number accounts for this year’s costs or the next 40 years of care.
The Slocum Firm represents people with spinal cord injuries across Pennsylvania, from Scranton to Philadelphia to Allentown and every community in between. We build these cases around the full lifetime of need the injury creates, which is the part a settlement offer built on current bills will always miss.
These cases also carry a particular emotional weight that shapes how we approach them. A family often has to make major decisions, about home renovations, caregiving arrangements, and finances, within weeks of an injury that will affect every day for the rest of a loved one’s life. That urgency does not align well with an insurance claims process that moves at its own pace, and part of our job is bridging that gap: moving quickly to preserve evidence and stabilize a family’s immediate needs while still building toward the full, accurate value of the case rather than settling early out of financial pressure.
If someone in your family has suffered a spinal cord injury, call The Slocum Firm at (570) 209-7376 before you respond to any settlement offer. We answer at any hour, and the conversation costs nothing.
What Makes a Spinal Cord Injury Claim Different?
What makes these cases different is scale. An ordinary injury claim resolves around a set of bills that already exist, while a spinal cord injury claim has to be built around costs that will not arrive for 30 or 40 years.
That makes these cases a documentation problem more than an argument about liability. Three pieces of proof establish the value: a life care plan, which is a costed projection of every kind of care and equipment a person will need for the rest of their life; a vocational assessment, which measures what work is still possible and what earning capacity was lost; and an economist’s calculation converting both into what they are worth in today’s dollars.
None of that can be produced on the eve of a filing deadline. It takes months to assemble properly, and the work has to start long before the two-year filing window closes.
It also means pressure to settle early runs against a family’s interest. Immediate costs arrive within weeks while the evidence that establishes lifetime value is still being built, and that mismatch is the most common reason a serious claim resolves for less than it is worth.
Call The Slocum Firm at (570) 209-7376 to talk through what happened. We answer at any hour, and it costs nothing to have us look at your case.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Spinal Cord Injury?
The answer depends on where the injury happened, and in Pennsylvania the identity of the defendant can matter as much as the severity of the injury.
Falls on construction sites are among the leading causes, and they carry a rule that surprises most injured workers. Workers’ compensation generally limits what you can recover from your own employer, but it does not bar a claim against a negligent third party such as a general contractor, a subcontractor, a property owner, or an equipment manufacturer. That third-party claim is where pain and suffering and full lifetime damages become recoverable, and identifying it early often separates an adequate recovery from a capped one.
Where a government body is the defendant, the ceiling changes entirely. Damages against a local agency are capped at $500,000 for everyone injured in the same incident combined under 42 Pa.C.S. Section 8553, and a written notice of the claim is generally due within six months under 42 Pa.C.S. Section 5522. Those two rules can decide a catastrophic case before the medical evidence is even assembled.
Where several parties share responsibility, Pennsylvania compares your share of fault against their combined fault rather than against each one separately. Someone found 40 percent at fault still recovers from a defendant who is only 15 percent at fault. That has been settled Pennsylvania law since Elder v. Orluck in 1986, and it is the reason a shared-fault case is often worth far more than an injured person assumes.
Does Limited Tort Insurance Block a Spinal Cord Injury Claim?
Almost certainly not. Drivers who chose the limited tort option on their auto policy give up the right to claim pain and suffering for most injuries, but that restriction lifts for what the statute calls a serious injury, defined at 75 Pa.C.S. Section 1702 as death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement. A spinal cord injury will almost always meet that threshold.
There are other routes around a limited tort election as well. Full tort rights are restored where the at-fault driver was convicted of or accepted ARD for driving under the influence in that crash, was operating a vehicle registered in another state, or was uninsured. If you were struck as a pedestrian rather than injured in a vehicle, the election does not bind you at all.
Why These Cases Involve Two Very Different Financial Phases
Spinal cord injury costs fall into two phases, and a settlement built on the first alone will not cover the second. The first year covers emergency care, hospitalization, and initial rehabilitation. The years after it cover attendant care, equipment replacement, home and vehicle modifications, and ongoing medical monitoring for the rest of a person’s life.
The published figures show how wide that gap runs. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center puts first-year costs for the most severe injuries at roughly $1.4 million, and lifetime costs for a person injured at 25 at roughly $6.3 million in 2024 dollars. Those figures cover direct care only and exclude lost wages and lost productivity entirely, which the same source puts at about $95,000 a year on top.
Building an accurate projection of the second phase takes a coordinated team. A certified life care planner documents every category of future need. A vocational rehabilitation professional assesses what work remains possible and how that compares to the career the injury interrupted, and a forensic economist converts all of it into present-day figures.
Without that work, the number on the table is whatever the current bills happen to add up to.
The gap between an early offer and a documented lifetime projection can be the difference between a settlement that runs out in a decade and one that lasts. When it runs out, the costs do not stop, and there is no second claim to bring.
Building the case correctly from the start is often what determines whether a client keeps their quality of life decades later.
Where These Injuries Happen and Who We Represent
Motor vehicle accidents remain the leading cause of spinal cord injury across Pennsylvania, followed by falls, particularly in construction and premises liability settings, and violence-related trauma. Motorcycle and pedestrian accidents contribute a significant share as well, because a rider or a person on foot has none of the structural protection a vehicle provides. We represent spinal cord injury victims throughout Scranton and northeastern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, Wilkes-Barre, and communities across the Commonwealth, urban and rural alike, wherever the injury happened and whoever caused it.
We coordinate directly with the treating teams at the rehabilitation hospitals our clients are sent to, so the record we build reflects a client’s actual condition and ongoing needs rather than what fits on a discharge summary.
Deadlines and Fault in a Pennsylvania Spinal Cord Injury Case
Pennsylvania generally gives injured people two years from the date of injury to file a lawsuit under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524. Because the documentation takes months, waiting until close to that deadline puts a case at a real disadvantage even though the filing window is technically still open.
The clock works differently for an injured child. Under 42 Pa.C.S. Section 5533 the two years does not begin until the child turns 18, so a child injured at 10 generally has until their 20th birthday. That longer window is not a reason to wait, because evidence degrades on its own schedule regardless of the deadline.
Pennsylvania also uses modified comparative negligence, which means your own share of fault reduces what you recover rather than eliminating it. Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 7102 you can recover as long as your share is 50 percent or less, with recovery barred at 51 percent or more. Fault allocation is where catastrophic cases are decided, because a shift of a few percentage points can move the number by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What Can a Spinal Cord Injury Claim Recover?
Depending on the severity and circumstances of the injury, compensation in a Pennsylvania spinal cord injury case may include past and future medical treatment, surgery and hospitalization, lifetime attendant care, equipment and home or vehicle modifications, lost wages and diminished earning capacity, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.
A Firm Built to Handle the Full Weight of These Cases
A spinal cord injury changes a family’s life permanently, and the representation behind the claim should match that rather than treat it as a routine file. The Slocum Firm has represented injured Pennsylvanians since 2009. We practice from our office in Scranton, Lackawanna County, and our attorneys are admitted to the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania, which cover Philadelphia, Scranton, and much of the Commonwealth.
Every client works directly with the attorney handling their case rather than a rotating group of case managers, and that attorney is reachable at any hour. Across our practice we have recovered in more than 95 percent of the cases we have taken, and our attorneys bring more than 50 years of combined experience to catastrophic injury claims.
Results may vary. Prior case outcomes do not guarantee similar results.
We take spinal cord injury cases on contingency, so you pay nothing upfront and owe no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you. Case expenses are separate from the attorney fee, and we will explain exactly how they work before you decide anything.
FAQs: Pennsylvania Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
These are the questions families ask us most often in the first weeks after a spinal cord injury.
Can I bring a claim if my spinal cord injury happened at work?
Often yes, but not against your employer. Workers’ compensation generally limits what you can recover there, while a claim against a negligent third party, such as a general contractor, a property owner, or an equipment manufacturer, can include pain and suffering and full lifetime damages. Identifying that third party early is the difference between a capped recovery and a full one.
How much does a spinal cord injury cost over a person’s lifetime?
It depends on the severity of the injury, but the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center puts lifetime costs for a person injured at 25 with the most severe injuries at roughly $6.3 million in 2024 dollars. That figure covers direct care only and excludes lost wages entirely.
How long do I have to file a spinal cord injury lawsuit in Pennsylvania?
Generally two years from the date of injury, though these cases require extensive documentation, so early legal involvement protects both your evidence and the strength of your eventual claim.
Can I still recover compensation if I was partly at fault for the accident?
Yes, as long as your share of fault is 50 percent or less. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of responsibility, but is not barred unless you are found 51 percent or more at fault.
Why do spinal cord injury cases require a life care planner and forensic economist?
Because a lifetime of attendant care, equipment, and medical monitoring cannot be estimated accurately through guesswork. These professionals convert medical need into a documented, present-day dollar figure that can withstand scrutiny from an insurance company or a jury.
Your Family’s Future Is Worth Fighting For
If you or someone you love suffered a spinal cord injury in Pennsylvania because of someone else’s negligence, call The Slocum Firm at (570) 209-7376, at any hour, whether the injury happened recently or several months ago. You will speak directly with an attorney about what your case would actually require and what it is realistically worth. There is no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you, and we will explain how case expenses are handled before you decide anything.
