What Counts as a Catastrophic Injury?

What Makes an Injury Catastrophic

There’s no single legal definition of a catastrophic injury in Texas personal injury law. The term describes an injury with permanent or long-term effects on how a person works, moves, thinks, or takes care of themselves: severe burns, paralysis, amputation, a traumatic brain injury, or the loss of sight or hearing. When the injury is fatal, the family’s claim is a wrongful death claim. These injuries keep costing money for years. Surgeries, rehabilitation, prosthetics, home modifications, and in-home care can continue for decades, and many people can’t go back to the work they did before.

Why You Only Get One Recovery

A settlement usually comes with a release. Once it’s signed, the claim is generally over, even if the injury turns out to be worse than anyone expected. A verdict works the same way: Texas law doesn’t let you sue again over the same injury once the case is decided.

“You need someone who’s going to make sure that you get the very best result that sets you and your family up for success.”

That puts the weight on proving future losses before the case ends. Future medical care and lost earning capacity can be recovered in Texas, but they have to be supported by evidence. In catastrophic injury cases, that often means a life care plan prepared by a specialist, which lays out the treatment, equipment, and care a person will need, and an economist who puts a present-day value on it.

The Right Doctor Changes the Outcome

Treatment decisions made in the first months affect both recovery and the case. A severe burn treated at a verified burn center can heal very differently than one treated at a general hospital. After an amputation, the fit of the prosthesis affects whether someone can walk or work again, and spinal cord injury patients do better at programs built for them. The records those providers create also become key evidence of what the injury will cost going forward.

“We’ve gotten to know some of the very best doctors in the country.”

Full Transcript

When someone has a lawsuit, it’s the most important thing going on in their life. For people who have been catastrophically injured, someone who’s been burned, someone who’s in a wheelchair, someone who’s lost a limb, someone who’s lost their life, someone whose injury affects literally everything they do. There’s an extra level of importance, intensity of pressure that goes on the lawyer to make sure that we do the absolute best job to get the absolute best result, because the difference in outcomes from those really serious injuries can be dependent on what type of doctor you see, to making sure you’ve got enough financial resources to get the very best medical treatment, to making sure that you don’t lose your house, your car. You don’t lose the ability to put food on your table.

That level of intensity, that level of pressure, that level of scrutiny that comes with helping people who’ve had catastrophic injuries is so important because you only get one chance at your lawsuit and when the case is over, you can’t come back two years later or five years later and say, I really needed more money, because I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to go back to work or some new experimental treatments come out. If only I had more money, I could afford it. You need someone who’s going to make sure that you get the very best result that sets you and your family up for success.

And also, it’s important because we have had so much experience treating people with just some of the most heart-wrenching, terrible injuries. We’ve gotten to know some of the very best doctors in the country. And so if you’re a burn victim and you want to see the very best burn doctor, or you’re someone who’s lost a limb and you want to make sure you have access to the very best prosthetics, we know some of these doctors and can sometimes help facilitate not just getting average care, but getting the best care.