Inglewood Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

A catastrophic injury refers to a change in the way a person lives, works, or takes care of himself as a result of an accident, which can include brain damage, spinal cord injuries, amputations, or severe burns. If another individual’s negligence resulted in your injury, it is possible under California law to be compensated for not only your current expenses but also future expenses related to your injury. The Law Offices of Adrianos Facchetti, as an Inglewood personal injury lawyer, represents clients who have been injured in Inglewood from our Burbank office.

What Qualifies as a Catastrophic Injury?

Catastrophic is not a legal term in California, but it can be used to refer to injuries that are severe enough to cause long-term damage. Examples include:

• Traumatic Brain Injury: An injury that can impact someone’s memory, concentration, speaking ability, mood, and ability to work.
• Injuries to the Spinal Cord: Paralysis, either partial or total, or inability to move and feel.
• Amputation: The loss of a limb, an arm, a leg, a foot, hands, or fingers, and the inability to use them.
• Severe Burns: Burns that require grafting, multiple operations, and cause scarring.
• Organ Damage: Any internal injury that may have health consequences in the future.
• Loss of hearing or vision: Long-term sensory losses.
• Complex Orthopedic Injuries: Joint crush or fractures that don’t fully heal.

Just because an injury is serious does not mean it is catastrophic. A fractured limb that heals properly is a serious injury but not a catastrophic one. What matters is how long the effects last and how much they limit daily life and work.

Accidents That Cause Catastrophic Injuries in Inglewood

Inglewood is located close to LAX, and the I-405 and I-105 freeways pass through its boundaries, while there is an increase in event-related traffic to SoFi Stadium and the Kia Forum. In this area, catastrophic injuries are caused by:

• Truck accidents: Trucking accidents involving semi-trucks, box trucks, or other types of commercial vehicles and delivery trucks. The scope of our Inglewood truck accident lawyers includes company records and commercial insurance.
• Car accidents: Freeway or intersection accidents at high speeds.
• Motorcycle accidents: Injuries resulting from lack of protection during motorcycle accidents. It might also include claims related to the issue of fault in the case of a motorcycle accident.
• Pedestrian accidents: Being hit by cars in crosswalks or while walking on busy streets. You can read about crosswalk visibility in our Inglewood pedestrian accident lawyer work.
• Unsatisfactory property conditions: Falling on stairways, balconies, or poorly maintained walkways under premises liability law.
• Construction and workplace incidents: Claims regarding the injured workers with workers’ compensation and, in certain cases, personal injury claims against other companies.

It might happen that the accident type would determine liable parties and necessary evidence to be preserved.

Why Catastrophic Injury Claims Are Different

In ordinary injury cases, there are already figures as far as expenses go when you reach a resolution. In catastrophic cases, the biggest expenses are yet to come, so you must take them into consideration.

This usually involves:

• Future Medical Expenses: Operations, specialists, prescription drugs, and treatment.
• Rehabilitation Services: Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, possibly for years.
• Home Modifications: Construction of ramps, wider doorways, or accessible bathrooms.
• Medical Equipment: Wheelchairs, prostheses, and mobility aids, which will eventually need replacement.
• Home Health Care Services: Professional carers or family members.
• Loss of Earning Capacity: Your potential income through the course of your career compared to your actual earning capacity.

In severe cases, a life care plan is used to make estimates of all the above and other expenses. It is possible that medical experts cannot determine if an injury is going to be permanent or not before treatment is complete. This means that a settlement reached too early might cost you more than you thought.

Insurance Limits and Other Coverage

A catastrophic loss can easily be greater than the at-fault party’s insurance limits. In such a case, the other coverages become relevant, such as the other at-fault party, the commercial coverage of the business in question, or even underinsured motorist coverage that you have purchased. Which coverage applies depends on the facts and the policy language, so it’s worth reviewing early.

Evidence That Supports a Catastrophic Injury Claim

The bigger the claim, the more skeptical the insurance companies will be about it. Some evidence that will support your case is:

• Medical Evidence: Medical records beginning from the initial emergency admission and continuing up until now.
• Test and Imaging Results: Any imaging, such as an MRI or CT scan, and test results proving the injury.
• Opinion of Specialists: Opinion from specialists such as neurologists, surgeons, or rehabilitation specialists.
• Vehicle and Scene Evidence: Information about the crash, damage to property, photographs, and any incident or police report.
• Video Evidence: Traffic camera footage, business video footage, and dashcam footage.
• Witness Testimonies: Witnesses to the event.
• Employment and Wage Records: Your previous wage records.
• Impact Evidence: Daily journals and video showing how the injury impacts your daily life.

There are some pieces of evidence that could vanish very quickly. The business video footage gets taped over after a few days, vehicles get repaired or scrapped, and the hazard gets addressed. The family members can assist in maintaining a diary of symptoms and visits and the care they have been providing.

Compensation After a Catastrophic Injury

The type of compensation you could receive would depend on the nature of your injuries, evidence, degree of fault, and the amount of insurance available. In general, there are certain types of compensation:

• Economic Losses: Medical expenses, future treatment, rehabilitation, devices, home modifications, lost earnings, and earning potential.
• Non-Economic Losses: Physical suffering, mental anguish, lack of freedom, and decrease in the quality of life.
• Punitive Damages: Damages intended to punish particularly egregious behavior. They need clear and convincing evidence under the California Civil Code § 3294 of malice, oppression, or fraud.

Under the comparative negligence principle of California, if you share the fault, then your compensation is proportionately reduced based on your percentage of fault, but you can still receive compensation. No exact dollar figure can be guaranteed at this time, although our settlement calculator gives an idea.

California Deadlines, Including Claims Against the City of Inglewood

California has very clear deadlines for filing injury claims, and the specific deadline depends on whether there might be someone other than yourself to blame. These include the following:

• General Deadline: Personal injury claims normally have to be made within two years of the incident, according to Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1.
• Government Claims: Inglewood is its own municipality. For cases involving any vehicle, street, sidewalk, or traffic signal belonging to the City of Inglewood that was involved in your accident, a formal government claim would normally need to be submitted within six months, under Government Code § 911.2. There are similar deadlines for counties, states, and transit authorities.
• Child Injuries: Some deadlines are tolled until the child is 18 years old, but not the government deadlines.
• Medical Malpractice: Claims against medical practitioners have different and shorter deadlines.

Claims negotiations with the insurance company do not toll the deadline. Deadlines may differ, so it is always best to clarify yours.

Case Results

Past outcomes can help you understand the kinds of serious injury cases our firm handles. Examples include:

• $5 Million, Auto vs. Truck: A confidential settlement in a truck collision case.
• $1 Million, Severe Burn From Hot Liquid: Full policy limits secured in less than six months, before filing suit.
• $500,000, Rear-End Collision (UIM): The injuries first seemed minor, but further testing revealed a thoracic spine fracture.

You can see more outcomes on our case results page. These results are not from Inglewood specifically. Every case is different, and past results don’t guarantee a similar outcome.

How Attorney Adrianos Facchetti Handles Catastrophic Injury Claims

Attorney Adrianos Facchetti founded the firm in 2006. He earned his law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law, holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and is a member of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles. In a catastrophic injury case, our work usually includes:

• Identifying Every Responsible Party: Drivers, companies, property owners, manufacturers, or public agencies.
• Preserving Evidence Early: Requesting video, vehicle data, records, and witness information before it’s lost.
• Documenting Long-Term Needs: Working with your doctors and, when needed, life-care planners or economists.
• Finding All Available Coverage: Reviewing liability, commercial, and underinsured motorist policies.
• Handling Insurers: Responding to adjusters, pushing back on early offers, and negotiating.
• Preparing for Court: Filing a lawsuit and building the case for trial if a fair settlement isn’t reached.

The exact steps depend on your situation. Our role is to handle the legal and insurance work so you and your family can focus on recovery. We work with clients in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

How Attorney Fees Work

When a member of your family becomes unable to work, money is usually a concern. We represent clients on a contingency fee agreement in catastrophic injury claims, which means there will be no payment upfront and no fee to the lawyer if there is no recovery in your case. The fee will be a portion of the recovery made.

Free Case Review for an Inglewood Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

While calling us, it would be useful for us to know when the injury occurred, how the accident took place and which injuries were diagnosed. Please let us know if any surgeries or physical therapy are planned, if there is any police report or report on the incident and if you’ve received any phone calls from any insurance companies. Don’t worry if you do not have this information yet – we can assist you in obtaining the rest of the data needed.

In case the accident was fatal, you can find out more information about the Inglewood wrongful death attorney practice here.

The Law Offices of Adrianos Facchetti provides free consultations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call (626) 793-8607 to consult our lawyers and discuss what happened. Se habla español. Falamos português.