Catastrophic Injury Lawyers Serving Wheeling and the Ohio Valley

Life-Changing Injuries Require Experienced Legal Representation

A catastrophic injury can affect every aspect of your life. Beyond the immediate physical trauma, these injuries often require extensive medical treatment, long-term rehabilitation, lifestyle adjustments, and ongoing financial support.

At Bordas & Bordas, we represent individuals and families whose lives have been permanently altered by serious injuries caused by negligence. Our attorneys have the experience, resources, and dedication necessary to handle complex catastrophic injury claims arising from motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, workplace accidents, defective products, and other preventable incidents.

When the stakes are this high, you need a legal team prepared to pursue the full compensation necessary to protect your future.

What Is Considered a Catastrophic Injury?

A catastrophic injury causes long-term or permanent impairment and significantly impacts a person’s ability to work, care for themselves, or enjoy daily life.

Unlike many personal injury cases, catastrophic injury claims often involve substantial future damages, including ongoing medical treatment, rehabilitation, home modifications, assistive equipment, and diminished earning capacity.

Because these cases require a detailed understanding of both current and future losses, Bordas & Bordas works with medical professionals, life-care planners, economists, and others to fully assess the impact of an injury and pursue compensation that reflects a client’s long-term needs.

What Are the Most Common Types of Catastrophic Injuries?

Catastrophic injuries are severe injuries that can cause permanent or long-term disability, significantly affect a person’s ability to work or live independently, and require extensive medical treatment or ongoing care. Common types of catastrophic injuries include:

• Traumatic brain injuries (TBI): Serious brain injuries can affect memory, cognition, communication, behavior, mobility, and a person’s ability to perform everyday activities.
• Spinal cord injuries: Damage to the spinal cord can cause partial or complete paralysis, loss of sensation, chronic pain, and other lifelong complications.
• Severe burns: Serious burns can cause permanent scarring, disfigurement, nerve damage, limited mobility, and the need for multiple surgeries or long-term treatment.
• Amputations and loss of limbs: Losing a limb can affect mobility, employment, independence, and quality of life and may require prosthetics, rehabilitation, and ongoing medical care.
• Severe orthopedic injuries: Complex fractures, crushed bones, and serious injuries to joints or other parts of the musculoskeletal system can result in permanent limitations, chronic pain, or disability.
• Organ damage: Serious trauma can damage the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, or other internal organs and may require surgery, long-term treatment, or lifelong medical monitoring.
• Vision or hearing loss: Trauma that causes permanent blindness, impaired vision, deafness, or significant hearing loss can dramatically change a person’s ability to work and perform everyday activities.
• Permanent nerve damage: Serious nerve injuries can result in loss of movement or sensation, chronic pain, weakness, and other lasting impairments.

The effects of a catastrophic injury often extend far beyond the initial medical emergency. An injured person may need surgeries, rehabilitation, assistive equipment, modifications to their home, help with daily activities, and medical care for years or even the rest of their life.

When a catastrophic injury is caused by someone else’s negligence, a personal injury claim should account not only for the losses the injured person has already experienced, but also for the long-term medical, financial, and personal impact of the injury.

How Is a Catastrophic Injury Claim Different From Other Injury Claims?

Catastrophic injury claims are different from many other personal injury claims because the consequences of the injury may last for years or for the rest of a person’s life. The claim must account not only for what the injury has already cost, but also for how it may affect the injured person and their family in the future.

A catastrophic injury claim may involve significant future medical expenses, rehabilitation, long-term care, lost earning capacity, permanent disability, pain and suffering, and changes to the injured person’s ability to work, live independently, and participate in everyday life.

These cases can also require more extensive investigation and expert analysis. Medical professionals may help establish the injured person’s prognosis and future treatment needs, while vocational and economic experts may be needed to evaluate the effect on employment and future earnings. In some cases, other experts may be needed to calculate the cost of long-term care or necessary accommodations.

Because the future consequences can represent a significant portion of a catastrophic injury claim, it is important to understand those needs before resolving the case. Once a claim is settled, an injured person generally cannot return later to seek additional compensation because their care became more expensive than expected.

A Wheeling catastrophic injury lawyer can investigate the full impact of the injury and build a claim that considers both the losses an injured person is experiencing today and the needs they may have in the future.

Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

FAQs About Catastrophic Injury in Wheeling, WV

Learn more about catastrophic injury claims, long-term care costs, and how a Wheeling catastrophic injury lawyer may help you and your family.

What should I do after a catastrophic injury in Wheeling, WV?

After a catastrophic injury, getting appropriate medical care should be the first priority. Once the immediate medical emergency is addressed, it’s important to preserve information and evidence related to how the injury occurred. Depending on the circumstances, this may include:

• Photographs or video
• Accident or incident reports
• Witness information
• Medical records
• Insurance information
• Communications with the people, businesses, or insurance companies involved

Avoid signing releases or accepting a settlement before you understand the extent of the injury and its potential long-term consequences.

A Wheeling catastrophic injury lawyer can investigate how the injury occurred, preserve evidence, identify potentially responsible parties and available insurance coverage, and begin documenting both the immediate and long-term effects of the injury.

Who can be held responsible for a catastrophic injury in West Virginia?

Responsibility depends on how and where the injury occurred. In some catastrophic injury cases, more than one person, business, or organization may be legally responsible.

Potentially responsible parties may include negligent drivers, trucking companies, property owners, employers or contractors, manufacturers of defective products, medical providers, and other individuals or organizations whose conduct contributed to the injury.

Identifying all potentially responsible parties can be particularly important when an injury will require extensive medical treatment or lifelong care. Different parties may also have different insurance policies or other sources of compensation available.

A Wheeling catastrophic injury attorney can investigate the circumstances surrounding the injury, determine who may be responsible under West Virginia law, and identify potential sources of compensation.

Can I recover compensation if I was partly at fault for the accident that caused my catastrophic injury?

Possibly. West Virginia follows a modified comparative fault rule, so being partially responsible for an accident does not automatically prevent you from recovering compensation.

If your share of fault is not greater than the combined fault of the other responsible parties, you may still recover compensation, although the amount you receive is generally reduced according to your percentage of fault. For example, if you were found 20% responsible for an accident and your damages were $1 million, your recovery could be reduced by 20%.

Fault can be especially significant in a catastrophic injury case because the damages may be substantial. A West Virginia catastrophic injury lawyer can investigate what happened, gather and preserve evidence, and challenge allegations of fault when appropriate.

How is the value of a catastrophic injury claim determined?

There is no standard value for a catastrophic injury claim. The amount depends on the circumstances of the injury and the extent of its short- and long-term effects.

In addition to medical bills and income already lost, a claim may need to account for future medical treatment, rehabilitation, long-term care, reduced earning capacity, assistive equipment, home or vehicle modifications, permanent disability, pain and suffering, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life.

Because many of these losses might not have occurred yet when a claim begins, attorneys may work with medical professionals, life-care planners, vocational specialists, economists, and other experts to evaluate future needs and costs. Understanding those future losses is particularly important before resolving a catastrophic injury case.

How can a Wheeling catastrophic injury lawyer help my family?

Catastrophic injuries often affect an entire family. In addition to dealing with medical treatment and recovery, families may suddenly face questions about insurance, income, caregiving, transportation, home modifications, future medical needs, and how an injured family member will be supported over the long term.

A catastrophic injury lawyer can handle the legal and insurance aspects of the claim while the injured person and family focus on medical care and adjusting to the changes caused by the injury. That can include investigating what happened, preserving evidence, identifying responsible parties and available insurance coverage, gathering medical and financial documentation, working with experts to evaluate future needs, negotiating with insurers, and pursuing litigation when necessary.

For families in Wheeling and throughout the Ohio Valley, Bordas & Bordas can also help explain what to expect throughout the legal process and what information may be needed to build the claim.

What does long-term care after a catastrophic injury cost?

There is no single cost for long-term care after a catastrophic injury. The amount depends on the type and severity of the injury, the injured person’s age, their expected recovery, and the medical care and assistance they may need in the future.

Long-term costs may include:

• Future medical treatment and surgeries
• Physical, occupational, or other rehabilitation
• Prescription medications
• In-home nursing or personal care
• Long-term residential or skilled nursing care
• Prosthetics, wheelchairs, and other assistive equipment
• Home or vehicle modifications
• Transportation to medical appointments
• Mental health care
• Replacement services or assistance with everyday activities

A catastrophic injury may also prevent someone from returning to their previous job or from working at all, creating a loss of future income and earning capacity.

Because many of these expenses can continue for years or even a lifetime, determining the value of a catastrophic injury claim requires looking at both current losses and reasonably anticipated future needs. A Wheeling catastrophic injury lawyer may work with medical professionals, rehabilitation specialists, economists, vocational experts, and other professionals to understand the long-term financial impact of an injury and pursue compensation that accounts for those future needs.

What Compensation May Be Available?

Catastrophic injuries often result in substantial financial and personal losses that continue for years after the initial accident.

Depending on the circumstances, compensation may be available for:

• Medical expenses
• Future medical treatment and rehabilitation
• Lost wages
• Loss of future earning capacity
• Home and vehicle modifications
• Long-term care expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Permanent disability
• Loss of enjoyment of life

Every catastrophic injury case is unique. Our attorneys work diligently to identify and document every category of damages so that our clients can pursue the full compensation they need for the future.

How Long Do I Have to File a Catastrophic Injury Claim in West Virginia?

In most West Virginia personal injury cases, you generally have two years to file a lawsuit seeking compensation for a catastrophic injury. However, the deadline can vary depending on how the injury occurred and the circumstances of the case.

If the catastrophic injury was caused by medical negligence, different rules apply. Under West Virginia’s Medical Professional Liability Act, a medical malpractice claim generally must be filed within two years of the date of the injury or within two years of when the injury was discovered, or reasonably should have been discovered. West Virginia law also generally imposes a 10-year limit from the date of the medical injury, subject to certain exceptions.

Other circumstances can also affect the time available to bring a claim, including the age of the injured person and the type of party responsible for the injury.

Even when you have two years to file a lawsuit, waiting can make a catastrophic injury case more difficult to investigate. Evidence can be lost, video footage may be erased, and witnesses can become harder to locate. These cases may also require time to investigate the cause of the injury and understand its long-term medical and financial consequences.

Because the applicable deadline depends on the type of claim, it is important to speak with a West Virginia catastrophic injury lawyer as soon as possible. An attorney can determine which statute of limitations applies and take steps to preserve evidence and protect your right to seek compensation.

Talk With a Wheeling Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

At Bordas & Bordas, we represent individuals and families whose lives have been permanently altered by serious injuries caused by negligence. Our attorneys have the experience, resources, and dedication necessary to handle complex catastrophic injury claims arising from motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, workplace accidents, defective products, and other preventable incidents.

When the stakes are this high, you need a legal team prepared to pursue the full compensation necessary to protect your future. Our Wheeling office is staffed with legal professionals who help injured people understand their rights and pursue compensation from those responsible for their injuries.

Contact Bordas & Bordas to speak with a Wheeling catastrophic injury lawyer and schedule an initial consultation.