A paralysis claim is a claim for the permanent loss of movement or feeling in part of the body caused by someone else’s negligence, and for the lifetime of care, equipment, housing changes and lost income that follow. The underlying injury is usually to the spinal cord or brain. This page focuses on what life after paralysis costs and how that is proven; our spinal cord injury page explains the injury itself.
Blank Kim Injury Law represents paralyzed people and their families from our Fairfax office on Chain Bridge Road, open 24 hours. Aaron Blank and Robert Kim are licensed in Virginia. Robert Kim speaks Korean, and our paralegals speak Spanish.
Types of paralysis and why the type matters to the claim
Paralysis most often follows high-force events such as truck crashes, motorcycle crashes, construction falls and surgical errors. Whatever the cause, the pattern of paralysis drives nearly every number in the claim, because it decides how much help a person needs and what they can still do.
- Tetraplegia (quadriplegia). Loss of function in the arms, hands, trunk and legs, usually from a neck injury. Higher injuries can affect breathing and require round-the-clock attendant care.
- Paraplegia. Loss of function in the legs and lower body. Many people with paraplegia live independently with a manual wheelchair and an adapted home and vehicle.
- Hemiplegia. Paralysis of one side of the body, most often from a brain injury, stroke or oxygen deprivation. See our brain injury page.
- Monoplegia. Paralysis of one limb, such as an arm after a severe brachial plexus injury. See our nerve damage page.
Doctors also grade whether an injury is complete or incomplete. An incomplete injury leaves some function below the level of injury and may improve with rehabilitation, which is why the long-term prognosis usually is not clear for months. A claim valued too early can badly underestimate, or in some cases misjudge, what the person will need.
The life care plan: the backbone of a paralysis claim
A life care plan is a written, itemized projection of everything a person will need for the rest of their life because of the injury, with how often and how long. It is prepared by a life care planner, usually a nurse or rehabilitation professional, working from the medical records and the treating physicians’ recommendations, and presented through expert testimony.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Physician care | Physiatry, urology, neurology, pulmonology and primary care visits for life |
| Therapy | Physical and occupational therapy, including periodic reassessments |
| Attendant and nursing care | Help with bathing, dressing, transfers, bowel and bladder care, from a few hours a day to around the clock |
| Equipment | Manual and power wheelchairs, cushions, hospital beds, lifts, shower chairs, and their scheduled replacement |
| Medication and supplies | Catheters, skin care supplies, spasticity and pain medication |
| Complications | Treatment of pressure injuries, urinary tract infections, respiratory illness and autonomic dysreflexia |
| Transportation | A wheelchair-accessible vehicle or hand controls, and their replacement over time |
| Housing | Home modifications or an accessible home |
Insurers often respond with their own, much thinner plan. The strength of a life care plan comes from tying every item to a physician’s recommendation and to real costs in Northern Virginia, where home care and housing are expensive.
Home modifications and housing
Many Northern Virginia homes, from Fairfax split-levels to Arlington rowhouses and Alexandria townhouses, have stairs at every entrance and between every floor. After paralysis, the home often must be changed or replaced. Common needs include:
- Ramps or a zero-step entry and wider doorways and halls
- A roll-in shower and an accessible bathroom on the main floor
- A bedroom on the main level, or a vertical platform lift or elevator
- Lowered counters, accessible kitchen appliances and controls
- Ceiling lifts for safe transfers
- Backup power for equipment that must not stop
When a home cannot reasonably be adapted, the claim can address the added cost of accessible housing. An accessibility consultant or architect can document what is required.
Future earnings and the loss of a career
Paralysis often ends the job a person had and limits the jobs open to them afterward. The loss is measured over a working lifetime, not by the paychecks already missed.
- We document past earnings, benefits and career path with tax returns, pay records and employer statements.
- A vocational evaluator assesses what work, if any, remains realistic, and what training or accommodations it would take.
- An economist calculates the difference between the earnings the person would have had and what they can earn now, including benefits such as retirement contributions and health insurance, and states it in present value.
For a young person, the loss includes a career that never started. For someone self-employed, it can include the value of a business they can no longer run. Household services the injured person used to provide, such as childcare, home maintenance and driving, have value as well.
Everything a paralysis claim can include
- Past medical bills, from the trauma center and inpatient rehabilitation onward
- Every item in the life care plan, for life
- Home and vehicle modifications
- Past and future lost earnings and earning capacity
- Pain, suffering, emotional distress and the loss of independence and enjoyment of life
- The effect on the family, including a spouse who has become a caregiver
Virginia does not cap compensatory damages in ordinary personal injury cases. A total cap applies to medical malpractice claims under Va. Code § 8.01-581.15, and punitive damages are capped at $350,000 under Va. Code § 8.01-38.1. No page can tell you what your case is worth. How clearly fault is shown, the insurance available and the evidence behind each future need are what decide it.
Virginia rules that affect a paralysis case
- Filing deadline. Suit generally must be filed within two years of the injury under Va. Code § 8.01-243(A). Earlier notice applies to claims against a county, city, town or the Commonwealth.
- Contributory negligence. A finding that the injured person was even slightly at fault generally bars recovery, so the defense has strong reasons to raise it in a high-value case. See our contributory negligence guide.
- Seat belts. Not wearing a seat belt generally cannot be used to show negligence or reduce damages in Virginia, under Va. Code § 46.2-1094.
- Circuit court. Paralysis cases are filed in circuit court, where a jury can decide them, because they exceed the general district court’s $50,000 limit.
- Survival of the claim. If the injured person dies, the claim survives under Va. Code § 8.01-25, and the family may also have a wrongful death claim.
