San Antonio Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer

What Is a Spinal Cord Injury?

Your spinal cord acts as the main message pathway between your brain and your body. When that pathway is damaged — by a violent impact, a crushing force, or a sudden twist — the signals that control movement, sensation, and basic bodily function can be disrupted or destroyed entirely. The result depends on where the damage occurs and how severe it is, but the consequences are rarely minor. Spinal cord injuries can cause partial or total paralysis, chronic pain, and permanent disability that reshape every aspect of a victim's life.

Unlike broken bones or torn ligaments, a spinal cord injury doesn’t simply heal with time. These injuries are often irreversible. The medical costs are staggering, the emotional toll is immense, and the financial consequences follow victims and their families for decades. If someone else's negligence caused your injury, you have the right to hold them accountable — and we are here to help you do exactly that.

Common Types of Spinal Cord Injuries

Complete Spinal Cord Injury

When suffering a complete spinal cord injury, the cord is fully damaged at the point of impact, cutting off all communication between the brain and the body below that level. You lose all movement and sensation below the injury site. This is the most severe classification and most often results in permanent paralysis.

Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

Not every spinal cord injury results in total paralysis. With an incomplete injury, some signals still get through from the brain to the body. The victim may retain partial movement or feeling below the injury site. But do not mistake that for minor. Incomplete injuries can still produce life-altering limitations, and the long-term care needs are often just as serious as those of a complete injury.

Cervical Spine Injury (C-Spine Injury)

The cervical spine runs through the neck. Damage here is among the most catastrophic outcomes of any accident. Depending on the level of the injury, a cervical spine injury can result in quadriplegia, also called tetraplegia, which means complete loss of function in all four limbs. Victims with high cervical injuries may also lose the ability to breathe without assistance.

Thoracic Spine Injury

The thoracic spine runs through the mid-back. Thoracic spine injuries typically cause paraplegia, meaning reduced or absent ability to move and feel sensations in the legs and lower part of the body while leaving arm and hand function intact. These injuries are common in high-impact vehicle crashes.

Lumbar Spine Injury

The lumbar spine covers the lower back. Injuries here can affect leg strength, hip function, and control of your bladder and bowel. Upper body function is often preserved, but chronic pain and limited mobility frequently prevent victims from returning to work or maintaining the same quality of life they had before the accident.

Sacral Spine Injury

Damage to the sacral region — the lowest portion of the spine — can impact the hips, thighs, and pelvic organs, including bladder and sexual function. These injuries are often underestimated but can cause lasting impairment.

Herniated Discs and Bulging Discs

Traumatic disc injuries caused by accident impact can compress nerves along the spinal column, producing chronic pain, muscle weakness, tingling or loss of feeling, and difficulty moving normally. While classified differently from a full cord injury, herniated discs caused by negligence are serious, compensable injuries that deserve aggressive legal representation.

ICD-10 Spinal Cord Injury

If you or a loved one has received a spinal cord injury diagnosis, your medical records will include an ICD-10 code, a standardized classification doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies use to identify the specific nature and location of your injury. These codes are important in your legal case. They appear in your medical records, they drive insurance decisions, and they directly influence how damages are calculated. Our team understands how to read and use your medical documentation to build the strongest possible case on your behalf.

Common Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries are devastating, but they are rarely random. In most cases, someone's negligence, recklessness, or disregard for safety is what puts a victim in the trauma unit. Common causes include:

• Motor vehicle accidents: Car crashes put more people in wheelchairs than almost anything else. A rear-end hit at highway speed, a rollover, a head-on collision — the spine absorbs forces the human body was never built to handle, and the damage can be permanent.
• Commercial truck and 18-wheeler accidents: The size and weight of commercial vehicles make trucking accidents uniquely destructive to the spine. These cases involve powerful trucking companies and insurers who deploy teams of lawyers immediately after a crash.
• Motorcycle accidents: Riders have no structural protection in a collision. Spine injuries in motorcycle accidents are common, severe, and frequently caused by drivers who fail to see the rider.
• Slip and fall accidents: A fall from height or a hard impact on a negligently maintained surface can produce catastrophic spinal damage. Property owners who fail to keep their premises safe can be held liable for the consequences.
• Workplace accidents: Construction falls, equipment failures, and unsafe job site conditions are a leading cause of occupational spinal cord injuries. Victims may have claims against employers, contractors, or equipment manufacturers.
• Violent impacts and recreational accidents: When property owners fail to warn of unsafe conditions, including shallow water, unstable surfaces, and dangerous equipment, the injuries that follow are their responsibility.

How We Handle Your Spinal Cord Injury Case

When you contact San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyers™, you are not handed off to a case manager or left waiting for callbacks. Attorney Steven Nunez and our team get to work immediately because, in spinal cord injury cases, the work we do early determines the outcome later.

• We investigate without delay. Accident reports, surveillance footage, black box data, witness statements, and physical evidence all need to be secured quickly. We move fast before anything disappears, is altered, or destroyed.
• We build the full medical and financial picture. Your treating doctors focus on your recovery. We bring in independent medical experts and life care planners who can translate your diagnosis and prognosis into clear, documented testimony that a jury can understand and an insurance company cannot easily dismiss. We make sure the full scope of your injury, and what it will cost you for the rest of your life, is on the record.
• We calculate what your case is actually worth. Insurance companies start low and count on victims to accept it. We don’t let that happen. We account for your emergency care, surgeries, rehabilitation, lifetime medical needs, lost income, lost earning capacity, and the personal toll this injury has taken on every part of your life.
• We negotiate hard. Our firm has secured over-policy-limits results in numerous cases because we build cases that are too strong to ignore, and we are not afraid to go the distance. We know what these cases are worth, and we do not move off that number without a fight.
• We take it to trial when we have to. Not every spinal cord injury law firm will walk into a courtroom. We will. Steven Nunez has first-chair and second-chair trial experience, and if the insurance company will not pay what is fair, we are ready to move forward with your case in court before a judge and jury.

Compensation You May Be Able to Recover

Spinal cord injury victims experience a lifetime of costs that go far beyond the emergency room. When we take your case, we fight to recover compensation across every category of loss, present and future.

Economic Damages

• Emergency and Acute Medical Care: The bills start before you leave the accident scene. Ambulance, emergency room, ICU, and surgery costs are part of your claim, and we fight to recover every dollar.
• Ongoing and Future Medical Expenses: A spinal cord injury does not come with a finish line for medical care. You will need specialists, pain management, and follow-up procedures for years, possibly for the rest of your life. We make sure those future costs are accounted for in what we pursue on your behalf.
• Rehabilitation: Inpatient rehabilitation, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and adaptive skills programs are often essential after a spine injury. We fight to make sure every one of those costs is part of what you recover.
• Assistive Devices and Home Modifications: Wheelchairs, specialized vehicles, hospital beds, ramps, stairlifts, and widened doorways all contribute to the cost of adapting your home and your life after your injury. We make sure it is part of what you recover.
• In-Home and Long-Term Care: Many spinal cord injury victims require personal care attendants on a part-time or full-time basis. Those costs are real, ongoing, and fully recoverable.
• Lost Wages: If your injury has kept you out of work for weeks, months, or permanently, you may be entitled to recover the income you have lost during that time.
• Loss of Earning Capacity: If your spinal cord injury has permanently limited your ability to perform at your job or advance in your career, you may be entitled to compensation for the difference between what you could have earned and what you are now able to earn.

Non-Economic Damages

• Pain and Suffering: Living with a spinal cord injury is painful, physically and in every other way. You may be entitled to compensation for the ongoing suffering your injury causes day after day.
• Loss of Enjoyment of Life: When an injury permanently takes away activities, experiences, and opportunities that were once part of your life, the law recognizes that loss. We fight to make sure it is reflected in your recovery.
• Emotional Distress: PTSD, depression, anxiety, and grief are real and documented consequences of catastrophic injury. Victims may pursue compensation for the psychological impact of what they have been through.
• Loss of Consortium: A devastating spinal cord injury affects your closest relationships. Spouses and family members may be able to pursue compensation for the loss of companionship, support, and partnership that results from your injury.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. The value of any case depends on its specific facts and circumstances.

Why Choose San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyers™

We Are a Spinal Cord Injury Law Firm

We focus on catastrophic injury cases. That means we understand the medicine, the lifetime cost projections, and the legal strategy required to win cases with stakes this high. A general practice firm learns during your case. We already know it.

We Have Pushed Past Policy Limits

Insurance policies have limits. We have exceeded them. Our firm has secured over-policy-limits results in multiple cases because we build cases that are too strong to minimize, and we are not afraid to go the distance.

Trial-Ready from Day One

Attorney Steven Nunez has both first-chair and second-chair trial experience and has secured a $1.5 million arbitration award for a client. When the insurance company knows your spinal cord injury attorney will actually walk into a courtroom, it changes how they negotiate, and that willingness to litigate is something we bring to every case from day one.

Recognized Results

Membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum is earned, reserved for attorneys who have secured million-dollar and multi-million-dollar results for their clients. Steven Nunez holds both.

No Fee Unless We Win

We handle spinal cord injury cases on a contingency fee basis. You owe nothing up front and do not pay us unless we successfully secure compensation on your behalf.