Can You Recover Compensation for Permanent Disability?
A serious accident can leave lasting effects that extend far beyond the initial recovery period. While some injuries heal with time, others result in permanent disabilities that affect a person’s ability to work, care for themselves, and enjoy everyday life. Whether caused by a traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, severe orthopedic trauma, burns, or another catastrophic injury, a permanent disability can create lifelong physical, emotional, and financial challenges.
If someone else’s negligence caused your injury, California law may allow you to recover compensation for both the immediate and long-term consequences of your disability. Because these claims often involve extensive future damages, they require careful investigation and support from qualified medical and economic experts. At Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP, we help catastrophically injured clients pursue compensation that reflects the full impact of a permanent disability.
What Is a Permanent Disability?
A permanent disability is an injury or medical condition that is not expected to fully resolve despite appropriate medical treatment. The disability may affect a person’s ability to work, perform everyday activities, or live independently. Permanent disabilities vary widely in severity. Some individuals experience chronic pain or reduced mobility, while others require wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, assistive technology, or ongoing personal care. Not every permanent disability is immediately obvious. Some traumatic brain injuries, nerve injuries, or chronic pain conditions produce lasting impairments even though they are not outwardly visible.
What Types of Injuries Can Cause Permanent Disability?
Many catastrophic injuries have the potential to result in lifelong impairment. Common examples include:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Spinal cord injuries
- Paralysis
- Amputations
- Severe burn injuries
- Complex fractures
- Permanent nerve damage
- Vision loss
- Hearing loss
- Crush injuries
- Joint injuries resulting in permanent loss of function
The extent of the disability depends on the severity of the injury, the person’s overall health, and the outcome of medical treatment and rehabilitation.
What Compensation May Be Available?
The damages available in a permanent disability case often extend far beyond current medical bills. Depending on the circumstances, compensation may include, for example:
- Past and future medical expenses
- Rehabilitation costs
- Prescription medications
- Future surgeries
- Home health care
- Assistive devices and mobility equipment
- Home and vehicle modifications
- Lost wages
- Loss of future earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
The goal is to compensate the injured person for both the financial losses and the profound changes the disability has caused in their daily life.
How Is Loss of Future Earning Capacity Different From Lost Wages?
Many people assume that lost wages and future earning capacity are the same, but they compensate for different losses. Lost wages generally refer to the income a person misses while recovering from an injury. Loss of future earning capacity, on the other hand, addresses the reduction in a person’s ability to earn income in the future because of a permanent disability. For example, a construction worker who suffers a spinal cord injury may never be able to return to physically demanding work. Even if that individual finds employment in another field, the difference between what they could have earned before the injury and what they are capable of earning afterward may represent a significant component of their damages.
How Are Future Medical Expenses Calculated?
Permanent disabilities often require ongoing treatment for years or even decades. Future medical expenses may include physician visits, rehabilitation, physical therapy, occupational therapy, medications, medical equipment, prosthetic replacements, counseling, pain management, and additional surgeries. In catastrophic injury cases, attorneys frequently work with life care planners and medical experts to develop comprehensive projections of future treatment needs. These projections help ensure that a settlement or verdict accounts for expenses that have not yet been incurred but are reasonably expected throughout the injured person’s lifetime.
How Do You Prove a Permanent Disability?
A successful claim requires strong medical evidence. Treating physicians, orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, rehabilitation specialists, neuropsychologists, and other healthcare professionals may provide opinions regarding the nature of the injury, expected recovery, permanent limitations, and future treatment needs. Medical records, diagnostic imaging, surgical reports, therapy records, and functional capacity evaluations often play important roles in establishing the extent of the disability. In many cases, expert testimony helps explain how the injury affects the person’s ability to work and perform daily activities.
Can You Recover Damages for Permanent Pain and Limitations?
Permanent disabilities often involve chronic pain, reduced mobility, loss of independence, and limitations that affect nearly every aspect of daily life. California law allows injured individuals to seek noneconomic damages for losses such as physical pain, emotional suffering, inconvenience, disfigurement, physical impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life. These damages recognize that the impact of a permanent disability extends well beyond financial losses. Someone who can no longer participate in hobbies, recreational activities, family events, or other aspects of daily living may experience profound personal losses that deserve consideration.
Why Are Expert Witnesses So Important?
Permanent disability cases frequently involve testimony from numerous experts. Medical specialists explain the injury itself and the long-term prognosis. Vocational rehabilitation experts evaluate how the disability affects future employment opportunities. Economists calculate future financial losses, while life care planners estimate the cost of ongoing medical treatment and supportive care. Together, these experts help demonstrate the lifelong consequences of a catastrophic injury and provide the evidence necessary to support substantial future damages.
Avoid Settling Too Early
Insurance companies sometimes attempt to resolve catastrophic injury claims before the full extent of a permanent disability becomes clear. In the months following an accident, doctors may still be evaluating whether additional surgeries are necessary, whether rehabilitation will restore function, or whether permanent limitations will remain. Accepting a settlement before reaching maximum medical improvement may leave an injured person without sufficient compensation for future medical care, lost earning capacity, and lifelong disability-related expenses. Careful evaluation of the long-term prognosis is essential before resolving a serious injury claim.
Contact Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP
A permanent disability can affect your health, career, finances, and quality of life for decades. If your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence, you should understand the full value of your claim before accepting a settlement. Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP represents clients who have suffered catastrophic injuries, working with respected medical and financial experts to pursue compensation that reflects the true impact of a lifelong disability. Contact Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP today to discuss your case and learn how we can help protect your future.
