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Chronic Pain Lawyers for Accident Compensation

Chronic Pain Lawyers for Accident Compensation
 

Pain is personal.  Unlike temperature, blood pressure, or other symptoms easily measured and defined, pain is hard to quantify.  Each individual describes pain and its intensity differently.  Since chronic pain is difficult to define and diagnose, it poses a challenge to victims of accidents who suffer this type of injury.  Chronic pain lawyers offer knowledge in representing accident victims suffering from chronic pain.

 

What Qualifies as Chronic Pain?

 

According to Statistics Canada, approximately 1 in 10 Canadians between the ages of 12-44, or 1.5 million people, experience chronic pain.  Different from acute pain, chronic pain can last for weeks, months, or even years.  Chronic pain can manifest itself anywhere in the body, including the brain and/or spinal cord.

 

Common Causes

 

One of the most common causes of chronic pain arises from personal injury through car accidents. Victims may experience a broad spectrum of injuries, from concussion or fractures, to brain or spinal injuries. It is possible to win disability benefits for chronic pain by proving that you have a pain-related impairment.

 

Another type of personal injury that is often associated with chronic pain is slip and fall accidents. Falling accidents cause individuals to be at particular risk of injuring their back or spine.

 

Threshold for Proving Chronic Pain Claims

 

Proving a chronic pain claim is contingent on meeting a certain threshold. The threshold to prove a chronic pain claim under Ontario’s Insurance Actrequires that your injuries result in permanent serious disfigurement, or a permanent serious impairment of important physical, mental, or psychological function.

To meet the criteria of a serious impairment, a person’s injury or disability must:

  • Substantially interfere with their ability to continue their regular employment, despite reasonable attempts to accommodate their impairment, or
  • Substantially interfere with their ability to continue to train in their chosen career, despite reasonable attempts to accommodate the impairment, or
  • Substantially interfere with most of the person’s normal activities of daily living.

Some important steps that can significantly increase the chances of making a successful personal injury claim for chronic pain, include:

  • Employing a rehabilitation expert who can assess the injured person’s expected recovery process. This assessment contributes to an objective means for calculating damages for such losses as lost future earnings,  pain, and suffering.
  • Consulting with a well-respected medical professional and expert on chronic pain syndrome to evaluate and assess the injured person, who can explain and testify to the validity of the condition.
  • Obtaining solid evidence, showing that the accident was of a type and force to cause serious physical injury.

Accident victims whose injuries result in chronic pain should take steps to contribute to a strong case for compensation. Chronic pain lawyers also make sure that the strongest case is put forward.

 

It is always more challenging to prove chronic pain cases; it is the job of a good personal injury lawyer to make invisible injuries visible to a judge or jury. Chronic pain lawyers will help determine your best options.