A complete injury means no motor or sensory function is preserved below the level of the injury. An incomplete injury means some function remains, and how much varies enormously. The distinction drives prognosis, the type and amount of care required, and the value of the claim, and it is assessed and reassessed over time rather than fixed at the moment of injury.

Because it determines independence, and independence determines cost. Injuries at the cervical level can affect breathing, hand function, and the ability to transfer, requiring attendant care that may run around the clock. Injuries lower down may permit largely independent living with adapted equipment. Two people with the same diagnosis and different levels can have life care plans that differ by an order of magnitude.

There is no table to look it up in, and any figure quoted without knowing the level, the completeness, the age, and the home situation is a guess. It is calculated case by case through a life care plan that itemizes attendant care hours, equipment and its replacement cycles, home and vehicle modification, medication, therapy, and routine treatment of complications, then prices each item and schedules it across a life expectancy.

Yes, and they are consistently underestimated by people who have not lived it. Pressure injuries, urinary tract infections, autonomic dysreflexia, spasticity, respiratory complications, and chronic neuropathic pain are not hypothetical risks. They are recurring, expensive, and sometimes life-threatening, and the life care plan has to account for them as ongoing costs rather than one-time events.

Frequently not, and that is the central practical problem. A catastrophic spinal cord injury can exceed a single auto policy many times over. This is why identifying every possible defendant and every layer of coverage matters more here than in almost any other kind of case: employers, contractors, property owners, product manufacturers, umbrella policies, and your own underinsured motorist coverage.

Reduces a lifetime of future costs and lost earning capacity to a present value a jury can actually award. The life care plan supplies the future medical costs, vocational evidence supplies the earning capacity loss, and the economist converts both into today's dollars accounting for inflation in medical costs specifically, which historically outpaces general inflation.

Almost never, and the decision cannot be undone. Care needs after a spinal cord injury frequently become clear only after the first year, once the rehabilitation trajectory is established and complications have or have not appeared. Settling early converts an unknown lifetime cost into a fixed number chosen before anyone knew what the number should be.

An incomplete injury is still a spinal cord injury, and treating it as a lesser one is a mistake families make and insurers encourage. Chronic neuropathic pain, bladder and bowel dysfunction, profound fatigue, spasticity, and loss of fine motor control can be severely disabling in someone who walks into the room. The functional loss is what matters, not the visual impression.

It compensates the loss of the ability to do things, separately from medical expenses, lost income, and pain. In paralysis cases it is frequently the largest noneconomic component of the claim, because the loss being described is not pain. It is the permanent subtraction of activities, independence, and participation from a person's life.

Sometimes, and it deserves real analysis rather than a reflex either way. Guaranteed periodic payments protect against a lump sum being exhausted or mismanaged, which is a genuine risk across a forty-year horizon. The terms are permanent and inflexible once agreed, so they should be evaluated against the life care plan, and alongside any effect on needs-based public benefits, before anything is signed.

Two years from the injury under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. That deadline arrives sooner than families expect, because the first year is consumed by acute care and rehabilitation while the evidence that establishes the claim still has to be developed inside the same window.

The firm is based in Austin and represents clients throughout Texas, primarily in Travis County, Williamson County, and Bastrop County.

Board certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization recognizes attorneys who demonstrate substantial experience in a specific area of law, pass a rigorous examination, and receive peer review.Brent A. Devere is Board Certified in Consumer and Commercial Law, Consumer Bankruptcy Law, Residential Real Estate Law, and Commercial Real Estate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.Working with a board-certified attorney means your case is handled by a lawyer with proven knowledge, experience, and commitment in their field.

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Yes. The firm handles most types of litigation. If your matter isn't listed among the practice areas, contact the office to discuss whether the firm can help.