How Spinal Cord Injuries From Car Accidents Are Valued in PA

How Spinal Cord Injuries From Car Accidents Are Valued in PA

A spinal cord injury changes everything. Your mobility, your independence, your career, your relationships, your finances. In a single moment, a car accident on Route 378, I-78, or any road in Bethlehem or the Lehigh Valley can transform your entire life.

The medical costs alone are staggering. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC), lifetime healthcare and living expenses for a person with a severe spinal cord injury can exceed $5 million. And that’s before you factor in lost wages, lost earning capacity, and the immeasurable toll on your quality of life.

At Leeson & Leeson, we don’t just handle spinal cord injury cases. We bring a unique advantage to the table: Joseph F. Leeson, III, Esq., is both an attorney and a CPA (Inactive). That dual expertise allows us to calculate the true lifetime economic impact of your injury with a level of precision that insurance companies can’t easily dispute.

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries: Complete vs. Incomplete

Not all spinal cord injuries are the same. The type, location, and severity of the injury directly determine your prognosis, your care needs, and the value of your case.

Complete Spinal Cord Injuries

A complete SCI means total loss of motor and sensory function below the level of injury. The spinal cord’s ability to transmit signals between the brain and the body is fully disrupted. Complete injuries result in either paraplegia (loss of function in the lower body) or tetraplegia (loss of function in both the upper and lower body, also called quadriplegia). Less than 1% of people with a complete SCI experience full neurological recovery.

Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries

An incomplete SCI means some motor or sensory function remains below the injury site. The degree of retained function varies widely. Some people with incomplete injuries can walk with assistance, while others have very limited mobility. Incomplete tetraplegia is currently the most frequent neurological category for spinal cord injuries, followed by incomplete paraplegia, complete paraplegia, and complete tetraplegia.

Vehicle crashes are the leading cause of spinal cord injuries in the United States, accounting for approximately 38% of all new cases. Approximately 18,000 new traumatic spinal cord injuries occur each year, and roughly 305,000 people in the U.S. currently live with an SCI.

Lifetime Costs of Spinal Cord Injuries

The financial burden of a spinal cord injury is enormous, and it compounds over a lifetime. The NSCISC publishes regularly updated cost data that attorneys, insurance companies, and courts rely on to value SCI cases. Here’s what the data shows:

High Tetraplegia (C1-C4)

These are the most severe injuries, affecting the upper cervical spine. Patients typically have little to no voluntary movement in their arms or legs and require full-time attendant care, ventilator support, and extensive medical equipment. First-year costs often exceed $1.15 million. Recurring annual costs average more than $199,000. For a person injured at age 25, estimated lifetime costs exceed $5.1 million in direct expenses alone.

Low Tetraplegia (C5-C8)

Patients with low tetraplegia retain some upper body function but still require significant assistance with daily activities. First-year costs average approximately $830,000, with recurring annual costs around $120,000. Lifetime costs for a 25-year-old can reach approximately $3.8 million.

Paraplegia

Paraplegia involves loss of function in the lower body while the upper body retains full or partial function. First-year costs average approximately $578,000, with recurring annual expenses around $75,000. Lifetime costs for a 25-year-old are estimated at approximately $2.7 million.

Incomplete Motor Function (Any Level)

Injuries that preserve some motor function at any level carry the lowest direct costs, but they’re still substantial. First-year costs average approximately $402,000, with recurring annual costs around $49,000.

Critically, these figures represent only direct healthcare and living costs. They don’t include indirect costs like lost wages and productivity, which the NSCISC estimates average over $95,000 per year.

How Economic Damages Are Calculated: The Attorney-CPA Advantage

Calculating economic damages in a spinal cord injury case isn’t guesswork. It requires a detailed, methodical analysis of current and projected future costs across multiple categories. This is where Joseph Leeson’s dual background as an attorney and CPA gives Leeson & Leeson a significant edge.

• Past and future medical expenses. Emergency treatment, surgeries, hospital stays, medications, rehabilitation, assistive devices (wheelchairs, specialized vehicles, home modifications), attendant care, and ongoing specialist visits. Future costs must be projected over the patient’s expected lifetime and adjusted for medical inflation.
• Lost wages. Income you’ve already lost due to your inability to work during recovery and treatment.
• Lost earning capacity. The difference between what you would have earned over your working lifetime and what you can earn now, given your physical limitations. This calculation considers your age, education, career trajectory, and the severity of your disability.
• Home and vehicle modifications. Wheelchair ramps, widened doorways, accessible bathrooms, lift-equipped vehicles, and other modifications needed for daily living.
• Life care planning. A comprehensive, year-by-year projection of all medical, therapeutic, equipment, and support needs for the remainder of your life. Life care plans are typically prepared by specialists and serve as the foundation of the economic damages calculation.

Spinal cord injuries from car accidents often occur alongside traumatic brain injuries, compounding the complexity and value of the case.

Non-Economic Damages in SCI Cases

Economic damages represent the calculable financial losses. But a spinal cord injury takes far more than money can measure. Pennsylvania law allows SCI victims to recover non-economic damages, including:

• Pain and suffering. The physical pain of the injury, surgeries, rehabilitation, and the chronic pain that many SCI patients experience for the rest of their lives.
• Loss of enjoyment of life. The inability to participate in activities you once loved, hobbies, sports, travel, playing with your children, and other aspects of a full life.
• Emotional distress. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and the psychological impact of adjusting to life with a disability.
• Loss of consortium. The impact of your injury on your relationship with your spouse, including loss of companionship, affection, and intimacy.

In cases involving reckless, wanton, or outrageous conduct, such as drunk driving or extreme speeding, punitive damages may also be available. These damages are designed to punish the defendant and deter similar behavior.

Factors That Increase the Value of an SCI Case

Every spinal cord injury case is unique. Several key factors can significantly increase or decrease the value of your claim:

• Severity of injury. Complete injuries and high-level tetraplegia produce the highest lifetime costs and the largest damage awards.
• Age at time of injury. Younger victims face more years of lost wages, more years of medical costs, and a longer lifetime of diminished quality of life, all of which increase the case value.
• Clear liability. If the at-fault driver’s negligence is obvious (drunk driving, running a red light, rear-ending you at a stop), it strengthens your claim and increases the likelihood of a higher recovery.
• Pre-injury earning capacity. Higher earners have more lost income at stake, which increases the economic damages calculation.
• Quality of evidence. Thorough medical documentation, expert testimony, a detailed life care plan, and precise economic calculations all support a higher valuation.
• Insurance coverage available. The at-fault driver’s policy limits, your own UM/UIM coverage, and any other available policies affect the total recoverable amount.

If your spinal cord injury resulted from a car accident, our Bethlehem car accident lawyers have the experience and resources to pursue the maximum value of your case.

How Leeson & Leeson Fights for SCI Victims

Spinal cord injury cases demand a law firm with the expertise, resources, and determination to take on insurance companies and pursue the full lifetime value of the claim. At Leeson & Leeson, that’s exactly what we deliver.

• Top 10 Personal Injury Law Firm 2025 (Attorney and Practice Magazine).
• $1.8 million jury verdict secured. We don’t back down when insurance companies refuse to pay what’s fair.
• Attorney-CPA advantage. Joseph F. Leeson, III combines legal expertise with a CPA credential (Inactive), giving us the ability to calculate lifetime economic damages with the precision these cases demand. Insurance companies can’t easily dispute numbers built on rigorous financial analysis.

• No upfront fees. We handle spinal cord injury cases on a contingency basis. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.

Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Allentown is one of the region’s premier facilities for spinal cord injury rehabilitation. If you or a loved one is being treated there or at St. Luke’s University Hospital, we can work with your medical team to build the strongest possible case.

Frequently Asked Questions