Losing an arm or a leg changes daily life in ways that are hard to sum up, from holding down a job to simply crossing a room. The costs don’t all hit at once, and they keep coming for decades. Our amputation and loss-of-limb lawyer at Hughes Law Group in Columbia, SC, handles personal injury claims for people in Columbia and across the Midlands.
Why Trust Our Amputation and Loss of Limb Lawyer in Columbia, SC
The real value in an amputation case lies in the future rather than in the bills already paid, and pinning down those future numbers requires input from prosthetists, vocational experts, and economists. Our attorney puts that record together before ever sitting down to negotiate.
Work like that does not scale to a huge caseload. Keeping the numbers smaller leaves room to give a lifelong injury the attention it deserves.
What Causes Most Limb Loss Claims?
Sometimes a limb is lost right there at the scene. Other times, surgeons amputate later, after a crush injury, an infection, or blood-flow damage that will not heal. When another party’s negligence contributed to the injury or amputation, you may have a claim to pursue. These claims tend to grow out of:
- Industrial machinery and conveyor incidents
- Car and commercial trucking collisions
- Motorcycle crashes involving lower extremities
- Farm and agricultural equipment accidents
- Surgical errors and delayed infection treatment
- Electrical injuries causing tissue death
- Defective power tools and safety guards
Whether the amputation could have been avoided often turns into a fight. Records from the first several days can be especially important when determining whether an amputation could have been avoided.
What Damages Are Recoverable in SC Amputation Cases?
A prosthetic limb is not a one-time purchase. The devices wear out and get replaced every few years, so someone hurt at 30 could go through a dozen of them before retirement. A claim can account for the following damages:
- Prosthetic devices and lifetime replacement costs
- Surgical care and residual limb management
- Physical and occupational therapy
- Vocational retraining and job placement
- Income and benefit losses
- Reduced earning capacity across a career
- Disfigurement, pain, and loss of enjoyment
- Household services you can no longer perform
A workplace amputation is valued differently from a claim against a negligent third party. Under South Carolina Code Section 42-9-30, scheduled benefits assign a set number of compensation weeks to specific body parts, which can result in a different recovery than a civil claim against a responsible manufacturer, driver, or other outside party.
A third-party lawsuit is filed in the Court of Common Pleas rather than with the Commission. Depending on the circumstances, a workers’ compensation claim and a third-party claim may proceed at the same time.
Count the Lifetime, Not Just the Hospital Bill
An early offer often covers the surgery and ends the case. Hughes Law Group gives people living with permanent limb loss a free consultation and focused, high-quality representation. Our attorney has tried these cases for over 20 years and pursues a fair result, not a quick one.
Call (803) 704-1004 or contact our amputation and loss of limb lawyer in Columbia, SC, online to review what your future actually costs.
