Eye Injury Lawsuit in California
Our eyes, among the most delicate parts of our body, can be subjected to devastating and life-long injuries, potentially leading to impaired or permanently lost eyesight. The severity of these injuries cannot be overstated, underscoring the urgent need for legal action.
Severe eye injuries not only cause physical pain and significant psychological trauma but also have a profound impact on your daily life, including the potential loss of your financial ability to earn a living. This underscores the need for compensation through legal means.
Some eye injuries can result in total blindness, loss of sight in one eye, or impaired vision. Given the sensitivity of the eyes, these injuries are often permanent, highlighting the gravity of the situation.
Even temporary eye injuries could require extensive surgical procedures to improve the vision. A minor amount of damage to someone's eye can cause a devastating, catastrophic injury.
The eyes are among the most sensitive and delicate parts of the body, and we rely on them for most of our daily functions.
Unfortunately, eye injuries are often painful and permanent, frequently causing blindness, partial blindness, or vision loss.
Eye injuries can happen on the job, in car accidents, in slip-and-fall accidents, as a result of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and for other reasons.
Eye injuries can have profound long-term impacts on your life. Suppose your injury occurs due to someone else's negligence or an accident where someone else was at fault.
In that case, California law gives you the right to recover damages from the at-fault party through a personal injury claim. You might be entitled to financial compensation, and your rights must be protected. Our California personal injury attorneys will take a closer look below.
How Eye Injuries May Occur
There are many ways to suffer a severe eye injury or loss of vision, including car accidents, explosions, chemical burns, and traumatic brain injuries.
Blindness and vision loss will impact your daily routine and quality of life. When your eye injury was caused by negligence, you could be entitled to seek compensation to cover your medical expenses, past and future lost wages, and other costs. Eye injuries can result from a wide range of causes. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Vehicle accidents (e.g., from flying debris or blunt force impact);
- Motorcycle or truck accidents;
- Slip-and-fall accidents (frequently as a result of head trauma);
- Workplace accidents (e.g., falls, machinery mishaps);
- Industrial explosions (e.g., construction site accidents, chemical plant explosions);
- Chemical exposure (e.g., battery acid, strong household cleaners);
- Medical mistakes (e.g., a surgical error or inappropriate medication);
- Defective products;
- Electrocution injuries
- Fire burns.
What Are the Common Types of Eye Injuries?
The eye can sustain various injuries, which can result in serious pain at best and long-term damage or permanent blindness at worst. Examples of eye injuries include:
- Detached retina — often happens due to blunt head trauma or the sudden stop of an impact in an accident;
- Foreign object/debris — glass, wood, or metal shards can cut into the eye tissue;
- Burns and chemical exposure — sustained exposure to intense heat or chemical agents can damage the eye tissue;
- Hyphemia — blood leaking into the eye from a broken blood vessel, which can cause permanent eye loss without emergency treatment;
- Orbital fracture — damage to the bones surrounding the eye can cause a blowout of the eyeball, resulting in vision loss and other problems;
- Optic nerve injury — damage to the optic nerve, resulting from a penetrating injury or swelling brain tissue after a blow to the head;
- Lens dislocation - occurs when the ligaments supporting the eye are broken after someone is stuck in their head or falls on a hard object.
Common symptoms of an eye injury include blurred vision or partial loss of sight, light sensitivity, difficulty seeing in the dark, loss of peripheral vision and depth perception, double vision, dizziness, and vertigo.
Lasting Effects of Eye Injuries
Mild eye injuries may heal with time and rest, while more severe injuries may require immediate treatment or surgery to minimize the damage. Even so, many eye injuries leave permanent damage ranging from partial loss of vision to total blindness.
Some eye injuries may require multiple surgeries over time, and even these may only partially correct the problem and help improve vision without completely restoring it.
Depending on the severity of the issue, many eye injury victims may have to adapt to a new way of life due to their vision loss. If the victim loses their sight completely, they will need ongoing care and extensive rehabilitation to learn how to adapt to their blindness.
Eye injury victims may lose their ability to work and earn a living for their families. Partial vision loss may require corrective lenses, and even then, certain functions, like reading or detecting peripheral objects, may be challenging.
Who May Be Liable?
In many cases, someone else is responsible for causing the eye injury accident. For example, if a defective product injures you, the manufacturer of that product may be liable for your injuries. If you are hurt in a workplace accident, your employer may be liable.
In contrast, if you're injured in a car accident, the at-fault driver would be legally responsible for covering the cost of your injuries. Under California state law, victims of negligence could be eligible to receive total financial compensation for their eye injury or vision loss, but a full settlement offer is often complex.
Most defendants and their insurance companies will aggressively challenge personal injury claims. They will attempt to reduce their financial liability and limit a victim's compensation.
Recovering Damages for Eye Injury Accidents
When an eye injury occurs on the job, worker's compensation should cover treatment, rehabilitation, and partial loss of income. However, if the employer was particularly negligent in causing the accident, the victim may file a separate personal injury suit against the employer.
Suppose the injury occurred due to someone else's negligence (e.g., in a car accident). In that case, the victim can file a personal injury claim to recover damages—and since eye injuries often cause lasting loss, these damages may be significant. Eye injury victims may be able to claim the following damages:
- Medical bills (including immediate treatment, rehabilitation, and future medications and assistive equipment;
- Rehabilitation costs (including therapy and low vision skills training);
- Loss of income and earning capacity (for the estimated life expectancy of the victim had they been able to work);
- Reduced quality of life due to impairment;
- Home modifications and in-home care as needed;
- Required medical equipment;
- Long-term disability;
- Pain and suffering;
- Scarring and disfigurement;
- Mental anguish;
- Loss of consortium.
Note that these damages may be claimed in addition to any additional medical expenses or rehabilitation caused by other injuries. The cost of your medical expenses, how much time you lost from work, and how the injury impacts your ability to work and participate in daily life activities will usually determine the value of your settlement.
There is a two-year statute of limitations. This is the legal time limit for filing an injury claim in California. This means you need to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible to start preparing your case.
Injury Justice Law Firm is based in Los Angeles County and serves people throughout Southern California. You don't pay any fees unless we win your case, and we offer a free case evaluation.