Minneapolis Back Injury Attorney

Because of the complexity of the structure of the back and the frequent lack of an obvious external injury, the handling of a back injury claim requires an experienced personal injury attorney with a thorough understanding of back injuries. The personal injury attorneys at Hall Law have more than 35 years of experience successfully representing clients with back injuries. Let us take care of all the issues involved in the legal process so you can concentrate on your recovery and rehabilitation.

Probably the most common accident related injury is a back injury. While many lay people would equate the terms “back,” and “spine” the terms are not synonymous. The spine is only a part of what is referred to as the back. The back contains many ligaments, muscles and other soft tissues. The spine is a part of the back and the vertebral column is a part of the spine. The vertebral column is a very complex set of small bones linked by joints and stabilized by strong ligaments which run along its length. The spinal cord runs inside the vertebral column and there are many smaller sensitive nerves which exit the spinal cord through bony openings—foramina—which can easily be narrowed by many different pathologies. Accordingly, when the back is subjected to an abnormal force, pain and a variety of other disorders may well result. The complexity of the structures of the back, gives rise to a variety of types of injury, all of which present the danger of making the column unstable. Instability, in turn, can produce neurological damage from injury to the spinal cord within the column or the nerves which exit the column. Direct impact can crush the vertebral arch which houses the spinal cord. Bending forces in any direction can cause a vertebra to be squeezed by the vertebrae above and below to the point where it shatters on one side and splits on the other. Vertebrae can be forced completely out of alignment. The soft tissue discs between the vertebrae can be squeezed until they herniate and/or are forced out of alignment. Ligaments which tightly support the column can be torn. The small joints which link each vertebra to its upper and lower neighbors can be dislocated and the tiny bony structures, which constitute them, fractured. Any of these injuries can cause serious long term consequences.

The human back continues to be implicated in an amazing variety of disorders, ranging from intermittent twinges of pain that are annoying but inconsequential, to permanent paralysis of limbs and loss of body functions. Diagnosis of the cause of back problems can be difficult because of the central presence in the areas of both the spinal cord and the spinal nerves that split off from it along the length of the spinal canal.

Potential therapy for back and/or neck pain runs the full gamut from the most conservative care of short rest, heat, and pain alleviation to extensive surgery in the spinal canal. For the most part, the therapy chosen depends on the pathology being treated.