Can I Get Disability After a Car Accident?
You can definitely get disability after a car accident, especially if you have a listed condition and meet other qualifications, mostly the severity of the disability and its effect on your ability, or rather inability, to work. You can also get disability after a car accident if you have a non-listed condition, such as whiplash or another soft tissue injury. However, these claims are considerably more complex.
Life-changing disability benefits include monthly cash and Medicaid membership. The combination of a higher income and lower expenses is usually the difference between making ends meet each month and living with constant economic uncertainty. A Tampa Social Security Disability lawyer, often working in partnership with a top-notch doctor, ensures that these victims get maximum benefits as soon as possible.
Leg or Arm Fracture
These serious injuries are very common in car crash cases. Seat belts usually hold victims in place during collisions. But their arms and legs often flail wildly and often strike the dashboard or another solid object.
Social Security disability listing 1.22 discusses fractures of the thigh, shin, pelvic, or tarsal (foot) bones. According to the Social Security Administration, one of these fractures is disabling if:
- The bone, when fully healed, doesn’t entirely fuse into “solid union,”
- Causes an extreme impairment that requires using a walker or other mobility assistance device, such as two crutches, for at least twelve months.
Listing 1.23 the arm, wrist, or elbow fractures. The aforementioned non-union requirement applies. Additionally, a Tampa Social Security Disability lawyer must prove you have no functional use of the arm for at least twelve months (i.e. unable to pick up items with your hands and fingers or use your arm to carry objects).
Applicants must exhaust all available medical options, including surgery, before SSA will approve their applications.
Back, Burn, and Other Conditions
A car accident may worsen a pre-existing back problem or cause a new injury. Listing 1.15 applies to disorders of the spine including severe degenerative disc disease, a slipped disk, or a broken vertebra. To meet this disability listing, you would need to prove you have one of the following conditions:
- Compression of a nerve root shown by an MRI or other imaging, or
- A diagnosis of lumbar spinal stenosis shown by an MRI or other imaging.
According to Listing 1.21 a burn on an arm, a leg, the torso, face, or head is a permanently disabling injury if you are receiving continuing medical treatment or physical therapy.
Your case is stronger if you cannot get up from a seated position and remain stable upright, due to lesions in any two extremities, remain stable when standing or walking, due to lesions in both lower extremities, use both arms or hands to independently start and complete work, or use one arm/hand to independently start and finish work, and you need to use the other arm/hand to use an assistive device (such as a cane).
Other possible disabling car crash injuries include gastrointestinal bleeding issues and traumatic brain injuries.
The applicant must require ongoing blood transfusions that meet certain requirements in terms of frequency and severity. To qualify under the TBI listing, your car accident must have caused you extreme physical difficulty (e.g. standing, sitting, walking) or mental difficulty (e.g. memory, concentration, socially interacting) for at least three months after the accident.
Contact a Diligent Hillsborough County Lawyer
Injury victims are entitled to important financial benefits. For a confidential consultation with an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer in Tampa, contact Kobal Law. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.
Source:
ssa.gov/disability/professionals/bluebook/AdultListings.htm
