Compensation Options for Spinal Cord Injury Victims in Nova Scotia

Can You Recover Compensation for a Spinal Cord Injury?

Now or in the future, if you sustain a spinal cord injury in the Halifax area because another person was negligent, you should obtain legal help immediately by calling the offices of a Nova Scotia spinal cord injury lawyer.

Spinal cord injuries can be sudden, life-changing, and catastrophic. Unlike the more common and typical injuries that heal in mere days or weeks, spinal cord injuries are often long-term or permanent. The most severe spinal cord injuries may require lifelong medical care.

The cost of uninsured care and treatment after a spinal cord injury can be extensive and you may be entitled to substantial compensation. If another person’s negligence is the cause of your spinal cord injury, schedule a consultation immediately to discuss your rights with a Halifax spinal cord injury lawyer.

How Do Spinal Cord Injuries Happen?

A spinal cord injury is a dangerous injury. Swelling and inflammation can exacerbate the damage. Treatments for spinal cord injuries include surgeries, prescriptions, and rehabilitation – in some cases, for life. Spinal cord injuries happen in ways that include:

1. traffic collisions
2. medical negligence incidents
3. on-the-job accidents
4. slipping or tripping and falling
5. swimming pool accidents and sports collisions 
6. using dangerous or defective consumer products

A spinal cord injury affects your physical and emotional health and your quality of life. If you have no feeling or mobility below the location of your spinal cord injury, the injury could cause permanent disability.

What is the Cost of Caring for a Person with a Spinal Cord Injury?

Costs associated with care, treatment and lifestyle changes for a person with a spinal cord injury varies and hinges on the injury’s severity. The lifetime cost of care can range from $1.5 million for incomplete paraplegia to cover $3 million for complete quadriplegia.

In addition to the cost of care, there is usually a significant loss of income. A sudden loss of income and increased cost of care, can result in increasing debt.

If someone else’s negligence caused your spinal cord injury, how can you recover the compensation you are entitled to by Canadian law?

How Are Spinal Cord Injury Victims Compensated?

Spinal cord injury victims in Nova Scotia have several options for treatment and support. You may qualify for Canada Pension Plan (CPP) disability benefits and receive a monthly payment of up to $1,673.24 (as of 2025) if you cannot work due to your injury.

If your spinal cord is injured in a Nova Scotia traffic accident and at least one of the vehicles involved is insured, up to $50,000 of medical expenses will be covered through the no-fault Section B benefits of the applicable auto insurance, without regard to who is at fault for the collision.

A spinal cord injury that requires lifetime treatment and care will cost far more than CPP and Section B benefits provide. If someone else is at fault for your spinal cord injury, what can you do to recover the full compensation amount you deserve and need?

How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Help?

If someone else’s negligence caused your spinal cord injury, you will need a lawyer who can recover the maximum available compensation. If more than one party is liable for your injury, your lawyer will investigate your case and identify all potential compensation sources.

Your lawyer will determine precisely how you were injured and develop a legal strategy for recovering your compensation. Most spinal cord injury claims can be settled out of court, but if liability is contested or no reasonable settlement offer is forthcoming, your case may go to trial.

At an Injury Trial, What Will You Have to Prove?

In a personal injury trial arising from a spinal cord injury, the victim or “plaintiff” and his or her Nova Scotia spinal cord injury lawyer must prove:

1. The negligent party (the defendant) owed the plaintiff a “duty of care.”
2. The defendant breached that duty with negligent behavior.
3. The spinal cord injury is a direct result of that negligence.
4. The losses suffered as a result of the injury.

Your lawyer will explain to the court how you were injured and how seriously. Your lawyer will also call expert witnesses – an accident reconstruction expert or medical authority, for example – to offer a statement or testimony supporting your claim.

What Else Should Spinal Cord Injury Victims Know?

Do not speak to the negligent party’s insurance company or sign any insurance documents before you meet with a Halifax spinal cord injury lawyer, and don’t take a first settlement offer. Instead, let your lawyer, who will insist on a fair and just settlement, do the talking and negotiating.

Because spinal cord injuries are serious and complex, it is unlikely that a settlement will be reached before the limitation date. The limitation date is the deadline for commencing a lawsuit. If no lawsuit is started before the limitation date, the claim is forever barred and you will have no legal means to obtain compensation. Limitation dates depend on the facts of the case. They may be as little as 12 months from the date of the injury.

However, evidence deteriorates or gets lost over time, and witnesses forget details. Immediately taking the case to a personal injury lawyer puts you in the best position to recover compensation.

At McKiggan Hebert Lawyers, we represent our injured clients on a contingent fee basis. Your initial legal consultation is free. If you move forward with legal action, you’ll pay McKiggan Hebert no lawyer’s fee until we recover your compensation with a settlement or a courtroom verdict.

Bring Your Spinal Cord Claim to McKiggan Hebert Lawyers

McKiggan Hebert Lawyers advocates aggressively and effectively for those injured by negligence in Halifax and across Nova Scotia. We’ve been honored by Canadian Lawyer Magazine, which has recognized us as one of Canada’s Top Ten Personal Injury Law Firms.

We resolve the most difficult personal injury cases. Now or in the future, if you suffer a spinal cord injury in an accident that is not your fault, schedule a consultation immediately with McKiggan Hebert Lawyers by calling our Halifax offices at 902-706-2298.

McKiggan Hebert Lawyers will stand with you and bring your spinal cord injury case to its best possible outcome so you get the compensation you are entitled to.