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Catastrophic Injury Claims in Arizona

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Posted on July 29, 2025 in

Not all personal injury claims are the same. Sometimes, the nature of your injuries can be such that they qualify as catastrophic.

In this article, we discuss catastrophic injuries. Specifically, we consider:

  • How catastrophic injuries are defined.
  • Examples of catastrophic injuries.
  • Differences between regular personal injuries and catastrophic injuries.
  • Factors that influence how much you can recover in financial compensation for catastrophic injuries.

If you or a loved one has experienced a catastrophic injury, please call Stone Rose Law at (480) 631-3025 at once because time is of the essence to recover compensation.

What Is the Definition of a Catastrophic Injury?

The first consideration when discussing catastrophic injuries is that there is no one universally accepted definition for them.

Here are some of the common factors used to qualify a severe injury as “catastrophic” in nature:

  • Injuries that take a long time to heal and require a considerable amount of future medical expenses.
  • Injuries that require long-term medical treatment and lifestyle adjustments that prevent you from being able to work and impair your ability to live independently.
  • Injuries that permanently and severely affect your quality of life and bodily functions, which may be fatal or shorten your lifespan.

Causes and Examples of Catastrophic Injuries

Catastrophic injury cases can arise from many kinds of accidents or even intentional acts. The causes we see frequently include:

Generally speaking, catastrophic injuries fall into three main categories:

Serious Neck, Head, and Back Injuries

Specific examples include:

  • Traumatic brain injuries, including both TBI and MTBI
  • Neck injuries, including whiplash and other cervical sprains
  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Paralysis, including quadriplegia and paraplegia
  • Hip injuries

Complications of catastrophic head injuries can include bruising, swelling, and bleeding of the brain, cognitive dysfunction, speech difficulties, cognitive and behavioral changes, and problems with mobility.

Complications of spinal cord and back injuries include full or partial paralysis (paraplegia or quadriplegia), respiratory and circulatory difficulties, chronic pain, exaggerated reflexes and spasms, and loss of bladder and bowel control.

An infographic listing examples of catastrophic injury cases and categories.

Injuries That Result in Scarring and Disfigurement

Specific examples include:

  • Third-degree burns
  • Amputations
  • Avulsions

Complications of severe burns can include chronic physical pain, nerve damage, limited mobility, infections, disfigurement, permanent impairment, and permanent scarring.

Internal Injuries

Specific examples include:

  • Multiple bone fractures
  • Organ damage
  • Severe nerve or ligament damage
  • Loss of vision or hearing

Complications of internal injuries can include internal bleeding, chronic pain, swelling, and bruising. Internal injuries can also take considerable time to heal and can be permanent.

How Catastrophic Injuries Differ from Ordinary Personal Injuries

Personal injury lawsuits, regardless of whether the underlying injury is catastrophic, rely on proving liability and receiving money damages through settlement payouts or judgment awards. 

The main difference between catastrophic and non-catastrophic injury cases is in establishing the severity of the harm suffered, the increased likelihood of long-term harm, extensive medical care needs, and the corresponding need for higher compensation.

Increased Impact on Family Members

Catastrophic injuries often affect not only the injured person but also family members. A catastrophic injury settlement of damages award is more likely to result in lost wages, intensive treatments like surgery, and long-term physical, occupational, and rehabilitative therapy.

Often, if in-home caretaking is needed, the family members of the catastrophically injured person will often have to provide this care.

Catastrophic injuries are also more likely to have significant non-economic damages claims that can affect other family members, including pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, depression and anxiety symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder, loss of companionship, loss of emotional support, and loss of consortium.

Greater Long-Term Consequences of Catastrophic Injuries

An important consideration in calculating settlement sums or damages awards is whether you, as an injured person, can recover compensation from your injuries and how long the recovery process takes. 

Catastrophic injuries frequently take longer to recover from, and those who experience them often do not reach a level of maximum medical improvement comparable to non-catastrophic injuries.

It is common for catastrophic injury cases to require long-term damages calculations based on injuries that take longer to recover from and/or can have permanent and lasting effects. 

Damages awards and negotiated settlement amounts must take this into account, which often means higher compensation is needed to achieve a just outcome for you as an injured party.

Greater Challenges of Proving Liability

Catastrophic injury claims can be more challenging to prove than other personal injury lawsuit claims. 

It is more common for the plaintiffs’ attorneys to need to rely on forensic, medical, and scientific expert witness testimony, accident reconstruction specialists, and financial experts to show the extent of the injuries and to help calculate the resulting damages.

Couple this with the likelihood that insurance companies and defense lawyers will be doing their best to minimize the severity of your catastrophic injuries and the dollar value of the consequences you have suffered, and this can make a catastrophic injury claim more contentious and time-consuming to pursue.

How Much Is My Catastrophic Injury Case Worth?

How much you can expect to receive from a catastrophic injury claim depends heavily on the facts of your case. 

As we have seen above, compared to an ordinary personal injury claim, there is a much greater chance that in a catastrophic injury case, you will need to seek long-term compensation that can be more complex to calculate.

Your costs for medical expenses like hospitalization, multiple surgical procedures, lost income potential, and ongoing medical care for a permanent disability can easily make your claim worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or even into the millions of dollars.

Like most personal injury cases, catastrophic injury claims usually settle out of court. This means that your personal injury attorney must be a skilled negotiator, because given their incentive to keep payouts to a minimum, insurance companies are likely to make an initial low-ball offer that does not adequately account for your long-term compensation needs.

If you are a surviving family member of someone who did not recover from a catastrophic injury, a wrongful death claim under Arizona law can also have a high settlement value.

Have You or a Loved One Suffered Catastrophic Injuries in Arizona?

Catastrophic injury claims share elements in common with regular personal injury claims, but can involve greater issues of proof, require more tenacious settlement negotiations with insurance companies, and have greater economic and non-economic damage potential.

Because of all these considerations, having a personal injury lawyer who is experienced with catastrophic injury cases is important to make sure that you receive the maximum compensation you deserve for someone else’s negligence.

This is the kind of representation Stone Rose Law provides to accident victims in Arizona.

To speak with an experienced lawyer in catastrophic injury claims, call us at (480) 631-3025 to set up a free initial consultation. You can also use our online contact form to reach one of our catastrophic injury lawyers.