San Francisco Catastrophic Injury Attorney

Attorney Michael Rehm — (800) 978-0754

San Francisco Catastrophic Injury Attorney

Catastrophic injuries are those that permanently alter a person's capacity to function — injuries that require surgical intervention, long-term rehabilitation, ongoing attendant care, and a permanent restructuring of every aspect of the person's life. They are distinguished from serious injuries not only by severity but by the permanence of their consequences and the scale of the damages they generate. Attorney Michael Rehm represents people who have sustained catastrophic injuries in accidents throughout San Francisco and San Francisco County. These claims are filed in San Francisco Superior Court, 400 McAllister Street.

Categories of Catastrophic Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injuries range from mild concussion — which can have significant and lasting effects despite a normal CT scan — to severe injuries requiring craniotomy, decompressive craniectomy, or intracranial pressure monitoring. The long-term consequences include cognitive impairment, memory loss, executive dysfunction, personality change, chronic headache, sleep disruption, and depression. The injury is invisible on conventional imaging in many cases, which is why it is so often undervalued by insurance companies and requires expert neuropsychological evidence to document properly. See the San Francisco Brain Injury Attorney page for a full discussion.

Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injuries at the cervical level produce quadriplegia; thoracic and lumbar injuries produce paraplegia or incomplete deficits. Virtually all surgically managed spinal cord injuries involve decompression, fusion, and instrumentation. The lifetime care cost for a person with a complete cervical spinal cord injury is among the highest of any medical condition. Attendant care, adaptive equipment, home modification, and recurring surgical and urological procedures over a lifetime must all be projected and documented. See the San Francisco Spinal Cord Injury Attorney page for a full discussion.

Serious Burn Injuries

Burn injuries requiring inpatient burn center care, skin grafting, and reconstructive surgery produce some of the longest and most painful recoveries in personal injury law. The acute surgical course — debridement, split-thickness skin grafting, and in massive burns, cultured epidermal autografts — is followed by years of reconstructive surgery addressing contractures, hypertrophic scarring, and functional limitations. The psychological consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder and the impact of visible disfigurement, are a distinct and significant component of the damages. See the San Francisco Burn Injury Attorney page for a full discussion.

Common Causes of Catastrophic Injuries in San Francisco

Motor vehicle collisions on San Francisco's High Injury Network corridors — including Cesar Chavez Street, Mission Street, Sixth Street, and Van Ness Avenue — generate a significant share of the city's catastrophic injury cases. Pedestrian knockdowns at speed, bicycle collisions with commercial vehicles, and Muni bus and light rail accidents all produce TBI and SCI at a rate disproportionate to their share of total injury collisions, because the unprotected victim absorbs the full force of the impact. Construction site accidents on San Francisco's dense development corridor produce burn injuries from electrical arc flash and welding, and spinal cord injuries from falls and structural collapses. Building fires in older residential stock — the Tenderloin, the Mission, SoMa — produce burn injuries when landlords fail to maintain smoke detection and sprinkler systems.

Liability Framework

Civil Code § 1714 imposes a duty of ordinary care on every person whose negligence causes injury to another. Claims against the City and County of San Francisco or SFMTA are governed by Government Code § 835 and require a government tort claim under Government Code § 911.2 within six months of the incident. Missing this deadline can potentially bar a lawsuit against any public entity. Tolling may apply depending on the facts.

Building the Damages Case

Catastrophic injury cases require a life care planner to project the full scope of future medical, attendant care, equipment, and facility costs. An economist calculates the present value of those future costs and of lost earning capacity. A vocational rehabilitation expert assesses the impact on the person's ability to work. Treating neurosurgeons, physiatrists, neuropsychologists, and burn surgeons provide expert medical testimony on causation, prognosis, and future needs. The failure to develop this evidence adequately is the single most common reason catastrophic injury claims are undervalued.

Filing Deadlines

The personal injury statute of limitations is two years under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. Claims against public entities require a government tort claim within six months under Government Code § 911.2. None of these deadlines are self-executing and tolling may apply.

Attorney Michael Rehm represents catastrophic injury victims throughout San Francisco on a contingency fee basis. No fee without a recovery. Call (800) 978-0754 to arrange a free consultation.

The information on this page is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts. The law can change — statutes are amended, cases are decided, and regulations are revised; nothing on this page should be relied upon as a statement of current law without verification. Deadlines and legal bars discussed on this page are general guides — whether a particular deadline applies, has run, or is subject to tolling, and whether a particular doctrine bars or limits recovery in your case, requires individual analysis. Contact Attorney Michael Rehm to discuss the specific facts of your situation.

San Francisco Catastrophic Injury Attorney

Attorney Michael Rehm — (800) 978-0754