People with nerve injuries are told, more often than any other injured group we meet, that the pain is out of proportion to the accident. It is a standard line and it is usually wrong. Nerve damage genuinely produces pain far beyond what the original impact suggests, and that is a recognized medical fact rather than a credibility problem.
These claims are won on documentation: the right diagnostic testing, a specialist who treats the condition regularly, and a record that tracks the symptoms from the injury forward rather than starting months later.
The injuries we handle
- Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), also called RSD. Burning pain, swelling, temperature and color changes and extreme sensitivity, often after what seemed a modest injury or a surgery. It is the most disputed diagnosis in this area and one of the most disabling.
- Brachial plexus injuries. Damage to the nerve bundle serving the shoulder, arm and hand, from traction or impact. Common in motorcycle and pedestrian collisions and in falls.
- Peripheral nerve injuries, including ulnar, radial, median, sciatic and peroneal damage from fractures, lacerations, crush injuries and prolonged pressure.
- Nerve damage from medical treatment, including surgical error, positioning injuries during an operation and injection injuries, which fall under medical malpractice.
- Nerve involvement in catastrophic injury, alongside amputation and crush cases.
Brachial plexus injuries to a newborn during delivery are a different claim entirely, handled on our birth injury side, where the question is what happened in the delivery room.
What actually proves a nerve injury
- Nerve conduction studies and EMG, which measure how the nerve is functioning rather than how the bone looks
- Specialist assessment, from a neurologist, a pain management physician or a hand or orthopedic surgeon who sees these regularly
- Consistent contemporaneous records. Symptoms described the same way, from the beginning, matter more here than in almost any other claim
- Objective signs, including temperature and color change, swelling, hair and nail changes and measured loss of grip or range
- Functional evidence, showing what you can no longer do at work and at home
Do not wait for the pain to settle before seeking a diagnosis. A gap in the records is the argument the other side will make, and it is avoidable.
Why insurers fight these claims hard
Three reasons, and all three are answerable:
- The injury is invisible on standard imaging, so the insurer argues there is nothing there.
- The pain seems disproportionate to the impact, which is a defining feature of CRPS rather than evidence against it.
- The value is high, because chronic nerve pain often means lifelong treatment and reduced capacity to work, so it is worth contesting.
Under Maryland's contributory negligence rule, an insurer that cannot dispute the medicine will look instead for any share of fault to attach to you, because that ends the claim rather than reducing it.
What a nerve injury claim has to cover
- Ongoing pain management, including injections, blocks and medication
- Physical and occupational therapy over the long term
- Surgery, including nerve repair, grafting or stimulator implantation where indicated
- Lost income, and lost earning capacity where the work cannot be resumed
- The daily cost of chronic pain: sleep, function and independence
Maryland caps non-economic damages and adjusts the cap over time; treatment costs and lost earnings are not capped. Past results in other cases do not predict any particular outcome.
