Bakersfield Nerve Damage Lawyer

Diagnosed with nerve damage after an accident in Bakersfield, CA? Contact the top Bakersfield nerve damage lawyer to seek compensation.

Nerve damage after a Bakersfield accident brings symptoms that are relentless and often invisible, including electric pain that shoots through your limbs, grip failure without warning, and loss of the physical capacity you relied on for work and daily life. 

Insurance companies know these injuries are difficult to see on standard imaging, and they use that gap to question whether your condition is serious or even real.

Kuzyk Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers fights back against those tactics. Our personal injury attorneys connect you with neurologists who understand nerve injuries, arrange the specialized EMG testing that produces objective evidence, and handle every conversation with the insurance company so you are not pressured into a settlement that fails to account for your long-term losses. 

With over $185 million recovered across more than 100,000 cases, we build nerve damage claims that insurers cannot dismiss.

Get your free case evaluation today and discover how our Bakersfield nerve damage attorneys can help you seek the compensation and justice you deserve.

Do You Have a Nerve Damage Claim in California?

You likely have a valid claim if someone else’s careless actions caused your injury and you suffered real losses as a result. California law requires the at-fault party to pay for all harm they cause, including harm made worse by a condition you already had.

This is known as the eggshell plaintiff rule. It means that if a crash aggravated a prior back problem and caused serious nerve damage, the driver who hit you is responsible for the full extent of your worsened condition, not just the portion they consider “new.”

What Is Nerve Damage?

Nerve damage, medically called neuropathy, is an injury to the fibers that carry signals between your brain and the rest of your body. When those signals are disrupted, you lose normal feeling, strength, and control in the affected area.

Doctors classify nerve injuries into three types:

• Compression: A herniated disc, swollen tissue, or bone fragment presses on the nerve and interrupts its signal.
• Stretching: Violent force during a crash pulls the nerve beyond its normal range, tearing the fibers.
• Severing: A deep cut or puncture wound slices through the nerve entirely, often requiring surgical repair.

What Are the Symptoms of Nerve Damage?

Symptoms can appear immediately after an accident or develop gradually over days and weeks. Delayed onset does not weaken your claim as long as you document your symptoms and connect them to the accident through medical records.

Common symptoms include:

• Numbness or tingling in your hands, feet, arms, or legs
• Burning or electric shock pain
• Muscle weakness that affects your grip or your ability to walk
• Extreme sensitivity where even light contact causes sharp pain
• Loss of coordination or balance
• Foot drop, which is the inability to lift the front of your foot properly
• Changes in bladder or bowel control

Keep a daily journal noting your pain levels, the tasks you cannot perform, and how your sleep and mood are affected. This record becomes direct evidence of how the injury has changed your daily life.

What Accidents Cause Nerve Damage in Bakersfield?

High-impact accidents are the most common cause of nerve injuries. Bakersfield’s busy highways and industrial worksites create frequent opportunities for these serious injuries.

Car and Truck Crashes on Highway 99 and SR 58

High-speed collisions generate enough force to herniate discs and compress the nerve roots that run along your spine. This often sends radiating pain down your arms or legs long after the crash itself.

Workplace and Oilfield Injuries

Kern County’s oilfields, farms, and construction sites expose workers to crushing equipment, electrical hazards, and fall risks that can all cause severe nerve damage. If a negligent contractor or equipment manufacturer contributed to your injury, you may have a personal injury claim on top of any workers’ compensation benefits.

A tactic we see repeatedly from adjusters handling oilfield and workplace nerve damage claims in Kern County is an early argument that workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy, discouraging claimants from pursuing a separate personal injury claim against the equipment manufacturer or the third-party contractor whose negligence caused the injury. 

Those are two separate legal tracks, and we pursue both simultaneously to maximize the total recovery available to the client.

Slip and Fall Accidents

A hard fall on a wet floor or broken staircase can fracture bones that then press on nearby nerves. Hip fractures frequently damage the sciatic nerve, while shoulder injuries can affect the brachial plexus, which is the nerve network that controls your entire arm.

Dog Bites and Puncture Wounds

Deep puncture wounds from animal attacks can sever peripheral nerves in your hands, face, or arms. California holds dog owners strictly liable for injuries their animals cause, regardless of whether the dog had bitten anyone before.

Medical Malpractice

Nerve damage caused during surgery or through an improper injection is a recognized form of medical malpractice. These claims have shorter deadlines than standard injury cases, so acting quickly matters.

Who Is Liable for Your Nerve Damage?

More than one party can share responsibility for your injury. Identifying every liable party increases the total compensation available to you.

• Negligent drivers: Motorists who were speeding, distracted, or impaired at the time of the crash.
• Property owners: Businesses that ignored hazardous conditions like wet floors, broken stairs, or poor lighting.
• Employers and contractors: Companies that failed to maintain safe working conditions or provide required safety equipment.
• Product manufacturers: Companies that made defective vehicles, machinery, or medical devices.
• Government entities: Agencies responsible for dangerous road conditions in Kern County.
• Healthcare providers: Medical professionals who caused nerve damage through substandard care or surgical error.

We investigate every potential source of recovery so you are not leaving compensation on the table.

How We Prove Nerve Damage Claims Insurers Try to Dismiss

The biggest challenge in a nerve damage case is that the injury often does not appear on a standard X-ray or MRI. Insurance adjusters count on this to argue your pain is exaggerated or unrelated to the accident. We counter this with objective testing that produces hard numbers they cannot dismiss.

EMG and Nerve Conduction Studies

An electromyography test, known as an EMG, measures the electrical activity in your muscles. A nerve conduction study measures how quickly signals travel through your nerves. Together, these tests can confirm nerve dysfunction even when imaging looks normal.

MRI and Advanced Imaging

An MRI can reveal herniated discs, swelling, or bone fragments that are compressing your nerves. We ensure you receive the most thorough imaging available and connect those findings to your accident through specialist testimony.

One pattern we consistently see in nerve damage claims in Bakersfield is that initial emergency evaluations at Kern Medical or Adventist Health Bakersfield focus on acute fractures and bleeding rather than nerve function, so the nerve injury often goes undiagnosed for weeks. 

By the time a client is referred to a neurologist and an EMG is ordered, the insurance company is already arguing that the gap between the accident and the diagnosis means the injury was not caused by the crash. 

We move quickly to connect that diagnostic timeline to the mechanism of injury before the insurer can use the delay against the claim.

Functional Capacity Evaluations

An occupational therapist conducts a functional capacity evaluation to document exactly which job tasks you can no longer perform. This creates a concrete record of how your nerve injury affects your ability to earn a living.

What Compensation Can You Recover for Nerve Damage?

California law allows you to recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover your measurable financial losses. Non-economic damages cover the personal impact of your injury.

Medical compensation includes your emergency care, specialist visits, EMG testing, medications, surgery, and any long-term pain management you will need. For permanent nerve damage, we work with medical experts to project your lifetime care costs and include them in your claim.

If your injury prevents you from returning to your previous job, we use vocational experts to calculate your reduced earning capacity over time. This goes beyond your missed paychecks and accounts for the career opportunities you can no longer pursue.

How Partial Fault Affects Your Recovery in California

California uses a legal rule called pure comparative negligence. This means you can recover compensation even if you were partly at fault for the accident. Your total award is simply reduced by your percentage of responsibility.

For example, if a jury finds you 20 percent at fault and awards $300,000 in damages, you receive $240,000. Our job is to build the strongest possible case so that responsibility stays where it belongs, on the party whose careless actions caused your injury.

What Deadlines Apply to a Nerve Damage Claim?

Missing a legal deadline means losing your right to compensation entirely, regardless of how strong your case is.

• Personal injury claims: Two years from the date of the accident under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 335.1.
• Medical malpractice claims: One year from the date you discovered the injury, or three years from the date of treatment, whichever comes first.
• Government entity claims: Six months to file an administrative claim against a city, county, or state agency.

Because these deadlines vary and some begin running before you even realize the full extent of your injury, the earlier you speak with an attorney, the better.

What to Do After Suspecting Nerve Damage

The steps you take in the days after an accident directly affect both your health outcome and your legal case.

1. Get a medical evaluation right away: Request a referral to a neurologist if your symptoms include numbness, tingling, or weakness. Early diagnosis creates the medical record that connects your injury to the accident.
2. Start a daily symptom journal: Write down your pain levels, the activities you cannot do, and how the injury affects your sleep, your mood, and your family responsibilities.
3. Decline recorded statements to the insurance company: Tell the adjuster that your attorney will handle all communications. Recorded statements are used to find inconsistencies that reduce your payout.
4. Call Kuzyk Law Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers: We are available 24 hours a day, offer free consultations, and provide full Spanish-speaking support for Bakersfield families.

Why Choose Kuzyk Law Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers?

The insurance companies handling Kern County injury claims know exactly which attorneys will push for trial and which ones will settle for whatever is offered. Here is why that distinction matters for your case.

• We have recovered more than $1 billion for the people we represent: That figure is what happens when a law firm consistently prepares cases for the worst-case scenario and uses that preparation as leverage at every stage of the claim.
• 100,000 clients represented over the course of our history: That depth of case experience gives us insight that no amount of legal theory can replicate. We know how these cases develop, where they get complicated, and what it takes to resolve them in our clients’ favor.
• A firm rooted in this community since 1971: Over five decades, we have built the kind of local knowledge, courtroom relationships, adjuster patterns, regional courts that only come from consistently showing up for the same community year after year.
• Trial preparation is the foundation of our negotiating position: Firms that always settle give insurance companies every reason to hold firm on low offers. When adjusters know we are genuinely ready to take a case before a jury, the negotiation dynamic shifts in our clients’ favor.
• You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you: Every expert we retain, every record we request, every filing fee we pay comes out of our pocket until we win. If we do not recover anything, you owe us nothing.
• We answer around the clock because your situation does not follow a schedule: Whether you have a question on a Sunday evening or need help the night of an accident, our team is available at any hour to respond.
• Bilingual team  English and Spanish: A serious injury affects every member of your household. Our Spanish-speaking staff makes sure the whole family stays informed and never has to navigate a language barrier when it matters most.
• Home and hospital visits  we meet you wherever you are: You should not have to push through pain or arrange difficult transportation just to speak with your attorney. Tell us where you are and we will come to you.
• Four out of five of our new clients are referred by someone we previously helped: Word of mouth is the most honest measure of a law firm’s reputation. When former clients are the ones sending us new clients, that tells you more than any marketing claim could.
• 30+ professionals dedicated to personal injury claims: Our team size means we can move fast, staff cases thoroughly, and bring multiple perspectives to complex liability questions without any client ever feeling like a number in a queue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I File a Nerve Damage Claim if My Symptoms Appeared Days After the Accident?

Yes, delayed nerve damage symptoms are common and do not prevent you from filing a claim. What matters is that you seek medical attention promptly and document the connection between your symptoms and the accident.

Does a Normal MRI Mean I Cannot Prove Nerve Damage?

A normal MRI does not rule out nerve damage. EMG and nerve conduction studies can confirm nerve dysfunction that does not appear on imaging, and we arrange for these tests as part of building your case.

Can I Still Recover Compensation if I Had Prior Back or Neck Problems?

Yes. Under California’s eggshell plaintiff rule, the at-fault party is responsible for the full extent of your worsened condition, even if a prior injury made you more vulnerable to serious nerve damage.

What if My Nerve Damage Happened at Work?

You may have both a workers’ compensation claim and a separate personal injury claim against a negligent contractor, equipment manufacturer, or other third party. We evaluate both options to maximize your total recovery.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire Kuzyk Law Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers?

We handle all nerve damage cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay no attorney fees unless we successfully recover compensation for your injuries.