A catastrophic injury changes a life in one moment — and then it changes the life of everyone around the person hurt. Spinal cord damage, traumatic brain injury, severe burns, amputation, multiple fractures, internal organ damage. These cases are not small. They’re not fender-benders that resolve with a phone call to an adjuster. They require a lawyer who understands what’s at stake over the next 30 or 40 years of someone’s life, not just the next 30 days. I’m Joe Kopfler. I’ve handled serious injury cases out of our office on Grinage Street in Houma since 1977.
A catastrophic injury is one that permanently changes someone’s ability to work, function, or live independently. The most common categories we handle are:
Catastrophic cases are not about a few weeks of physical therapy and a property damage check. They’re about a person’s life expectancy with the injury, the cost of in-home care, future surgeries that haven’t happened yet, lost earning capacity over decades, home modifications, and the toll on the family. We work with life-care planners, vocational economists, treating physicians, and biomechanical engineers to build a full picture of what this injury actually costs — not what the insurance company wants it to cost.
Around Houma, Thibodaux, Morgan City, and the surrounding parishes, the catastrophic injuries we see most often come from offshore and oilfield accidents, 18-wheeler and commercial vehicle wrecks, refinery and plant incidents, industrial machine accidents, defective equipment, and serious car crashes on Highway 90 and the smaller parish roads. The mechanism matters: a TBI from a fall on a rig calls for a different legal strategy than a TBI from a rear-end collision on Tunnel Boulevard.
Past and future medical bills. Past and future lost income, including diminished earning capacity. Pain and suffering. Loss of enjoyment of life. Disfigurement and scarring. In extreme cases involving particularly reckless conduct, punitive or exemplary damages may also be available under specific Louisiana statutes. Spouses can also bring loss-of-consortium claims for what they’ve lost in the relationship.
The other side’s investigators and adjusters are working from day one. The vehicle goes to a salvage yard. Surveillance video gets overwritten. Witnesses move. Medical records start telling a story — and if no lawyer is shaping that story, the insurance company will write it for you. The earlier we’re involved, the more control we have over the evidence that will eventually be in front of a jury.
Joe Kopfler has practiced law in Houma since 1977. If you’re dealing with a serious injury or the loss of a loved one, you don’t have to figure this out alone. Call our office at (985) 851-3311 or request a free case evaluation. There’s no fee unless we recover for you.
Kopfler & Hermann
306 Grinage Street, Houma, LA 70360
Phone: (985) 851-3311
