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Catastrophic injury claims are about far more than today’s medical bills. They often involve estimating the cost of decades of future medical treatment, rehabilitation, assistive technology, in-home care, lost earning capacity, and the lifelong impact the injury will have on the victim and their family. Building these cases requires extensive evidence, qualified experts, and attorneys with experience handling high-stakes litigation.
For more than 40 years, Langdon & Emison has represented victims of catastrophic injuries in Kansas City and across the country. Our firm has recovered more than $750 million in verdicts and settlements, including significant recoveries in cases involving defective products, trucking accidents, and other complex claims against powerful defendants. We prepare every catastrophic injury case with the expectation that it may ultimately be decided at trial, allowing us to pursue the full compensation our clients need for the future.
If a permanent injury has changed what you or someone in your family can do, call (866) 931-2115 for a free consultation. An experienced personal injury attorney from our firm can tell you what the claim will need to prove.
Langdon & Emison is a personal injury law firm that has tried catastrophic injury and product defect cases across Kansas City for more than four decades. Eight of our attorneys were recognized in the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, six of them in Product Liability Litigation for Plaintiffs.
Most personal injury cases are settled on the medical bills already in the file. Catastrophic cases can’t be, because the expensive years haven’t happened yet. We work with life care planners, economists, and treating physicians to document future costs, and we prepare each case as though a jury will decide it.
Results depend on the facts of each case and don’t predict what another claim will be worth. Our track record in cases involving catastrophic injury includes:
“I called Langdon & Emison for help after the car accident. Everybody in the firm who helped me displayed sound judgment and decision-making with outstanding problem-solving and communication skills. They were determined, professional, and well informed with a keen interest in upholding the law while protecting my rights.” —Ruhan
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the way my case was handled. The staff was professional, diligent, and very personable and patient with me. He explained every step of the process in terms I could understand. This was a tough case, but he never stopped believing we could win. And win we did! Thanks so much.” —Linda
Check out more reviews and video testimonials from our clients.
An injury is catastrophic when the damage is permanent, and it changes what a person can earn or do for the rest of their life. Some recovery is possible, but function doesn’t fully come back.
The legal difference matters more than the label. In an ordinary claim, the losses are mostly behind you by the time you settle. In a catastrophic injury case, most of the loss is ahead of you, so a catastrophic personal injury lawyer has to prove costs that haven’t been incurred yet and income that will never be earned.
Damage to the cord interrupts signals between the brain and the body, which can mean permanent loss of movement or sensation below the injury. Paraplegia affects the lower body and quadriplegia affects all four limbs, and both bring attendant care and equipment costs that run for decades.
A blow or penetrating wound can cause bleeding, swelling, or shearing of nerve fibers. Severe cases affect memory, judgment, and impulse control, and those deficits often keep a person from working even when they look physically recovered.
A limb can be lost in the incident itself or removed surgically afterward when it can’t be saved. Either way, the lifetime cost includes prosthetics that need replacing every few years, revision surgeries, and lost work.
Burns bring long courses of grafting and reconstruction along with permanent scarring. Crush injuries and multiple fractures can leave hardware, chronic pain, and limited use of a limb. Organ damage can require management for life.
This is the central problem in most catastrophic injury claims, and the one people don’t see coming. Lifetime care for a severe spinal cord injury runs from roughly $2.1 million to $6.3 million, according to 2025 data from the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center. Minimum auto liability coverage in most states is a small fraction of that.
So the work isn’t only proving fault. It’s finding every source of coverage that applies, which can include:
A claim that stops at the first policy leaves the later decades unfunded.
Learn more: Who pays damages that exceed policy limits?
Personal injury law divides recovery into economic damages, which are the measurable financial losses, and non-economic damages for harm that has no invoice. A catastrophic injury claim may seek:
Future costs are the part insurance companies contest hardest, because they’re projections rather than receipts. That’s why we build them with a life care planner and an economist rather than estimating from current bills.
Whoever failed to act reasonably, and in serious cases that’s frequently more than one party.
Drivers and the companies behind them
In car accidents, the driver is usually the starting point. When a commercial truck is involved, the motor carrier, a broker, a shipper, or a maintenance contractor may share responsibility, and their coverage is usually more extensive than a personal auto policy.
A seat, restraint, tire, or fuel system that fails in a crash can turn a survivable collision into a permanent injury. In most states, these claims proceed on strict liability, which means you prove the product was defective and the defect caused the harm rather than proving the manufacturer was careless.
Owners have to maintain their premises and address hazards they know about or should have found. Liability turns on what they knew, when they knew it, and what a reasonable owner would have done about it.
Workers’ compensation generally bars a claim against your own employer, but it doesn’t touch claims against other companies on the site. A general contractor, an equipment owner, or a subcontractor can each be a defendant, and those third-party claims are usually where a catastrophic recovery comes from.
Medical care comes first, and in a catastrophic case the family often handles everything else. As soon as someone is able:
Only with legal authority to act for them. That typically means a power of attorney signed before the injury, a guardianship appointed by a court afterward, or your status as the parent of an injured minor. Where the injured person can’t make decisions, guardianship is usually the route, and it’s worth starting early because the court process takes time.
That’s common, and it doesn’t end the claim. A catastrophic injury attorney would look for additional coverage, evaluate whether the at-fault party has assets beyond the policy, and consider whether the case should be tried rather than settled. An offer at policy limits is sometimes the most that source can pay, which makes finding the other sources the real work.
Most personal injury claims settle, but catastrophic cases go to trial more often because the amounts are larger and future damages are genuinely contested. We prepare every case for trial, since a case that isn’t trial-ready tends to be valued as though it never will be.
Under Missouri law, punitive damages generally require clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with a deliberate disregard for the safety of others. For example, a claim may involve evidence that a company knew about a dangerous product defect, ignored safety concerns, or chose not to take corrective action despite understanding the potential risks.
Whether punitive damages may apply depends on the specific facts of the case, including the actions of the defendant and the evidence available. Langdon & Emison has experience handling complex catastrophic injury cases in Kansas City and throughout Missouri involving corporations, manufacturers, and other defendants accused of putting profits ahead of safety.
If a permanent injury has changed what you or someone in your family can do, Langdon & Emison is ready to review the case. Our catastrophic injury attorneys handle these claims on a contingency fee basis, so you pay no attorney’s fees unless compensation is recovered.
Call (866) 931-2115 or contact us online for a free consultation. If any product or vehicle was involved, tell us where it is now, because preserving it is often the first thing that has to happen.
When it matters, we'll be there.
