Short answer: an amputation is not an ordinary injury case, it is a lifetime case. The settlement or award has to fund prosthetics that are replaced every few years for the rest of your life, revision surgeries, therapy, home and vehicle modifications, and decades of lost earning power. Insurers know most people have no idea what that lifetime actually costs. An experienced amputation injury lawyer’s first job is making sure your case is valued for the next 40 years, not the last 4 months.
Free consultation. Call 24/7, English and Spanish: (888) 772-2529. No attorney fee unless there is a recovery.
How amputation injuries happen, and why that matters
Many amputation and crush injuries in California happen at work or around machinery: presses and industrial machines without proper guards, forklifts and heavy equipment, construction accidents, defective power tools, and severe vehicle collisions. The cause matters enormously, because it determines how many sources of compensation exist:
- Injured at work? Workers comp covers medical care and disability benefits regardless of fault, and the most severe injuries carry the highest permanent disability levels California law provides: loss of both hands, or of the use of both hands, is presumed to be a 100 percent permanent total disability (Labor Code section 4662), and ratings of 70 percent or more carry a life pension (section 4659). Amputation also appears in Social Security’s Listing of Impairments (Listing 1.20), and many amputees qualify for Social Security Disability, which we handle in-house.
- A machine or tool failed or lacked a guard? The manufacturer or distributor can be liable in a product-defect lawsuit, completely separate from comp, with full damages including pain and suffering.
- Someone other than your employer caused it, a contractor on site, a driver, a property owner? Labor Code § 3852 preserves your right to sue that third party even while collecting comp.
Serious amputation cases frequently have two or three of these running at once. Missing one of them can mean leaving most of the money on the table.
What a lifetime of care actually includes
Prosthetic limbs are not a one-time purchase, they are fitted, adjusted, and replaced on a cycle for life, and advanced prosthetics carry substantial costs each cycle. A properly built amputation case accounts for: initial and revision surgeries; prosthetics and replacement cycles; physical and occupational therapy; treatment for phantom limb pain; psychological care; home, vehicle and workplace modifications; and the difference between what you earned before and what you can earn now. We work the case up with medical and economic documentation so the demand reflects the real number, and we make sure your case is in the strongest possible hands from start to finish.
What compensation can include
Economic damages: all past and future medical and prosthetic costs, lost wages, and lost future earning capacity, documented dollar figures that grow very large over a lifetime.
Non-economic damages: pain, suffering, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. California places no cap on these in ordinary injury cases, and in amputation cases they are a major part of the claim.
Workers comp benefits run alongside: medical treatment, temporary disability while off work, and permanent disability compensation at the severe-injury end of the schedule.
The deadlines
- Two years from the injury for a lawsuit against a manufacturer or other third party (Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1)
- One year to file a workers comp claim (Labor Code § 5405); report the injury to your employer within 30 days (Labor Code § 5400)
- Six months for claims against government entities (Gov. Code § 911.2)
Exceptions exist in both directions; confirm your exact deadlines with an attorney. In machinery cases, the machine itself is the key evidence: it must be preserved and inspected before it is repaired, altered, or scrapped. That happens fast. Call early.
We serve all of California
Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside and the Inland Empire, San Diego, Bakersfield and the Central Valley, statewide, in English and Spanish, with phones answered 24/7 and electronic signing so you never have to travel with a healing injury.
Frequently asked questions
I lost a finger, not a limb. Is that still an amputation case?
Yes. Partial amputations, fingers, toes, partial hand or foot, are serious permanent injuries with real prosthetic, function, and earning-capacity consequences, and California law compensates them accordingly.
The machine that injured me was old and the guard was removed. Who is responsible?
Possibly several parties: the manufacturer (defective design or inadequate guarding) and whoever removed or failed to maintain the guard; if that was a third party rather than your employer, you may have a negligence claim against them. If your own employer knowingly removed or failed to install a point of operation guard on a power press, Labor Code section 4558 allows a civil lawsuit against the employer despite the usual workers’ compensation bar. This exact fact pattern is why these cases need investigation, not assumptions.
I am getting workers comp already. Why would I need a lawyer?
Because comp is the floor, not the ceiling. It pays no pain and suffering. If any third party or defective product contributed, the lawsuit against them can recover damages that comp does not, and the two must be coordinated so the comp carrier’s lien and credit (Labor Code sections 3856 and 3861) are managed rather than discovered at the end.
Does my immigration status matter?
No. Your right to workers comp and injury compensation in California does not depend on immigration status, and your consultation is confidential.
What does it cost?
No attorney fee up front. Amputation cases are handled on a contingency fee: the attorney fee is a percentage of what is recovered and is paid out of the recovery, not by you in advance. If there is no recovery, there is no attorney fee. In workers compensation cases, attorney fees are set and approved by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.
Abdi & Associates, Inc. represents injured workers in the workers’ compensation claim in-house and helps individuals with the related injury claim, working with experienced personal injury trial counsel we trust where a case calls for it while staying involved in your case.
Call now: (888) 772-2529, any time, day or night. Hablamos español.
Reviewed by Shawn Abdi, Esq., Abdi & Associates, Inc. Last reviewed: September 4, 2026.
Attorney advertising. This page is general information, not legal advice about your specific situation. Legal deadlines have exceptions; confirm yours with an attorney. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Amputation cases are among the catastrophic injury claims covered in our personal injury overview.