An amputation injury lawyer helps people who have lost a limb because of someone else's negligence, and the families whose lives change alongside them. At Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP, we prove who was responsible and build a claim that covers a lifetime of prosthetics, medical care, and lost earning power. Losing an arm, a leg, a hand, or a foot is permanent, and the compensation has to reflect that it's forever.
Few injuries change a life as completely, or as visibly, as the loss of a limb. The medical bills are only the beginning. There are prosthetics to replace every few years, a home and a vehicle to adapt, a career that may be over, and a daily reality that will never be what it was. Our Buffalo amputation attorneys build cases that account for all of it. This is one focus of our broader Buffalo personal injury practice, so the full weight of the firm is behind your case.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Usually a severe accident or a serious medical failure. Workplace and machinery accidents, car and truck crashes, motorcycle accidents, defective products, and medical negligence are the leading causes of traumatic and surgical amputations. In each, someone else's carelessness often turned a preventable accident into a permanent loss.
Our Buffalo amputation lawyers handle limb-loss cases arising from:
Whatever the cause, the question is whether someone's negligence led to the loss, and that's what we set out to prove.
A traumatic amputation is a limb lost in the accident itself, torn or severed by the force of a crash or a machine. A surgical amputation is one a doctor has to perform afterward, when a crushed, mangled, or badly infected limb can't be saved. Both are devastating, and both can be the basis of a claim when negligence caused the underlying injury.
The distinction matters medically, but not to whether you have a case. Many amputations are surgical, the limb is too damaged to survive even though it wasn't severed on the spot, and those losses are no less compensable. Some surgical amputations also trace to a separate act of negligence, like an infection that went untreated, which can add another responsible party to the case.
Yes, when your limb loss resulted from someone else's negligence. Whether it was a careless driver, an employer or company that ignored safety, a manufacturer that sold a defective machine, or a medical provider whose error led to the amputation, you can bring a claim to hold them accountable. These are among the most serious personal injury cases there are.
The path depends on how it happened. A crash points to a driver, a machinery injury to an employer or equipment maker, a medical amputation to a provider. Often more than one party shares the blame. Sorting out who was responsible, and finding every source of compensation, is the first thing we do, because a lifetime loss demands every available avenue of recovery.
Far more than the initial hospital bills. An amputation brings a lifetime of costs, prosthetic limbs that have to be replaced every few years, ongoing medical and rehabilitation care, physical and occupational therapy, home and vehicle modifications, and often a permanent loss of the ability to do the work you did before. Over a lifetime, these costs are enormous.
This is what makes valuing an amputation case so important, and so easy to get wrong. A single prosthetic can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and it isn't a one-time purchase. It wears out, it needs maintenance, and a growing child needs new ones as they grow. Multiply that across decades, add the therapy, the modifications, and the lost income, and the true cost dwarfs the emergency care that dominates the early bills.
Far more than most people expect, because a prosthetic isn't a one-time expense. A modern prosthetic limb can cost tens of thousands of dollars, advanced ones far more, and it typically has to be replaced every few years for the rest of a person's life. The lifetime cost of keeping someone in a working prosthetic can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Insurance companies count on this being overlooked. They may offer a number that covers today's device and little else, when the real obligation stretches across decades of replacements, repairs, and upgrades. We build the future prosthetic costs into the claim with the help of medical and life-care experts, so the recovery covers a lifetime of need, not just the first limb.
A life care plan is a detailed, expert-prepared roadmap of everything an amputee will need for the rest of their life, and what it will cost. It projects the prosthetics and their replacements, the surgeries, therapy, medications, home and vehicle modifications, and long-term care, year by year, so the claim reflects the true lifetime cost of the loss.
It's one of the most important tools in an amputation case, because it turns an uncertain future into concrete, documented numbers an insurer can't dismiss. We work with life care planners, physicians, and economists to build it, and it becomes the backbone of the demand. Without one, the enormous future costs are guesswork, and guesswork is exactly what the insurance company will lowball.
Phantom limb pain is real, ongoing pain that an amputee feels as though it's coming from the limb that's gone, and yes, it counts. Many amputees live with it for years, and it's a genuine, compensable part of the injury, along with the physical pain, the emotional trauma, and the psychological toll of losing a limb.
These non-economic harms are as real as any bill. The grief, the depression and anxiety that often follow, the struggle to adjust to a changed body and a changed life, all of it is part of what the injury took, and the law allows recovery for it. We make sure the claim reflects the human side of an amputation, not just the receipts.
You may have more than a workers' compensation claim. Workers' comp covers medical care and part of your lost wages regardless of fault, but it doesn't pay for pain and suffering or the full lifetime cost of losing a limb. When someone other than your employer, an equipment manufacturer, a contractor, or a property owner, contributed to the injury, you may also have a separate lawsuit against that party for full damages.
That third-party claim is often where the real recovery lies in a workplace amputation, because it reaches the damages comp leaves on the table. Machinery amputations in particular frequently point to a defective or unguarded machine, which can bring in the manufacturer. We look at both paths, so nothing that could cover your future is left unclaimed.
Yes, and it's one of the most common sources of amputation injuries. Machines with inadequate guarding, missing safety features, or defective designs cause countless limb-loss injuries, especially in workplaces. When a defective or unreasonably dangerous product caused the amputation, the manufacturer and others in the chain can be held responsible under product liability law.
These claims can be pursued alongside a workers' compensation claim, and they often provide the fuller recovery. A press without a proper guard, a machine that starts unexpectedly, or a saw with a defective safety device can turn a routine task into a catastrophic injury. We investigate the equipment closely, because a design or safety defect can open a path to the manufacturer that comp alone never reaches.
Often more than one party. Responsibility can reach a negligent driver, an employer or company that ignored safety rules, the manufacturer of a defective machine or product, a property owner, a contractor, or a medical provider whose error led to the loss. Because the lifetime costs are so high, identifying every responsible party and every source of insurance is essential.
When the losses run into the millions, a single insurance policy often can't cover them, and the difference between a full recovery and a shortfall can come down to finding an additional responsible party or an additional layer of coverage. We investigate the accident thoroughly, precisely because the search for every available source of recovery matters so much in a case that has to last a lifetime.
By the full lifetime cost of the loss, weighed against every responsible party and policy. The value includes the past and future medical care, the prosthetics and their lifelong replacement, lost income and lost earning power, home and vehicle modifications, and compensation for the pain, disfigurement, and permanent life change the amputation caused.
An amputation is one of the highest-value injuries in personal injury, not because of any single bill but because the losses stretch across a lifetime and touch every part of a person's life. Capturing that takes careful work with the right experts to project decades ahead. We build the number thoroughly and prove who's responsible, so every party at fault answers for their share.
An amputation claim can recover your past and future medical care, the cost of prosthetics and their lifelong replacement, lost income and reduced earning power, rehabilitation and therapy, home and vehicle modifications, and compensation for pain, suffering, disfigurement, and the permanent loss of the life you had. Where the conduct was truly reckless, punitive damages may also be possible.
The goal is a recovery that actually lasts, one that covers the decades of prosthetics and care ahead rather than running out in a few years and leaving you and your family to absorb the rest. That means every category has to be documented and proven, especially the future costs that make up the bulk of the claim. We pursue all of it, against every responsible party and every available policy.
Profoundly, and the law accounts for that. An amputation can end a career, especially in physical or skilled trades, and force a person to retrain or leave the workforce entirely. Everyday tasks, driving, dressing, caring for children, become challenges, and the loss of independence is one of the hardest parts of all.
These effects are compensable losses, not just hardships. The income and advancement an amputee gives up, the help they now need with daily life, the activities and work they can no longer do, all of it is part of what the injury took. We make sure the claim reflects the full weight of how a limb loss reshapes a person's ability to earn a living and live independently.
Generally three years from the date of injury for a negligence claim, though shorter deadlines can apply. A medical malpractice amputation carries a different, generally shorter deadline, and a claim involving a government entity usually requires a formal notice of claim within about 90 days. Missing a deadline can bar the claim entirely.
Because the deadline depends on how the amputation happened and who's responsible, it's not something to assume or put off. The safest course is to talk to a lawyer early, both to protect the deadline and because these cases take time to build. The evidence that proves fault, especially the machine or the medical records, is best preserved while everything is fresh.
Focus on your medical care and recovery first, and let someone else start protecting the claim. Follow through on every treatment, keep records of everything, preserve the equipment or product involved if you can, and be careful about talking to any insurance company before you have a lawyer. An early lowball offer can do real damage in a lifetime-loss case.
The equipment matters more than people realize. In a machinery amputation, the machine itself, and its guarding, controls, and maintenance history, is critical evidence, and it can be altered or repaired before anyone documents it. Getting a lawyer involved early helps preserve the machine, the records, and the scene, and keeps you from signing away a future you'll need.
We build them for a lifetime, with every responsible party in view. From the start, we preserve the evidence, investigate the machine, the vehicle, or the medical care involved, and identify every party and policy that can contribute to the recovery, then bring in the experts who can prove what the loss will cost over a lifetime.
Our attorneys work with treating physicians, prosthetists, life care planners, vocational experts, and economists to document both the injury and its decades-long impact, and we pursue every avenue, a third-party claim alongside workers' comp, a product liability claim against a manufacturer, a negligence claim against a driver. We prepare each case as if it's going to trial, because that's what commands a serious offer, and we handle the litigation ourselves when a fair settlement isn't there. Most cases resolve through negotiation or mediation, but we build every one for trial, and we keep these matters in house from start to finish.
We represent seriously injured people and their families across Western New York, and we handle amputation cases the same way we handle every case, in house, start to finish, through settlement, trial, and appeal. We understand what a lifetime of prosthetics and care costs, how to prove it, and how to hold every responsible party accountable.
These cases reward a firm that takes the long view, invests in the right experts, and refuses to let an insurer settle a lifetime loss on the cheap. That's what we bring, along with straight answers in plain language, so you always know where your case stands. You focus on your recovery and your family. We'll handle the investigation and the fight.
If you or someone you love lost a limb because of someone else's negligence in Buffalo or Western New York, the attorneys at Rosenthal, Kooshoian & Lennon, LLP are ready to help. Contact us for a free consultation, and a Buffalo amputation lawyer will review what happened, explain your options, and lay out the path forward, with no fee unless we recover for you.
Time matters, both for the deadlines and for the evidence. The sooner we start, the more we can do to preserve the machine or records, prove what happened, and protect the lifetime recovery you and your family are going to need. An amputation is a form of catastrophic injury, and we treat it with the seriousness that demands.
Call us 24/7 at 716-854-1300 to speak with a personal injury lawyer near you, or contact us for a FREE consultation.
Disclaimer: This page is for general information only and isn't legal advice. Reading it doesn't create an attorney client relationship. Laws and deadlines can change, and the rules described reflect New York law as of 2026. Every case is different, and prior results don't guarantee a similar outcome. For advice about a specific injury, please consult a licensed New York attorney.
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