If you have been diagnosed with CRPS or RSD after an accident, or you are watching unexplained burning pain take over your life and an insurer has already started to minimize it, this page is written for you. It explains what CRPS is, why the pain is medically real, how a claim is actually proven, and what the other side will argue. If you are reading this for a spouse, parent, or friend who is living with this, the same information applies.
What You Need to Know
- If a fracture, surgery, sprain, crush, or nerve injury left you with burning pain that is far worse than the original injury should have caused (and may be spreading, with skin color or temperature changes, swelling, or pain from a light touch), you may be describing Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), the condition formerly called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD).
- CRPS is a real, organic nerve and inflammatory disorder, not “in your head.” Decades of medical research tie the disproportionate pain to documented changes in the nervous system, so being told it is exaggerated or psychosomatic does not reflect what the science shows.
- A CRPS claim is provable even though no single blood test or scan confirms it. Doctors diagnose it with the Budapest Criteria, a standard that turns your symptoms into objective, observable signs a clinician records, the same signs that anchor a legal claim.
- A pre-existing condition does not end your claim. Under Nevada’s eggshell plaintiff rule, an at-fault party who aggravates a prior condition is responsible for the worsening they caused.
- You generally have two years from the date of injury to file in Nevada (NRS 11.190(4)(e)). Because CRPS is often diagnosed months after the accident, that clock may already be running.
- The insurance company’s playbook is predictable: “it’s subjective,” “you’re exaggerating,” “it’s pre-existing.” The reality is that a documented treating-specialist record is what answers each of those arguments.
Why Hire Jack Bernstein Injury Lawyers?
Jack G. Bernstein, Esq. has been protecting the rights of injured victims and their families for over 40 Years.
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Is This CRPS, Or Could It Be?
Many people land here before they have a firm diagnosis. They know the pain does not make sense, and they are trying to put a name to it. You do not have to be certain to start understanding your situation.
CRPS most often begins after an injury that, on paper, looks like it should heal. The common triggers include:
- A broken bone or fracture, one of the most frequently reported triggers. (Nevada CRPS claims often start with the kind of injury covered on our Las Vegas broken bone injury page.)
- A surgery or medical procedure, including routine ones.
- A sprain, crush injury, or soft-tissue trauma.
- A direct nerve injury from trauma or surgery.
What sets CRPS apart is not the injury. It is what happens afterward. The signs people describe, and that doctors look for, include:
| What you may notice | What it is called |
|---|---|
| Burning, throbbing pain far worse than the injury should cause, often the first clue | Pain disproportionate to the inciting event |
| Pain from things that should not hurt: a bedsheet, a light touch, a breeze | Allodynia |
| The skin changing color (red, blue, blotchy, pale) or one limb running noticeably warmer or cooler than the other | Vasomotor changes |
| Swelling, or changes in how the area sweats | Sudomotor / edema changes |
| Stiffness, weakness, tremor, or changes to hair, nail, or skin growth in the area | Motor / trophic changes |
| Pain that begins to spread beyond the original injury site | Central sensitization |
You do not need all of these, and other conditions can cause some of them, which is exactly why a qualified evaluation matters. But if several of these are part of your daily experience, CRPS is worth asking a pain specialist or neurologist about directly.
CRPS Type I (RSD) vs. CRPS Type II (Causalgia)
CRPS comes in two forms, and the difference is straightforward and worth knowing because the insurer may try to make it sound disqualifying.
| CRPS Type I | CRPS Type II | |
|---|---|---|
| Former name | Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) | Causalgia |
| Confirmed nerve injury? | No confirmed specific nerve injury | Yes, a confirmed peripheral nerve injury |
| Typical trigger | Fracture, sprain, surgery, immobilization | Direct trauma to a nerve |
The classification comes from the International Association for the Study of Pain. The key point for a claim: Type I, the more common form, does not require a documented nerve injury. The absence of a “smoking-gun” nerve lesion is part of the recognized definition, not a hole in your case.
Why the Pain Is Real, and Why That Matters for Your Claim
The single most important thing to understand about CRPS is that the pain is not imagined, and it is not a sign of a low pain threshold. The disproportion between a small injury and overwhelming pain is the defining feature of the condition, and medicine has a substantial body of research explaining the mechanism behind it.
In plain terms, CRPS is what happens when the nervous system’s response to an injury goes haywire and stays that way. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the medical literature summarized in resources such as StatPearls, several measurable processes drive it:
- Peripheral and central sensitization: the nerves and the spinal cord turn up their own volume, so signals that should register as mild are felt as severe, and pain can spread beyond the original site.
- Neuroinflammation: inflammatory chemicals released after the injury keep the area inflamed and the nerves overactive.
- Autonomic dysfunction: the part of the nervous system that controls blood flow and sweating malfunctions, producing the color, temperature, and swelling changes that are visible to others.
These are not theoretical. Researchers have documented elevated inflammatory markers, immune-system involvement, and changes in the central nervous system itself in CRPS patients.
What this means for you: when an adjuster or a defense doctor calls your pain “subjective,” they are describing a feature of all pain: no one can put a number on someone else’s pain. CRPS does not depend on that. It is recognized through observable, recordable signs and an established mechanism, which is precisely what moves it out of the “he-said-she-said” category the insurer wants it in.
How a CRPS Claim Is Actually Proven
Whether a CRPS claim can be proven comes down to what is in the medical file: a clear diagnosis under a recognized standard, a consistent treatment record, and a credible link between the accident and the condition. CRPS has no single confirmatory blood test or scan, but that does not make it unprovable. It makes the record the case. Here is how that record is built.
The diagnosis: the Budapest Criteria. The accepted standard for diagnosing CRPS is the Budapest Criteria, adopted by the International Association for the Study of Pain. Rather than relying on a single test, it requires a doctor to find a pattern across four categories: sensory, vasomotor, sudomotor/edema, and motor/trophic. To diagnose CRPS, the criteria call for continuing pain disproportionate to the injury, plus at least one symptom the patient reports in three of the four categories, at least one sign the clinician observes in two of the four categories, and the exclusion of other conditions that could explain the findings.
That structure is the heart of why CRPS is provable. The criteria deliberately separate what you report from what a clinician observes and records: temperature differences measured between limbs, visible color and skin changes, swelling, documented loss of motion. Those observed signs are objective evidence, generated by a treating physician, not by your testimony alone.
The treating-specialist record. The strongest CRPS files are built over time by the doctors actually managing the condition (a pain specialist, neurologist, or similar), with consistent notes documenting the signs above, the treatments attempted (nerve blocks, physical therapy, medication), and the response to them. Photographs of color changes, swelling, and atrophy taken as they occur add a visual record that is hard to argue with later.
The causal link. Nevada law requires connecting the at-fault conduct to the harm. CRPS fits two well-established principles here:
- Substantial factor causation. Nevada uses the substantial factor test (Nev. J.I. 4.04A) for legal causation. The accident does not have to be the only cause; it has to be a substantial factor in bringing about the condition. CRPS developing from a “minor” injury is consistent with the medical understanding of the disease, and expert testimony explains that link.
- The eggshell plaintiff rule. Nevada follows the eggshell plaintiff doctrine: a defendant takes the victim as they find them. If the at-fault party’s conduct triggered or aggravated CRPS, even in someone who was more vulnerable to it, they are responsible for the harm they caused. A prior condition does not erase the claim; it limits recovery only to the aggravation caused by the accident, which the medical record is built to show.
What this means for you: the documentation you and your doctors create now is the case. A consistent specialist record built under the Budapest framework answers the “no objective test” argument before it is made, which is why getting properly diagnosed and treated, and keeping that care consistent, is the most important thing you can do for both your health and your claim.
What the Insurance Company Will Argue, and the Reality
CRPS is one of the claims insurers fight hardest, because the disease’s own features (invisible to a casual observer, variable day to day, without a single confirmatory test) give the defense a familiar set of arguments. Knowing them in advance takes away their surprise.
| The argument you will hear | The reality |
|---|---|
| “It’s subjective, there’s no objective proof.” | CRPS is diagnosed through observed clinical signs (measured temperature asymmetry, recorded color and trophic changes, swelling) under the Budapest Criteria: objective findings a treating physician documents. |
| “You’re exaggerating” or “it’s psychosomatic.” | The medical consensus, from the NIH onward, is that CRPS is an organic disorder driven by nervous-system and inflammatory changes, not a psychological condition. |
| “It’s pre-existing, not from our accident.” | Nevada’s eggshell plaintiff rule makes the at-fault party responsible for aggravating a prior condition; a documented change after the accident is what proves the aggravation. |
| “Our doctor examined you and found nothing.” | A defense medical exam is paid for by the insurer and is often brief. A long, consistent treating-specialist record, built by the doctors actually managing your care, is what a jury weighs against it. |
| “You were partly at fault.” | Even if you bear some fault, Nevada lets you recover as long as your share is not greater than the combined fault of those you are suing (NRS 41.141). Inflating your fault toward that bar is a tactic, not a verdict. |
The through-line is that the insurer’s whole strategy depends on isolating your pain as nothing more than your word. The Budapest framework, a consistent specialist record, and Nevada’s causation rules are built to defeat exactly that.
What a CRPS Case Is Worth
There is no formula and no guaranteed figure. Every case turns on its own facts, evidence, and severity. What a CRPS claim can account for, where the facts support it, generally includes:
- Past and future medical care: CRPS is frequently a long-term or permanent condition, so future pain management is often the largest component.
- Lost income and lost earning capacity, when the condition limits the ability to work.
- Pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, which CRPS, by its nature, affects severely.
Because the lifetime cost of managing a permanent pain condition is central to a serious CRPS claim, that future care is often quantified through a structured projection. The general methodology for that is covered in our explainer on what a life care plan is in a personal injury lawsuit.
Consider a hypothetical: a worker fractures a wrist in a fall, the fracture heals, but months later the hand is swollen, discolored, and so sensitive that work becomes impossible, and a pain specialist diagnoses CRPS. A claim there might account for the surgeries and the fracture care, years of pain management, the lost career, and the daily toll of the condition. This is a hypothetical example for illustrative purposes only. Actual case outcomes depend on specific facts, evidence, and circumstances.
What this means for you: a quick early settlement offer (common before the permanence of CRPS is understood) can lock you out of recovering for care you will need for the rest of your life. The full scope of a CRPS claim is usually not visible in the first few months, which is the strongest reason not to resolve it before you know what you are dealing with.
Do You Have a CRPS Claim? When to Talk to a Lawyer
Not every painful condition is a legal claim. A CRPS claim generally requires that someone else’s negligence caused or triggered the injury behind it: a crash, a fall on unsafe property, a defective product, or similar. The clearer that connection, the stronger the footing.
Some situations make a claim harder or remove it entirely:
| Stronger footing | Harder or no claim |
|---|---|
| A clear at-fault party (negligent driver, property owner, manufacturer) | No identifiable negligence by anyone else |
| A documented onset and consistent specialist treatment | No medical record connecting the condition to the accident |
| Filing within the deadline | The statute of limitations has already passed |
The deadline matters more in CRPS than in most injury cases. Because CRPS is often diagnosed months after the accident that caused it, people frequently do not realize that, in Nevada, the two-year clock under NRS 11.190(4)(e) generally runs from the date of injury, not the date of diagnosis. By the time the condition has a name, real time may already be gone.
If you have a diagnosis (or a strong suspicion) and a plausible at-fault party, this is the point to have a lawyer look at the specific facts, especially one who understands how CRPS is documented and proven, because a general approach can leave the objective signs that win these cases undeveloped.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can CRPS Be Proven Without a Single Confirmatory Test?
Yes. CRPS has no one definitive blood test or scan; it is diagnosed under the Budapest Criteria by documenting a pattern of clinical signs and symptoms across four categories and excluding other causes. The observed signs a treating physician records (measured temperature differences, color and trophic changes, swelling) are the objective evidence a claim is built on.
Does a Pre-Existing Condition Stop a CRPS Claim?
No. Under Nevada’s eggshell plaintiff rule, an at-fault party who aggravates a pre-existing condition is responsible for the worsening they caused. You generally cannot recover for the prior condition itself, but you can recover for the aggravation the accident caused, which the medical record is built to show.
Is CRPS Real, or Is It Psychological?
CRPS is a recognized organic disorder. The medical consensus attributes it to nervous-system and inflammatory changes (peripheral and central sensitization, neuroinflammation, and autonomic dysfunction), not to a psychological cause.
How Long Do I Have to File a CRPS Claim in Nevada?
Nevada’s personal injury statute of limitations is generally two years from the date of injury under NRS 11.190(4)(e). Because CRPS is frequently diagnosed long after the accident, the deadline can be closer than people expect, which is why it is worth confirming your specific timeline as early as possible.
If You Were Injured in Las Vegas
CRPS often begins with the kind of injury handled across catastrophic-injury practice (a fracture, a spinal cord injury, or a burn), and it sits within the broader field covered on our Las Vegas catastrophic injury and Las Vegas personal injury pages.
If you are living with CRPS or RSD after an accident in Las Vegas and your pain is being dismissed as exaggerated or pre-existing, you do not have to fight that framing alone. With over 40 years as a personal injury attorney, Jack Bernstein understands how chronic-pain and catastrophic-injury claims are built from the medical record, and how insurers try to undercut them. Jack Bernstein Injury Lawyers offers a free consultation to evaluate how your CRPS developed, the documentation that supports it, and the deadline that applies to your situation. Because Nevada’s two-year filing window often runs from the date of injury, it is worth getting that timeline checked early. Jack Bernstein Injury Lawyers has recovered over $500 million in verdicts and settlements for injured Nevadans. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Call (702) 633-3333.
