If you have a broken bone injury and you plan to file for a personal injury claim, you are probably wondering what factors will affect your settlement. The value of your case will depend on the unique facts of your case, which your bone fracture lawyer should be able to discuss with you. There are however a few common factors that you should know about.
Settlement Factors that Might Affect Your Bone Fracture Lawsuit
Medical Evidence
If you do not have medical evidence of a bone fracture, negotiating a settlement will be much harder. The availability of medical evidence showing that you suffered a broken bone will definitely show the extent of your injuries. No one can argue the evidence presented by X-ray images and unlike soft tissue injuries, “hard” injuries are easy to prove.
Estimating Your Damages
Accurately predicting how much you will receive for your broken bone claim is difficult because of one reason…
A jury will decide how much money should be paid to you. Juries are unpredictable and this makes it hard to predict the exact amount of compensation you might receive.
Some damages like lost wages and medical bills are much easier to predict. All you have to do is demonstrate the amount that you paid in medical bills and the amount you lost and will continue to lose in wages.
For less concrete damages like pain and suffering, predictions are mostly guesstimates or educated guesses based on awards in similar broken bones cases. There are certain methods of calculating these types of damages that only insurance companies and bone fracture lawyers might use. But whichever figure they come up with will only be used for negotiations.
How your broken bone injury affects your life is also a key factor to consider when valuing your damages. For instance, if you enjoyed participating in outdoor activities like sports but your fracture has prevented you from doing so, your damages based on “loss of quality of life” will be much higher in the eyes of the jury. This would be a completely different story if you were inactive before your injury.
If you had a fracture before your current injury and this made you more susceptible to being injured again, the value of your damages might reduce. If your injury temporarily or permanently prevents you from making a living, the defendant might have to pay for the full extent of lost wages or diminished earning capacity.
What if Your Injury Occurred at Work?
If you suffered a workplace fracture, you will likely be compensated through workers’ compensation. We recently wrote a post that discussed the difference between a personal injury claim and workers’ compensation. The post covers a number of issues such as why you cannot file a personal injury claim if you are covered by workers’ compensation.
How much you receive in workers’ compensation depends on how severe your injuries are. If your fracture temporarily disabled you or you did not have a high medical bill, then the workers’ compensation payment might not be very high.
How Your Case Will be Valued
The three biggest factors that will determine the value of your case is:
- The extent of your injuries
- The extent of your damages
- And how liable the defendant is for your injuries
There’s also the issue of how much each side is willing to agree on in order to settle an injury case before trial.
There are several types of bone fractures:
- Transverse fracture. This is caused by a force that is directly applied to the limb.
- Spiral fractures. This happens when the limbs twist causing the bone to break
- Avulsion fracture. This happens when a ligament or a tendon that’s attached to a bone pulls off a piece of the bone
- Displaced fracture. This happens when a bone fragment is torn away.
- Compound fracture. This happens when a bone breaks in several places. This type of injury typically takes a long time to heal.
- Hairline fracture. This is also known as a stress fracture and typically leads to a lot of pain. Most people don’t even realize they have a hairline fracture.
If you’ve suffered any kind of injury in Fall River, MA, you would well be served to talk to one of our Kevin P Landry bone fracture lawyers. We offer free initial consultations so you can get a real idea of what to expect in a settlement. Call us at 508-676-0001 or visit our Fall River, MA, offices.
