What Is The Average Settlement For A Broken Bone Injury In NY?

Jed Dietrich, Esq., Recognized as a Best Lawyer and American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys 10 Best Attorney, is Committed to Protecting the Rights of Accident Victims Across Buffalo. If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in a Buffalo, New York, Accident That Was Not Your Fault, Our Experienced Team of Attorneys Could Help You Collect the Evidence You Need to Obtain a Fair Settlement.

A serious accident can turn life upside-down at a moment’s notice.

If you have sustained a broken or fractured bone in an accident that was not your fault, you could be entitled to significant compensation for your injuries. However, estimating the value of a personal injury case is not always easy. When it comes to broken bones, many different variables could influence the amount of a settlement or court-ordered award.

The Dietrich Law Firm P.C. has spent decades helping New Yorkers assert their rights to a fair recovery. A recognized U.S. News & World Report Best Law Firm, we know what it takes to build a strong, compelling case for compensation, and we have the results to prove it. If you think you could have a case, contact us today at 1-716-839-3939 to speak to a personal injury lawyer and find out how much your claim could be worth.

A fracture is the medical term for a broken bone.

Every bone in your body is vulnerable to injury. Most fractures are caused by traumatic events like car crashes, slip-and-fall accidents, and sports injuries. Even minor breakages tend to require extensive care and a protracted recovery period.

Broken bones tend to fall into any one of the following categories:

1. Transverse fractures. A transverse fracture is a crack or break that forms a more-or-less straight line along the bone. They are one of the most common types of accident-related fractures.

2. Spiral fractures. A spiral fracture, as the name may suggest, is a fracture that visibly “spirals” around a broken bone. Most spiral fractures are diagnosed in the body’s “long bones,” such as the femur, tibia, or fibula.
3. Impacted fractures. Impacted fractures happen when the broken ends of a bone are driven together.
4. Stress fractures. A stress fracture is a small crack in one of your bones. Stress fractures are often associated with overuse and repetitive impact.
5. Avulsion fractures. Avulsion fractures occur when a piece of bone attached to either a tendon or ligament is separated from other supporting bones. Most avulsion fractures are caused by a sudden, forceful change in movement. They are most common in athletes, especially skiers and gymnasts, but they are sometimes diagnosed after motor vehicle collisions and serious slip-and-fall accidents, too.
6. Compression fractures. Compression fractures represent the collapse of one or more of your vertebral bones, which make up your spinal column. These injuries can cause significant pain and may result in long-term disability.

Doctors use many other classifications to describe bone injuries in-depth.

The term “open fracture,” for instance, describes a broken bone that is protruding through the skin. They are sometimes called compound fractures; these injuries tend to be complex, requiring significantly more care than closed fractures, in which the bone stays enclosed within the skin.

No two personal injury claims are exactly alike.

The value of your settlement could be dependent on factors including, but not limited to, the following:

Fractures that cause intense pain, involve multiple bones, or have complex features tend to be more difficult to treat. They are also more likely to lead to serious medical complications. Complications can be caused by an initial injury or during treatment.

Different injuries have different recovery times. Most broken bones take anywhere between 6 and 12 weeks to begin healing, but more complex injuries can take upward of a half year or, in some cases, even longer. Longer recovery times typically translate to greater out-of-pocket expenses; they may also interfere with your ability to go to school or work.

Your compensation in a personal injury claim is not merely the sum of the money you have lost as a result of an accident. Instead, damages are often structured to reflect the toll that an injury has taken on your overall quality of life. Fractures can, for instance, trigger both physical pain and debilitating mental-health symptoms.

Personal injury awards usually entail two distinct forms of compensation: economic damages and non-economic damages.

Your economic damages reflect the money you have spent as the direct result of an accident, as well as the expenses you are likely to incur moving forward. Non-economic damages, in contrast, provide compensation for more subjective forms of pain and suffering.

Of course, putting a price tag on emotional distress is not easy. Consequently, most courts provide set formulas that can be used to calculate preliminary damage estimates. Emotional distress is typically calculated using either of the following methods:

1. The multiplier method. The multiplier method bases non-economic damages, like emotional pain and suffering, on your assessed economic damages. Your economic damages are then multiplied by a number between 1.5 and 5 to calculate the value of an emotional distress claim.
2. The per diem method. The per diem method sets a daily compensation rate for pain and suffering, which is multiplied by the number of days that you have suffered and will likely continue to suffer as a result of a broken bone or other accident-related injury.

These formulas are straightforward, but they are open enough to interpretation that they are frequently contested by insurance companies and defense lawyers.

Since fractures vary with respect to severity and recovery time, there is no “average” or “median” settlement value. Some broken bone claims are not worth taking to court; others could yield six- or seven-figure settlements, particularly if you have sustained multiple fractures and have been diagnosed with a temporary or permanent disability as a result.

Call Jed Dietrich, Esq., today at 1-716-839-3939 to speak to schedule your 100% free, no-obligation consultation and find out how much your case could be worth.

Call the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. immediately at 1-716-839-3939 so that our aggressive, tenacious, and hardworking personal injury lawyers can fight to obtain the best result for your personal injury claim in Buffalo, New York. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there is never a fee until we WIN for you!