Back Injury Car Accidents Settlement Guide

National data suggest average costs for spinal fusion surgery runs from $80,000 to $150,000. This does not include your hospital stay beyond a few days, follow up care, medical equipment, drugs and related costs..

There are some cervical spinal fusion surgeries that could cost slightly less, in the $50,000-$70,000. It depends on where you live, the severity of the back injury, and the underlying health or the surgery recipient. Whatever the cost of the surgery, it should all be covered in your auto accident settlement amount – just make sure to keep good records of all the costs associated with the back surgery.

Beyond medical costs, there are other factors that will influence the amount of the back injury settlement amount you receive:

• Liability: Was the other driver clearly at fault? Is their insurance provider fighting the claim?
• Permanent impairment: Even a successful surgery can lead to you being unable to return to your previous ability to function.. This has a huge effect on your claim
• Claim or lawsuit: If you settle your car accident claim through an insurance company, you will probably get less, but a trial incurs much higher legal fees, and there is a change you could get nothing.

If the other party was at fault and you suffer permanent back injuries because of the crash, it is possible to have a back injury settlement amount in the mid or upper six figures, possibly over a million.

The average settlement figure for your back injury will vary widely based upon the sort of injury you had.. According to a recent national study, 16% of verdicts in spinal disc injury settlements were more than $1 million, and 7% were more than $2.5 million.. Thus, a serious back injury involving the spinal cord and vertebrae may settle for millions of dollars.

However, less severe injuries to your back, such as a disc herniation, also can yield a large settlement.. These settlements can be harder to diagnose because the injury cannot be seen on an x-ray.. A CT or MRI might be needed to diagnose such an injury.. A herniated disc personal injury typically yields a lower settlement than a ruptured of bulging disc.

A major factor that influences your settlement for a back injury is how much the injury causes you pain and damages your way of life.

In summary, the injury type, severity of pain, and the extent of impact on your life, your back-injury settlement could easily range from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.

Back injuries can range widely from strains and sprains to injuries to the spinal cord that cause paralysis.. So, the settlement amount for any one case has to be decided on a case by case basis.

But generally, typical compensation for a back-injury claim has both non-economic and economic damages.. Your economic damages may include compensation for your past and future medical bills and lost income and wages.. It is important to provide you attorney with all of your medical bill and lost wage information so that you can be fully compensated for your financial losses.

Non-economic damages are for non-monetary losses that are related to your back injuries.. These are more challenging to place a dollar value on.. Non-economic damages normally include pain and suffering; emotional distress and possibly loss of consortium, or loss of the ability to have an intimate relationship with a partner.

You can get a good concept if you got a fair settlement by looking at how the insurance company valued your pain and suffering.. They typically will use a multiplier ranging from 1.5 to 5, times your economic damages.. Your attorney should be able to effectively negotiate a fair multiplier based upon your level of pain and suffering.

Since there are various types of back injuries a car accident victim may sustain ranging from sprains to paralysis, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact settlement amount. Each individual case will have different scenarios with different injuries making it difficult to generalize a settlement value. In order to get an estimated value of what a decent settlement should be, you must take a closer look at what you are being compensated for. These include:

• Medical expenses
• Future medical expenses
• Loss of wages
• Property damage
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of mobility/quality of life
• Emotional distress

Once you have reviewed how much all your expenses set you back and established how much the non-economical damages are worth, you can add everything up to get a rough estimate. To find an estimated amount, you can follow this general rule by taking those values, adding them up, and multiply the sum by three for the estimation. An example of this would be $8,000 in medical expenses (surgeries, x-rays, PT) and loss of wages equating to $3,000. Adding that up totals $11,000 and multiplying that by 3 gives you $33,000. Your settlement will could range anywhere from $26,000- $40,000.

It is not uncommon to walk away from an accident thinking you have escaped without any injuries. Oftentimes, back injuries will not show symptoms until several days after the accident. Lower back pain after a car accident can sometimes correlate with whiplash, or may be a more serious injury with a longer recovery time such as a herniated disc. This is why it’s important to always exchange insurance information, take pictures of the accident scene, and get contact info for any potential witnesses to the car crash – even if you don’t feel any back pain at the time of the car accident, symptoms can show up days or even weeks after the crash.

However, if you are experiencing any type of back pain after a rear end collision, you have the right to file a claim with the at fault drivers insurance and get compensated for your injuries – as long as you were not found at fault for the accident.

Once you’ve filed the claim for your back injury car accident settlement, be cautious of signing any type of release liability form until a medical professional has examined you for injuries. If you sign the form, you forfeit any opportunity to include any subsequent back injuries that may pop up in your final back injury settlement. Most personal injury attorneys recommend that you finish up any medical treatment before submitting a final back injury settlement demand to ensure that you’ve seen the full and final scope of all your injuries.

Cervical fusion is a type of surgery performed on victims of car accidents who have suffered neck injuries. These surgeries cost tens of thousands of dollars and take months to years for recovery, if the victim is able to make a complete recovery. Let’s take a look at the average settlement amount for cervical fusion so you know what to expect if you ever require such a procedure after suffering a neck injury in a car accident.

Factors That Lead to High Settlements

The nature of the injury as well as the extent of the injury will both be major factors in determining the settlement amount for your case. There are four other important factors that must be taken into account and they include the following:

• The amount of insurance coverage that is available
• If the negligence of the at-fault party is at 100 percent
• The experience of the personal injury attorney you hire
• If the defendant is a large company

Should the liability of the at-fault party in the accident that led to your injury be accepted, as in not argued, the amount of compensation you receive should be quite high. The compensation package will be smaller if there is a chance that full liability will not be placed on the at-fault party. The risk of not receiving any compensation is also present if the no liability is placed on the defendant in the case.

Estimating Non-Economic Damages

A tricky part of obtaining a settlement in a cervical fusion case is estimating the non-economic damages. These are damages that don’t come with a price tag, such as lost wages or medical expenses. These include loss of consortium, pain and suffering, and mental anguish among others.

The bottom line is that the average settlement for a cervical fusion procedure varies based on each individual case. Some settlements might come in around $500,000, while others can reach the multi-million dollar range.

In the event that you endured neck, cervical spinal injuries or any other type of wounds after an auto collision and were not found at fault, you have the right to sue and receive compensation for damages. Like any other personal injury settlement, they differ from case to case. How much compensation you may receive depends upon numerous variables. Neck injuries often call for surgical repair called a cervical fusion and can require a lengthy recovery along with months of pain and immobilization. These types of injuries are generally awarded large amounts of compensation due to the severity of the injury. Some real life examples of how much car accident victims of cervical spine injuries have received include:

• $2,750,000- neck injury car accident victim requiring a 3-level fusion and anterior cervical discectomy
• $537,000- car accident victim requiring cervical fusion surgery
• $775,282- car accident victim suffering a herniated disc requiring surgeries and a spinal fusion.
• $7,000,000- woman suffered herniated disc and nerve damage requiring anterior cervical discectomy and fusion two vertebrae
• $1,200,000- truck struck woman from behind at a stop light, requiring anterior cervical discectomy with fusion
• $2,760,000- victim suffered injuries requiring anterior cervical discectomy with fusion

Back injuries are some of the most common injuries victims of auto accidents suffer. Why? For starters, the body might be violently shaken during the crash, which can easily damage the spine, a muscle, tissue or other part of the back. If the crash is violent enough the victim could be slammed against their door, thrown through the windshield, or bent over the dashboard. Back injuries can include herniated discs, sprains, strains and serious injuries to the spinal cord. Today, we will tackle the question of how much should you settler for a back injury after an auto accident.

The Economic Compensatory Damages

The economic compensatory damages in your case will be where most of the compensation comes from in a back injury case stemming from a car accident. Compensatory damages include the following:

• Lost wages and income: in this type of claim you are entitled to compensation that will cover any lost wages and any lost future income due to your injuries.
• Medical bills: you are also entitled to compensation for all past and future medical bills associated with the back injury suffered in an auto accident.

The Non-Economic Compensatory Damages

You can also seek compensation for non-economic damages. These are damages that do not result in financial or economic losses to you or your family. These damages can include any of the following:

• Loss of consortium
• Emotional distress
• Pain and suffering

Other Factors

There are a few additional factors that could play a role in determining your compensation package following a back injury in an auto accident. These other factors include failing to mitigate the damages (usually on the part of the plaintiff) and contributory or comparative negligence. This is when you might be partially at fault for the crash, which could prevent you from obtaining any compensation.

There’s no set amount of compensation for which you should settle after suffering a back injury in an auto accident. Each case is different and needs to be analyzed by an experienced personal injury attorney.

It’s not uncommon for various injuries or pain to take a few days to manifest following a car accident. The adrenaline running through an accident victim’s body in the moment’s immediately following a crash might mask any injuries you suffered or pain present in the body. Because of this, you might refuse medical care. Then, days later, you experience back pain. Delayed onset of pain is real and is quite common following car accidents.

However, when this happens it usually send the victim into a state of mild panic. What was a seemingly minor fender bender with no injuries a couple of days ago, now seems like a mountain of doctors visits and missed work. Without a police report showing your injuries, how will you get compensated for the injuries you suffered in the car accident? Will the insurance company think you’re trying to file a fraudulent claim since you didn’t report the accident right away?

Luckily, you can still collect a car accident settlement from the at fault driver’s insurance company, even if your injuries were’t visible or even reported at the accident scene. It might be a little harder to prove that your injuries are severe, which is when speaking to an attorney may be very helpful.

In general, there are 2 types of delayed onset back pain – upper and lower:

Delayed Lower Back Pain After a Car Accident

Lower back injury settlements are often filed many days after the crash, speaking to the fact that it can take awhile for the car accident injuries to show up. If the pain in your back comes with tingling or numbness you might have suffered a herniated disc or some other spinal injury, especially when the pain is located in the lower portion of the back. Delayed back pain could also be caused by muscle damage or a sprain, both of which can take a few days to show symptoms.

Delayed Upper Back Pain After a Car Accident

Delayed upper back pain after a car accident is generally a sign of either whiplash or a bulging disc in the upper spine. While a bulging disc settlement probably won’t be affected by filing your claim a few days after the accident, things could be tricky with delayed whiplash. Because the injury doesn’t show up on x-rays, insurance companies are notorious for trying to avoid paying fair whiplash settlements. Taking this a step further, if you file your whiplash claim late there’s a decent chance the insurance company will try to claim that it’s not serious (or that you’re faking the injury altogether), and try to drastically lower or flat out deny your claim.

This is another situation when speaking to a personal injury attorney can be helpful. They can make sure you don’t make any mistakes when you file your claim that could cost you money down the road.

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Back pain after a car accident can be debilitating. For some, the pain might go away within a couple of hours. Others might experience days or weeks with pain. Then, there are those who won’t even experience pain until hours after the crash because of their adrenaline, but can experience long lasting injuries once the pain does set in.

Every car accident injury is different and some take longer to heal than others. When it comes to back injuries after an auto accident, it is common to feel pain and discomfort for up to 6 weeks, sometimes longer depending on the injury.

In order to determine just how long you will be experiencing pain you will need to consult with a medical professional. Your specialist will perform many different exams including motion tests and x-rays to diagnose what type of injuries you have sustained and determine a rough estimated recovery time. Do not delay, and go to see a doctor in order to receive a proper diagnosis and treatment options in order to recover as fast as possible. Even if you believe you do not have any injuries, it is very common to experience symptoms the following days or weeks later. You may have injuries that you aren’t aware of and overtime without treatment, may worsen causing issues later down the road.

Factors That Lead to Back Pain in Car Accidents

Some of the factors that influence how long back pain can last after car accidents include:

• Where the vehicle was hit
• If you were wearing a seatbelt
• If the airbags deployed
• The speed at which the accident happened
• The sizes of the vehicles involved in the accident
• The severity of the crash and the injuries suffered
• The age and underlying health of the people involved in the accident

Your doctor will want to know all of this information when examining you for back injuries after a car accident. It will help them determine the severity of your injuries, the treatment needed, and help put a timetable on how long you will experience pain following the accident.

Length of Recovery Time with Back Pain

There isn’t an exact formula used to help determine how long you will experience back pain following a car accident but the majority of people will feel some level of pain for up to six weeks after the crash. There are people who will feel pain for more than six weeks after a crash and those who might even have pain in certain areas of the body for the rest of their lives due to the injuries suffered. Another factor in how long you will experience pain after a car accident is how your body responds to pain. If you heal quickly, you might not feel pain for too long after the crash.

The simple answer is YES! If you are experiencing any back pain after a car accident no matter how minor the accident may seem, it’s always a wise decision to contact a personal injury attorney to speak with as quickly as possible after the accident occurs to discuss further actions in assuring you are owed compensation for your injuries. Back pain after a rear-end collision may only last a few days but may also last a few months or even a few years. It’s risky to wait a while before taking action and talking to an attorney due to statutes running among other things. Sometimes back injuries may not appear immediately but will worsen over time. Be sure to seek medical attention right away as well as contacting your local personal injury attorney.

If you are experiencing any back pain for any period of time after an auto accident it is important to seek out medical attention immediately. Collisions, even minor ones, can cause a great deal of hardship including pain and discomfort from injuries as well as the inconvenience of property damage issues. But to what extent will your back pain last after a car accident? There’s no straight answer as to how long you will experience back pain after an accident, however, back pain can last for days, months or even last a lifetime. Some questions you may want to ask yourself to determine how long the pain may last include:

• What angle was your car hit from?
• What type of vehicle hit your car?
• What type of vehicle were you in?
• Were you wearing a seatbelt?
• How fast were both cars going at the time of the impact?
• Were any airbags deployed?
• How severe is the back injury according to the medical professional?

Lower back injuries settlements caused by an auto accident vary greatly due to specific circumstances and how severe the injury is. Lower back injuries range from minor bruises and sprains to extreme spinal cord injuries and paralysis, making it immensely difficult to place an average settlement amount for a low back injury. Many factors go into determining how much you may be compensated such as the more extreme and enduring the damage, the higher the car accident settlement may be. Hard injuries such as broken bones or fractures tend to have a higher settlement value due to the danger of damaging the vertebrae, which can leave one paralyzed or even, result in death. These injuries tend to be long lasting causing major hardships in life. Some examples of lower back injury settlements include:

• $9,500 settlement for neck and back injuries from a rear-end collision.
• $100,000 settlement for bulging discs from rear-end collision settlement.
• $10,000 settlement for sciatica following a pedestrian being hit by a car.
• $9500 verdict for a back and neck injury due to a rear end crash.
• $100,000 settlement for bulging back and neck discs that required surgery after a 60-year-old was rear ended at a stop light.
• $250,000 settlement for the aggravation of a pre-existing back injury in a car accident.
• $300,000 verdict for a woman in a car accident who had disc herniations in her back and neck.
• $1.2 million settlement for the aggravation of a pre-existing neck injury that needed surgery after a rear end accident.
• $313,000 semi truck accident settlement from being rear-ended by truck resulting severe lower back injuries.
• $300,000 settlement for disc herniations, required surgery and loss of range in her neck.
• https://lawsuitinfocenter.com/ufaqs/whats-the-average-auto-insurance-settlement-for-back-neck-injuries/
• $60,000 compensation for cervical herniated disc in a t-bone accident settlement.

Car accidents cause many different types of back injuries such as herniated discs and lumbar sprains causing trauma to the sciatic nerve allowing you to experience extreme muscle strain specifically over the sciatic nerve. Sciatica occurs when the nerve is being squeeze or pinched by some protruding object such as a bone spur or a herniated disc. If you are experiencing pain in the leg or numbness, it may be a result from trauma to your sciatic nerve. Symptoms often include:

• Sharp pain starting from your lower back or buttock shooting down the back of your leg (typically only one side)
• Pain may even continue all the way down to the foot.
• Numbness in leg or foot
• Lower back pain
• Standing up may cause a more intense pain; laying down relieves pain

There are many different types of back injuries you may sustain from a car accident. Unfortunately, back injuries are frequent in car accidents and can result in pulled muscles, sprains, herniated plates, and even spinal cord wounds. They can be extremely painful and significantly more costly. Depending on the severity of the injury, back settlements range in value. So how much compensation should you expect for your back injury settlement? The settlement value varies based on damages which includes:

• Wages lost
• Medical bills
• Future medical expenses
• Loss of future income
• Loss of mobility
• Property damage

Each injury will have a different value due to the medical treatment required. For example, a herniated disc surgery is extremely expensive costing on average around $15,000 with extra expenses following the surgery that can leave you with a total around $50,000.