People commonly suffer knee and leg injuries as a result of road accidents or falling from heights. Knee injuries vary significantly in severity, in that you can suffer from a minor turf burn or abrasion and be perfectly fit and able to walk away home after the accident. A serious accident or fall may even leave you unable to move your leg down from the knee. These injuries occur when the victim either gets their knee cap broken or displaced or when the flesh or ligaments tear away due to excessive stress put on the leg.
Impacts of a typical knee injury
Suffering a knee injury that restricts mobility is often a significant blow for any average person. It hinders their normal movement, stripping them of the freedom to move and travel, and directly affects their everyday lifestyle. These injuries may create even severe problems for you, preventing you from carrying on with your work life due to the damage suffered. People may be dropped out of work temporarily, causing transitory unemployment and financial hardships. The luxury of having ample savings, receiving income from a secondary source, or the ability to instantly acquire skills of earning from home isn’t something available to all. People might be left disabled for life at other times, which marks the start of another lifelong struggle for finances.
Damages & compensation arising out of knee injuries
For their grievous nature, knee injuries are actionable injuries and can be contested before the courts. You can recover damages and compensations, including hospital expenses, medical bills, lost income, physical pain, disability, and quality of life.
If you suffer from a knee injury, you must prove that you have suffered actual harm and losses as a result of the accident that some other negligent person caused. Most personal injury lawsuits are settled out of court even before the trial begins. This means that the negligent party is often desirous to pay hefty damages and compensation. These settlement amounts are often very close, if not equal to the tune of a court award likely to have been announced had the matter proceeded to trial.
How much compensation can you claim for a knee injury?
So, one may now ask, what scale of compensation and damages can I possibly recover from my knee injury lawsuit? To this, no matter how disappointing it comes out to be, there exists no absolute answer. You, being a victim, are at liberty to claim your desired amount against the negligent person. The claim made must also be corroborated by sufficient documentary proof. Having said that, no matter how much the claim is, you may only succeed in recovering as many damages as you can prove.
Settlement amounts vary from one case to another.
The average compensation successfully claimed in knee injury cases lies between $70,000 and $150,000. Despite this range defining how much most plaintiffs recover, one cannot determine how much compensation they can milk out from their claim. The circumstances causing the accident and the aftermaths of the injury all come together to determine how much you can recover from your knee injury lawsuit. Certain other primary factors come into play to ascertain the settlement amount that can be secured.
The severity of the knee injury
The severity of an injury is defined in terms of the physical harm it causes and the duration it takes to heal. More often than not, it is pretty easy to present and prove the seriousness and grievous nature of a knee injury. The condition of the wound and damage caused by an accident can easily be diagnosed through medical imaging such as X-rays and MRI. Perhaps things with knee injuries aren’t as difficult as brain injuries or cases of internal bleeding. Since lab tests, medical reports, and opinions from an orthopedic doctor can all be utilized, establishing the severity of a knee injury is very convenient. Severe cases may include knee fractures, anterior ligament injuries, dislocation, bursitis, tendon tears, meniscal tears, and collateral ligament injuries. After proving the severity of the injury, you must link it to the changed, altered living conditions you are forced to live under. You must bring details about the loss of mobility, dependence on prosthetic limbs, compulsion to switch careers, loss of opportunities before the court’s notice.
Any preexisting injuries
A higher settlement value heavily depends on whether the knee injury suffered was fresh. You can raise a strong case if you can prove that there existed no previous injuries. The existence of an injury often hints at the assumption that the older injury could also have contributed to the victim’s current deplorable condition. Defendants and their counsel always try their best to establish some preexisting injury suffered by the victim to weaken his claim. This is ensured so that the alleged wrongdoer only faces charges for the damage he has caused and has to compensate exclusively for it. This also establishes your healthy, normal state of fitness and compares it to your post-accident condition, the blame for which undoubtedly goes to the accused person. Where no past injuries ever existed, you can claim as many damages as you can prove, which will have to be settled by the other party.
Where a severe injury is solely caused by the accused, with no contribution from any previous injury, the settlement amount can lie closest to what has been claimed. The settlement terms will typically comprise all factors present in a personal injury claim. To succeed in obtaining maximum compensation, engaging an expert attorney can prove to be greatly helpful. From gathering evidence, making a claim to sitting for settlement negotiations, an expert personal injury attorney can do wonders for you. The accused must believe that you possess a strong case, with compelling evidence to prove his guilt. Once convinced, the path to settling and monetizing your claim gets relatively straightforward and surprisingly quick.
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