Soft tissues surround and protect other structures in the body, such as bones and organs. A soft tissue injury affects the muscles, nerves, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and synovial membranes. If such an injury occurs due to a no-fault injury, then you are eligible to make a soft tissue injury claim. Documenting these injuries is one of the key services we provide at Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers to increase the value of your case. Doing so correctly can help to maximize the recovery for our injured clients.
What’s In This Article:
- Common Causes of Soft Tissue Injuries
- Effects of Soft Tissue Injuries
- Proving Soft Tissue Injuries
- The Value of Soft Tissue Injury Claim
- What Are Your Chances of Winning a Soft Tissue Injury Claim?
Common Causes of Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries can occur due to over-straining, tendinopathies, contusions, bursitis, sprains, and stress injuries. Both can occur at your workplace, sports field, slip and trip accidents, or road accidents.
- The injury can be minor or severe, depending on the extent of the accident. For instance:
- Workplace soft tissue injuries occur due to over-straining when lifting, pulling, or pushing heavy objects without using the correct manual handling equipment. They can also occur due to faulty machinery or performing repetitive tasks for a long time.
- Whiplash injuries are the aftermath of road accidents. These most occur due to the head’s sudden forward, backward, and sideways movement during an accident. Unfortunately, these types of accidents are prevalent, and they can cause severe damage and financial loss.
- Sports-related injuries are also prevalent in people who participate in fast-paced sports. In most cases, these accidents don’t occur due to the player’s fault but rather negligence by the coach or other participants.
- Slip and trip accidents can occur when walking in public areas, such as slipping on a wet floor, unevenly paved slabs, or obstacles on the pavement.
Whichever the cause of your accident, you may find grounds for pursuing a soft tissue injury claim if the accident occurred due to someone else’s negligence or mistake.
You can identify a soft tissue injury if you experience immediate pain followed by instant or delayed swelling. You can also experience stiffness due to the trauma and the swelling while bruising can occur within 24-48 hours.
Effects of Soft Tissue Injuries
Several factors determine how long soft tissue injuries take to heal, such as the severity and your age and health. That said, the healing process can take months or even years. In other cases, you may heal physically, but the pain and other symptoms might remain for a long time.
Some of the most common long-term effects of soft tissue injuries include:
- Disfigurement
- Chronic pain and numbness
- Scarring
- Limited mobility
- Limited muscle strength
- Loss of function
These long-term effects can have a severe impact on how you run your daily life. Therefore, when filing for a claim, your attorney considers these factors to build a strong case.
Proving Soft Tissue Injuries
Unlike hard-tissue injuries, soft tissue injuries don’t show on diagnostic tools and are difficult to prove. For that reason, you need to seek medical attention immediately if you are involved in such an injury. Not only will the doctor help in treating the injury, but you can also use the medical records as proof in your soft injury claim.
Some of the best ways to prove your soft tissue injury include:
Medical Records
After you’re involved in a soft tissue injury, seek medical attention as doctors have the skills to diagnose and treat them. In addition, make sure you follow the doctor’s advice to the letter and take all the prescribed medication. By doing so, you will have enough medical claims to present in your soft tissue injury claim. At Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers, we refer our injured clients to excellent physicians to document their injury and get them the treatment they need to recover.
Eye Witnesses
There are likely people who witnessed when the accident occurred. Such witnesses can help you prove:
- Difficulty in walking due to sprained limb
- Behavioral change due to the severity of the accident, such as memory loss after a concussion
- The severity of the accident, which may convince the judge presiding your case about the presence of the injuries
CCTV Footage & Photographs
If the accident occurred in a place with CCTV cameras, you could request the footage or photos. The footage is essential in determining who was at fault and may change the course of your case. Police may have also taken photos of the accident scene.
At Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers, will take photos and video of the vehicles in the wreck, as well as our client’s injuries. There may be bruising that disappears if not documented, so having photographic evidence can help establish the severity of the injuries even if the case takes months to resolve.
The Value of Soft Tissue Injury Claim
How much settlement you receive on a soft tissue injury depends on the circumstances under which the accident occurred. In addition, the impact of the accident in your life can have a significant effect on the amount of settlement. Therefore, when pursuing such a case, the court uses the following categories to determine how much compensation you should receive:
- Loss of income- the soft tissue injuries may make it impossible for you to continue with your work. When this is the case, the court takes into account this loss when determining your compensation.
- Pain and suffering- the insurance company considers the physical and emotional trauma you experienced from the accident.
- Loss of ability to work in the future- if the accident causes permanent damages, you may lose your ability to work anymore. When this is the case, your personal injury attorney fights to have you compensated for your diminished earning capabilities.
Calculating your damages in a soft tissue injury claim is not easy since some factors such as pain and suffering are non-economical. In this case, the court may use a multiplier to determine the value of your non-economic damages.
However, there are several factors that they consider when determining the value of your non-economic damages. These include:
- The insurance company’s understanding of your injuries
- Your believability
- The credibility of your supporting witnesses
- The amount of insurance to collect
- The insurance company you are dealing with and their attorney
- The physicians’ records and reports of the extent of property damage.
- If the accident was your fault (liability)
- Any pre-existing conditions
- The extent of your medical treatment
What Are Your Chances of Winning a Soft Tissue Injury Claim?
When making a soft tissue injury claim, you need to prove that somebody else was at fault. The simplicity or difficulty depends on the circumstances under which the accident occurred. If the evidence you present doesn’t convince the court, then you risk losing your compensation.
Fortunately, you can maximize your chances of winning the claim by using a personal injury attorney. Experienced personal injury lawyers are well-versed in these types of claims. They know how to build strong cases by collecting all the necessary evidence.
In addition, the attorney understands the criteria used by insurance companies to value your claim.
Get a Professional Personal Injury Attorney to Help You Get Compensation
If you ever find yourself or a loved one a victim of soft tissue injury due to someone else’s negligence, seek assistance from a professional lawyer.
At Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers, we have helped thousands of clients in soft tissue injury claims. We will help you gather all the necessary evidence and build a strong case to maximize your recovery. Contact us today and speak with an attorney with over 45 years of experience. We have recovered millions for the injured in Kentucky and Tennessee, and we can get you the money you deserve.
