Soft tissue injury cases can be challenging to take to trial and achieve a fair settlement from. Many insurers will do everything possible to deny soft tissue injury claims, limiting the scope for claims adjusters to negotiate on settlements. Often, this means an insultingly low initial offer and a refusal to negotiate, meaning many cases are sent straight to litigation.
How much, then, can you expect to recover from a car accident injury claim in Kentucky and Tennessee causing soft tissue injuries? Getting experienced car accident lawyers who will help you get excellent medical treatment is crucial to getting a fair settlement in these cases.
What is the Average Settlement for a Car or Truck Accident with Soft Tissue Injury?
If you sustain soft tissue injuries resulting from the negligence of another driver, you are doubtless keen to establish how much your claim might settle for. Indeed, your emotional and physical recovery are likely contingent on obtaining a fair settlement to compensate you for your losses.
Since all car accidents are unique and every claim has different circumstances, it is challenging to predict even a ballpark settlement figure. Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers have collected thousands for clients in soft tissue cases since even a soft tissue case can result in significant injury. The amount of property damage is also a determinant of the case value.
Our attorneys often recover $10,000 – $50,000 for a soft tissue case where our clients have followed our recommended medical treatment of their injuries. In addition to liability (other person is at fault) the extent of property damage and the amount of insurance to collect determines the settlement.
What Constitutes Soft Tissue Damage?
The soft tissue in your body includes:
- Back (minor)
- Neck (minor)
- Nerves
- Tendons
- Muscles
- Ligaments
Soft tissue is anything not classified as bone. Fracture, brain injury, concussions, even a surgery or invasive treatment.
Soft tissue injuries can result in pain in almost all parts of the body, often in the joints, knees, wrists, ankles, head, neck, and back.
Common Symptoms of Soft Tissue Damage
There are many common symptoms indicative of soft tissue injuries, such as:
- Pain
- Swelling
- Muscle spasms
- Weakness in muscles
- Inability to bear weight
- Muscle cramping
- Limited range of motion
Soft tissues injuries call for prompt medical evaluation to establish the extent of any soft tissue damage you sustained. This will also provide concrete documentation for your subsequent personal injury claim.
What Are the Most Common Soft Tissue Injuries in Kentucky and Tennessee Car Accidents?
Soft tissue injuries can affect any part of your body as soft tissue is found in all parts of the body.
The most common soft tissues injuries in Tennessee or Kentucky car wrecks include:
- Tendon injuries
- Torn ligaments
- Sprains and strains
- Neck
- Back
Tendon injuries
Tendonitis occurs when your tendons become inflamed. You have tendons in your wrists, elbows, and fingers, as well as many other sites in your body. In an accident, the force of impact often causes tendon injuries. The resultant inflammation can trigger chronic pain and immobility.
Torn ligaments
Your ligaments connect the bones and vessels in your body together. Ligaments are found throughout your chest, back, arms, legs, and neck.
The impact of an auto accident can easily cause ligament damage, often in the knee area.
Sprains and strains
Many people involved in car accidents in Kentucky and Tennessee are affected by strains and sprains in the neck and back.
The trauma of the impact of a car collision stretches muscles beyond normal limits, often beyond the extent tolerable by your body.
Not only do soft tissue injuries sometimes take time to present, but they can be challenging to see even with the benefit of diagnostic tools. You should seek prompt medical attention if you feel you have suffered soft tissue injuries in a Kentucky or Tennessee car accident.
What is the Outlook for Soft Tissue Injury Recovery?
The recovery times and outlooks for soft tissue injuries varies depending on the grade or severity of the injuries. Soft tissue injuries are categorized according to three grades, as follows.
Grade 1 soft tissue injuries
The mildest of soft tissue injuries often involve rapid recovery times. These injuries only involve injury to 10% of the ligament or muscle group.
Compression, icing, and rest combined with OTC medications are non-invasive treatments that typically facilitate recovery from soft tissue injuries in just a few days or weeks.
Grade 2 soft tissue injuries
Grade 2 soft tissue injuries involve from 10% to 90% of the ligament or muscle group, and recovery times are correspondingly longer.
You may require physical therapy and cortisone injections for this type of soft tissue injury.
Grade 3 soft tissue injuries
The most severe soft tissue injuries typically require long recovery periods characterized by periods of immobility and rest as well as injections to regulate inflammation. Physical therapy can be ongoing, and you may even need invasive surgery.
Grade 3 soft tissue injuries involve damage to between 90% and 100% of the ligament or muscle group, typically involving a complete rupture and tearing of the ligament or muscle.
As well as triggering severe mobility issues, you could also face a lengthy road to recovery, with potentially permanent changes in the affected area of the body.
Important Factors That Commonly Affect Reasonable Car Accident Settlements for Soft Tissue Injuries
The dedicated, experienced, and caring car accident attorneys at Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers will skillfully advocate for your legal rights and rightful compensation in pursuit of a fair settlement, and towards this end, several factors will play a key role.
No-Fault Insurance
No fault in this context refers to your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, which your car insurance provider is required to offer you. This coverage kicks in regardless of who is at fault, and it can augment any gaps in the at-fault driver’s coverage. The only way to avoid purchasing PIP coverage in Kentucky is to waive it in writing, but doing so is generally ill-advised. While the State of Kentucky is known as a choice no-fault state when it comes to your car insurance (PIP) if any of the following apply, you (or your survivors) can sue the at-fault motorist for just compensation:
- If your attendant medical costs reach or exceed $1,000
- If your injury is permanent and/or disfiguring
- If you break a bone
- If your injuries ultimately prove fatal
Damages
If you’ve suffered a soft tissue injury as a result of another driver’s negligence, you’re likely to experience considerable physical, financial, and emotional losses, which the law terms damages. The value of your claim is determined by the extent of your covered damages, which can be categorized in the following two ways:
- Economic Damages – Your economic damages are those that come with a price tag, such as your medical expenses, property damage to your vehicle, and lost earnings on the job.
- Non-economic Damages – Your non-economic damages are those that are more difficult to equate with a ready value but that are nevertheless very real and important to represent accurately. Common non-economic damages include your physical and emotional pain and suffering.
Your formidable car accident attorney will go to bat with the insurance company in its focused effort to negotiate a settlement that fairly addresses both your economic and non-economic damages in their entirety.
In highly specific situations in which the at-fault driver engaged in reckless, intentional, or otherwise egregious behavior, the court may award punitive damages that are not intended to compensate the victim but, instead, are intended to punish the at-fault driver’s negligence and to dissuade others from choosing a similar path.
Liability
Kentucky is one of the few states in the nation that employs pure comparative negligence for car accident claims. This means that, even if you share fault for the accident that causes you to be injured, you can seek compensation for the portion of your losses that the other driver is responsible for. In Kentucky, even if you shoulder more responsibility than the other driver, you are not barred from pursuing the percentage of your damages that the other driver is deemed to have caused.
If you are assigned 20 percent of the fault for the car accident that leaves you injured, for example, your settlement will be reduced by this 20 percent. Consider a more extreme example – if you are deemed to be 99 percent at fault for the accident that leaves you injured, you can go after the 1 percent that the other motorist bears responsibility for.
In such a situation, however, it’s important to note that the other driver is very likely to also pursue compensation for his or her own damages (typically by filing a claim with your insurance provider).
A common example of contributory negligence in which the injured party is found to bear partial responsibility is failure to wear a seatbelt (which can help minimize injuries). When accidents come down to one driver’s word against the other’s – such as when both drivers claim the other ran the red light, there is no one to bear witness, and the evidence is inconclusive – the involved insurance companies are likely to split the difference and assign 50/50 liability.
How Our Law Firm Works to Maximize Recovery in Soft Tissue Injury Cases
If you’ve suffered a soft tissue injury as a result of another driver’s negligence, you face challenges ahead, but the accomplished Kentucky car accident lawyers at Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers in Bowling Green are well-prepared and well-positioned to help. To learn more, please don’t wait to contact us today. Our firm provides personal representation from our top lawyers to get you to good doctors, investigate the accident with photos and witnesses, and negotiate a fair settlement or sue if needed.
We’re standing by to review your case at no charge to you, and we’re committed to helping you better understand the value of your claim and your best options moving forward. If you are injured and can’t travel to us, we will make every effort to come to you. If we can’t reach a settlement with the involved insurance company – or obtain a court award on your behalf – you won’t owe us anything, and as such, you assume none of the financial risks.
How to Prove Soft Tissue Injuries
Getting reputable medical care from specialists is needed to establish a soft tissue injury. At Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers we refer our injured clients to excellent physicians to get the care they need to recover and the documentation to establish their injuries. Although soft tissue, non-surgical injuries are often considered minor but they can cause pain and suffering for months.
