Because every case is unique, the expected settlement for a herniated disc injury can range from as little as $20,000 to over a million dollars. The severity of your injury is a big factor. Other major factors are whether you were partially at fault for the injury and the extent of the available insurance coverage.
Different herniated disc injuries
A herniated disc is a type of spinal cord injury.
The spinal cord consists of a stack of bones called vertebrae. Between each of these bones are circular tissues called spinal discs. These soft tissues allow the spinal cord to bend and flex.
The spinal discs are composed of the following:
- annulus, or the hard, rubbery outside of the disc, and
- nucleus, or the soft inside of the disc.
A herniated disc happens when the annulus tears and the nucleus pushes out through the tear.
The medical complications of this condition vary widely.
In addition to the discs and vertebrae, the spinal cord consists of many nerves and nerve endings. The herniated or ruptured disc may or may not protrude into these nerves. If it does not, there may be few symptoms of the injury. If it does stick out into a bundle of nerves, the symptoms can be debilitating and include:
- numbness, tingling, or weakness in the arms or legs,
- inability to move a limb, and/or
- chronic lower back pain or neck pain.
Those symptoms may be constant or triggered by certain movements or when you put your body in certain positions. They are often only felt on one side of your body.
Herniated disc cases aim to compensate victims
Personal injury claims, including those that involve a herniated disc injury, aim to compensate you for the losses that you have suffered. This includes providing financial compensation for your:
- medical expenses,
- professional losses,
- pain and suffering, and
- other losses.
Because these losses are higher when the herniated disc injury is more serious, the severity of the injury will drive the expected settlement.
Medical bills
The costs of the medical treatment for a herniated disc can be substantial. This is particularly true if you need one of the following treatments to recover:
- spinal fusion surgery, or
- discectomy in the cervical spine or the lumbar spine.
The costs of medical treatment in a herniated disc injury case can also increase if you develop:
- radiculopathy, or
- stenosis in a cervical or lumbar disc.
Even if you treat the condition conservatively, though, the costs for pain medication, steroid injections, and physical therapy can be very high.
Remember to keep all of your medical records to prove how much it costs.
Professional losses
A herniated disc can lead to 2 types of professional losses:
- lost wages, and
- reduced earning capacity.
You lose wages as you miss time at work while you recover from the back injury. Your ability to earn an income can become diminished if the disc injury is disabling.
This is one reason why it is so hard to say what an expected settlement would be. 2 victims with identical back injuries can suffer substantially different professional losses due to their occupation.
Pain and suffering
A successful personal injury claim would also recover compensation for your:
- physical pain,
- mental suffering and anguish,
- emotional distress, and
- loss of life’s enjoyments.
If your herniated disc has caused severe chronic pain or nerve damage, this compensation can be considerable.
The personal injury lawyers at our law firm have found that the amount that you could receive for your pain and suffering varies the most. It is impossible to make a jury member feel what you have gone through. Your ability to communicate the extent of your pain and suffering while maintaining your credibility will matter a lot.
Other losses
You can also recover compensation for other losses that you sustained in the accident that caused your herniated disc. These can include compensation for:
- your property damage, and
- your family’s loss of consortium.
Insurance coverage can influence herniated disc settlement
In addition to the severity of the spinal injury, the availability of insurance coverage can alter the expected settlement amount. If the person who hurt you is uninsured or has a policy limit that is below what you deserve, you will have to find alternative sources of compensation.
If you are unable to find another source of compensation, you will go undercompensated for your losses. The payout from the at-fault party’s insurance company will fall short of what you need.
If this is the case, it can reduce the expected settlement amount.
Shared fault rules influence car accident settlement value
Your state’s shared fault rules can also impact the settlement value. This is particularly true for herniated discs caused by a:
Every state has a personal injury law for when the victim of the accident was partially at fault for it. These shared fault rules fall into 3 categories:
- pure comparative negligence,
- modified comparative negligence, and
- contributory negligence.
All of them make the jury in the personal injury trial assign a percentage of fault on all parties involved. That percentage of fault would then reduce the amount of the jury’s verdict.
In states that use pure comparative negligence, like California, New York, and Florida,[1] the jury verdict is reduced by your percentage of fault, no matter how high it was found to be.
In modified comparative negligence states, like Texas,[2] the verdict is reduced by your percentage of fault. However, if you were found to be more than half at-fault, you would recover nothing.
In the few states that use contributory negligence rules, like North Carolina, you would recover nothing if you were found to be responsible at all for the crash, even just 1 percent.[3]
Even though these rules rely on a jury, they can still influence settlement negotiations. The settlement aims to predict what the jury would do. If there is evidence that you were partially to blame for the accident, it can reduce the expected settlement for your personal injury case.
How to calculate an average settlement amount
One way to gauge what would be a fair settlement for your case is to:
- add up all of your economic damages, like the costs of your medical care, your professional losses, and your property damage,
- estimate your noneconomic damages, like your pain and suffering, by multiplying your economic damages by a number between 1 and 5, and then
- adding the total of your economic damages to this estimate of your noneconomic losses.
That multiplier would reflect how seriously the incident has impacted your life. If you have made a full recovery, it would be a 1 or a 2. If you have suffered permanent injuries, it would be a 4 or a 5.
How insurers defend herniated disc claims
The personal injury attorneys at our law firm have found that insurance companies often try to claim that the accident victim’s injury was a pre-existing condition. They often argue that your medical history proves that you already had back problems.
If that does not work, they will generally claim that you are exaggerating your injuries.
Car accidents are a major cause
A leading cause of herniated disc injuries is an auto accident. The sudden and severe force of the motor vehicle collision can wrench your back in ways that lead to a herniated disc. This is especially common in:
- t-bone car crashes,
- crashes where you get rear ended, and
- truck accidents.
A car accident lawyer can help you file a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurer. This would initiate a car accident case. An insurance adjuster would read and review your claim and would likely make a settlement offer.
A herniated disc injury can also happen in a:
- slip and fall incident, or
- workplace accident.
Disc herniation versus bulging discs
A herniated disc is when the outside of the disc ruptures and the inside sticks out.
A bulging disc is when the outside of the disc expands outwards without rupturing.
While they are different types of injuries, herniated and bulging discs can both impinge on the surrounding nerves. This is a serious injury that can cause severe pain.
Legal Citations:
[1] Li v. Yellow Cab Co., 13 Cal.3d 804 (1975), New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 1411, and Florida Statutes 768.81.
[2] Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 33.001.
