Knee Injury Settlements and Verdicts
According to a recent Jury Verdict Research study over the last ten years, the average verdict in a serious knee injury case is 359,149. The median knee injury verdict is $114,299. Eight percent of verdicts were over $1,000,000.
How do you define serious? JVR defines it as knee dislocation, fractures, replacements, and aggravation of a preexisting knee injury. I certainly understand the first three categories; aggravation of a preexisting knee injury more subjective and a little harder to define.
Half of these cases are car accident lawsuits and the other half include every personal injury case under the sun. So it is hard to extract much meaning from this average serious knee injury verdict. But there are a lot of numbers in the report that break it down a little further.
JVR does not provide the average accident knee injury verdict in car accident cases. I wish they did - the average verdict always gets you more pumped up. But the median is probably more illustrative anyway. The median knee injury verdict in a car accident case is $94,406. More interesting is the middle 50% - the 25th to the 75th percentile - ranges from $26,255-$216,726.
Here are some more knee injury verdict statistics of interest, at least to me:
- Intersection collision accidents have a median of $70,748. The middle 50% range is $28,250-$237,500
- Pedestrian accidents have a median of $150,000. The middle 50% range is $80,071-$240,000
- Turning collision car accidents have a median of $90,203. The middle 50% range is $34,750-$192,038
- Motorcycle accident knee injuries involve, as you would expect, more serious injuries. The median verdict is $191,884. The middle 50% range is $83,300-$287,500. Keep in mind, this is a survey of plaintiffs' verdicts. The hard part in motorcycle accident cases is getting the verdict in the first place. It is amazing how many motorcycle accident lawsuits involve contested liability. Motorcycle cases get fought like World War III on liability in cases where the defendant's lawyer would stipulate to liability under the same facts if the plaintiff was driving a car. It never ceases to amaze me. But I'll admit there is a method to the madness: juries don't like motorcyclists.
- Rear end accident knee injuries have a median verdict of $9,095. The middle 50% range is $1,624-$41,098. This makes sense. There are not a lot of serious knee injuries in rear-end car accidents. If you hurt your knee badly in the accident, chances are you have a more serious injury than just your knee.
Comments
What about slip/fall???I had to have a whole new knee,because someone didn"t empty the trash and coffee seeped out onto the walkway in the mall.
Posted by: johnh | August 31, 2011 12:53 PM
There are no numbers available that thin slice injuries by county like that, unfortunately. I wish there were!
Posted by: Ron Miller | March 23, 2012 2:42 PM
what is the average settlement amount for knee surgery with torn meniscus and scare tissue removal
Posted by: anthony | March 26, 2012 9:34 AM