Trial and Settlement Value of Herniated Disc Claims in Different Types of Motor Vehicle Collisions
The first case I tried for Miller & Zois 10 years ago was a herniated disc injury case. Since then, we have handled literally hundreds of disc injury accident claims. We spend a lot of time fine tuning the science and the arguments to make at trial in these cases. 
I have always been particularly interested in verdict statistics in disc injury claims. Yesterday, I found some interesting data that looks at the median value of herniated disc injury claims based on the type of vehicle crash. The data provides two things: median verdict and a probability range of verdict.
Of the two, I think the most interesting is probability range. In this Jury Verdict Research Study, probability range is defined as the middle 50 percent of all awards arranged in ascending order in a sampling, 25% above and 25% below the median. In other words, it provides the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile of verdicts. I believe that for plaintiffs with a good law firm, who know how to prepare and try a disc injury case, I think the 75th percentile is probably the median.
Anyway, these are the numbers. I can't figure out how to make a table in a blog post. Sorry about that. So the first number is the median, then the probability range, and the last is the percentage of motor vehicle accident herniated disc cases:
- Truck Accidents; $208,341; $66,975 - $605,101; 10%
- Overall; $54,538; $17,575 - $180,017; 80%
- Intersection Collisions; $50,000; $17,500 - $136,745; 19%
- Turning Collisions; $47,781; $20,000 - $160,000; 9%
- Rear-End Collisions; $47,500; $12,500 - $140,000; 35%
- Chain Reaction Collisions; $40,000; $10,478 - $150,000; 6%
The first thing that really stands out is the gap in the range, which is particularly pronounced as you might expect in truck accident crashes. I'm also surprised at how relativly low the statistics are for intersection accidents.
They are all motor vehicle accidents. What really surprises me is how much more the value of herniated disc injuries explodes when taken outside of the motor tort context:
- Premises Liability; $219,410; $75,000 - $755,574; 32%
- Overall; $196,051; $62,400 - $750,000; 20%
- Business Negligence; $181,629; $51,177 - $688,000; 59%
Sure, you are going to have some serious injury business negligence and premises liability type cases. But you would think that garden variety slip and falls would pull those number down. It makes little sense that a premises liability herniated disc claim would get more money than a herniated disc caused by a truck crash.
There is some more interesting herniated disc verdict information in this report that I will talk about in a blog post next week.
- The Value of Herniated Disc Claims (settlement/trial statistics)
- Value of Cervical Herniated Disc Cases (in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.)
- Herniated Discs (overview of this injury and these claims)
- C4/C5 and C5/C6 Herniated Disc Injury Cases (details on this particular herniated disc injury claim)
- Herniated Disc Injury Claims (a general overview of herniated disc injuries from trauma and settlement/trial value of these claims)
Comments
I was n wreck 2011 MRI showed two herniated disc in my lower back I hve new and old damage to my neck , my back burns a lot ive seen a chiro and still go see him . I'm thinking about a lawyer my medical bills were like 7,500 ..they offered m insurance company 12,500 I do not think this is a fair settlement should I get a lawyer do I hve a case
Posted by: Stephanie | December 28, 2012 9:10 PM