Most of the knee personal injury cases we have handled are the result of slip/trip and falls, car accident trauma, or construction related. Because the knee is in the middle of the leg, personal injury victims tend to have other injuries around the leg – such as the thigh or lower leg. Case values associated with just the knee injury vary wildly and usually depend on the severity of the injury.
Knee injuries in car accidents usually occur when your knee gets jammed into your dash or center console. In slip/trip and fall cases, your knee usually twists or gets torqued in an unusual way or it gets hurt when you land on it.
Knee Sprains & Strains
Soft tissue knee injuries don’t involve a fracture, a torn ligament, or a torn meniscus. Instead, they consist of sprains, strains, contusions, bruising, and swelling. They are normally caused by either a direct impact to your knee or from excessive torque (force that twists the knee while it is carrying weight). X-rays are usually negative because this type of injury won’t show up on an x-ray.
$29,500
Median Soft Tissue Knee Injury Value for Fulton County
$15,500
Median Soft Tissue Knee Injury for Rest of State
Torn Knee Ligament Cases
By far the most frequently occurring injury of this type is a torn ACL. The dead give away that you tore your ACL is the loud pop you will feel and hear right before your knee gives away. Good knee injury attorneys build your case around the severity of the surgery and how well you recovered in physical therapy.
$29,300
Mean Value in Fulton County
$15,500
Mean Value in Rest of Georgia
We don’t put a lot of stock in the average case values on the right. You will notice the amounts are almost the same as soft tissue knee injuries. That just doesn’t make sense. We have settled torn ligament knee cases for much more then these numbers. This is a good example of not knowing the stories behind these numbers. One aspect we always ask ourselves with discrepancies like this is whether liability contested in a majority of them such that attorneys are discounting the full value of the case? If a good portion of the statistic’s sample is coming from slip and fall cases, where knee injuries frequently occur, then liability is almost always in dispute such that mediations are probably driving down that average. That is why you need to take these numbers with a grain of salt and get a good, fact specific, free consultation with with us before reaching any conclusion about your case’s value.
There are certain factors that can effect a torn ligament or meniscus case’s value:
- Whether doctors are disputing the tear – insurance companies will usually have your medical records and x-rays/MRI’s reviewed by a consulting doctor. Sometimes that doctor will testify that there is either no tear or that the tear was there prior to the accident.
- How your physical therapy for post-operation rehab went. We need to carefully examine your PT records to see if you were compliant and whether you were able to get back to 100%.
How intrusive the surgery was. Was it arthroscopic or did the surgeon have to “open up” your knee to repair it? - Prognosis for future arthritis. Any time you have an injury to a joint, there is a possibility you will get arthritis in the future.
