Soft tissue injuries include sprains, strains, bruises, and injuries to the muscles, ligaments, and tendons anywhere on your body. These kinds of injuries are often overlooked in favor of seemingly more “serious” injuries like broken bones. However, most injury cases involve some level of soft tissue injuries, and these might actually be the core injuries holding you back from work or making your recovery more painful.
When it comes to assessing damages for any injury, we have to look on a case-by-case basis and examine your specific facts. How much does it hurt? How much does it interfere with your daily living? Can you work with this injury? For many, soft tissue injuries alone are going to be enough to keep them from work and cause them pretty substantial pain and suffering. When combined with other injuries, we can look at the total result; we don’t need to determine that this percentage was from the sprain while this percentage was from the break. All in all, soft tissue injuries are important to look at, and the damages can often peak into the thousands or tens of thousands of damages.
For help with your injury case, reach out to The Martello Law Firm and our Westchester, NY personal injury lawyers at (914) 685-6950.
Determining the Value of Soft Tissue Injuries in New York Injury Claims
As mentioned, soft tissue injuries are quite common. Even if you did not break or cut anything in the accident, you might have suffered serious bruising or pulled something. Even something as simple as a fall-down injury can result in you tensing up, potentially facing muscle strains and pulled muscles all over your body, as well as bruising where you hit the ground and maybe even a sprained ankle or torn ligament from the initial slip or trip. These damages must be accounted for, and you can claim damages in the following areas:
Medical Care
Calculating medical bills is often as simple as rounding up all of the bills you were charged for your medical treatment after the injury and claiming that value. Sprains, strains, and bruises often do not need much by way of medical care, just a lot of rest and ice. However, some injuries are serious enough that they need surgical repairs, and that can be expensive. Additionally, some injuries need rehabilitation or physical therapy to help you recover full range of motion, and that might also increase these bills.
Many soft tissue injuries also require medication, like painkillers and muscle relaxants.
Lost Wages
After an accident that involved a lot of soft tissue damage, you might not be able to function normally. Therapy might be needed before you can even think about getting back to work, depending on what kind of work you do. Something like whiplash from a car accident might have surprisingly widespread pain, making it impossible to even hold your head up to look at your computer screen. At the same time, bruises often do not get in the way of working, and a sprained ankle likely isn’t going to stop you from doing a desk job.
How much your soft tissue injuries affect your ability to work is always going to be a case-by-case question, and it will depend heavily on what your injury prevents you from doing and what tasks you need to do at your job. In any case, you can claim compensation for any wages you missed because of the injury.
Some cases involve lost wages into the future if the injury is permanently disabling. This is rare with soft tissue injuries, though some injuries might ruin a career that involves very physical activities. For example, a professional athlete who tears their MCL in a car crash or a roofer who suffers permanent tendonitis/tendinosis in their elbow might be unable to go back to their old profession, resulting in future lost earnings, job retraining costs, and more.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering is often the biggest area of damages for soft tissue injuries. If your injury is “not that bad,” it might not need much medical care and might not stop you from working, but it might still hurt really badly. Even an injury that lasts for only a few weeks while you heal can result in pain and suffering damages.
The pain and suffering from soft tissue injuries often comes from their constant nature and the weakness that they can cause in the affected body parts. For example, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep with a whiplash injury can be impossible, leading to long nights lying awake just wishing it didn’t hurt so much. Similarly, a twisted ankle might make it impossible to ride a bike or play with your kids, resulting in damages for those negative effects on your daily living and enjoyment.
Especially if soft tissue injuries are combined with other injuries, pain and suffering might be quite high. However, since pain and suffering is usually based on the severity of the actual injury, the damages from something like a sprained ankle will often be less than a broken ankle or an amputated foot in the grand scheme of things.
Examples of Common Soft Tissue Injuries in Accidents in New York
Our Spring Valley, NY personal injury lawyers see all sorts of injuries, but the following are some of the most common soft tissue injuries that people end up including in a lawsuit:
Whiplash
Whiplash is often associated with car accidents, and victims who suffer whiplash in a crash can often face weeks or months of pain from the injury. Whiplash affects the muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissue in the neck, resulting in stiffness, pain, and immobility. For some, whiplash can even be permanent, resulting in pain and suffering for years to come.
Joint Injuries
The muscles, tendons, and ligaments around your joints can often be torn, sprained, strained, or stretched in ways that make it harder to use that joint for a while. These are often some of the most disabling soft tissue injuries, with even something as simple as a twisted ankle from a slip and fall resulting in weeks off work. Slip and falls and car crashes can even be the cause of very serious soft tissue injuries like a torn ACL or MCL.
Call Our New York Injury Attorneys Today
Call (914) 685-6950 for a free case review with The Martello Law Firm’s White Plains, NY personal injury attorneys.
