Car accidents are sudden, jarring events. Any passenger can slam their body into the side of the car or knock into another passenger, stretching and tearing soft tissue in the process. Many motorists end up in pain after suffering a soft tissue injury in a car accident. Call Griffin Law Firm, P.C. to speak with a top-rated Snellville car accident lawyer about possible compensation. We have 30 years in personal injury law and can hold a negligent driver or other defendant accountable for your injuries.
Types of Soft Tissue Injuries
- Strains: Car accidents can damage a person’s muscles or tendons, which connect muscles to bone. A traumatic accident can stretch, twist, or tear a muscle or tendon. You can experience swelling and tenderness.
- Sprains: An accident might also damage ligaments, which connect bones together. Ligaments can also stretch, twist, or tear when under pressure. Symptoms are like those for sprains: swelling and pain in the affected limb.
- Contusions: A contusion is a deep bruise. You might not think this is a serious injury. After all, who hasn’t suffered bruises at some point in their life? But a large contusion can cut off the flow of blood to the affected body part, leading to the death of tissue. Some bruises on critical organs like the heart can also lead to catastrophic outcomes.
- Whiplash: This is a common soft tissue injury in a car accident. The muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the neck and shoulders can become stretched or torn when a person’s head whips back and forth in a violent fashion.
- Facet Syndrome: Facet joints connect the vertebrae in the neck and back to allow movement. The ligaments of the facet joints can also be stretched or torn in an auto accident. Facet injuries often require medial branch blocks and radio frequency ablations when conservative care does not resolve your pain.
You might not immediately know you have suffered a soft tissue injury. Often, swelling doesn’t show up for 12-24 hours, and adrenaline might prevent you from feeling pain. Only after a day do you begin to experience stiffness, swelling, and pain.
Go to the hospital as soon as you suspect something is wrong. Some people end up with bad back or neck sprains even though they felt “fine” immediately after the crash.
Is a Car Accident Soft Tissue Injury Serious?
Yes. This is a serious injury. Soft tissue injuries can lead to intense pain and immobility. Someone with whiplash could be unable to move their head for weeks or months without pain. They need rest and rehabilitation.
Other soft-tissue injuries could require cortisone injections, trigger point injections, or epidural steroid injections, or even surgery to correct. A full ligament tear might require surgery to reconnect the ligament to the bones, otherwise your affected joint will remain unstable. Tears in the knees could prevent someone from walking. Any heart contusion could lead to cardiac arrest, so a doctor will probably monitor you.
Soft tissue injuries often sideline people for several weeks or months. Whiplash, for example, can prevent people from working until their pain decreases without the aid of painkillers. The discomfort can also increase sleeplessness, which means they don’t feel well enough to work. Consequently, many motorists suffer a dramatic drop in income.
What is a Fair Soft Tissue Injury Settlement?
A fair settlement should cover all your damages. The typical soft tissue injury settlement will pay to cover:
- Pain and suffering. Even a relatively mild soft tissue injury can lead to depression, anxiety, and irritability because you are stuck at home. More serious injuries can cause intense suffering which even pain medication doesn’t fully mask. Our clients deserve substantial compensation for their pain and associated distress.
- Property damage. You can also seek compensation for any damage to your car or other property. If a driver rear-ended your car, you’ll need to replace the bumper and possibly other parts. Severe accidents can total a vehicle.
- Medical treatment. Soft tissue injuries often require rest, icing, compression, and elevation to get the swelling under control. Other injuries will require surgery to correct and possibly physical therapy. You should request compensation for all medical treatment.
- Income or wage loss. While recovering, many of our clients cannot work and suffer a dramatic drop in income. We will request compensation to cover all income or wages, including any income from self-employment.
- Punitive damages. Punitive damages only allow for auto accidents involving drunk driving, hit and run, and other conduct that shows a reckless disregard for human life. Punitive damages are to deter the defendant from doing the egregious conduct in the future.
Each case is different, so it’s hard to generalize how much you will receive without knowing the facts of your case. Someone admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for monitoring of a heart contusion will likely receive more than someone whose ankle is sprained. Please schedule a consultation with a car accident lawyer at our firm so we can delve into greater detail about your accident and injuries.
What Reduces the Compensation You Receive?
Some factors could result in a lower settlement. One is your negligence or contribution to the accident. Georgia has a modified comparative negligence rule. (Official Georgia Code Annotated § 51-12-33). If you are 50% or more to blame for your injuries, you cannot receive any compensation, even if you are hospitalized and in pain. If your fault is less than 50%, then your settlement is reduced by your share of fault.
Suppose you were distracted by a cell phone when a speeding driver hit you in the intersection.
Being on the phone while your foot is on the gas pedal is a type of negligence, so you are partially to blame. If you are more than 50% at fault, then you cannot receive anything. But suppose you are 40% to blame. Your damages are $50,000, in which case you will receive only 60% of them ($30,000).
Another factor is the defendant’s insurance. Too many drivers are uninsured in Georgia, which means it is hard to get them to pay a settlement. We will review all sources of income, including your uninsured motorist coverage.
Schedule a Free Consultation with Our Law Firm
A car accident soft tissue injury is serious. Accident victims deserve serious compensation to help them recover. Don’t let an insurance adjuster claim your injury is “minor.” Instead, call Griffin Law Firm, P.C. today to speak with a car accident lawyer about your case. We can negotiate with the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier for fair compensation to cover your damages, including pain and suffering.