Being able to tell the difference between good and bad settlement offers is crucial when victims sustain serious injuries like broken legs in South Carolina.
Good broken leg settlements should pay victims for all medical costs from an injury, starting with emergency room treatments. The most expensive medical costs for broken legs typically come from surgery and physical therapy, and we can seek compensation for these damages and more in your lawsuit. Out-of-court settlements may also cover victims’ lost wages, and we can use medical expert statements and proof of income to get these damages as well. Our lawyers can tell if settlements are good and bad after calculating victims’ total damages from an accident, and this is crucial to ensure victims only accept fair offers from negligent parties.
For help with your case from Burriss Ridgeway Injury Lawyers, call our South Carolina personal injury lawyers at (803) 451-4000.
What Medical Costs Should a Good Broken Leg Settlement Cover in South Carolina?
A broken leg is a serious injury that sometimes requires surgery and often involves physical therapy, casts, and extensive treatments. Our attorneys can carefully monitor all costs related to your broken leg and seek compensation for them in a settlement in South Carolina.
Emergency Room Treatments
After suffering a broken bone in your leg, you should immediately go to the emergency room for urgent medical attention. Your future settlement should compensate you for all emergency room treatments and diagnostic tests, including X-rays necessary to determine the exact location and severity of the fracture. You might need surgery to realign the broken bone so it heals properly, including getting wires or nails placed internally to hold it in place during the healing process. Victims with broken legs typically get splints or casts after surgery or other emergency treatments, and your upcoming settlements should also cover those costs. Call paramedics to take you to the hospital after an accident that made you break your leg. Our personal injury lawyers can seek compensation for the cost of an ambulance ride, which might be very expensive in and of itself.
Long-Term and Future Medical Damages
While your broken leg heals, you might have to return to the hospital periodically so that doctors can monitor your progress. Our attorneys will track the cost of all ensuing doctor visits, including any with specialists. Depending on the severity of the break, victims might need additional surgery to remove pins placed immediately after an accident. These damages are also compensable in out-of-court settlements, and we will keep track of them on your behalf.
Shattered bones can take a very long time to heal, often requiring physical therapy after victims remove their casts to alleviate stiffness and regain full mobility. Your leg might still be broken while our lawyers negotiate a settlement, and you might not have incurred all the damages from physical therapy or other medical treatments just yet. To address this, our attorneys can get medical experts to give statements explaining your future care and its likely cost and use them as leverage during settlement negotiations.
Can You Get Lost Wages from a Broken Leg Settlement in South Carolina?
If you break your leg because of negligence, it might affect your earning capacity and ability to return to work after an accident. Settlements for broken bones that prevent victims from working should cover their lost wages, which our lawyers can calculate based on evidence of their previous income.
Before filing your lawsuit or negotiating a settlement, we will estimate your lost wages from a broken leg injury. If your job requires you to be on your feet, a broken leg could stop you from working for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, having a broken leg could prevent you from driving, affecting your ability to get yourself to and from work without assistance, or anywhere else for that matter.
Defendants might initially refrain from covering all lost wages in settlements, particularly future lost wages, and our lawyers can address these situations with statements from medical experts. In addition to confirming the future medical care you will need, experts can explain how your injuries affect your ability to work currently and in the future.
How Can You Tell if a Settlement for a Broken Leg is Good in South Carolina?
Suppose a settlement is good and worth accepting. In that case, it will cover your economic damages from a broken leg due to negligence and your non-economic damages, which refer to your intangible losses.
Our lawyers must first calculate your exact losses to tell if a settlement is good or bad. We can do this by intentionally monitoring all economic damages you incur, such as hospital expenses and missed income. What is most challenging is estimating victims’ non-economic damages, which we can accomplish by weighing certain factors, such as a victim’s age, the seriousness of their injury, and their likelihood of making a full physical recovery.
Having a figure in mind before entering settlement talks is important; otherwise, you might unknowingly accept a poor offer that fails to compensate you fully. Once you sign a settlement agreement, your case ends, and victims who agree to poor offers cannot seek additional compensation from negligent parties.
We can respond to bad settlement offers with counters supported by compelling evidence, such as proof of your damages and the defendant’s liability. Generally speaking, defendants want to avoid trials, so indicating that we are prepared to proceed with one could convince them to increase their offers significantly. If it does not, we can continue with a trial, which could yield greater damages than a stubborn defendant is willing to provide in a settlement for a broken leg injury.
Call Our South Carolina Injury Lawyers for Help with Your Claim
Call Burriss Ridgeway Injury Lawyers at (803) 451-4000 for a free case review from our Columbia, SC personal injury lawyers.
