Car crashes can cause a variety of soft-tissue injuries, depending on the type and speed of the crash and the point of impact. While many people may take these injuries less seriously than things like broken bones or internal injuries, they can often cause long-lasting pain and suffering, limited mobility, and other medical problems.

Below, learn more about how attorneys evaluate these injuries to determine the value of the economic and non-economic damages they can cause.

If you were injured in a crash, you should seek immediate medical attention as you may not notice signs of a soft-tissue injury immediately afterward. If you wait, the injury could get much worse and your recovery may take longer. After seeking treatment, contacting a lawyer is an important step as you pursue fair compensation.

Soft-Tissue Injuries That Often Result from Crashes

A soft-tissue injury is one that affects the ligaments, tendons or muscles.  These ligaments, muscles or tendons are in the neck, back, knees, elbows or shoulders. These body parts can become strained, sprained or torn, resulting in significant pain, limited mobility and other problems.

Some common examples of soft-tissue injuries include:

• Whiplash – This is an injury to the neck that often occurs in rear-end accidents. The driver’s head and neck are jolted forward by the impact and suddenly stopped, often because of the seat belt or airbag. This can lead to severe pain, headaches, dizziness, tingling in the arms and stiffness in the neck. Whiplash could affect you for months or even years.
• Contusions – These are severe bruises that may result from a body part hitting the steering wheel, airbag, dashboard or door. You could experience pain or swelling and limited mobility around the contusion.
• Sprains – This refers to twisting or overextension of joint ligaments. Whiplash could be considered a type of sprain.
• Strains – This is like a sprain except the muscle or tendon can be stretched or partially torn. Symptoms can include pain, weakness, swelling, inflammation and cramping.

Evaluating Soft-Tissue Injury Damages

One of the main factors in the value of a soft-tissue injury claim is the medical bills for past and future treatment for your injury. For example, you may need to see a chiropractor and/or physical therapist to help you regain mobility, strength and function in the injured area. You may also need to get X-rays, MRIs or other tests to diagnose your injury and the body parts that are affected.

Pain from your injury may require prescription medication, along with crutches or braces to deal with limited mobility.

It is important to hire an attorney with the resources to thoroughly evaluate your damages. For example, your lawyer may need to consult a medical expert to determine the treatment you may need and how long you may need it. An experienced attorney can also be beneficial to your claim because he or she will have helped many other crash victims determine the value of their damages.

Another important factor in the value of a soft-tissue injury claim is the pain and suffering you experience on a daily basis. There is no defined value of pain and suffering. The value of these damages is determined on a case-by-case basis.

There are two common ways attorneys and insurance companies may calculate pain and suffering. For example, they may add up all your economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, property damage) and multiply this total by a number, often something between one and five. Another way is to determine a daily value of your pain and suffering and multiply that by the number of days of pain you are likely to experience.  Years of experience help attorneys compare past settlements and verdicts to current cases and create a fair understanding of the legal value of the injury.

Your attorney will also need to consider other factors, such as whether your condition is likely to get worse over time and how effective future treatment may be.

Call Today to Set Up a Free Consultation About Your Soft-Tissue Injury

You may have many questions after suffering an injury in a car crash, including questions about taking legal action to obtain compensation for the damages you suffered.

That is why meeting with an attorney for a free consultation can be an important step to take. The Minneapolis personal injury attorneys at TSR Injury Law have a proven track record of recovering fair compensation for crash victims. Over more than two decades serving Minnesota injury victims, we have obtained over a billion in compensation.

There are no upfront fees for our services, as we are no paid for representing our clients unless we obtain compensation on their behalf.

Have questions? TSR Injury Law is here to help. Call (612) TSR-TIME.