My name is Justin Ziegler, and I'm an injury attorney with the Law Firm of JZ
Helps, which is an injury law firm serving the entire state of Florida. I represent
people who are injured when someone else is at fault.
Today, I'm going to talk about tibia, and fibula injury cases, particularly those
First thing we're going to look at is, where is the tibia? The tibia is the
unless I say otherwise, that you had no fault in the accident, although you still
This article does not apply when your only case is just a worker's compensation
case. However, you may be injured during work and have a claim against someone
All things equal, it's easier to get pain and suffering money in a tibia fracture
case than many other types of injuries. And, again, I'm referring to cases in
In particular, it's easier to get money for pain and suffering in a car accident,
in most car accident cases in Florida in order to get money for pain and suffering.
Many insurance adjusters will accept, at least for purposes of settlement, that a
insurance company for the careless party, or your own uninsured motorist insurer,
will pay you the $10,000, $20,000, or $25,000, if those are the limits, for your
tibia fracture. Example, you're in a car accident, someone else's carelessness
caused your injury, it caused your tibia fracture.
The other person only has $10,000 of liability insurance. There's an extremely
high likelihood that they would pay you the $10,000 limits, the same being true if
suffering component of a tibia fracture case in Florida is $25,000 to $40,000.
Keep in mind, you add your pain and suffering component to out-of-pocket
medical bills, plus lost wages, that gives you the full value of the case. After you
get the full value, you discount it for your fault, if any, and for other things
the settlement value significantly. Why? Surgery's associated with medical cost,
The tibial plateau fracture is this piece right below your kneecap. This is your
knee cap. Then the tibia plateau is circled here. It is right below your
kneecap. I wrote a separate article on that. I've had several settlements for
tibial plateau fractures. One for $445,000. You can click on any of these
links and read about them. One for $70,000. One for $33,000.
from an accident where someone's carelessness
caused it, the higher the value. So when people ask, "How much is my tibia fracture
case worth?" A lot of attorneys will say, "I don't know until you're finished
treating." Because you may be left with zero impairment, or disability, or you may
be left with a large one. The larger the disability, the higher the full value for
there. Another growth plate is there. If you injure the growth plate, the child
injures a growth plate, that can be a very significant injury, which would drive up
length, that drives up the full value. I represented a pedestrian, we settled his
case for $325,000 after he was hit by a car. Let's take a look at what his tibia
looked like. There's the fracture. It happened in what's called the shaft of the
He had what's called, an external fixator drilled inside his leg to contain the
fracture. He then had that external fixator removed. And one thing you'll
note, I showed you a photo of an external fixator. Any time you have any device that
you're using related to a tibia fracture. You want to take photos of it and
immediately send those to the insurance adjuster so that he can see what your
injury looks like. And this can serve to possibly increase the value of the pain
After he had the external fixator removed, he had a rod drilled through the tibia.
plenty of available money, insurance, to get in his case. It's not always the case.
Another gentleman, where there was limited insurance, fractured his tibia, just the
middle of the tibia, and we settled for $25,000. Again, unfortunately, there was
This is not my case, but there was a young boy who got $800,000 for the pain and
suffering component of his tibia fracture case. That's a lot of money. Why did he
get that? He had a height difference in his legs. So for a little kid to have a
height difference in his legs, that's going to remain throughout the rest of his
life. The full value of that pain and suffering component is worth a lot. It's
going to affect his activities of daily living, and just walking around. There's a
That case was based on the fact that he sued the doctors for medical malpractice
and failing to clean out the fracture properly. Keep in mind that a case like
that, if it involves a child, they will need court approval when the settlement
$950,000 for three tibia and fibula surgeries. Now, the more surgeries you
have, the higher that increases the full value of the pain and suffering component
of the case, and medical bills as well. That drives the full settlement value up,
and then you look for any factors that could discount the full value of the case,
child got $292,000 for the pain and suffering component of a tibia fracture
case. She claimed that an electrical meter fell on her. Now, as often happens in many
types of cases, the insurance company had a different argument. Their view of the
case of what happened was not the same. They argued her brother leaped, and
this? Well, at least for settlement purposes, if there's conflicting stories,
you may have to decrease the full value of the claim, factoring in the chance that a
jury may believe the defendant's version of the story. And keep in mind, she had to
prove, because she was injured, that the defendant, that the apartment complex, was
careless and that their carelessness caused her tibia fracture. They also
argued that they had no notice that there we a problem with the electrical meter.
They said, "What could we have done if we did not know there was anything wrong with
it? We reasonably inspected the premises, and there's nothing that we could've
done." This is a very, very small, short version
into the world of tibia fractures as they relate to Florida accident cases. I hope
you liked this video. Please, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Please, call us at
888-594-3577. My name is Justin Ziegler. I'm an attorney with JZ Helps. If you've
been injured in Florida, or on a cruise, or boat, I would love to represent you.