Issue: What are the jury verdicts or settlements in Southern Texas counties involving lumbar or lumbar/sacral disc injuries and fusion?
| Area of Law: | Personal Injury & Negligence, Workers Compensation Insurance |
| Keywords: | Lumbar or lumbar/sacral disc injuries and fusion; Jury verdicts and settlements |
| Jurisdiction: | Texas |
| Cited Cases: | None |
| Cited Statutes: | None |
| Date: | 06/01/2001 |
An online search through jury verdict and settlement files for South Texas cases involving similar lumbar disc injuries retrieved over 40 cases. Thus, in order to get the most accurate view of potential damages in the present matter, the remaining cases were narrowed to the 20 most recent in Southern Texas. Of the 21 total cases reviewed, seven resulted in defense verdicts. The verdicts and settlements in the remainder of the cases ranged from $5000 to $965,000. Those cases are discussed below.
In addition, information in the Personal Injury Valuation Handbooks (2000) based on national studies of recent similar cases indicates that the basic injury value for herniated/ruptured disc injuries with medical expenses between $25,000 and $50,000 ranged from $103,125 to $129,600.[1] Those figures are based on the verdict median[2] in such cases.
The verdict median in all herniated/ruptured disc cases, regardless of the amount of medical expenses incurred, was $65,000, the verdict probability range[3] was from $20,000 to $222,900, the actual verdict range[4] was from $1 to $17,892,114, the verdict mean[5] was $250,484, and 5% of all verdicts resulted in awards of $1,000,000 or more. In cases that settled rather than reaching a verdict, the median was $85,000, the settlement probability range was from $30,000 to $225,000, the actual settlement range was from $250 to $4,000,000, and the settlement mean was $206,522. Only 3% of all settlements in disc injury cases in general were for $1,000,000 or more.
Note that […]