Legal Memorandum: Verdicts in Knee and/or Shoulder Injuries

Issue: What are the recent jury verdicts or settlements in cases involving knee and/or shoulder injuries in New York County, New York?

A.      Summary

An online search of several databases and a hard-copy search of jury verdict files and verdict reporting services for cases involving knee and/or shoulder injuries in New York County revealed a substantial number of cases.  A very small handful of the cases concerned factual situations in which the plaintiff suffered both injuries as a result of the same incident.  Of these cases, there were two defense verdicts and one verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $292,500. These cases are summarized below.  In addition, knee injury cases and shoulder injury cases (where that injury was the primary focus of the litigation) have been reviewed separately.  Verdicts and settlements in knee cases ranged from $29,000 to $892,232.  Verdicts and settlements in shoulder cases, in comparison, ranged from $20,000 to $1,335,359.

Information in the Personal Injury Valuation Handbooks (1998) based on studies of recent similar cases indicates that the basic injury value for a cartilage injury to the knee, such as a tear of the meniscus, was $68,000 when the plaintiff’s medical expenses ranged between $30,000 and $49,999.  The verdict median*FN1 in all knee cartilage injury cases was $50,000, the verdict probability range*FN2 was from $18,439 to $155,000, the actual verdict range*FN3 was from $1.00 to $5,294,000, and the verdict mean*FN4 was $188,883.  Only 4% of all cases involving knee cartilage injuries resulted in awards of $1,000,000 or more.