(235+)When you lose your balance and fall, your body can twist in several awkward ways. In addition, the fall itself can cause trauma that can damage the affected part of the body. Any type of serious fall can damage your body long-term.
One of the more serious complications of a fall is when you injure your knee. You may be looking at an extended period of rehabilitation for a fall-related knee injury. You could also incur significant financial costs, along with the noneconomic impacts of your injured knee.
There is no such thing as a minor fall on your knee. If someone else was to blame for your accidental fall, they may owe you a significant amount of money to pay for the damages.
Contact an experienced Philadelphia slip and fall accident lawyer at the law firm of Gibbons & Critchton, Personal Injury & Accident Lawyers.
How Your Knee Can Be Hurt in a Slip and Fall Accident
Slip and fall accidents can cause trauma to your knee in several ways.
The knee joint is made up of ligaments and cartilage. Any type of sudden and awkward movement can cause a tear or sprain that can damage the soft tissue.
You also have the potential to damage the kneecap, which can break or shatter from a fall. You may even suffer more than one knee injury from a particularly bad fall.
Common knee injuries from a slip and fall accident include:
- Torn cartilage: The cartilage cushions the bones in your knees, and a torn meniscus is a serious knee injury that often requires surgery. the doctor may even need to remove the cartilage, leaving you with a permanent form of a knee injury.
- Torn ligaments: The ligament is connective tissue that holds the knee together. A complete or partial tear will prevent the knee from functioning properly and require surgery.
- Broken kneecaps: Patellar fractures will almost always require surgery to repair. Microfracture surgeries may not even be successful on the first try.
- Sprains: Even a sprain can keep you off your feet for an extended period and result in thousands of dollars of medical bills.
- Dislocated kneecaps: Trauma can cause the patellar bone to move out of place, and it may require surgery to reset. At the very minimum, you are facing several weeks off your feet when you have a dislocated kneecap.
- Bursitis: Trauma from a fall can cause inflammation in the bursa that protects your kneecap.
Many knee injuries will require surgery to repair. Even once you have had the surgery, you are facing an extended amount of physical therapy before you may even make a partial recovery. It is not uncommon for slip and fall accident victims to suffer permanent knee injuries that take away from their quality of life.
You may not even know for some time how and whether you will recover from the knee injury.
How Knee Injuries Affect Your Life
Knee injuries can dramatically impact your life in both the short and long-term. Any type of knee injury, especially one that requires surgery, can keep you off your feet for an extended period of time. Although it is difficult to put a generic number for damages on any type of knee injury, you can expect compensation that would fully pay you for how you have suffered. No matter how you have been affected, the responsible party has a legal obligation to pay you everything you financially deserve.
How Your Slip and Fall Knee Injury Settlement Is Determined
The amount of your slip and fall knee injury settlement depends entirely on your circumstances and how your injury has affected you. The responsible party also needs to have sufficient insurance coverage and assets to pay any settlement or judgment.
Knee injuries can vary in severity, and the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate exactly how you have been hurt.
Some factors that impact the size of your knee injury settlement include:
- Whether you miss time from work and how much time you missed
- The degree of pain and discomfort that you experience from your injury
- What you may have had in your life prior to the injury that you can no longer do
- Whether your injury has caused you some type of emotional harm
Since there are so many different kinds of knee injuries, it is impossible to give you an average settlement amount for a slip and fall knee injury. Again, everything depends on your situation and how hard you hold out and fight for what you deserve from the insurance company.
Why Contact an Attorney If You Suffered a Knee Injury?
One of the main benefits of hiring a slip and fall accident attorney is that they can tell exactly how much your case is worth. They can review the specifics of your situation and help determine how much you are seeking.
The insurance company is always going to push back, claiming that it was just an ordinary fall, and you were not seriously hurt. Hiring a lawyer can help you counter the defense tactics that insurance companies have been using for decades to avoid their obligations. Insurance companies know full well how significant your knee injury is, but they are doing everything that they can to minimize their liability at your expense.
Contact a Philadelphia Slip and Fall Accident Attorney Today
If you have injured your knee in a fall, contact the experienced attorneys at the law firm of Gibbons & Critchton, Personal Injury & Accident Lawyers. We will get right to work to investigate what happened in your fall and gather the evidence that you need to show that someone else should be liable for your knee injuries. To schedule a free initial consultation with one of our attorneys, you can send us a message through our website, or you can call us today at 215-274-0173. As always, you owe us nothing for our services unless you win your case by receiving a settlement or jury award.
