How Much Do Steroid Injections Increase Settlement Amounts?

Suffering from a back injury after an accident?

Back pain is often debilitating and can easily prevent you from doing what you love or even earning a living. In situations where a physical impact damages the spinal cord—like in an accident—one of the most common conditions that result is a herniated disc injury.

There’s a wide range of treatments for herniated disc injuries, including pain management treatment, physical therapy, and even back surgery. One of the treatments that are typically performed prior to resorting to surgery, however, are epidural steroid injections and trigger point injections.

Whether your back was injured in a car accident, a work mishap, or even a slip and fall incident, you deserve to be compensated for your pain, your medical costs, and the effect that this injury has had on your life.

If you’ve been hurt due to someone else’s negligence, contact a personal injury attorney in Providence, RI. We’ll help you determine the answer to this critical question: How much does steroid injection increase settlement amounts?

What is an Epidural Steroid Injection?

To understand their effect on personal injury settlements, it’s important to know what steroid injections are and how they’re used to treat back injuries.

The spine is made up of vertebrae—or bones—that are stacked with discs in between them. These discs are basically cushions that have a rubbery outside and a softer center, and they prevent the bones from pushing together and causing pain.

When a herniated disc injury occurs, what’s really happening is that the jelly-like inside of the disc slips out through the rubbery exterior due to a rupture in the disc. That’s why a herniated disc is often called a “ruptured disc” or a “slipped disc.”

When a disc ruptures, the nerve roots become swollen and inflamed, causing pressure and pain in the back. Steroid injections—also called “epidural corticosteroid injections”—come into play by reducing inflammation in the affected area of the back after being injected into the epidural space.  

What are Trigger Point Injections?

While an epidural injection alleviates the chronic pain of a herniated disc, a trigger point injection treats muscle pain after an injury. These injections can be administered into trigger points—or areas of the muscle that contain painful or sensitive knots—anywhere on the body for pain relief.

What Damages Can You Seek in Personal Injury Lawsuits with Epidural Injections?

So, what does all this back pain and medical treatment do for your personal injury lawsuit? It’s an important question to have answered. The damages that you can seek in a personal injury lawsuit that involves back pain are similar to those of any other personal injury claim.

Damages in injury lawsuits can generally be categorized into three different groups.

Economic Damages

Sometimes referred to as “compensatory damages,” economic damages include all direct financial losses that an injured party incurred as a result of the incident.

Economic damages often include:

• Medical expenses
• Property damage
• Lost wages

Compensatory damages can typically be proven with evidence like medical bills, wage statements, and repair estimates or receipts.

Non-economic Damages

On the other hand, non-economic damages are intangible losses that are sometimes a bit more difficult to prove. However, they have just as much bearing on your herniated disc injury case.

Non-economic damages can include:

• Diminished earning capabilities
• Loss of enjoyment in life
• Loss of consortium
• Emotional distress
• Pain and suffering

Punitive Damages

Reserved for cases where the defendant’s actions were particularly egregious, punitive damages refer to those that are meant to punish the at-fault party. In Rhode Island, punitive damages are only awarded in cases where the defendant acted with recklessness, malice, ill will, or callous indifference.

How Much Do Epidural Steroid Injections Increase Settlements?

If your injury has resulted in the need for medical treatments like receiving epidural steroid injections, there are a few ways that your herniated disc injury settlement may be increased.

For example, economic damages may be higher in your car accident case (or another type of injury case) due to the direct cost of additional medical care needed to receive temporary or permanent steroid injections.

Non-economic damages may also increase in herniated disc injury cases due to the prolonged pain that the injured party will likely experience.

There are several factors that go into determining a settlement that involves herniated discs or steroid injection treatment. 

Some considerations include:

• How long you are in pain
• How the pain affects your life
• Single or multiple herniated discs treated
• How high your medical costs are with the steroid injections

Back or Neck Pain After an Accident? Providence Personal Injury Attorneys Can Help.

If you’ve been in an accident that involves a neck or back injury, you deserve justice. A herniated disc injury resulting in constant pain and lengthy treatments ends up costing you a lot—both financially and personally.

Get the legal help you need to get the most out of your injury case involving disc herniation or steroid injections. Contact a Providence personal injury lawyer you can trust for a free consultation.