How Can I Get Compensation for a Crushed Pelvis?

Frequently considered serious injuries, pelvic fractures require more intensive treatment programs and rehabilitation sessions than other types of orthopedic procedures. A crushed pelvis typically involves at least two breaks that can cause damage to nearby organs. Emergency surgery right after the incident that crushed a pelvis attempts to prevent bleeding from making the injury life-threatening. Some crushed pelvis injuries also involve a fractured hip.

Knowing how to get compensation for a crushed pelvis starts by receiving a diagnosis that reveals the type of fracture.

Avulsion

This type of pelvic fracture stretches one or more tendons to the point when a tendon or tendons break away from the pelvic bone. Athletes are especially vulnerable to avulsion fractures and the seriousness of the injury can include prolonged severe trauma. 

Open Book

An open book pelvic fracture concerns the breaking of the pubic bone, which happens because of severe trauma to the front and/or back of the pelvis. Car, truck, and motorcycle accidents that expose the groin to intense trauma often produce an open book pelvic fracture.

Acetabular

When the hip socket breaks, the result is a highly painful acetabular fracture. Slip and fall accidents from a considerable height cause this type of pelvic fracture, as do car and bicycle accidents.

If you suffered a fractured pelvis in an incident that involved the negligence of another party, knowing how to get compensated for a crushed pelvis requires you to gain a thorough understanding of how the litigation process works. Although your personal injury attorney provides you with a detailed description of each step of the process, the following information can prepare you for the first meeting with a lawyer.

Obtain an Incident Report

An incident report presents the details of the incident that caused your pelvis injury. If you slipped and fell at a grocery store and fractured your pelvis, store management is responsible for submitting a copy of the incident report to your attorney. Law enforcement involvement, such as responding to an auto collision, requires the responding law enforcement agency to send a copy of the official police report to your legal counsel.

Since you suffered a serious or life-threatening pelvis injury, you will not be able to gather evidence at the scene of the incident.

Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer

After you receive treatment for your pelvis injury, contact a personal injury attorney to schedule a free case evaluation. By the time you meet with your lawyer, all the documents pertaining to your case should be available for you to review. During the free case evaluation, expect your legal counsel to ask questions concerning what happened before, during, and after the incident that caused you harm. The goal of your personal injury lawyer is to present convincing evidence that proves another party committed one or more acts of negligence.

File a Civil Lawsuit

Although your insurance company is one option for how to get compensation for a crushed pelvis, the more lucrative option regards filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. You have a limited amount of time to file a civil lawsuit. The statute of limitations for most states is between two and four years to initiate legal action against another party. Working with a state-licensed personal injury attorney ensures you file a civil lawsuit before the deadline

Negotiate a Settlement

The most important reason to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer is to receive just compensation for your financial losses. After filing your lawsuit, the attorneys representing both parties meet to negotiate a settlement. Your legal counsel submits an initial offer, which the other party’s lawyer counters the first offer. The back and forth between both attorneys can result in a settlement that helps you avoid going to trial. Negotiations typically occur during the discovery phase of the litigation process, which is when both parties share information such as physical evidence and the statements made by witnesses.

Go to Trial

If the personal injury lawyer assigned to your case by Morgan & Morgan cannot reach a settlement with the other party, the next step of the legal process involves going to trial. Before the first court date, the Morgan & Morgan personal injury attorney that you hire will prepare you to answer the questions asked by the other party’s lawyer, as well as educate you about what to expect during the entire civil trial. The judge hearing your case has the legal power to require both parties to make another attempt to settle your lawsuit under the supervision of a mediator.

For a crushed pelvis, you might qualify to receive Social Security disability benefits. The financial assistance provided by the SSA helps you recover from your injury without having to worry about financial insolvency. If another party did not commit an act of negligence that caused you harm, filing a disability claim represents the most effective way to receive compensation. How to get compensation for a crushed pelvis by going through the SSA requires you to follow a few steps.

The SSA denies a majority of disability claims, which means you should enlist the legal support of one of the highly-rated Social Security disability attorneys at Morgan & Morgan.

Meet the Blue Book Listing

The SSA has created a medical guide called the Blue Book, which lists every eligible medical condition for disability benefits. You have to meet the severity of symptoms standards established by the SSA as well. For a crushed pelvis, you might qualify for the SSA program called Compassionate Allowance, which fast-tracks disability claims for applicants suffering from severe symptoms that prevent them from completing basic daily tasks.

Because of the importance of meeting the medical criteria listed in the Blue Book, you must submit overwhelming compelling medical evidence, such as the results of diagnostic tests, detailed descriptions of treatment programs, and information about what you have to do during physical therapy sessions. Your likelihood of getting compensation for a crushed pelvis improves when you submit a signed statement by your primary physician that describes the prognosis of you making a full or partial recovery.

Prove You Have Not Worked

Losing your job is not enough to qualify for disability benefits. You must demonstrate that you have missed work for 12 consecutive months. Waiting a year for financial assistance might not be a good idea since your unpaid medical bills might have piled up to cause you financial distress. Filing a personal injury claim can get you financial help faster, especially if your attorney reaches a settlement with the other party. Remember the SSA requires you to miss 12 consecutive months of work. For example, you cannot miss eight consecutive months of work, get back to work for four months, and then miss eight more consecutive months of work.

Earn Enough Work Credits

To earn work credits, you must have paid Social Security taxes. In 2022, you gain one work credit for every $1,510 that you earn. Every year, the SSA increases the number of work credits needed to qualify for disability benefits. You need to accumulate 40 work credits as of February 2022. A Social Security disability lawyer from Morgan & Morgan can help you determine whether you are eligible for financial assistance by obtaining the minimum number of work credits as established by the SSA.

Make Less Money Than the Substantial Gain Activity

To gain approval for your disability claim, you have to earn less money than the figure established by the SSA for Substantial Gain Activity (SGA). For applicants that file a fractured pelvis claim, earning less than the monthly SGA should not be a problem because of the severity of pelvis injuries. The monthly SGA for non-blind applicants in 2022 is $1,350.

Working with one of the talented litigators at Morgan & Morgan helps you learn how to get compensated for a crushed pelvis. Our priority is to recover as much in monetary damages as possible. If you sustain a serious pelvis injury because of the negligence committed by another party, you have the right to seek compensation for economic, non-economic, and punitive damages. For more than three decades, the experienced personal injury lawyers from Morgan & Morgan have recovered a little more than $20 billion in monetary damages for our clients.

Schedule a free case evaluation to learn more about how to get compensation for a crushed pelvis.