Broken Bone and Fracture Claims From a Fall

Broken Bone and Fracture Claims From a Fall

Fractures are the most common serious injury in slip, trip, and fall accidents.

The wrist breaks because the claimant instinctively catches the fall with an outstretched hand. The ankle breaks during a twist on uneven surface. The hip breaks from impact at the side of the fall, particularly in elderly claimants.

The shoulder dislocates or fractures on direct impact. The spine compresses at the lumbar level. Each fracture pattern has a typical mechanism and a typical treatment course.

The legal framework is straightforward: prove the property owner's negligence, prove causation, and document the medical course. The case turns on the surveillance, the maintenance records, and the property owner's prior notice of the hazard.

A fracture in a fall caused by a hazard the property knew about is recoverable. The medical record establishes the injury; the property's records establish the duty.

Call (888) 713-6653 for a free case review.

Why Choose Lawsuit Legal for Your Fracture Claim

Property owners and their insurers fight serious fracture claims hard, because surgery, hardware, and a long recovery push the value up. You want a firm that has built these cases against well-funded defendants and is ready to try yours if the offer does not match what the injury cost you.

We work every fracture case toward one end: recovering as much as the case allows, as quickly as it allows.

• Experience. A proven record on serious fracture and fall-injury cases.
• Expertise. Trial-tested lawyers who know premises liability law and the litigation process.
• Reputation. Recognized among the best, with more than $100 million recovered and a 98% recovery rate across over 40,000 cases.
• Resources. The means to take on large defendants and to retain orthopedic, vocational, and life-care experts who show the full cost of a fracture.
• Communication. We keep you informed at every stage, so you always know where your case stands.
• You Win or It's Free. Contingency representation, no upfront cost.

What Are the Common Fall-Related Fracture Types?

A broken bone reshapes daily life fast. You cannot drive, dress, work, or lift a child while a fracture heals, and some breaks never heal back to where they started.

Wrist Fractures

The distal radius fracture (Colles fracture) is the signature slip and fall injury. It happens when you instinctively catch the fall with an outstretched hand. Treatment ranges from casting for non-displaced fractures to open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) for displaced or comminuted fractures. Lifetime impact varies from full recovery to permanent reduced grip strength.^[2]

Ankle and Foot Fractures

Bimalleolar and trimalleolar fractures typically require ORIF with hardware. Recovery takes months and frequently leaves residual arthritis or restricted range of motion.

Hip Fractures

Hip fractures in elderly claimants are catastrophic injuries. Treatment is either ORIF, hemiarthroplasty (replacement of the ball of the joint), or total hip replacement. Many older patients never return to prior ambulation, and the one-year mortality risk after a hip fracture is significant.^[1] See our hip fracture fall claims page for the full framework.

Shoulder Fractures and Dislocations

Direct impact on the shoulder or extension of the arm during the fall can produce humerus fractures, clavicle fractures, or shoulder dislocation. Rotator cuff tears frequently accompany shoulder injuries.

Spinal Fractures

Vertebral compression fractures, particularly in older claimants with osteoporosis, occur from direct impact during the fall. Transverse process fractures and facet injuries are common in younger claimants. Spinal cord injury, though less common, is a catastrophic outcome. A fall hard enough to break the spine often strikes the head as well, so screen for a brain injury from the fall at the same time.

What to Do After a Fall That Broke a Bone

The hours and days after a fracture decide how much of the case can later be proven. The break needs treatment, and the fall needs evidence, and both clocks start the moment you hit the ground.

• Get treated and finish the full orthopedic course. Go to the ER, then follow through on the casting, the ORIF, the hardware removal, and every physical therapy session your surgeon orders. A continuous treatment record is what ties the fracture to the fall and shows the injury was as serious as the claim says.
• Ask for the incident report before you leave. Request that the store, restaurant, or building staff write up a report and give you a copy or the report number. A report created on the day of the fall is hard for a defendant to dispute later.
• Photograph the hazard while it is still there. The spill, the broken tile, the unmarked step, the missing handrail: shoot it from several angles before maintenance cleans or repairs it. If you cannot, have someone with you do it.
• Keep every record and image. Hold onto X-rays, CT and MRI discs, surgical reports, billing statements, and the brace or boot itself. The imaging that shows a displaced or comminuted break is direct proof of the injury's severity.
• Get names and numbers from witnesses. Anyone who saw the fall or saw the hazard beforehand can confirm how long it sat there. Strangers scatter fast, so collect contact information at the scene.
• Do not let treatment lapse. A gap between appointments slows healing and hands the insurer an argument that the break was not that bad or that something else caused it. Keep the appointments.
• Decline a recorded statement to the insurer. An adjuster may call within days asking you to describe the fall on tape. Polite refusal is fine. Innocent wording about the pain or the hazard gets used to cut the claim later.

How We Prove the Fall Was the Property's Fault

A fracture claim succeeds only when four things line up. The owner owed you a duty to keep the premises reasonably safe. A hazard on the property breached that duty. The owner knew or should have known about the hazard, the notice question. And that hazard, not something else, caused the break and the losses that followed.

On the liability side, we pull the surveillance to capture the hazard and how long it went unaddressed, the maintenance and inspection logs that should show the area was checked, and any prior incident reports at the same spot. Whether the owner had constructive notice, meaning the hazard sat long enough that a reasonable owner would have found and fixed it, is often the fight that decides the case.

The medical side proves the fracture came from this fall and what it will cost. Treating orthopedic surgeons connect the break to the mechanism of the fall, and the imaging documents displacement, comminution, and hardware. For breaks that leave permanent loss of grip, motion, or weight-bearing, vocational and life-care experts put a number on future surgeries, lost earning capacity, and the years of reduced function ahead.

What Are Fracture Cases Worth in Economic and Non-Economic Damages?

Economic damages: emergency department, imaging, surgical care including ORIF and joint replacement, rehabilitation, future medical expenses (including hardware removal and future arthroplasty), lost wages, lost earning capacity.

Non-economic damages: pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement from surgical scarring or contractures, mental anguish, loss of consortium.

Survival and wrongful death damages in fatal cases (particularly relevant in elderly hip fracture cases).

Punitive damages available where prior incidents established the property's notice and disregard.

The deadline to file varies by state and can be as short as a year, so confirm the filing deadline for your claim before evidence and time run out.

Settlement value ranges from tens of thousands for minor wrist or ankle fractures treated conservatively to mid-six figures for surgical fractures with hardware to seven figures for hip fractures, severe spinal fractures, or multi-fracture catastrophic outcomes. Adjusters often apply the multiplier method to your medical bills to estimate non-economic damages, and your share of fault can cut the figure under the state's comparative fault rules. For how these tiers compare across injury types, see our breakdown of slip and fall settlement amounts.