Statistics Related to Personal Injury Claims
Personal injury cases can involve a wide variety of scenarios, settings, and circumstances. With such complex, wide-reaching data sources to draw from, compiling statistics related to these matters can be a time-consuming and costly process. Reliable and accurate numbers can be difficult to locate.
The following data from the U.S. government refers to personal injury litigation nationwide.
Spinal Cord Injuries
Injuries involving the spinal cord are a common object of litigation because the victim’s quality of life and ability to perform daily tasks is so dramatically affected.
- Nearly 200,000 people in the U.S. live with a disability related to a spinal cord injury (SCI) (Berkowitz 1998).
- Approximately 11,000 Americans sustain an SCI each year (CDC unpublished data).
- The leading cause of SCI varies by age. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause among persons under age 65. Among persons age 65 and older, falls cause most SCIs (CDC unpublished data).
- Sports and recreation activities cause an estimated 18% of SCI cases (Berkowitz 1998).
Traumatic Brain Injury Statistics
Traumatic brain injuries produce a wide range of problems that vary markedly in severity.
- Recent data shows that, on average, approximately 1.4 million people sustain a TBI each year in the United States.
- Direct medical costs and indirect costs such as lost productivity of traumatic brain injuries totaled an estimated $60 billion in the United States in 2000.
- The leading causes of traumatic brain injuries are
- Falls (28%);
- Motor vehicle-traffic crashes (20%);
- Struck by/against events (19%); and
- Assaults (11%)
Tort Trial Statistics
According to the Bureau of Justice:
- Plaintiffs won in 48% of tort trials terminated in U.S. district courts in 2002-03.
- Plaintiffs won less frequently in medical malpractice (37%) and product liability (34%) trials.
- An estimated 9 out of 10 tort trials involved personal injury issues — most frequently, product liability, motor vehicle (accident), marine, and medical malpractice cases.
- Eighty-four percent of plaintiff winners received monetary damages with an estimated median award of $201,000
New personal injury claims are filed every day, statistics change, and up-to-date statistics are difficult to come by. However, the above statistics are provided by reliable sources like the United States Government’s Center for Disease Control, National Security Council, and the Bureau of Justice.
Statistic Sources:
CDC National Security Council
Bureau of Justice Statistics
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