Broken Bone Injury Lawyers In California | GJEL Attorneys

How much is my broken bone injury case worth in California?

The law firm of Gillin, Jacobson, Ellis, Larsen & Lucey has handled personal injury cases in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Northern California for over thirty years. The firm’s broken bone injury lawyers have recovered significant financial awards for our clients that help them recover from their accidents. Contact our offices for a free consultation on your case.

Bay Area fracture attorneys who fight insurance companies

At GJEL, our broken bones attorneys have extensive experience handling broken bone injury cases. For over 40 years, we have provided top-quality legal representation to injured victims throughout California. No matter the specific circumstances of your case, our legal team is prepared to help you recover the full and fair financial compensation you rightfully deserve.

Our San Francisco and Northern California broken bone injury attorneys have recovered expenses that have been paid for medical bills, loss of work, pain and suffering, mental distress, therapies, legal fees, and insurance bills.

If You Know or Suspect a Broken Bone Injury

Seek Medical Assistance

You’ll generally want to immobilize the area while waiting for an ambulance. Moving the break will only cause further damage and pain. Avoid eating or drinking if possible; if surgery is required, this will only complicate things. Begin thinking about hiring a bone fracture attorney depending on the situation.

Collect as Much Evidence as Possible

As a victim, remember that a medical evaluation is needed to verify injuries. Collect details from the scene and take pictures. Your broken bones attorney will use this information to hopefully prove the negligence or intent of the other party.

File a Report

Depending on the severity of the injury, you’ll have to call either 911 or the non-emergency dispatch number. The police will file an official report that your bone fracture injury lawyer can use to advocate your case. When victims fail to call the authorities, events don’t get officially documented, and it’s harder to prove involvement or guilt.

Contact Broken Bone Injury Lawyer to Maximize Compensation

By contacting our bone fracture attorney as soon as possible after the accident, you stand the greatest chance of recovering damages. California has several laws that make a lawsuit impossible after a legally instituted time limit runs out. A broken bone victim should never sign any paperwork or agree to any settlement without first speaking to a Northern California broken bone injury lawyer. In addition, with legal representation, you can protect yourself and fight for what is legally owed to you.

Why You Shouldn’t Speak to an Insurance Company First

Insurance companies often treat broken bone injuries as minor or routine, even when fractures require surgery, months of recovery, or cause lasting limitations. Adjusters may push for quick, low settlements before the full extent of your injury is known. When you have legal representation, you protect yourself from tactics designed to minimize the seriousness and long-term cost of your fracture.

Injured victims must be able to access full and fair compensation for their damages. Unfortunately, defendants and their insurance carriers never make this easy. Victims deserve financial compensation for emergency medical care, rehabilitative treatment, lost income, and their pain and suffering. As the injury claims process is notoriously difficult to navigate, victims should always be represented by an experienced legal advocate.

Don’t waste time and contact a bone fracture lawyer as soon as possible.

How GJEL Can Help

Your broken bone injury case is handled by experienced trial attorneys, not passed off to junior case managers. You work directly with legal professionals who understand complex fracture claims and know how to negotiate with insurers or prepare your case for trial.

At GJEL, our skilled California broken bones lawyers have extensive experience protecting the legal rights and financial interests of people who have suffered broken or fractured bones in the greater Bay Area. If you or a family member has a broken bone injury, please do not hesitate to contact our broken bone attorneys or spinal cord injury lawyer today for immediate help with your claim.

Understanding the Different Types of Broken Bones Injuries

Broken and fractured bones come in many different forms. Even accidents that seem minor at first can cause serious fractures. Low-speed car crashes, simple falls, or short-distance impacts can still result in broken bones that require surgery, physical therapy, or long-term care. You do not need to be involved in a catastrophic accident for your broken bone injury to qualify for compensation. Not only are there many different bones that are commonly broken in accidents but there are many different specific types of fractures.

Your injury must be diagnosed correctly. Injured victims must be able to get the exact type of treatment that is appropriate for their specific fracture. Without proper treatment, your bone injury may not heal the correct way, and you could potentially experience long-term complications. Even when a fracture appears to heal, you may continue to experience chronic pain, nerve damage, stiffness, weakness, reduced range of motion, or instability in the injured area. A healed bone does not always mean a full recovery, and these lasting effects must be included when valuing your claim.

In the worst cases, doctors may even be required to conduct an additional operation to fix the bone injury. Some fracture victims require future medical procedures, including implant or hardware removal, corrective surgeries, or additional orthopedic treatment years after the initial injury. These anticipated medical costs must be fully documented and included in your compensation demand.

Based on the experience from our bone injury fracture attorney, some of the most common types of broken bone injuries are as follows:

Displaced Fractures

With a displaced fracture, the bone has not only cracked but pieces of the bone have separated. In some cases, displaced fractures require surgery.

Non-Displaced Fractures

A non-displaced fracture is one in which the bone has cracked (either partially or entirely), but the alignment remains intact. This is one of the most common types of broken bone injuries.

Stable Fractures

Along with a non-displaced fracture, you may also hear the term ‘stable fracture’. This is generally one of the least severe types of broken bone injuries. With a stable fracture, the bone’s structure remains largely in place. This allows for easier healing and a shorter recovery period.

Open Fractures

Also referred to as a ‘compound fracture’, an open fracture is one in which the bone punctures the skin, creating an open wound. This is also a very serious injury, and the risk of infection is extremely high.

Closed Fractures

With a closed fracture, the broken bone does not penetrate the skin. That is not to say that this type of injury is not serious. There are many cases in which closed fracture injuries can lead to long-term, even permanent damage. Immediate medical treatment is always required.

Simple Fractures

A simple fracture is a clean break, with little separation between the bones. This is a closed fracture injury, and it is typically easier to treat than more complex breaks.

Greenstick Fractures

A greenstick fracture is a broken bone injury where part of the victim’s bone bends, instead of breaking. This type of injury is especially common in young children.

Transverse Fractures

This is a simple fracture that occurs at a right angle. As this is a particularly clean break, this type of fracture is generally one of the easiest to treat and it typically heals well.

Oblique Fractures

These fractures occur with a slant or a curved angle. The complex angle of the break can lead to complications when healing. With oblique fractures, immediate medical attention and comprehensive rehabilitative treatment are both critically important

Linear Fractures

This type of fracture will most often occur in long bones, such as in the arms or the legs. It is a break that goes down the bone, and it is notoriously painful for the victim.

Spiral Fractures

Spiral fractures occur in a twisting pattern. This is another extremely painful injury. Most often, spiral fractures happen when the victim gets their foot or hand caught in something or under something.

Comminuted Fractures

This is one of the most serious types of broken bone injuries. It occurs when a bone is fractured at several different points of impact. Often, this is referred to as the ‘shattering’ of a bone.

Northern California’s trusted bone fracture injury experts

GJEL partners with California’s leading orthopedic specialists and trauma centers, including UCSF Medical Center, Stanford Health Care, and Kaiser Permanente. We understand the complex medical aspects of fractures – from initial emergency treatment through long-term complications like post-traumatic arthritis and chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS).

Our attorneys regularly consult with board-certified orthopedic surgeons to accurately value your future medical needs, ensuring insurance companies can’t minimize the true cost of your injuries. Your attorney may also communicate directly with your treating doctors to fully document how your fracture affects your recovery, physical limitations, and long-term prognosis. This medical coordination strengthens your claim and supports higher compensation. This medical expertise has helped us recover over $950 million for injured Californians.

The Severity

Several types of broken bones can cause serious damage to the person that has been injured:

• A complete fracture cracks the bone into two separate pieces.
• A single fracture means that the bone is only cracked in one place.
• Other terms that describe broken bones are open/closed, or simple / multi-fragmentary.
• Obviously, broken bones can occur anywhere in the body, but are most severe when they involve the neck or back.

Many broken bone injury claims also involve fractures to the wrists, ankles, legs, ribs, collarbone, arms, or hips. These injuries can significantly limit your mobility, ability to work, and daily independence, even when the fracture does not involve the spine.

Since a broken bone injury often causes injuries that are internal or undetectable by the naked eye, a complete medical examination should be carried out on the injured person. Your claim may rely on X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, surgical records, and detailed physician reports to prove the severity of your fracture and connect it directly to the accident. Proper medical documentation is critical to prevent insurance companies from disputing or undervaluing your injury.

X-rays of problem areas and further scans such as MRIs or CT scans may also be necessary. A Northern California broken bone injury attorney can recover significant funds to help cover these and other medical expenses. In the case of more serious injuries, contact our catastrophic injury lawyer.

Types of Compensation for Broken Bone Injuries

If your broken bone injury was caused by the negligence of another party, you are legally entitled to financial compensation for the full value of your damages. To get the full compensation you deserve, you must work with an experienced California broken bone injury attorney. Liability in broken bone cases is not always obvious. Even when you know how the accident happened, determining who is legally responsible may require investigation into safety records, maintenance logs, witness statements, and expert analysis.

To start, contact the Bay Area personal injury attorney to help you compile all of the evidence that you need to establish liability in your case. This way you can hold the negligent party legally liable for your broken bone injury.

Your assigned broken bone injury lawyer will then carefully document your damages so that you can maximize your financial recovery. Monetary compensation may be available for both economic losses and intangible losses. Broken bone injuries can disrupt your daily life in ways that are not immediately visible, including difficulty sleeping, limited movement, loss of independence, and reduced ability to care for yourself or others.

These impacts are a critical part of your pain and suffering damages. Among other things, our California personal injury lawyers can help you recover money for:

• Emergency medical expenses
• Ongoing medical treatment
• Physical therapy
• Psychological counseling
• Rehabilitative care
• Disability
• Lost income
• Pain and suffering
• Mental distress
• Permanent disfigurement
• Loss of life enjoyment

GJEL specializes in serious injuries and the lawyers in our firm are highly regarded as one of the best bone fracture attorneys in California.

California broken bones compensation laws you need to know

Under California Civil Code Section 1714, anyone whose negligence causes your broken bones is legally responsible for all resulting damages. In some cases, more than one party may share responsibility for your broken bone injury. Multiple drivers, property owners, contractors, employers, or manufacturers may all be held liable when their combined actions contributed to your fracture. California follows a “pure comparative negligence” rule, meaning you can recover compensation even if you’re partially at fault – though your award will be reduced by your percentage of fault.

Critical deadlines for California fracture injury claims

California law sets strict time limits for broken bone injury claims:

• 2 years from the injury date for most personal injury claims (California Code of Civil Procedure Section 335.1)
• 6 months to file a government claim if a public entity is involved (California Government Code Section 911.2)
• 1 year for medical malpractice-related fractures (CCP Section 340.5)

Missing these deadlines means losing your right to compensation permanently. Our California State Bar certified attorneys ensure your claim is filed correctly and on time.

Typical broken bones settlement amounts in California

While every case is unique, our Northern California broken bone settlements typically range from $75,000 to over $2 million, depending on severity and impact.

Here’s what affects your compensation:

Factors that increase your settlement include permanent disability, extensive physical therapy needs, lost earning capacity, and severe pain and suffering. California places no caps on personal injury damages, unlike medical malpractice cases.

Statistics

According to data provided by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, nearly 3.4 million people seek medical treatment for a broken or fractured bone in the United States annually. These injuries always require immediate medical attention. The sooner you get your fracture treated, the more likely you will be to make a full recovery. That’s why our broken bones attorneys act fast to help you claim your compensation.

Get a Free Case Review Today

Broken bone accident cases are often difficult and complex, but the law firm of Gillin, Jacobson, Ellis, Larsen & Lucey has a great deal of experience in tackling broken bone cases. Contact one of our offices today and speak with a Northern California bone fracture lawyer for a free case evaluation.

We invite you to call 1-866-293-9364 to speak with an experienced broken bone injury attorney at GJEL if you or a loved one has been injured. We provide free consultation, and we’re paid only when we win your claim. You’ll pay no fees if we don’t obtain a verdict or settlement for you.

Please visit the Contact Us page to find our local office nearest to you.

Serving broken bone victims throughout California

From Highway 101 accidents to BART platform injuries, GJEL represents fracture victims across Northern California. We maintain offices throughout the Bay Area and Central Valley to serve you locally:

Whether your fracture happened on the Golden Gate Bridge, Interstate 880, or a Sacramento construction site, our local attorneys understand California’s courts, insurance companies, and medical providers.

Written by GJEL Accident Attorneys, reviewed by Andrew (Andy) R. Gillin.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Andrew (Andy) R. Gillin is a founding partner of GJEL Accident Attorneys and has practiced personal injury law in California state and federal courts since 1970. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School and co-founded GJEL in 1972. Over the course of his career, Andy has helped hundreds of injured plaintiffs recover compensation, including multiple seven-figure settlements and verdicts. He specializes in serious injury and wrongful death cases and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, with recognition from Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America.