Herniated Disc Injury Settlements with Steroid Injections

Page Updated: January 7, 2023

Herniated Disc Injury Settlements with Steroid Injection

If you have a herniated disc and need an injection for pain management, this has the potential to increase your overall settlement in court, but only if you know how to file and handle your case.

In this article you will learn:

♦  What a herniated disc is

♦  What steroid injections are

♦  How steroid injections affect your herniated disc injury settlement

♦  Average payouts for herniated disc injury cases with steroid injections

Keep reading on below to see how much your herniated disc case could potentially be worth if your treatment plan includes steroid injections.

What is A Herniated Disc Injury ?

Composition of Spinal Discs

The spine is made up of multiple bones and cushion pieces between the bones to help protect the bone as well as the many nerves that run through your back and act as a highway for your spine.

The spinal disc that is a rubbery cushion between the bones in the spine is sensitive and when it moves out of place, there is intense pain and the need for medical treatment.

Herniated Disc Injury

When a disc is herniated this means that this rubbery cushion has pushed through one of the cracks between the bones and in an even worse scenario, there is the pinching of nerve or pressure on a nerve by this slipped or ruptured herniated disc.

During an accident, pressure on the spine frequently causes a herniated disc.

Treatment for Herniated Disc Injury

Treatment for a herniated disc injury will depend on the specific kind of herniation that you have, how many herniations you have and whether there is a rupture or a slip.

Exercise, injections, bed rest, walking, physical therapy and surgery are all options for treating your herniated disc injury.

The more intensive and invasive the treatment, such as a steroid injection, the more likely it is that you will have a higher payout in your settlement.

Steroid Injections for Herniated Disc Injuries

One variable in the treatment that helps your settlement is the need for injections.

What affects herniated disc injury settlements with steroid injections the most is not just that you needed them, but how many injections you will need and where you get them.

In essence, the more labor intensive and aggressive the treatment plan, the more settlement you can try and recover for both medical expenses and pain and suffering.

Steroid Injections for Herniated Disc Injuries

Steroid Injections for Spinal Injuries

Steroid injections are similar to an epidural injection as they are both long needle injections that are placed directly into the back where there is the need to create relief in pain.

The epidural itself is a space that is found around the spine that holds the nerve endings that allow you to feel pain.

If you needed injections for accident treatment it is more than often going to be an injection into a joint or delicate space where there will be both pain and a high chance for side effects as well.

In the case of epidural back injury settlement cases (which, again, include steroid injections), there are higher chances for bigger payouts because any injection into the epidural space is painful and always carries its own risks for further injury and pain.

Trigger Point Injections for Herniated Disc Injury Patients

In addition to the epidural space injections, there are also trigger point injections. Trigger point injections may not be as commonly known as epidural injections and can therefore be confusing.

The first thing to understand is what the trigger point injection refers to.

The trigger point refers to the areas of the muscles that have trigger points that are in knots or are not able to relax because of an accident.

A trigger point injection (TPI) is an injection that is placed directly into this trigger point.

Other Injections for Herniated Disc Injury Patients

There are many kinds of injections, with all of them focusing on relieving pain in targeted parts of the body.

The injections that you may be offered in the aftermath of an accident, in additional to steroid injections and trigger point injections, if you have a herniated disc injury are:

♦  Selective Nerve Root Blocks (SNRB)

♦  Occipital Nerve Blocks

♦  Epidural steroid injections

♦  Trigger Point Injection (TPI)

♦  Medial Branch Block Injection

♦  Cortisone Injections

Your injury may need any number or combination of these injections.

The exact treatment path will depend on how injured you are and how many parts of your body are injured.

Some people for example will hurt multiple discs and these multiple herniations will need individual injections.

Are Steroid Injections for Herniated Disc Injuries Common?

Yes, steroid injections are actually very common in car accidents.

As a repeated side note, herniated disc injury settlements with steroid injections also tend to be higher than cases without injections.

Medical Need for Steroid Injections to Treat Herniated Discs

In car accidents, the forces from the crash cause the body to suffer from more stress than usual. A variety of injuries like herniated discs cause debilitating pain.

The symptoms of these injuries sometimes appear after an accident, other times, they may take a while to appear.

Sometimes, the pain does not resolve with conservative care and the next level of care; i.e. pain management is required.

Pain Management Doctors Diagnose Herniated Disc Injuries

A pain management doctor specializes in evaluating, diagnosing, and treating various types of pain from a vehicle accident.

This specialized knowledge allows them to diagnose the injuries quicker and immediately start treating the pain a person might have.

In case of pain from a car accident injury pain management doctor uses non-surgical treatments to help patients alleviate pain.

Pain management doctor helps to prevent further injury and injections are a normal part of the treatment plan that they focus on offering.

Steroid Injection is Not Front Line Treatment for a Herniated Disc Injury

Steroid injections are not front line or first line treatment for a herniated disc injury.

Steroid injections are only offered after the failure of other more conservative care.

If an auto accident victim has been through eight to twelve weeks of physical therapy or chiropractic care without much relief and the patient is not a surgical candidate, steroid injections are offered as a pain management measure.

This is one of the reasons that settlements for herniated disc injuries with steroid injections tend to be higher.  You will have a history of other treatment modalities, with accompanying expenses.  This also means that most other options have already been exhausted and you are still in pain.

What Affects Your Back injection Case Settlement?

What affects your injury settlement case the most is almost always tied into how hurt you are, and how intensive and disruptive your treatment had to be.

For herniation cases with steroid injections, this is no different.

Firstly, if you have one or multiple herniations and how bad they are will be the first major factor in your settlement value.

The second major factor will be what other treatments you have had for your herniation case and how long you had these treatments.

A third factor is whether or not you needed one or multiple injections. The sheer fact that you needed injections at all will increase your case value because it shows the severity of your situation and how long it has gone on, and also, that you have tried multiple other methods of treatment that have not worked.

All of this will come together to help increase the chances that you will have a higher settlement in your herniated disc injury case that resulted in the need for steroid injections.

Average Herniated Disc Injury Settlements with Steroid Injections

Variables Impacting Average Herniated Disc & Steroid Injection Payouts

The average settlement value for a herniated disc with steroid injections will vary wildly.

As with most other cases, it will come down to how severe your injury was, how effective your recovery was and what your treatment regimen was as well.

The specifics of your accident, as in who was liable, you, the other driver or both of you, can also affect your final settlement value as well.

One way that the settlement amount can be higher is whether or not the likelihood of overcoming liability issues is high.  If those chances are not high, then injections will be seen as nothing more than a damages issues that is inconsequential to the eventual verdict or settlement.

If this is your case, you should be fighting for future medical expenses and pain and suffering because you will likely need long-term injections.

If you have any prior injuries, or have advanced age, the insurance company will fight to show that you do not deserve this because you would have perhaps had these pains regardless of the surgery.

If your doctor prescribes injections, you should not delay getting them for painful injuries because getting your treatments means that you can argue for additional values based on treatment costs to the highest level possible.

Pain and suffering, both present and future, as well as lost wages and non-economic damages all count in your settlement.

Payout Ranges for Disc Injuries with Steroid Injections

With all that said, these cases can range anywhere from $50,000 all the way up to $800,000.

I am speaking from experience, and have achieved settlements for my clients in that range.

The range is wide because there is more to the story than your injury.  For example, your case is worth more, generally, if you were rear-ended while stopped at a red light versus side-swiped in a lane change.  To learn more about case valuations, read my article about personal injury case valuation.

Herniated Disc Injury Sample Verdicts & Settlements with Steroid Injections

Multiple Herniated Discs From Taxi-Accident Resulting in Steroid Injections

SAMPLE SETTLEMENT (Michigan): $43,000.00  An adult male suffered cervical lordosis, a disc bulge and multiple herniations in his spine when the vehicle that he was in was hit by a taxi while rising in an ambulance. The taxi t-boned the medical vehicle and the injuries were intense and caused the plaintiff to have to see multiple medical professionals, a chiropractor and a physical therapist. The herniated discs were treated with steroid injections amongst other treatments.

Herniated Disc From Left-Turn Accident With Steroid Injections Treatment

SAMPLE VERDICT/ SETTLEMENT (Minnesota): $40,714.00  A female passenger was in a car that was hit by a car that ran through a light while she was making a left turn at a green arrow in an intersection. Plaintiff suffered a herniated disc and cervical strain. Plaintiff required intensive therapy and bed rest as well as the need for NSAIDs and steroid injections to assist with the recovery process for the injuries.

Herniated Disc Injury Resulting in Steroid Injections and Settlement

SAMPLE SETTLEMENT (Wyoming): $45,000.00  A minor female passenger was in a vehicle headed southbound when another vehicle failed to stop for their traffic light causing the vehicles to slam into each other. The plaintiff suffered a disc herniation, a labral tear and partial ligament tearing of her right hip which required arthroscopy. The herniated disc was treated with steroid injections.  The defendant denied liability in the case and it went to a panel where there was a settlement suggested by the panel and both sides ultimately agreed to the recommendation of the panel for the amount of $45,000.

Multiple Herniated Discs Treated With Steroid Injections From Red-Light Accident

SAMPLE SETTLEMENT (Illinois): $61,500.00  An adult female was a passenger in a vehicle that was involved in an accident due to the driver of the vehicle failing to observe the highway signs and then failing to stop at a traffic light. This caused the vehicle to go past the speed limits posted and the vehicle to go through the intersection red light to T-bone another vehicle. The impact caused the passenger to suffer facial lacerations, permanent scarring and disc herniations. The defendant refused to pay the amount that was being asked for by the plaintiff initially but later chose to settle for the amount of $61,500.

Herniated Disc Injury Settlement with Steroid Injection Q&A

Will a trigger point injection affect car accident settlements?

Yes, in most cases, the need for a trigger point injection will affect your car accident settlement case by increasing it.

What affects epidural back injury settlement cases?

The biggest effects on these cases will be how many injections you need and in how many different parts of your back. The more intensive and aggressive the treatment plan, the higher the chances are for a large payout overall.

How common are Injections for accidents?

These injections are actually very common for a car accident. Back, shoulder and neck injuries are very common during car accidents. Unfortunately, most of them will not be treated with simple bed rest or noninvasive methods like physical therapy alone, and will require treatment that is more invasive, like injections.

Are injections a final solution for a herniated disc?

Yes and no. Injections are a sort of final solution that comes after you have already had physical therapy and other treatment plans exhausted first. The reason they are not final is that an injection regimen is more of a pain management than a pain elimination plan. This means that the injections are only temporarily masking your pain, and you will continue to need injections.

How long will I need herniated disc injections?

This is a hard question to give a blanket statement to, but for most people, especially those with serious injuries, you will need 3-6 injections a year and these will go on for as long as you have pain.

Lawyers for Herniated Disc Injuries & Steroid Injection Claims

Our lawyers are based in Los Angeles, but are available to help accident victims even if you are outside of Los Angeles.

A great number of the clients our lawyers have helped, who had herniated disc injuries, got steroid injection treatment.  By thoroughly building up the case, we help most of these cases settle for six-figure settlements without the need for trial.

Contact us today at the IAG team to see how our personal injury lawyers can help maximize your injury settlement.  We can be reached anytime night and day, all you need to do is call, email, or message us using the contact form below and we will help you with a free consultation.

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