Broken Arm and Broken Leg Settlement Calculator, from your losses, your share of fault and your state's rules.
Estimate a broken arm settlement or a broken leg settlement from your costs and recovery, see your state's filing deadline, and read the NIH on fractures.
How broken arm and broken leg settlements are calculated
This calculator adds up the losses you enter, multiplies the injury losses for pain and suffering, and then applies your share of fault, your state's rules and any policy limit you give it. Here's what each step actually does to your number.
What the formula returns at these inputs
These are outputs of the calculator on this page, not settlements anyone received. Each row feeds the inputs described into the same formula the calculator runs, and the last column is the number it returns. We hold no dataset of closed cases, so we publish the formula working instead of figures we cannot source.
Every row is run in Arizona with no share of fault assigned to the claimant. No coverage ceiling is applied, because we would be inventing the at-fault party's policy. Arizona is used because our state-law data records it as a pure comparative fault jurisdiction with no damages cap of any kind, so nothing here is clipped by a state limit and you can see the formula itself. Pick your own state in the calculator above and the number moves.
What a fracture is
MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's health site, puts it plainly.
“A fracture is a break in a bone.” (MedlinePlus, Fractures (Last updated May 14, 2024)) It describes one difference between breaks: “Whether the bone breaks through the skin; if it does, it's called an open (or compound) fracture. If not, it's a closed fracture.” (MedlinePlus, Fractures (Last updated May 14, 2024))
On getting care: “If you think that you may have broken a bone, get medical care right away.” (MedlinePlus, Fractures (Last updated May 14, 2024))
On how a break is found: “To find out if you have a fracture, your health provider will do a physical exam and ask about your injury. They will also likely order an x-ray or other imaging test to see if your bone is broken.” (MedlinePlus, Fractures (Last updated May 14, 2024))
Getting checked after a fall or a crash protects your health first. It also starts the record a claim is built on: the date, what you reported, what the imaging showed, and what came next.
Treatment, and what it adds to a broken leg settlement
The treatment a break needs sets the costs a claim adds up.
A break can be treated with a cast or a splint, and MedlinePlus explains why: “This will keep your bone from moving while it heals.” (MedlinePlus, Fractures (Last updated May 14, 2024)) “How long you need to wear it will depend on the type of fracture and which bone is affected.” (MedlinePlus, Fractures (Last updated May 14, 2024))
And: “In some cases, you may need surgery to put in plates, pins, or screws to keep the bone in place.” (MedlinePlus, Fractures (Last updated May 14, 2024))
Each step is a cost to enter: the emergency visit and imaging, the cast or splint and the follow-up visits, an operation and its hospital stay, physical therapy afterward, and the medications. Enter what you can show with bills or estimates.
How the broken arm settlement estimate is built
The calculator prices the claim from your figures and starts on the fracture injury type, which you can change.
Enter the medical costs so far and ahead, the pay lost so far and the earnings the injury will cost ahead, then the severity, the length of recovery and your share of fault. The pain-and-suffering factor runs from 1.0x to 5.0x, and the injury type adjusts it.
Where we publish a general cap on non-economic damages for your state, the calculator holds pain and suffering to it; we publish one for four jurisdictions. Where a state has a cap we do not publish, the result says so.
Then it takes out a contingency fee, case costs and medical liens at fixed rates, which are stand-ins and not what your lawyer will charge. The result is a range, not a promise: a claim's value turns on its evidence, its insurance and the law of the state.
Documenting a broken bone
A break shows on an x-ray; what it cost you has to be shown in the records.
Ask for copies of the emergency record, every imaging report, the orthopedic and surgical notes, and the therapy records, with the dates. Keep the discharge instructions and every bill.
Keep a short daily record of pain, of what you could not do, and of the help you needed at home. Photographs of the cast, the brace, the crutches or the scar show what the records do not.
Keep the records of work missed and of any change in duties or hours, and the letters that say when you could return.
When the clock starts on a broken bone claim
The filing period is your state's general injury period, which the table below shows for every state.
The calculator counts from the date of the injury. A state's law can start the clock later in some cases, and this page applies none of that, so it never counts a later deadline for you.
How the injury happened can change the period. Medical care runs on a state's malpractice period, which is shorter than the general period in sixteen jurisdictions; a product can run on a state's product period; and a crash can run on a motor-vehicle provision. Where one of those fits, use the calculator on this site for that kind of claim, which shows its period, and plan around the earliest date either shows.
If the injury happened at work, a workers' compensation claim runs on its own rules, which the workers' compensation calculator shows.
Before you settle a broken bone claim
This site is not a law firm, does not refer anyone to a lawyer, and cannot say what a lawyer would recover.
A settlement is final. Before you sign a release, ask your doctors whether the bone has healed and whether more treatment or hardware removal is expected, and ask a lawyer who handles injury claims in your state whether the offer reflects the costs ahead as well as the bills so far.
Bring your medical records, your daily notes, your records of work missed, the insurer's letters, and the figure this calculator shows.
What actually moves your settlement
Two cases with the same medical bills can settle for very different amounts. These are the variables that pull them apart.
Broken leg settlement: filing deadlines by state
Once this deadline passes, your case is gone, regardless of how strong it was. The calculator counts each period from the date of the incident, and a lawyer in your state can confirm when yours began.
Do you need a lawyer?
- Minor injury only, no lasting impact
- Clear liability, soft-tissue injury with a fast recovery
- Insurer's first offer meets your documented damages
- You're comfortable negotiating and have time to document
- Any surgery, hospitalization, or permanent impairment
- Disputed liability, multiple parties, or commercial defendant
- Insurer is delaying, denying, or lowballing
- Policy limits exceeded or underinsured issues
- You're unsure what your case is worth, which is what this tool is for