General Damages for Fractures and Broken Bones

General damages for fractures depend mainly on how the bone healed. A clean break in a long bone that unites in eight weeks and leaves no lasting effects is valued modestly. A fracture through a joint surface, one that needed permanent hardware, or one that never united properly is valued higher.

Joint Involvement Changes the Value of a Fracture

A break that runs into the surface of a knee, ankle, wrist or shoulder damages cartilage that does not regenerate. Courts treat those fractures as involving a real risk of post traumatic arthritis, so the claimant is compensated for pain expected decades ahead as well as pain already suffered. An orthopaedic surgeon willing to say that arthritis is probable, and not merely possible, raises the award, because a probable future consequence is compensable while a speculative one is not.

Hardware, Non Union and Repeat Surgery

Plates, screws, rods and pins left in the body are permanent, and many are removed in a second operation that carries its own pain and its own scar. A fracture that fails to unite, or unites in the wrong position, leads to further surgery and sometimes to bone grafting. Each additional operation lengthens the period of disability the award has to cover. Courts also compensate the permanent restriction hardware imposes, such as a wrist that no longer rotates fully or an ankle that aches in cold weather.

General Damages for Fractures Depend on the Life Interrupted

The same tibia fracture is valued higher for a roofer than for someone who works seated, and higher for a competitive athlete than for someone who did not run. That follows from the functional approach applied to the evidence and says nothing about whose life matters. The award compensates what the injury took away, so proof of what the claimant did before the break is as important as proof of the break. Reported fracture awards in the Atlantic provinces span a wide range for that reason, and the decisions are published on CanLII.

Fractures Alongside Other Injuries

Multiple fractures are not simply added together. A judge assesses the claimant as a whole and sets one figure for all non pecuniary loss, so a person with a broken pelvis, a broken wrist and abdominal trauma receives one award instead of a separate figure for each injury. The internal component is covered in the internal injuries chapter, and crush injuries that end in surgical removal of a limb are covered in the amputation chapter. The firm handles fracture claims from motorcycle accident files across Atlantic Canada, and the guide’s opening chapter sets out the rest of the series.