Case values
Reported Injury Case Results in New York, by Injury
Typical results for each kind of injury, from court, government and press records and from results published by New York law firms. Most results that describe the injury were published by the firms themselves.
Updated October 8, 2026
Key findings
- The highest typical reported results were for a spinal cord injury or paralysis ($5.9 million), a birth injury ($3.87 million) and a traumatic brain injury ($3.25 million).
- Results for a herniated disc treated with surgery had a typical amount of $775,000 (110 results; 75% firm-published). Results for a herniated disc treated without surgery had a typical amount of $49,000 (59 results; 100% firm-published, 75% from a single firm).
- 89% of the 4,683 results that describe the injury were published by law firms, which choose what to publish, so these figures describe reported results rather than every case.
The data
4,683
results that describe the injury
21
injury types with enough results to show
89%
of them published by the firms themselves
20
results needed before a typical result is shown
Typical result by injury
The typical result is the middle dollar amount: half the results were higher, half lower. Public-record results (court, government and press records) are shown separately, because firms choose which of their own results to publish.
| Injury | Typical result | Half were between | Results | Typical, public records only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spinal cord injury or paralysis | $5.9 million | $3 million – $13.63 million | 92 | Not enough records |
| Birth injury | $3.87 million | $1.8 million – $6.9 million | 201 | Not enough records |
| Traumatic brain injury | $3.25 million | $1.5 million – $6.4 million | 396 | $2.28 million (39) |
| Amputation | $3 million | $1.3 million – $7.46 million | 110 | Not enough records |
| Wrongful death | $1.98 million | $1 million – $3.75 million | 628 | $2 million (90) |
| Spinal fusion surgery | $1.65 million | $790,000 – $2.55 million | 147 | $2 million (36) |
| Vision or hearing loss | $1.52 million | $943,750 – $4.41 million | 66 | Not enough records |
| Internal organ injury | $1.5 million | $787,500 – $3.3 million | 195 | $2.6 million (28) |
| Other surgery | $1.25 million | $645,000 – $2.63 million | 555 | $1.12 million (58) |
| Psychological injury or PTSD | $1 million | $245,775 – $3.1 million | 116 | $794,150 (86) |
| Burns | $1 million | $550,000 – $2.5 million | 103 | Not enough records |
| Any injury with surgery | $950,000 | $420,000 – $2.2 million | 1,493 | $1 million (184) |
| Herniated disc, with surgery | $775,000 | $350,000 – $1.94 million | 110 | $1.95 million (27) |
| Concussion | $775,000 | $405,250 – $1.39 million | 23 | Not enough records |
| Broken bone (surgery not stated) | $700,000 | $275,000 – $1.9 million | 509 | $550,000 (55) |
| Broken bone, with surgery | $617,500 | $350,000 – $1.5 million | 262 | $800,000 (51) |
| Knee, shoulder or other joint surgery | $600,000 | $300,000 – $1.48 million | 453 | $969,366 (64) |
| Scarring or disfigurement | $523,616 | $250,000 – $1.63 million | 78 | $648,616 (30) |
| Herniated disc (surgery not stated) | $437,000 | $99,250 – $1.37 million | 118 | $860,000 (23) |
| Soft-tissue injury | $400,000 | $100,000 – $1.2 million | 459 | $392,500 (86) |
| Herniated disc, without surgery | $49,000 | $22,250 – $105,000 | 59 | Not enough records |
What these figures can and can't tell you
- Most results that name an injury are firm-published; firms choose which results to publish, so these figures run higher than typical outcomes. The by_source split shows public records separately.
- City of New York payment records rarely describe the injury, so they are mostly absent here.
- A result can name several injuries and then counts under each. 'any_surgery' covers results that say surgery was performed.
- Groups with fewer than 10 results show no figures.
Every figure on this page comes from the records; nothing is estimated. Groups with fewer than 10 records show no figures. How we collect records