A fracture is the cleanest injury claim there is: the X-ray ends the is-it-real argument on day one. That shifts the whole fight to the two questions that actually price a fracture: how it was treated, and what it leaves behind.
Reviewed August 24, 2026 · bands map to the disclosed methodologyBased on the multiplier method used by insurers and attorneys. This is an educational estimate, not legal advice. Every claim is different.
| Situation | Typical multiplier | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Simple fracture, cast, full healing | 2–3× | Objective and painful but clean-healing, above soft-tissue floors, below surgical tiers. |
| Surgical fracture (ORIF, plates, screws, rods) | 3–4× | Operative treatment, hardware, longer recovery, and often a second procedure for removal. |
| Complex, multiple, or joint-involved fractures | 4–5× | Comminuted breaks, multiple sites, or fractures into a joint surface, where permanence and post-traumatic arthritis live. |
These bands are the same disclosed multiplier framework used across this site (methodology). Where a specific injury lands inside it is driven by documentation, permanence, and liability clarity, not by the label on the injury.
Because a fracture can't be disputed, adjusters concede the injury and contest the residuals: they'll pay for the healed bone and resist the stiffness, the hardware irritation, and the arthritis risk. Your counter is documentation of what healing didn't fix: range-of-motion measurements, physician-noted limitations, and any hardware-removal recommendation. That last one belongs in the economic base before you settle, not discovered after it.
A fracture into a joint surface (wrist, ankle, knee, elbow) carries a medically ordinary sequel: post-traumatic arthritis, sometimes years later. A treating orthopedist's note projecting that risk and its likely care converts it into economic damages the multiplier then works on. Settle a joint fracture at simple-fracture value and you've donated the largest line in the claim. Releases are permanent, and arthritis isn't even patient.
There's no verifiable average, but the band math is concrete: a cast-treated fracture with $12,000 in bills and $3,000 in lost wages supports roughly $30,000–$45,000 (2–3×); the same break requiring surgery pushes 3–4×; joint involvement or multiple fractures 4–5×. Run your own numbers in the calculator. The arithmetic prints under the result.
Yes, three ways: the surgery itself raises the economic base, hardware supports the 3–4× band, and a documented future removal procedure adds its projected cost to the claim. Ask your surgeon to address removal likelihood in writing before you settle.
Yes, the treatment, the weeks in a cast, the lost work, and the recovery are all compensable at the 2–3× band. 'Healed' ends the future-damages discussion, not the claim.