What if my only injury is soft tissue?
Soft tissue injuries — muscle, ligament, tendon — are the most common crash injuries and the most contested.
Why they're difficult. They don't appear on standard imaging. The evidence is largely the patient's reported symptoms and a physician's clinical findings. Insurers treat them as minor by default and value them accordingly.
What can change that. Objective clinical findings documented consistently — measured range of motion deficits, spasm, positive orthopedic testing. Consistent treatment without gaps. And critically, a permanency opinion, since Florida's threshold for non-economic damages generally requires permanent injury.
What undermines it. Gaps, inconsistent reporting, minimal property damage — which insurers argue means minimal force — and activity inconsistent with the claimed limitations.
On the property damage argument specifically: low-speed impacts do produce real injuries, and that's a fight worth having with medical support rather than conceding.
Be accurate about symptoms. Overstating a soft tissue injury is more damaging than understating one, because credibility is the whole case.
Consistent treatment and a permanency opinion are what move these. Nothing else does. ---
Talk to an Attorney — Free
An answer on a page isn't the same as advice about your case. Talk to an attorney who handles these matters on the Treasure Coast — free and confidential.