Does any fracture count as a serious injury in New York?

A fracture is an enumerated category in Insurance Law § 5102(d) and does not require proof of permanence or of a percentage of limitation. What it does require is objective medical evidence that a fracture exists and that this collision caused it. Where the imaging report is equivocal, where the finding appears old or degenerative, or where there is a meaningful gap between the crash and the study, the fight moves to whether there is a fracture and whether it is acute rather than to whether a fracture qualifies.

What is the average fracture settlement in New York?

We do not publish one, and any figure you find should be treated carefully. Averages are assembled from cases with different bones, different surgeries, different healing outcomes, different insurance limits, and different fault allocations, and the number becomes the yardstick a person measures a real offer against. What actually drives value is which bone, whether surgery was required, how it healed, what function remains, whether scarring is present, and how the injury interacts with the person's age and occupation.

Why is the settlement offer lower than my medical bills?

Because the first layer of those bills was paid by no-fault and Insurance Law § 5104(a) excludes basic economic loss from the liability claim. Emergency care, surgery, and early therapy covered by no-fault, up to the $50,000 basic economic loss limit, sit outside the case against the at-fault driver. What is inside it is medical costs beyond that limit, earnings beyond what no-fault paid, future treatment, and pain and suffering.

Does New York cap pain and suffering for a broken bone?

No. New York has no statutory cap on pain and suffering in a personal injury case, which distinguishes it from most states. What operates instead is appellate review under CPLR § 5501(c), which directs the Appellate Division to find an award excessive or inadequate if it deviates materially from what would be reasonable compensation. In practice that produces a body of decided cases against which a fracture claim is valued by comparison.

The adjuster says I was partly at fault. Does that still matter with a fracture?

More than it used to. CPLR § 1411(b), effective for motor vehicle actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, bars recovery where the claimant's culpable conduct is greater than the defendant's or than the combined conduct of the defendants sued. An even split still recovers half; 51 percent recovers nothing. Clearing the threshold with a fracture does not protect you from that, which is why a fault assertion now has to be contested rather than absorbed as a discount.

How long do I have to file a fracture claim in New York?

Three years from the crash under CPLR § 214, and two years from a death under EPTL § 5-4.1. If a municipal vehicle, a public authority, or a public property defect is involved, a notice of claim is required within 90 days and suit within one year and 90 days. No-fault benefits run on much shorter deadlines: generally written notice within 30 days of the accident and bills submitted within 45 days of treatment.

Is a Fracture a Serious Injury in New York? Yes, Automatically

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Is a Broken Bone a Serious Injury Under New York Law?

Yes. A fracture is one of the eight categories listed in Insurance Law § 5102(d), and it stands on its own.

You do not have to prove permanence, you do not have to prove a percentage of lost range of motion, and you do not have to survive the fight over whether a limitation is significant.

The statute names a fracture. Establish one with objective medical evidence and the threshold question is answered.

$New York fracture serious injury threshold broken bone claim$

That is unusual, and it changes what the case is about. Every other injury on this list has to argue its way through a gate. A fracture walks through it, and the entire dispute becomes what the injury is worth.

Fractures Under the New York Threshold

A fracture is an enumerated category in Insurance Law 5102(d)
No permanence or percentage of limitation has to be shown
Objective imaging is what establishes it
Clearing the threshold opens all non-economic damages
The first $50,000 of economic loss is excluded from the liability claim
New York places no cap on pain and suffering
The remaining fights are causation, value, and comparative fault

Where a Fracture Sits Among the Eight Categories

"Most threshold arguments are about degree. A fracture is about existence, and an x-ray answers it."

Insurance Law § 5102(d) now lists eight categories of serious injury: death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, a fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system, permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member, and significant limitation of use of a body function or system.^[1]

The 90 and 180 day category was repealed by the May 2026 reform, which raised the stakes for soft tissue injuries and left the fracture category untouched.

Look at how the categories are built. Permanent consequential limitation and significant limitation are qualitative standards that require a physician to measure, quantify, and characterize a loss, and then require a court to decide whether that characterization is sufficient. Those are the battlegrounds.

A fracture is not a standard. It is a fact. The bone is broken or it is not, and imaging says which.

Our page on New York's serious injury gate covers what each of the other seven categories requires and why the repeal of the ninth changed the landscape for injuries that resolve.

What a Defense Can Still Argue About a Fracture

Clearing the threshold ends one argument. It does not end all of them, and knowing which fights remain is what a fracture case is actually managed around.

Whether the imaging shows a fracture at all. A radiologist's report reading possible or cannot exclude is not the same as a diagnosed fracture, and a defense radiologist will read the films again.
Whether the fracture is acute or old. A healed or degenerative finding on imaging is the most common attack. The answer is in the acute findings around it: bone marrow edema, soft tissue swelling, and the clinical presentation at the time.
Whether this crash caused it. Mechanism, immediate complaints, the emergency department examination, and the interval between the collision and the imaging.
Comparative fault. Which since May 2026 is a much larger problem than it was, because a percentage can now bar a motor vehicle claim rather than reduce it.
What it is worth. Which is the entire remaining case, and which is where the real work goes.

None of those is answered by arguing about the threshold. That is the point of being in this category.

What Drives the Value of a New York Fracture Claim

We do not publish an average fracture settlement figure, because the figure a person finds online becomes the number they measure a real offer against, and it is built from cases with nothing in common with theirs. What is honest to publish is what actually moves value.

Which bone, and where. A weight-bearing fracture behaves differently from a non-weight-bearing one. A femur, tibia, pelvis, or acetabular fracture carries a different trajectory from a distal radius. An intra-articular fracture, meaning one that crosses a joint surface, carries the risk of post-traumatic arthritis and future surgery, which is a lifetime consideration rather than a recovery period.

Whether surgery was required. Open reduction and internal fixation, external fixation, hardware, and the possibility of removal or revision later.

How it healed. Union, malunion, nonunion, angulation, shortening, and hardware complications. A fracture that healed badly is a different case from one that healed well.

Residual function and permanence. Range of motion, strength, weight-bearing tolerance, and whether the person can do their job the way they used to.

Scarring. Surgical scars carry their own value and can independently satisfy the significant disfigurement category.

Age and occupation. A manual trade with a wrist fracture is a different loss than a desk role with the same injury, and a younger person carries the consequence for longer.

The evidence quality. Consistent treatment, an orthopedic surgeon's permanency opinion, and no unexplained gaps.

The First $50,000, and Why the Offer Looks Smaller Than the Bills

People with a fracture usually have substantial medical bills and are surprised when the liability offer does not appear to reflect them.

New York's no-fault system pays basic economic loss up to $50,000 through the vehicle's coverage: medical treatment, a portion of lost earnings, and incidental expenses, regardless of fault. Insurance Law § 5104(a) then excludes basic economic loss from what is recoverable in the liability action.^[2]

So the emergency care, the surgery, and the early physical therapy that no-fault covered are outside the claim against the at-fault driver. What is inside it is everything no-fault did not reach: medical costs beyond the limit, earnings beyond what no-fault paid, future treatment, and pain and suffering.

Two things follow. Comparing an offer to a stack of bills compares numbers that were never meant to line up. And the no-fault deadlines are short, generally written notice to the insurer within 30 days of the accident and bills submitted within 45 days of treatment, so a person who misses them can end up personally responsible for expenses that should have been covered. What to do when a carrier cuts them off is on our page about an IME cut-off and how to appeal it.

What New York Does Not Cap, and What Reviews It

New York places no statutory cap on pain and suffering in a personal injury case. That is not true in most states, and it is one of the more consequential facts about litigating an injury here.

What exists instead is appellate review. CPLR § 5501(c) directs the Appellate Division to determine that an award is excessive or inadequate if it deviates materially from what would be reasonable compensation.^[3]

That standard produces something more useful than a cap: a body of decided cases in which appellate courts have said what a given injury is worth. A fracture case is valued by comparison to what has been sustained on comparable injuries in the same department, adjusted for the specifics. It is a real analysis rather than a multiplier, and it is why a lawyer's answer to what is this worth should be a range with reasons attached rather than a number.

The Comparative Fault Change That Matters More Than the Threshold

For a fracture case, the threshold was never the risk. Since May 2026, comparative fault is.

CPLR § 1411(b) bars recovery in a motor vehicle case where the claimant's culpable conduct is greater than the defendant's, or greater than the combined culpable conduct of all defendants sued. It applies to actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, which is the filing date rather than the crash date. An even split still recovers half. Fifty-one percent recovers nothing.

So the case that used to be safe, a documented fracture with clear liability problems around the edges, is no longer safe in the same way. An adjuster's assertion that you were mostly at fault is now an argument about whether a claim exists at all.

It also means the choice of defendants matters, because the comparison runs against the parties actually sued. The two fault rules are set out side by side on our page about how New York allocates fault after 2026.

What a New York Fracture Claim Can Recover

Once the threshold is cleared, every category of non-economic damages is available.

Medical expenses above basic economic loss. Surgery, hardware, revision procedures, and future orthopedic care.
Lost earnings beyond the no-fault limit. Including overtime, bonuses, and self-employment income.
Lost earning capacity. Where the fracture permanently changes what work is possible, particularly in trades and physical occupations.
Pain and suffering. Uncapped in New York, and valued against comparable sustained awards.
Scarring and disfigurement. Its own component, and its own threshold category.
Future care and household services. Where the injury limits what a person can do at home.
Loss of consortium. A spouse's separate claim.

For value context on specific fracture types, our national library goes deeper on broken bone claims generally and on hip fractures.

It treats femur fractures and pelvic fractures separately, because both usually mean surgical fixation and a long recovery. This page is the New York overlay: the threshold answer, the excluded first layer, and the fault rule that now decides more than it used to.

Trial-Tested New York Accident Attorneys Ready to Fight for You

New York Fracture Claim FAQ

Does any fracture count as a serious injury in New York?: A fracture is an enumerated category in Insurance Law § 5102(d) and does not require proof of permanence or of a percentage of limitation. What it does require is objective medical evidence that a fracture exists and that this collision caused it. Where the imaging report is equivocal, where the finding appears old or degenerative, or where there is a meaningful gap between the crash and the study, the fight moves to whether there is a fracture and whether it is acute rather than to whether a fracture qualifies.
What is the average fracture settlement in New York?: We do not publish one, and any figure you find should be treated carefully. Averages are assembled from cases with different bones, different surgeries, different healing outcomes, different insurance limits, and different fault allocations, and the number becomes the yardstick a person measures a real offer against. What actually drives value is which bone, whether surgery was required, how it healed, what function remains, whether scarring is present, and how the injury interacts with the person's age and occupation.
Why is the settlement offer lower than my medical bills?: Because the first layer of those bills was paid by no-fault and Insurance Law § 5104(a) excludes basic economic loss from the liability claim. Emergency care, surgery, and early therapy covered by no-fault, up to the $50,000 basic economic loss limit, sit outside the case against the at-fault driver. What is inside it is medical costs beyond that limit, earnings beyond what no-fault paid, future treatment, and pain and suffering.
Does New York cap pain and suffering for a broken bone?: No. New York has no statutory cap on pain and suffering in a personal injury case, which distinguishes it from most states. What operates instead is appellate review under CPLR § 5501(c), which directs the Appellate Division to find an award excessive or inadequate if it deviates materially from what would be reasonable compensation. In practice that produces a body of decided cases against which a fracture claim is valued by comparison.
The adjuster says I was partly at fault. Does that still matter with a fracture?: More than it used to. CPLR § 1411(b), effective for motor vehicle actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, bars recovery where the claimant's culpable conduct is greater than the defendant's or than the combined conduct of the defendants sued. An even split still recovers half; 51 percent recovers nothing. Clearing the threshold with a fracture does not protect you from that, which is why a fault assertion now has to be contested rather than absorbed as a discount.
How long do I have to file a fracture claim in New York?: Three years from the crash under CPLR § 214, and two years from a death under EPTL § 5-4.1. If a municipal vehicle, a public authority, or a public property defect is involved, a notice of claim is required within 90 days and suit within one year and 90 days. No-fault benefits run on much shorter deadlines: generally written notice within 30 days of the accident and bills submitted within 45 days of treatment.

You Cleared the Gate. Now the Case Is About What It Is Worth.

A fracture answers the threshold question outright, which means every remaining dollar is decided by how well the claim is built.

People hurt by somebody else's driving deserve a valuation grounded in what appellate courts have actually sustained on comparable injuries, a fault assessment built from evidence rather than an adjuster's first impression, and an honest account of what no-fault already covered. Your injury already answered the hardest question in a New York car case. What is left is what it is worth, and Lawsuit Legal builds that side of it properly, because you only settle once.

We help drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists living with broken bones and the hardware that fixed them, with the legal help they need to recover what the injury actually cost. Call (888) 713-6653 for a free, confidential look at what your fracture claim is actually carrying.