A SIRVA lawsuit is not filed in a normal court. Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration claims go through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, where you submit a petition to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and a Special Master decides whether the program owes you compensation.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-15 – Compensation A successful petition can cover medical expenses, lost wages, and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering. Most SIRVA cases resolve in one to three years, and the program pays your attorney’s fees separately — win or lose — as long as the petition was filed in good faith.
Who Can File a SIRVA Claim
Not every sore shoulder qualifies. The program sets a severity threshold, and you have to clear at least one part of it:
- Your symptoms lasted more than six months after the vaccination.
- The injury required both inpatient hospitalization and a surgical procedure, such as a rotator cuff or labrum repair.
- The vaccine caused death.
The hospitalization-plus-surgery test is a single combined requirement, not two separate paths. A brief hospital visit alone does not qualify.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-11 – Petitions for Compensation In practice, most SIRVA petitioners qualify under the six-month rule, because shoulder injuries from poor injection technique tend to drag well past that mark.
SIRVA is listed on the federal Vaccine Injury Table for nearly every injectable vaccine the program covers, including tetanus-containing shots like DTaP and Td, MMR, inactivated polio, hepatitis A and B, Hib, varicella, pneumococcal conjugate, seasonal influenza, meningococcal, and HPV vaccines.3Health Resources and Services Administration. Vaccine Injury Table The Table defines SIRVA as an injury to the tendons, ligaments, bursae, or bones of the shoulder caused by a vaccine injection intended for the upper arm, with symptoms beginning within 48 hours of the shot.4eCFR. 42 CFR 100.3 – Vaccine Injury Table Common diagnoses include bursitis, tendinitis, frozen shoulder, and rotator cuff tears.
COVID-19 Shoulder Injuries Are Not Covered Here
If the shot was a COVID-19 vaccine, the VICP does not apply. COVID-19 vaccine injuries fall under a separate federal program called the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, which has no Special Master process and does not reimburse attorney fees.5Congress.gov. COVID-19 Vaccines That matters because the rest of this article describes the VICP path, which is not available to you for a COVID-19 shoulder injury.
The Three-Year Filing Deadline
You have 36 months from the date of your first symptom (or significant worsening of an existing problem) to file a SIRVA petition.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-16 – Limitations of Actions Because SIRVA symptoms almost always appear within 48 hours of the injection, the clock effectively starts the day you got the shot. Miss this deadline and the court will dismiss the petition. There are no extensions.
For a death caused by a vaccine, the deadline is tighter: within 24 months of the death and no more than 48 months after the first symptom.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-16 – Limitations of Actions If your shoulder has been hurting for two years and you haven’t filed, treat it as urgent.
What Your Medical Records Need to Show
A SIRVA petition rises or falls on the medical records. Before filing, pull together:
- The vaccination record showing date, vaccine, lot number, and injection site. Pharmacies, employer health fairs, and state immunization registries all keep this.
- Pre-vaccination records establishing that your shoulder was healthy. The absence of prior shoulder complaints in your chart helps your case.
- Post-vaccination treatment records: every doctor visit, urgent care trip, physical therapy session, and specialist consultation tied to the shoulder. MRI or X-ray results confirming bursitis, tendinitis, or a rotator cuff tear carry particular weight.
- Proof of economic loss, such as wage statements, tax returns, or employer letters documenting missed work.
What the records need to establish is a clean timeline: healthy shoulder before the shot, injection into the deltoid, pain within 48 hours, and ongoing symptoms. Gaps hurt. If you stopped treatment for months and then picked it back up, the government will argue the injury wasn’t as serious as you say.
How the Vaccine Court Process Works
The procedure is less formal than most people expect, and most petitioners never set foot in a courtroom.
Filing the Petition
You submit the petition, along with medical records and a cover sheet, to the Clerk of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C.7Health Resources and Services Administration. How to File a Petition The filing fee is $405.8United States Court of Federal Claims. Schedule of Fees The court can waive it entirely for non-prisoner petitioners who qualify for in forma pauperis status.
Government Review
After the petition is filed, the Department of Health and Human Services reviews the medical merits and makes a preliminary recommendation. The Department of Justice then combines that recommendation with its legal analysis into a report to the court.9Health Resources and Services Administration. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program This is where the government either concedes the case or signals it plans to fight.
Special Master Proceedings
A Special Master, a judicial officer appointed by the Court of Federal Claims, runs the case from there. The Special Master holds status conferences, reviews the evidence, and may request additional records or expert reports.10United States Court of Federal Claims. Vaccine Claims – Office of Special Masters There is no jury, no traditional cross-examination, and no long discovery process. Most of the work happens on paper.
Because SIRVA is a well-recognized Table injury, the government concedes many claims and the case shifts to negotiating the amount. Straightforward on-Table SIRVA petitions commonly resolve in 12 to 18 months; disputed cases can stretch to two or three years.
Proving the Injury Came From the Shot
If your injury fits the Table — covered vaccine, shoulder injury with onset within 48 hours, severity threshold met — you get a legal advantage. You show by a preponderance of evidence that the facts match the Table. At that point the burden flips: the Special Master can only deny the claim if the government proves, by a preponderance of evidence, that something unrelated to the vaccine caused the injury.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-13 – Determination of Eligibility and Compensation You do not have to prove the vaccine caused the injury.
If the facts don’t fit the Table — most often because symptoms started more than 48 hours after the shot — you can still file, but you carry the full burden of causation and typically need expert medical testimony. Off-Table claims take longer and are harder to win.
What You Can Recover
A successful SIRVA petition pays three categories of damages:
- Past and reasonably projected future medical expenses that insurance didn’t cover. Physical therapy, steroid injections, imaging, and rotator cuff repair all qualify.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-15 – Compensation
- Actual and projected lost earnings if the injury kept you from working.
- Pain and suffering, capped at $250,000.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-15 – Compensation
Medical costs and lost wages have no statutory cap; they track your actual losses. Total SIRVA awards vary widely with severity, ranging from five-figure amounts for injuries that resolved with physical therapy to well over $100,000 for cases involving surgery and prolonged disability.
Attorney Fees Come Out of the Program
Your attorney’s fees and litigation costs are paid separately by the program, not deducted from your award. This holds even if the claim is denied, provided the petition was filed in good faith and had a reasonable basis.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-15 – Compensation That’s why many vaccine injury lawyers take SIRVA cases with nothing upfront. The Special Master reviews time records and hourly rates before approving the fee, and attorneys can request interim fee payments in cases that drag on.12United States Court of Federal Claims. Vaccine Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims
If You Lose or Want to Sue in Regular Court
If the Special Master denies your claim or awards less than you think is fair, you have 30 days to file a motion for review with a Court of Federal Claims judge. No extensions.12United States Court of Federal Claims. Vaccine Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims An unfavorable ruling there can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit within 60 days.
After the vaccine court process ends, you have one more option. Within 90 days of the final judgment, you can file a written election rejecting the result and instead sue in state or federal court under traditional tort law.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 300aa-21 – Authority to Bring Actions Doing nothing in those 90 days counts as accepting the vaccine court’s judgment.
Civil lawsuits are a much harder road. You lose the Table presumption, you have to prove negligence or a product defect against manufacturers with strong statutory protections, and the case plays out on the normal civil litigation timeline. Few SIRVA claimants go this route; the vaccine court was built to be the faster and more accessible path, and most petitioners resolve their claims inside it.