The average settlement for a broken clavicle in a personal injury case generally falls between $15,000 and $250,000. Where your case lands inside that range depends mostly on whether the fracture required surgery, how much work you missed, and whether the injury left you with lasting problems. Simple breaks that heal in a sling tend to settle on the low end. Surgical repairs with plates and screws push values much higher, and cases with permanent impairment can clear six figures before pain and suffering is even added.
Typical Settlement Ranges by Severity
A non-displaced fracture that stays aligned, heals in a sling over six to eight weeks, and needs only follow-up X-rays typically settles in the $15,000 to $50,000 range. These cases carry moderate medical bills, a few weeks of missed work, and a clean recovery.
Values jump when surgery enters the picture. Open reduction internal fixation (ORIF), where a surgeon realigns the bone and secures it with plates and screws, commonly produces settlements between $75,000 and $175,000. The hardware usually stays in the body for life, and the surgical scar is visible evidence of how serious the injury was. Cases toward the top of this band tend to involve long physical therapy, complications during healing, or significant time away from work.
Settlements above $200,000 generally involve comminuted fractures where the bone shattered into multiple fragments, failed first surgeries that required revision, or permanent limitations that affect the person’s ability to work. When a clavicle injury ends someone’s career in a physical field, lost future earnings alone can push the claim into six figures before anything is added for pain and suffering.
Medical Factors That Move the Number
Fracture type sets the floor. A simple break where the bone stays in place is the least severe and the least valuable. A displaced fracture, where the bone ends shift out of alignment, almost always needs surgery and carries a higher settlement. Comminuted fractures, broken into three or more pieces, sit at the top of the severity scale because they require the most complex repair and carry the highest complication risk.
ORIF surgery itself typically costs $10,000 to $16,000 depending on location, not counting anesthesia, hospital fees, or follow-up care. The presence of permanent hardware is concrete evidence that the injury changed the body, and adjusters weigh that heavily. Physical therapy afterward usually runs eight to twelve weeks, with patients returning to light daily activity around six weeks and more demanding tasks after nine to twelve weeks. A longer rehab period strengthens the argument for higher non-economic damages because it documents ongoing pain and limitation.
When Complications Push the Value Higher
Not every clavicle fracture heals cleanly. The most common issue is malunion, where the bone heals in a shortened or angled position. Most malunions don’t cause functional problems, but shortening of more than two centimeters can lead to nerve issues and shoulder dysfunction.1National Center for Biotechnology Information. Clavicle Fracture – StatPearls
Nonunion, where the bone fails to heal within four to six months, is more serious. For displaced middle-third fractures treated without surgery, the nonunion rate runs around 15%. Distal-third fractures are worse, with nonunion rates between 28% and 44%.1National Center for Biotechnology Information. Clavicle Fracture – StatPearls A nonunion typically means a second surgery, more bills, more time off, and a stronger case for permanent impairment.
Other complications include brachial plexus compression from excess callus formation, chronic shoulder pain, and reduced range of motion. When a doctor assigns a permanent impairment rating under the American Medical Association’s guidelines, that percentage becomes powerful evidence in negotiations. For clavicle injuries requiring surgical resection of the distal end, the rating typically starts around 10% of the upper extremity.
What the Settlement Actually Pays For
A settlement is built from two kinds of damages: economic and non-economic. Both get calculated separately, then added together.
Medical Bills and Lost Income
Economic damages cover every verifiable dollar the injury cost you. That includes ambulance transport, emergency room fees, imaging, surgery, follow-up visits, physical therapy, prescriptions, and medical devices. The total bill in a surgical clavicle case easily reaches $20,000 to $40,000 or more, and every dollar is recoverable if someone else’s negligence caused the injury.
Lost wages are the second major piece. If you earn $1,000 a week and miss ten weeks, that’s $10,000 added to the claim. Vacation days, sick time, and bonuses you would have earned count too.
Loss of earning capacity is a separate claim and often a much larger one. If a construction worker can no longer lift overhead because of chronic shoulder problems, the claim isn’t just for the weeks missed during recovery. It covers the gap between what they earned before and what they can earn now, projected across the rest of their working life. Economists or vocational experts calculate this figure, and it can dwarf every other component of the settlement.
Pain and Suffering
Non-economic damages address what doesn’t show up on a bill: the physical pain, the sleepless weeks, the inability to lift a child, the worry about whether the shoulder will ever feel normal again. Adjusters usually estimate these with the multiplier method. They take the total economic damages and multiply by a factor between 1.5 and 5, depending on severity, permanence, clarity of fault, and length of recovery. A straightforward clavicle case with full recovery might warrant a multiplier of 2. A surgical case with hardware, complications, and lasting problems could justify 3.5 or higher. So $30,000 in economic damages at a multiplier of 3 produces a $90,000 demand for pain and suffering.
The per diem method is an alternative, assigning a daily dollar amount to each day of pain, often tied to the person’s daily earnings. Someone earning $200 a day who suffered for 120 days would claim $24,000 under that approach.
Roughly eleven states cap non-economic damages in general personal injury cases, though more states cap them specifically in medical malpractice. In states without caps, there is no statutory ceiling on what a jury can award for pain and suffering, which gives plaintiffs more leverage during negotiations.
How Fault and Insurance Limits Can Shrink the Number
If you share any blame for the accident, your settlement shrinks. How much depends on where the accident happened. Most states use modified comparative negligence, which reduces your recovery by your percentage of fault but cuts you off entirely once your fault hits 50% or 51%. Found 20% at fault on a $100,000 claim, you receive $80,000. Found 51% at fault in a state with a 51% bar, you receive nothing.
About a third of states use pure comparative negligence, which lets you recover something even at 99% fault, with the award reduced accordingly. Four states and the District of Columbia still follow contributory negligence, where 1% fault on your part can wipe out your claim entirely.
Insurance limits set a separate ceiling. If the at-fault driver carries only $50,000 in liability coverage but your injury is worth $150,000, the insurer pays $50,000 and closes the file. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage on your own policy can fill that gap. About half of states require some form of UIM coverage. If you carry it, your own insurer pays the difference between the at-fault driver’s limit and your actual damages, up to your UIM limit. Recovering beyond both policies means going after the at-fault party’s personal assets, which is possible but often impractical because most individuals don’t have significant attachable assets.
What Comes Off Before You See the Money
The settlement figure you negotiate is not the check you take home. Several deductions come first.
Attorney Fees and Costs
Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency. The standard rate is 33% if the case settles before a lawsuit is filed, rising to 40% or more once litigation begins. On a $100,000 pre-suit settlement, the attorney takes $33,000. Litigation costs like filing fees, medical record retrieval, expert witness fees, and depositions come out separately. Expert medical witnesses alone can run several hundred dollars per hour for case review and thousands per day for trial testimony.
Medical Liens
If your health insurance paid your medical bills while you were recovering, the insurer has a legal right to be repaid from your settlement. This is subrogation. The insurer files a lien, and it gets resolved before you see any money. If the plan paid $25,000, it will claim $25,000 back. Liens are often negotiable, particularly when the settlement doesn’t fully cover all your damages. Plans governed by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) tend to have the strongest reimbursement rights, but even those can sometimes be reduced.
Taxes
For a broken clavicle, most of the settlement is tax-free. Federal law excludes from gross income any damages received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness That exclusion covers the entire settlement, including the portion allocated to lost wages, as long as the underlying claim is for a physical injury. The IRS has confirmed that lost wages recovered as part of a physical injury settlement are excluded from income.3Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments
Two exceptions apply. If you deducted medical expenses on a prior tax return and later receive a settlement reimbursing those expenses, you must include the previously deducted amount as income to the extent it gave you a tax benefit. Punitive damages are always taxable, even when awarded alongside compensation for physical injuries.4Internal Revenue Service. Settlements – Taxability Punitive damages rarely appear in clavicle fracture settlements, but if they do, they go on your return as other income.
How Long It Takes and the Deadline You Can’t Miss
Clavicle settlements don’t move quickly, and that’s by design. The biggest mistake in personal injury cases is settling before you know the full extent of your injuries. A fracture that looked straightforward can develop nonunion at the four-to-six-month mark, turning a $40,000 case into a $150,000 case. Once you accept a settlement, you cannot reopen the claim.
Most attorneys wait until you reach maximum medical improvement, meaning your condition has stabilized and further treatment won’t meaningfully change the outcome. For a non-surgical clavicle fracture, that might be three to four months. For a surgical case with physical therapy, six months to a year is common. The demand letter goes out after that point, the insurer responds, and negotiations begin. Straightforward cases can resolve within a few months of the demand. Cases that require a lawsuit, discovery, and depositions can take a year or more beyond that.
States set deadlines for filing personal injury lawsuits ranging from one to six years, with most falling at two or three. The clock starts on the date of the injury, not the date you finish treatment. Missing that deadline eliminates your right to sue, no matter how strong your case is.