Permanent Scarring

Some types of injuries are more straightforward to quantify in personal injury cases. For instance, after a car accident, calculating medical bills and lost wages is generally clear-cut when someone has a broken arm. However, assigning a monetary value to other aspects of damages, such as permanent scarring, can be much more difficult.

Causes of Permanent Scarring

Permanent scarring can result from anything from a minor accident to a catastrophic event. Motor vehicle accidents, explosions, fires, or any other trauma can leave a lasting impact on your life and scars as a permanent reminder. Permanent scarring is more than just a physical mark—it’s a constant reminder of a traumatic event that can have lasting emotional and psychological effects. Scars can result from various incidents such as car accidents, workplace injuries, medical procedures, or other traumatic events. You may be entitled to compensation if you’ve experienced permanent scarring due to someone else’s negligence.

Types of Scarring

Scars develop as a natural part of the body’s healing process after the skin is cut or damaged. When the skin sustains an injury, the body repairs itself by generating new tissue to close the wound and fill any gaps caused by the damage. Scar tissue is primarily composed of a protein called collagen. However, the new collagen fibers are less elastic than normal skin tissue. The arrangement of collagen in scars is stiffer and more disorganized than in healthy skin, resulting in a noticeable difference in appearance.

Scars can vary in appearance, size, and texture. Some common types of scars include:

Keloid Scars: Raised scars that grow beyond the original injury site.
Hypertrophic Scars: Raised scars that stay within the boundaries of the injury.
Contracture Scars: Scars that cause the skin to tighten, often resulting from burns.
Atrophic Scars: Sunken scars that often result from conditions like acne.

Scars can also cause physical discomfort, such as pain, itching, and restricted movement, especially if they form over joints or muscles.

Calculating Compensation

While there is no exact method to calculate fair compensation for permanent scars, there are certain facts jury members routinely emphasize. Perhaps the most important factors are the age and life expectancy of the injured person. Sustaining permanent scars at age 70 is much different than sustaining those same scars at 17. A 70-year-old must live with the permanent scars for a shorter period and likely has already found their spouse.

Life expectancy is also important because our attorneys frequently argue for a “per diem” monetary compensation for permanent scarring. For example, we might ask the insurance company for X dollars daily for the remainder of your life. The total damages are going to be higher with a younger client.
Gender and location of the scars are also critically important. For whatever reason, juries tend to award higher compensation to females than males. Additionally, scars that can be hidden with clothes do not tend to result in verdicts as high as those where scars are readily visible at all times, such as facial scars.