Herniated Disc Injuries: When the Insurer Says It Was “Degenerative”

Disc injuries sit in the middle of personal injury law. They are more serious than a strain, they often need injections or surgery, and they show up on an MRI. They also show up on the MRIs of people who have never been in a crash, which gives the insurer its argument. I am Frank Younes. This page explains the medicine in plain terms, what the research actually says about degeneration, and how Nebraska courts have decided these cases.

What Is a Herniated Disc?

The discs are the cushions between the bones of the spine. Each has a tough outer ring and a soft, jelly-like center. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons describes a herniation as a fragment of that center pushed out through a tear in the outer ring into the spinal canal, where it can press on a nerve. Herniations are most common in the lower back and next most common in the neck.

Bulging disc or herniated disc?

Usage varies, even among doctors. Mayo Clinic distinguishes them this way: a bulge involves only the outer layer of the disc and usually extends around a quarter to half of its circumference, while a herniation is a crack in the outer layer that lets the inner material protrude, and is more likely to cause pain. Either can exist without symptoms. In a legal claim the label matters less than what the radiologist and your surgeon say the finding is doing to the nerve.

When it is an emergency

Orthopaedic surgeons treat one complication as a surgical emergency: cauda equina syndrome, in which the nerves at the base of the spine are compressed. The warning signs are trouble urinating or loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness in the groin or inner thighs, and worsening weakness in the legs. If you have those symptoms, go to an emergency room.

How a Disc Injury Is Diagnosed and Treated

• Imaging. A herniated disc cannot be seen on a plain x-ray. An MRI is the standard test, and it shows which nerves are affected. If you were only x-rayed after the crash, a disc injury has not been ruled out.
• Conservative care first. Rest, medication and physical therapy. According to the neurosurgeons’ association, about nine in ten people improve over time without surgery.
• Injections. An epidural steroid injection may give relief when weeks of other treatment have not.
• Surgery. In the lower back, the most common procedure for a single herniation is a microdiscectomy. In the neck, it is removal of the disc with a fusion. Artificial disc replacement is used in selected cases.

This sequence matters legally. Surgery is usually recommended only after months of conservative care have failed, which means the true cost of a disc injury is often not known for half a year or more. A claim settled in the first weeks is settled before anyone knows whether you will need an operation.

The Insurer’s Favorite Argument: “It Was Degenerative”

The radiology report on almost any adult’s spine includes the words “degenerative changes.” The adjuster will read that phrase back to you as if it ends the claim. Here is what the research shows. A widely cited review of 33 studies looked at imaging of 3,110 people who had no back pain at all:

That data cuts both ways, and you should understand both.

• For the insurer: a bulge or protrusion on your MRI may have been there before the crash.
• For you: degeneration is usually painless. Most people with these findings have no symptoms at all. If you were working, sleeping and living without pain before the collision, and have not been since, the degeneration did not cause that change. The collision did.

That is exactly how Nebraska law looks at it.

What Nebraska Courts Have Held

Aggravation of a degenerated spine is compensable

In Kirchner v. Wilson, 251 Neb. 56 (1996), a man who had already had four back surgeries was rear-ended in Omaha and later needed surgery for a herniated disc. His surgeon could not say with certainty that the collision caused the herniation itself, but “stated with reasonable medical certainty that the collision aggravated Kirchner’s preexisting degenerative and weakened lumbar spine conditions,” and that it was not possible to determine how much was due to each. The trial judge refused to tell the jury that if the damages could not be separated, the defendant was liable for all of them. The Supreme Court reversed and ordered a new trial on damages.

A painless condition that the crash makes painful

In Shurts v. Flynn, 14 Neb. App. 303 (2005), an MRI after a chain rear-end collision showed degenerative disc disease at three levels in the neck that had caused no symptoms before the crash. The surgeon testified that a person can have that condition without symptoms until trauma triggers them. The Court of Appeals held the jury had to be instructed on aggravation, and that “the burden of apportioning damages then rested squarely with” the defendant. The rule it applied comes from the Supreme Court: “Once the plaintiff presents evidence from which a jury reasonably can find that damages were proximately caused by the tortious act, the burden of apportioning damages resulting from the tort rests squarely on the defendant.”

The limit: a doctor has to say it

These rules do not apply automatically. In Renne v. Moser, the plaintiff’s doctor “did not express the opinion that the automobile accident aggravated” her prior condition, so she was not entitled to an aggravation instruction at all. And in a 2015 case, a 71-year-old man with spinal stenosis lost at trial even though the other driver admitted fault for the crash; the Supreme Court presumed the jury agreed the accident “had not caused” his injuries. Admitted fault is not admitted injury. The medical opinion is the case.

The Disc Injury That Is Found Late

Disc injuries are often diagnosed weeks or months after a crash, when pain that was treated as a strain does not resolve and an MRI is finally ordered. That delay creates two risks.

• The insurer argues the gap. If you did not complain of arm or leg symptoms early, expect to hear that the disc must have come from something else. The answer is in the records: report every symptom at every visit, including numbness and tingling, even when it seems minor.
• An early settlement. In a Nebraska case from 1983, a man signed a release thirteen days after his crash, believing he was settling for his car and a small medical bill. A herniated disc in his neck requiring fusion was diagnosed months later. He was allowed to pursue the claim only because the injury had been unknown to everyone when he signed, and he had to win a trial and an appeal to do it. See should I accept the first settlement offer.

What the Defense Will Do in a Disc Case

• Request your prior records. Every earlier complaint of back or neck pain, every chiropractic visit and every prior claim will be collected.
• Send you to its own doctor. In a lawsuit, a court may order a party whose physical condition “is in controversy to submit to a physical or mental examination,” but only “on motion for good cause,” and the order “must specify the time, place, manner, conditions, and scope of the examination” (Neb. Ct. R. Disc. § 6-335). You are entitled, on request, to a copy of the examiner’s written report, which “must set out in detail the examiner’s findings, including diagnoses, conclusions, and the results of any tests.”
• Argue the impact was too small. Photographs of the vehicles are admissible in Nebraska to show the force of the collision.
• Argue you would have needed the surgery anyway. This is an apportionment argument, and the burden of proving it is the defendant’s.

I go through each of these in pre-existing conditions and car accident claims.

What a Disc Injury Claim Includes

• Past medical expenses: imaging, therapy, injections, surgery and rehabilitation.
• Future medical expenses. A fusion can lead to later treatment. Future care is recoverable when a physician supports it; the Supreme Court has said that “conjecture or possibility regarding future medical expenses is insufficient.”
• Lost income and lost earning capacity. A person who can no longer lift, drive long distances or stand all day may have lost part of the ability to earn, even after returning to work. That loss must be shown to be “reasonably certain.” See lost wages and earning capacity.
• Pain, permanent impairment and loss of the activities that made up your life before.
• What comes out afterward. Surgery means large bills and usually a health plan or provider with a claim on the settlement; see medical liens and subrogation.

I do not publish an average value for disc cases. A case resolved with therapy and one resolved with a two-level fusion are not comparable, and the insurance available often matters as much as the injury. See underinsured motorist coverage and my settlement examples.

Spinal Cord Injuries

The most severe spine injuries involve the cord itself. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke defines a spinal cord injury as “damage to the spinal cord—the bundle of nerves and nerve fibers that sends and receives signals from the brain,” and reports that “motor vehicle accidents and serious falls are the most common causes of SCI in the U.S.” (NINDS). The national spinal cord injury database attributes about 37 percent of traumatic spinal cord injuries since 2015 to vehicle crashes, the leading cause. These cases involve lifetime care, and they are evaluated with physicians and life-care planners rather than by comparison to anything else on this page.

What to Do

• Report radiating pain, numbness or weakness immediately, and ask whether an MRI is appropriate.
• Give every provider your full history, including prior back or neck treatment. A doctor who learns of it for the first time on cross-examination cannot help you.
• Follow through on referrals to a spine specialist, and keep your therapy appointments.
• Do not give the other driver’s insurer a statement or a blanket medical authorization. See recorded statements.
• Do not settle until your surgeon can say what the future holds.
• Watch the deadline: four years for most Nebraska injury claims (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-207), two in Iowa. See the deadline guide.

For strains and sprains without disc involvement, see whiplash, neck and back injuries.

Medical information on this page is summarized from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Mayo Clinic, the National Institutes of Health and the published study cited, and is not medical advice. Cases and rules were read at their sources on October 3, 2026. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Your Attorney

Frank Younes

Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can a car accident cause a herniated disc?

Yes. A single injury can cause a herniation, and a collision can also turn a painless, degenerated disc into a painful one. Nebraska law compensates both.

The insurance company says my disc problem was pre-existing. Do I still have a claim?

Yes. The at-fault driver is liable for aggravating a pre-existing condition, and if the damages cannot be separated, for all of them. The burden of separating them is on the defendant.

What do I need to prove?

A physician’s opinion, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that the collision caused or aggravated the condition.

My MRI says “degenerative changes.” Is that bad for my case?

Not by itself. Most adults without any back pain have degenerative findings on imaging. What matters is how you were functioning before and after the crash.

Do I have to see the insurance company’s doctor?

Only in a lawsuit, and only if the court orders it for good cause. You are entitled to a copy of the examiner’s report.

How much is a herniated disc case worth?

There is no reliable average. Treatment ranges from therapy to fusion surgery, and the value depends on the care required, the lasting effect, lost earning capacity and the insurance available.

How long do I have to file?

Four years in Nebraska for most injury claims and two years in Iowa.