Verbal Threshold (Serious Injury Threshold)

Category: legal

A statutory legal standard in certain no-fault states that defines the specific severity of injury required to sue a negligent driver for non-economic damages.

Also referred to as a limitation on lawsuit threshold. Rather than using a specific medical bill dollar amount, a verbal threshold uses precise legal words to describe qualifying injuries—such as permanent loss of a bodily function, significant disfigurement, or permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability. Failing to meet this threshold results in an immediate summary dismissal of the lawsuit.

Common Examples

• The defense filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiff's soft-tissue neck strain failed to pierce the state's statutory verbal threshold.
• Our legal document parsing models look for explicit diagnostic codes that satisfy the verbal threshold criteria established by state insurance law.