The value of a case is determined by many factors. Some of these include the severity of your injuries, the specifics of the case, insurance limits, and other variables. Specifically, these and other factors have to be taken into account to determine the amount of damage or harm done to you as well as your losses. While there is no formula for determining how much you can expect, there are some factors known to affect how much an injured person is awarded in a personal injury case.
Medical Bills
Medical bills are crucial for showing that you were injured by another party and that you got treatment for your injuries. The two types of medical bills considered include your past and future medical bills. Past medical bills are easy to calculate because there should be a paper trail and documentation that show exactly how much you have paid to treat your injuries.
The documentation should be as complete and detailed as possible. We certainly recognize that you do not want to start tracking down different documents once you’ve been injured. Obtaining medical and billing information from your doctors is commonly done by the handling lawyer. You should not have to collect all these documents and organized before you meet your lawyer. A good law firms will track down and collect these documents after they take your case. However, it is a good idea to keep a list of all the doctors you’ve seen to make sure that nothing is missed.
Future medical bills are much harder to ascertain because you never know if the effects of the injuries sustained during the accident will come back to haunt you in the future. However, continuing medical treatment such as rehabilitation, at-home care, and other fixed costs can be calculated easily with the help of medical experts.
It is important to talk to your lawyer to see how you can introduce the issue of future medical bills into your case. This is so you can be compensated for what is likely to happen to you in the future and the treatments you might require.
Lost Income
As with medical bills, you can be compensated for past and future lost wages. You can claim this if you have not been able to work and will continue not working because of the accident. This includes whether you are not able to work temporarily or permanently due to, for example, a disability or a chronic condition.
Some jurisdictions also allow you to sue for lost wages if you have to change or quit your job due to your condition. For example, if you worked as a delivery driver and can no longer drive, you might be entitled to compensation for lost wages while you find work that aligns with your current condition.
You should start documenting lost wages or hours as soon as you are injured. Many people fail to do this, which means they do not have documented proof that they have lost either or both as theft seek treatment. You can even talk to your boss or employer to provide proof of the days or hours you have missed since your accident.
General Damages
General damages are those that cannot be quantified financially. These include claims such as pain and suffering. You might have already undergone a lot of pain and suffering due to the accident and the effects it caused such as loss of employment and earning capacity.
What you might also need to prove is long-lasting pain and suffering. How painful will the recovery be? How will it affect your daily life? How will it affect your family if you have one? All of these fall under general damages, and can increase depending on how severe they are.
Insurance Companies
Your insurance company, the other party’s insurance company, and the limits both policies have will also determine how much your case is worth. You have to pursue payment from the at-fault party’s insurance. If you hit the limit, then your insurance company should kick in so long as you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.
However, the insurance company might refuse to pay, and you have to sue the defendant to secure a good recovery. Some insurance companies are not in the business of paying or treating you fairly. They will use their army of lawyers to devalue your claim. Even in cases where you successfully sue them, you might be limited by the policy terms which state the maximum amount you can get from them.
Your Lawyer
Your lawyer can determine how much your case is worth and what you receive in compensation. This happens in two ways. First, a plaintiff unknowingly hires a law firm that assigns an attorney who does not have a good record of winning cases. This means that even when the case goes to court, you might not get the compensation you deserve because the lawyer will not do a good job representing you.
The second is getting assigned a lawyer who will not go to court. There are many reasons why lawyers do this. Some refuse to do it because they do not want to handle a case they might lose; some are just lazy, and some just do not want the bother. Some are simply scared. Again, this is the reality of handling such cases.
Lawyers who refuse to take cases to court will take whatever settlement the insurance company or the defendant’s lawyers put forward. They will try to convince you that this is the best outcome and that you risk losing it all when you go to court. There is an ethics and proper representation discussion to be had here, but the bottom line is that these lawyers are not aggressively advocating to make sure you get top dollar on your case.
It is important to ask a lawyer how often they go to court and what their win percentage is. This is critical information that can help or hurt your case depending on the lawyer you choose.
There is no formula for calculating how much a personal injury case is worth. However, the factors discussed above play a critical role in determining the final amount that a victim or plaintiff receives.
