Wondering how much of a financial settlement you should expect? An accident injury lawyer explains how no two cases are the same, but they are based on similar factors. Still, gathering the most convincing proof to maximize the money you can recover can be complex. That's what experienced injury lawyers are for- to do the work to figure out what evidence to look for, get it, and present it the right way to give you the best chance at a good settlement.
Transcript
From the moment just about every one of our personal injury clients walks in the door, they wonder what their case is worth. Well we're going to talk about some of the critical factors that go into value in your case, but the first thing you need to understand is this. Your case is unique. That’s because you are unique and that's who your case is about: you. So if your uncle had a crash case and now you've got a crash case you should expect your case to be worth the same amount as his because you're two different people with two different cases, even if they seem very similar. So let's talk about some of the critical factors we use to figure the amount that will be right for you to ask in a settlement.
The first is fault. If you are at fault and it can be proven it can reduce the amount you can get in a settlement or verdict. It’s called comparative negligence and it may in and of itself be a reason for you to get a lawyer to fight for you to prevent that reduction. The other aspect fault, of course, is the person who hurts you especially if that person or company broke the law or were reckless when they hurt you. Folks who are reckless or break the law and hurt somebody else can be held accountable for punitive damages which can dramatically increase the value of your case.
The next critical factors we look at are your medical care. Medical care helps us assess the extent of your injuries which is one of the most important measures of the value of your case. The worst the, injury the more the treatment, the higher the value in most cases. And it's a reason why you always need to be honest and thorough with your doctor, because as you go along with your doctor he is developing a clinical record of the impact of your injuries on yourself. So, we will be looking at the medical evidence that supports your injuries and also very importantly whether you have any permanent injuries. We always work hard to protect our client’s rights to compensation for permanent injuries which includes for, even the injuries that seeing the heel well, conditions that can develop later than being permanent, like arthritis. Along with that, you've got to consider whether you're going to need any future medical care. So you can see that not only is your lawyer a critical part of your injury case your doctor is, too, treat them accordingly. Be every bid is honest and thorough with him as you are with us.
Another critical factor that we look at is whether you lose any wages as a result of your injuries, that's also a measure of how severely you're injured. Generally, folks can't legitimately expect to recover lost wages in an injury case unless their doctor writes them out of work. So if you're hurt so bad you can't do your job for a long time it can have a dramatic impact on your case in two ways. First of all, it adds additional compensation that you should be paid back and secondly it allows you to state that you were hurt so bad you stayed out of work so long its evidence of your disabilities and your debilitation as a result of the injury by the wrongdoer.
The final critical factor is the hardest to prove and the one that we work on the most because it's often the biggest part of your case we call it human loss. You’ve probably heard it called pain and suffering or non-economic damages. we prefer the term human loss because this is the aspect to your case that measures the harm done to you as a person and yes it does include pain and suffering, but it also includes things the unique to you, like the things that you were unable to do or found it harder to do that you enjoy to do. Like play with your children or go on hikes whatever it is you like to do in your free time. So, because you're unique the human loss that you suffer as a result of your injuries is going to be unique.
There's a lot of factors that go into value in your injury case and some of it is extremely complex like that medical evidence and in a lot of our cases we end up sitting down with your doctor to develop a thorough understanding of your injuries so we can adequately and properly present it to an insurance company and if necessary a jury to secure your right to proper compensation for everything you've been through.
It sounds like a lot of work and it is but for us it's just another day's work and we're happy to put it in for folks like you. Your unique, your case is unique we want to do the best we can for you. So that's why we work hard to understand you, your injuries and the impact they're going to have on you now then and going forward. So I hope this has helped you figure out that value in your personal injury case is a process and often you need the involvement of many professionals between the legal and the medical professions. Just like you expect devotion and determination from your doctors in curing your ails in your injuries, you should expect the same determination and devotion from your legal care team and that's what we aim to give our folks at Holland & Usry. I hope this helps and I thank you for thinking about this with me.
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