- Do Personal Injury Lawyers Make House Calls?
- How do I Prove Medical Expenses in my Accident Injury Case?
- Do I Really Need a Personal Injury Lawyer for my Accident & Injury Case?
- What Medical Expenses Can I Recover in my Accident Injury Case?
- Do I Still Have an Accident Injury Case if I Was Also at Fault?
- Does a No Win No Fee Personal Injury Attorney Suit Your Case?
- How Much Is My Personal Injury Claim Worth
- » Read all personal injury articles
How Much Is My Injury Worth?
Introducing Factors Affecting Your Personal Injury & Accident Claim
One of the often asked questions about a personal injury claim is, “what is my injury worth?” Unfortunately, the answer is not very satisfying. For most people, no amount of money is enough to pay for their injury. Money cannot heal broken bodies; money cannot restore a person’s dignity and a feeling of self worth; money cannot bring back a lost loved one.
That being said, money is about the only way we have of trying to make up for an injury or a loss of life. This means that someone must place a value on each injury, each life, and there are some very harsh realities when that happens.
How Your Earnings Can Affect Your Accident / Injury Claim
If a person who suffers an injury or loses his life didn't work, or had no prospects of working, a smaller value will be placed on their damage claims. The same is true of someone who worked very hard every day, but they didn't earn much money. Perhaps they were not well educated, or maybe they were older and had suffered the effects of age discrimination in the workplace.
And what about this: Maybe they were “just” a stay-at-home Mom. Or perhaps they were contributing significantly to society by working for a charity or by doing other volunteer work, so they were not earning any money. What impact will this have on their injury claim?
Most of the time, the settlement or trial value of a claim for a loss of life, or for an injury, is determined in large part by the amount of lost earnings that can be calculated. Is this fair? Does this make it any easier for the injured or the deceased or their families? Of course not, but it is the bitter reality of the situation that claimants often face.
Insurance Companies Calculate Injury Settlements Based on Multiple Factors
There are other considerations when placing a value on an injury or the loss of a loved one. How much pain and suffering did an injured person go through, or how much did a person suffer before he died? Is the pain and suffering a thing of the past, or will it continue into the future? Will there be future medical expenses? The answers to questions like these have a significant impact on the value of an injury or death claim, whether it is resolved through settlement or through trial.
Ironically, how much someone really suffered may not have as much influence on a settlement offer or a judgment as one might think. Not everyone is capable of describing their pain in a way that will resonate with a jury at trial, for example. And when a case is settled, the insurance company is quite likely to use some kind of formula to decide how much to offer the injured party or the family of someone who was killed.
The insurance company will assign a value to a claim based on its own assessment of how a loss should be valued. Most of the time the insurance company knows it must pay the medical bills, and believe it or not, an insurance company may very well use a multiple of the medical bills as a way to calculate and offer a settlement for pain and suffering.
I am not talking about large multiples here, so don’t start calculating some very large numbers. The multiple may well range from 1 to 5, and the multiple may also be influenced by the type of injury. Did the person suffer broken bones or lose a body part, for example? If the answer is yes, the multiple will usually be higher. Did the person suffer or claim to have suffered only soft tissue injuries? If the answer is yes, the multiple will usually be lower.
Was the injury something that was treated and the injured person made a full recovery? If yes, the multiple goes down. But was the injury something that will require continuing treatment and perhaps the injured person may never fully recover? If yes, the multiple can be expected to go up.
A head / brain injury, or even a concussion, will typically increase the multiple, and hence increase the settlement value of a claim.
Many Variables Affect How Much Your Injury Case is Worth
Are there other factors that affect the value of a claim for injury or death? Certainly there are. Things like the age, occupation, health, family, career, and so forth are all factors that can affect the value that an insurance company or a jury will place on a personal injury or wrongful death claim. If a claim is against a company or an individual and not against an insurance company, the value of the claim may be heavily influenced by the net worth of the defendant.
You get the point. There are many variables, but once you understand the system, you can make a more realistic assessment of the settlement or trial value of your claim. And keep one thing in mind: It is an unfortunate truth that your emotions, or the emotions of the grieving family, may count for little when a value is placed on an injury or death claim.
Choose an Experienced Accident & Personal Injury Lawyer
An experienced accident injury trial lawyer can be an invaluable resource when it comes to helping you place a realistic value on an injury claim or a death claim. It won’t be a value that the trial lawyer believes will make the injured person or the grieving family whole; instead, it will be a value that the trial lawyer, through years of experience, can reasonably expect the insurance company to pay, weighed against the risk and the likely outcome if the case is taken to trial.
Kennedy Hodges & Solomon
Trial Lawyers
© 2010 Lee Solomon
