This is not meant to be legal advice, it is for informational purposes only.
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Sustaining a personal injury is often a traumatizing, overwhelming experience – especially when someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing was the reason it happened. In these circumstances, hiring a personal injury attorney can help navigate your legal claim process for compensation against the at-fault party.
If you’re contemplating filing a personal injury claim, one of the top questions on your mind might be how much you can expect to receive. The truth of the matter is that since every personal injury incident is unique, so is each claim’s value. However, certain factors tend to influence how much most personal injury cases are worth.
Read on to learn about some of the most important considerations that can influence the value of a personal injury case.
What Type of Damages Did You Suffer?
Personal injury victims are entitled to pursue both economic and non-economic damages from the responsible party. In rare cases, punitive damages might be available as well.
Economic damages include things like lost wages, medical bills, decreased earning capacity, and other expenses. Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of quality of life, and more.
Punitive damages are of a different category; they are meant to punish the defendant for their actions. They are only awarded when the at-fault party acted egregiously, like with an intent to cause you harm. States differ on exactly when punitive damages are available, but it’s safe to say that they are rarely awarded.
If your personal injury has left you with substantial financial losses as well as significant pain and suffering, the value of your case likely increases. And if you are eligible to pursue punitive damages, you can expect to receive a significantly higher amount than you would otherwise.
How Severe Are Your Injuries?
The types of injuries you have sustained and their severity will play a major role in how lucrative your case might be. Generally, the cases involving the most debilitating, life-altering injuries are worth the most.
For example, a case where the victim sustained soft tissue damage is likely worth much less than a case that caused the victim to lose a limb. The former injury likely wouldn’t take as long to recover from and may not have a lasting impact on the victim’s life as the latter likely would.
Oftentimes, this factor goes hand-in-hand with that mentioned just above. Severe injuries tend to result in significant damages, both economic and non-economic. The larger impact the accident has had on your life, the more your case will be worth most of the time.
Did You Share Responsibility for the Accident?
Comparative fault is often a key issue in personal injury cases. In many accidents, both parties share some of the blame – even if one is primarily responsible.
States differ in how they evaluate these situations. In a select few states, the injured victim is barred from recovering any compensation at all if they are even slightly to blame for the accident.
However, in most jurisdictions across the country, the victim can still recover damages even if they are partially at fault. But even in those locations, the victim’s damages can be reduced based on their assigned percentage of blame.
As a result, whether you contributed to the cause of your injuries – and to what extent, if so – will likely have an impact on how much your case is worth.
What Is the Nature of the Accident and the At-Fault Party?
Personal injury law encompasses many different practice areas, including motor vehicle accidents, product liability, premises liability, assaults, slip and fall accidents, medical malpractice, and more.
Further, injured victims can hold many types of parties liable for damages under personal injury law, including but not limited to individual persons, businesses, and even government entities.
These factors, taken together, can have an immense effect on how much your case is worth. For instance, car accident claims might be limited by the at-fault party’s insurance policy. You can potentially file a lawsuit directly against the responsible driver to get additional compensation, but they might not have the funds to pay your claim.
Contrast this scenario with a person who was injured by a defective product made by a large corporation. In that situation, the injured victim may be able to file a product liability lawsuit against that manufacturer, which almost certainly has more than enough money on hand to pay for the full value of the case.
An Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer Can Evaluate Your Case
Ultimately, determining the value of a personal injury case can be a complex process; the factors discussed above are just a few examples of things to consider. Nonetheless, doing so properly is critical – otherwise, you might settle your claim for less than what it’s actually worth.
Fortunately, hiring a personal injury lawyer can make it much more feasible to understand the full value of your case and, from there, recover the compensation that makes you whole again as best as possible. Personal injury lawyers have access to resources, including experts, who can help evaluate how much your case is worth.
Most personal injury lawyers also offer free initial consultations. During that time, the attorney can learn about your case and provide some preliminary insight into its potential value. You won’t be obligated to hire the lawyer afterward, either.
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This post brought to you by Kristina Rodopska
Photo: iStock