Recovering from a personal injury accident involves dealing with several critical aspects to help you get back to your regular life. The emotional trauma, physical injuries, and loss of wages due to subsequent absence from work are certain aspects to tackle.
When you are hurt due to someone else’s negligence, getting a fair compensation value for your injury claim should take precedence to help you overcome all challenges. You need to know how to value your claim and not settle for the first offer unless it meets all your demands.
Therefore, it’s vital to understand the factors that impact the value of your personal injury lawsuit settlement to gain the right perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of your claim.
Settlements: The Most Probable Outcome in Personal Injury Lawsuits and Claims
According to statistics, only about five percent of the cases end up in a formal trial, with half of them settling without going into litigation and the other half after filing a lawsuit. Since trials can be a cumbersome and risky proposition for all involved parties, all involved parties strive to work out a settlement.
Factors that Affect Settlement Compensation
The final settlement amount you can expect to receive for your claim depends on the extenuating circumstances surrounding your case. Both insurance agencies and attorneys utilize multipliers to factor in your compensation while making a claim. The following factors help to determine whether you can get a low or high multiplier:
- The Severity of the Injury
Any injuries that you sustain will be categorized as hard or soft. Personal injuries that fall under hard injuries due to their extensive pain and suffering may attract a higher value settlement.
Since hard injuries like broken bones, head injury, joint injury, nerve damage result in substantial weakness or loss of mobility, emotional and physical distress are relatively significant. On the other hand, soft injuries such as sprain, strain, or bruises require brief medical treatment and short recovery time and so may receive lesser compensation.
- Medical Expenses
The amount of medical expenses you incur for your treatment and the future medical expenses should also factor into your settlement.
- Loss of Income
Severe personal injuries caused due to the other party’s negligence can also lead to disruption of your daily work, thereby causing a lack of physical capacity to earn your income. You might be entitled to compensation for the lost income and the income you could make if you were not injured.
The value depends on how soon you can bounce back to work and usually determined with supporting evidence of medical documents that ascertain your case’s severity. Injuries that reduce future earnings below your average wage rate or injuries that do not let your work for a long time may have a higher value.
- Emotional Distress
Emotional distress is a non-quantifiable and intangible consequence of your injury, and it’s fair enough to assume that a victim experiences a reasonable degree of emotional trauma after injury. After an accident, you may go through the fear of driving, sleep loss, agoraphobia, and depression. Though emotional scars are tough to prove, your lawyer can help you document and assess the potential emotional damage and its ramifications.
- Other Damages
Any asset or property damage caused by an accident, including auto accidents that may have damaged your car, can also account for your compensation. Besides, lost opportunities that you may have to miss out on due to injuries, like a keystone business meeting or a missed event, could also be some other factors in calculating your settlement.
The results of claim settlement may vary depending on your injury. Ultimately, a personal injury defense lawyer can give you a realistic assessment of your claim’s strengths and weaknesses and help you bag a fair compensation claim by striking winning negotiation deals with all involved parties.