Many clients are surprised to learn that they might be able to settle the case before they even file a lawsuit. In fact, most personal injury claims are settled without the need for a lawsuit, or very early on in the litigation. This is possible because the job of a personal injury lawyer is to negotiate with insurance companies. This includes both your own carrier and the company or companies for the other parties involved.
A quicker settlement may be accomplished if there is little or no question that the other driver is at fault for causing the accident and your injuries. It may also happen when liability is still in question, but your injuries are very severe.
During the pre-litigation process, your lawyer verifies that the at-fault person has insurance coverage, and then determines whether your own insurance policy provides coverage for the accident. Your lawyer will also investigate the facts surrounding the accident, reviewing the police report, interviewing the witnesses and inspecting the scene of the accident in order to get the best possible information on how the accident occurred and who is at fault. The lawyer will also review your current and prior medical records in an effort to understand your claim and to prove that your injuries were caused by the accident and not some other preexisting medical condition.
After thoroughly investigating your claim, your lawyer may then begin to determine the value of the claim. There is no magic formula when it comes to evaluating personal injury claims. Generally speaking, a case is worth the amount of damages inflicted on the person who has been injured. These damages may be easy to calculate, like past and future medical charges, lost earnings, lost earning capacity, and property loss. But the law also states that the injured person has the right to recover compensation for other “intangible” harms. It is these “intangible” harms that are more difficult to calculate. Such harms may include those subjective harms that the person has experienced from the injury, including pain, agony, disability, loss of enjoyment, inconvenience, and mental anguish.
The intangible harms suffered by the accident victim are purely subjective, difficult to determine and often vary among the people (or jurors) who are deciding the case. Ultimately, the value of a case is determined by the jury (or a judge if no jury demand has been filed). Both sides – your attorney and the insurance company or defense lawyer — are continually trying to evaluate how a jury might see the case and how much money a jury might award. Then each side will assign a value or a value range, and try to negotiate a settlement close or above each side’s own range.
Often times it may take many months or years before the value of a case can be adequately assessed. One reason for this is because of the slow progress of the person’s recovery or rehabilitation. Another reason is due to the complexity of the injury or condition which may cause a significant delay in a firm diagnosis by the treating physician. In many instances a case should not be settled or resolved until the person obtains maximum improvement following the accident, and this can also contribute to the delay of achieving a reasonable resolution of the case.
In most cases the value of a claim is driven primarily by the extent and severity of the person’s injuries. Other important factors to consider include the type, extent and frequency of past medical treatment and the need for future treatment. I also rely on several other factors to help me determine the case value. These factors may include, but are not limited to, the client’s likeability as a witness and his or her credibility, the facts of the accident giving rise to the case, the extent and permanency of the injuries, the client’s age, whether the client missed time from work, the identities of the at-fault insurance company and its defense attorney, specific legal or evidentiary issues involved in the case, the county or venue where the case has been or will be filed, and the amount of settlements and verdicts for similar types of cases that I and other lawyers have handled in the past.
You should note that no two cases are alike, even if the accident and/or injuries involved are nearly identical. This means that the evaluation of two cases which appear to be similar on the surface may actually produce widely different evaluations due to the other factors involved in the case. Evaluating personal injury cases takes a lot of knowledge, experience and some hard-earned intuition. Usually a lawyer that has experience trying cases in front of a jury develops a good understanding on how to evaluate the worth of any given claim. Without these traits you may be at a serious disadvantage when negotiating with the insurance adjustor. And unless you are in the business of evaluating and settling personal injury cases for a living, you should usually look to an experienced personal injury attorney for guidance.
Related posts:
- Different Types of Injury Claims in the Field of Personal Injury Law l Seattle Accident Lawyer
- Understanding the Personal Injury Claims Process: Settling Your Case
- Not Every Accident Case Needs a Personal Injury Attorney l Seattle Accident Lawyer
- The Top Ten Myths of Personal Injury Lawyers l Seattle Accident Attorney