Personal Injury Lawyer Helping Accident Victims Recover Compensation
One of the most common questions every personal injury lawyer gets is: “How much is my personal injury case worth?” There are many factors that go into each case. Often, it is not possible to put a dollar figure on a case until after everything has been investigated and evaluated. There are several factors that go into valuing a case. Below are some of the major factors personal injury lawyers and insurance adjustors consider when deciding how much a case is worth.
What Are The Insurance Policy Limits?
One of the biggest factors in valuing a case is what the policy limits are for the at-fault party. In the vast majority of injury cases, you will never collect more money than the policy limit of the guilty party. Most people just do not have the personal assets to pay off a large judgment.
However, this is just one factor. Just because the defendant has a million-dollar policy limit does not mean you will collect all of it. The policy limits act as a ceiling for the value of a case, not a floor. If there were several people hurt in a single accident, the money from an insurance policy may have to be split among all the injured parties, possibly reducing the value of your case.
What Are The Injuries Sustained In An Accident?
The extent of the injuries sustained in an accident is the most influential factor in case valuation. The more severe and permanent the injuries the more the case is worth. This is because pain and suffering damages are often informally linked to the amount of medical bills. If the injury requires several surgeries and extensive physical rehabilitation therapy the case will be worth more than one where someone only had a few bruises.
Future medical bills and future pain and suffering can also be taken into account when valuing a personal injury case. If the injuries will likely require care far into the future, or result in a permanent disability, the case will be worth more.
How Will The Jury Look At My Personal Injury Case?
Even though few personal injury cases are taken all the way to a jury trial, every settlement decision in a case is made while considering what the possible outcome of a trial might be. Your personal injury lawyer and the lawyers for the insurance company have to consider what a jury would make of the case. If the facts are clear, you make a good witness, and you have a lot of evidence, your case will be worth more than if the cause of the accident is uncertain and you are not sympathetic to a jury.
Insurance companies make offers based on what will cost them the least money. If they believe they would win at trial they will only offer a small settlement(“Should I Accept An Insurance Settlement Offer?“), if anything at all. The more afraid the insurance company is of losing, or of incurring significant costs fighting the case, the higher any settlements will be.
Do I Need A Personal Injury Lawyer?
Valuing a personal injury case cannot be done in an instant. All of this and many other different factors have to be carefully studied and weighed. One of the reasons to hire a personal injury attorney, is that they are better than you at valuing your case and helping you obtain the best possible compensation. Contact The Rybak Firm, PLLC., today to speak to an experienced personal injury attorney in Brooklyn, NY.
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Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me
Our offices are located in Brooklyn, NY. We serve the entire NYC Metro Area and represent clients in every borough of New York City. Our Personal Injury Attorneys are able to travel to you if you are unable to meet at our offices due to an injury. We also provide free transportation to and from our offices.
Our office address is:
1810 Voorhies Ave
Suite #7
Brooklyn, NY 11235