Personal Injury Claims

Most individuals are under the impression that there is a formula employed by insurance firms and attorneys to establish how considerably a individual injury accident settlement need to be. The truth is that there is no magic formula. While some insurance businesses might have an internal set of criteria that they use to evaluate a individual injury demand, a universal formula does not exist. Many individual injury attorneys will tell you that ultimately the value of a individual injury accident case is what a jury would think the plaintiff deserves for her injuries.

Although a magic formula does nor exist, there are methods that an attorney will evaluate a personal injury case. In most states there are two fundamental categories of damages. States may use diverse terminology such as “actual and special damages” or economic and non-economic damages” but the simple ideas are the same. In California for example economic damages are damages that can be easily quantified. In other words, some thing that you quickly prove the value of – for instance a medical bill, Other items in the economic category include things such as the price to repair a vehicle or lost wages from a job. The first, and easiest, step in determining the value of a individual injury accident is to determine the total quantity of economic damages. Whilst the defendant could challenge the total amount, the quantity of economic damages is certainly a far much more objective number than non-economic damages.

The more complex portion of the evaluation process comes in when non-economic damages are assessed. Non-economic damages consist of things like emotional distress, mental anguish, humiliation and suffering. This is where it would be practically impossible to apply a formula. Each and every plaintiff is special and an accident affects every single plaintiff differently. For instance, an accident that causes the plaintiff to suffer a permanent scar on her leg may be somewhat embarrassing and traumatic for the average female, but it could be the end of a career for a professional model or dancer. The very same can be said for the emotional impact an accident has on a plaintiff. One victim may possibly suffer very little in the way of lengthy-term trauma as the result of an accident while an additional victim might suffer from significant post-traumatic tension as a result.  For this reason, a “magic formula” is basic not realistic when determining the amount of a personal injury settlement.  Non-economic damages are subjective by their very nature and therefore can not be plugged into a mathematical formula.

At the end of the analysis, a individual injury attorney will also have to factor in what a jury would most likely award the plaintiff if the case went to trial. Juries can return surprising verdicts and awards – both in the plaintiff’s favor and not in the plaintiff’s favor. A good attorney will have encounter dealing with attorneys in the jurisdiction where the lawsuit will be filed and will have some concept what a jury would be most likely to do, but there is by no means a guarantee with a jury.

The bottom line then is that there is no all-inclusive formula whereby a plaintiff can decide the value of her case. In the absence of an agreed upon settlement between the plaintiff and defendant a jury will ultimately figure out what the case if worth.