When someone goes to a personal injury law firm to discuss a case, it's common to end up talking about potential compensation numbers. Clients may wonder, however, how a personal injury lawyer comes up with these figures. These four factors dictate how an attorney arrives at a demand for a claim and what sort of settlement they might be willing to recommend to a client.
Medical Expenses
For the vast majority of cases, the calculation starts with whatever medical expenses the victim has incurred. These are the costs related to stabilizing their condition, providing treatment, and trying to improve their recovery. Medical expenses cover a lot of potential territory, including surgeries, scans, tests, drugs, and therapy sessions. They may also include life-sustain care, such as at-home medical devices that allow someone to maintain some semblance of normal existence.
All justifiable medical care should be covered by a settlement. However, some insurers may object to unproven treatments based on how few practitioners might recommend them.
Pain and Suffering
One of the big things that tend to increase the value of an injury settlement is compensation for pain and suffering. This covers the agony of being injured and ongoing misery related to life after an incident.
Compensation for pain and suffering is typically based on a multiplier applied to the medical expenses total. It's an inexact thing, but the standard in the industry is for a personal injury law firm to calculate pain and suffering on a multiplier between 1.5 and 5. A multiplier of 5 would apply to excruciating and continuing pain that's like to alter a person's life forever, and a multiplier of 1.5 would represent significantly less pain and suffering or at least pain that bated quickly.
A personal injury law firm will often encourage a client to journal their pain and suffering. Usually, this includes a daily entry of what they experienced and a 1-to-10 rating of how much pain they had. This is used to document the client's suffering to make a compensation demand.
Economic Losses
It's common for a person to miss work due to injuries. That figure is calculated based on what they missed in terms of regularly scheduled work. If they're permanently disabled, the claimant also has the right to seek compensation for lost future lifetime earnings.
Personal Losses
Claims may also include losses of basic elements of a person's existence. These include things like consortium with their spouse, enjoyment of hobbies, and the ability to parent their children.
Contact a personal injury lawyer for more information.
Share21 December 2020
Getting in any sort of car accident is traumatic, especially if your injuries are bad enough to land you in the hospital. The last thing you want to worry about after the crash is medical bills, but sadly, insurance companies do not always make it easy to collect the funds to cover those expenses. On top of that, you have lost wages from the days you missed at work. There is a solution. Personal injury and car accident attorneys are there to make sure you get the compensation you deserve after a car accident. We've created this website to help you learn more about their services.