At the beginning of any case, we do not know the full extent of your injuries, we do not have all of your medical records, and we do not know what defenses will be raised by the opposing side. There are just too many “ifs” to be able to say with any certainty how much your case is worth early in the life of a claim.
Liability and damages are elements that have key roles in the final monetary recovery.
Liability: The extent of your financial compensation will depend in part on who is liable, or at fault, for your injuries.
- Damages: In many instances, determining damages is even more speculative early on.
- Medical Bills: How much are your medical bills going to be? What is the treating doctor going to say about what treatment you may or may not need in the future? How much will that treatment cost?
- Lost Wages: Do you have lost wages? Will you be able to go back to work and perform some or all of the job duties you had at the time you became injured? Will you be disabled from performing all work duties?
- Pain and Suffering: Do your doctors say that you have a permanent injury? How long and how extensive was your medical treatment? How have you been affected emotionally? Will you suffer pain in the future and to what degree?
- Other Damages: You may also be entitled to recover damages to compensate for loss of consortium, loss of normal life, permanent disfigurement, shortened life expectancy and future care-taking or long-term disability expenses.
These are just some questions that have to be answered before an attorney can begin to estimate what a case is worth.
Calculating the value of a personal injury case is much like solving a riddle that has many possible answers. To ensure that you receive the maximum compensation to which you are entitled, your attorney must investigate and document all of your damages carefully, know the market value of your case, and have a full understanding of the many of factors that influence the value of your case.