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Personal Injury Lawyer
At one point or another every personal injury attorney will be asked by a client, “How much is my case worth?” Sometimes this question is posed at the very first client meeting. Properly valuing a case takes skill, but an experienced attorney should be able to give you useful guidance on this issue. . . eventually. Our friends at Sussman & Simcox dive into how evaluating case worth works below.
If you are a client, two important things you can do are: 1. Give your attorney ample time to understand the factors at play in your case, and 2. Disregard stories of what family members or neighbors were able to recover in their injury cases.
The truth is there are numerous factors that influence the value of a personal injury case, and many of those factors are NOT known early on. Don’t be frustrated if your attorney is hesitant to answer a “value” question early in your case. Your attorney does not want to guess. Instead, it is better to wait and give a more accurate and useful response later in the life of your injury claim.
Here are just SOME of the many factors that may affect case value:
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How serious was the traffic collision?
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Was emergency room care required?
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What were the injuries sustained?
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Was surgery or other invasive medical care required? How long did active medical care last?
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Did the client make a complete recovery or does the client face residual problems in the future?
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Are there injury scars?
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What was the cost of the medical care?
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Was time off work required and if so, what is the amount of lost wages?
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Does the client have a prior history of medical problems or injuries that are similar to the injuries being claimed here?
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Is there a liability dispute in the case which could mean no recovery at all for the client? How much insurance is available in the case?
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If a lawsuit must be filed, is the jurisdiction generally deemed friendly to personal injury cases?
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Does the client have a criminal history that can be exploited by the defense at trial?
As you can see, many of the factors, such as the length and cost of medical care, or whether the client made a full recovery, are unknown at the start of the case. Be patient. The most accurate assessments of case value are not made until well into the case.
And while you may have heard that a family member or neighbor resolved an injury case for a certain amount, you probably have no idea as to all of the important factors that were at play in that case, and it should not serve as a meaningful guide to you.
Lastly, any prediction of case value by your personal injury attorney is only the “probable” value of your case, and is not a guarantee. No one can always predict the actual value a judge or jury might assign
to your case after hearing both favorable and unfavorable evidence. At best, an attorney, drawing on their own courtroom experience, can advise you of a range of what similar cases typically bring. But any given case has the potential to be worth more or less than what is “typical.” Indeed, every good trial attorney has had the experience of obtaining a verdict of more or less than they predicted. Each such result contributes to the attorney’s assessment on the next case.
