After suffering an injury, you may be asking yourself how much your personal injury claim could be worth. You have probably had to get medical care, repaired or replaced damaged personal property, and might even have lost your job or been unable to return to the one you had prior to the accident. Adding up all these expenses in your mind may have you come up with all sorts of numbers. However, are they realistic? What do personal injury cases typically pay out? Read on to find out.
Average Personal Injury Payouts
Although the payouts for personal injury claims tend to vary greatly, the average tends to fall between $3,000 and $75,000. In your own personal case, the payout will depend on several factors such as the amount of damage to your property, how much medical treatment you have needed and will need in the future, the wages you have lost by being unable to work, and more.
However, there is no way to know for sure where your particular case will land in this spectrum, and only the professional advice of a personal injury lawyer can give you a more accurate number. However, you have probably heard of cases that are worth quite a bit more than the figures quoted above, some even reaching millions of dollars. Before you let your imagination run away visualizing what you would do with that amount of money, be aware that these cases most likely involve very unique circumstances, coupled with severe punitive damages or other extraordinary damages.
How can you know how much your case will settle for?
Your personal injury lawyer might surprise you by quoting you an amount that is higher than the one you were expecting, but the other extreme could also be true and they will tell you that it is not worth very much.
During a consultation with your lawyer, they will ask you about the details of your case and determine the types of damages that can be included in your claim. This estimate will certainly not be based on averages but on the specific factors surrounding your case.
How is the value of a personal injury claim determined?
Your lawyer will look at all the components of the case. These are economic damages, non-economic damages, and punitive ones. Once again, averages at this point do not work, since some cases will have high economic damages, while others will lean more towards high punitive ones.
It is important to listen to your lawyer’s advice first, before accepting the offer made by the insurance company which generally tends to be lower.
Is there anything that can raise the value of the claim?
According to hm-attorneys.com, economic damages are easy to quantify since they involve such things as medical bills, car repair expenses, or lost wages. However, non-economic damages such as emotional anguish or pain and suffering are harder to quantify. That is why there is what is called a multiplier which goes from 1 for mild injuries to 5 for severe ones. Your personal injury lawyer will help you determine which multiplier to apply to come up with an accurate amount.
What else can play a role in the amount you end up receiving?
Basically, you are limited by the amount that the responsible party is able to pay. Let’s say that your lawyer considers that your claim is worth $75,000. However, the insurance policy of the other party has a $60,000 limit and there are no other assets. In this case, it is unlikely that they will be able to give you the full amount you are claiming. This means that even if your case is worth that much more, you will be unable to collect the full amount.
However, there is no need for you to worry unnecessarily about the outcome of your personal injury case. If you have any questions, talk to your lawyer.
Benefits of Hiring a Lawyer
The best way to get sure that the process will go in your favor is to hire an expert with a lot of experience in similar cases. According to the statistics, hiring a lawyer will give you over 90% chance to win in the legal process and get proper compensation while trying to deal with the case on your own lowers your chances to only around 50%. Therefore, you can choose to save some money by avoiding professional assistance, but only in the case that you have clear evidence that will be effective in the court. However, you will still need knowledge and experience in legal processes. In that matter, we advise you to always choose an option to hire or at least get advice from professionals before you start the process.
Another reason to choose professional assistance is that you could claim higher compensation in the end. The average amount of money that people can get with a lawyer is over $75,000, while those who choose to defend themselves without any help can get less than $20,000 on average. In that matter, even the fact that they will demand high fees of over 30%, that option is still more profitable. Also, since you will hire someone with advanced knowledge and a lot of experience, you can expect better agreements related to settlement offers as well.
There are Different Types of Personal Injury Compensations
Before you start with your calculations related to the amount of money that you could get through the compensation, you should learn more about various types of compensations.
- General Damages
This is the most common type of compensation related to the mental and physical pain of the victim. Also, you should know that even though there are not any strict rules related to the amount of money, most judges will use some previous similar cases and determine the amount of money according to them.
- Head Injuries
It is very important to get a medical report on the same day when you got your injuries. When it comes to accidents that caused injuries on your head, the compensation can go from $5,000 to over $25,000, depending on how serious those injuries are.
- Mental Pain
When it comes to the cases where the victim felt anxious, depressed, and agitated on a level where that affected its private life in any manner, the amount of compensation can go between $5,000 and over $15,000. On the other side, if the victim was left with some more serious mental issues that will leave him incapable to continue with normal life, the amount of money can go over $70,000.
- Injuries on Particular Parts of the Body
This can also vary according to how serious these injuries are, and are there some critical side-effects that will leave the subject disabled in any way. Therefore, if there is an arm injury that can be recovered, the penalty will be up to $10,000, while those injuries where the victim stays disabled for life can be much higher, especially back and leg injuries where the victim will have to stay in wheelchairs.
