How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth?
If you are injured due to the negligence of another person, the other person’s insurance company may offer you a settlement. Before you consider accepting the settlement, however, you will want to have an idea of what your case might be worth. Valuation of cases is both an art and a science, and only an experienced personal injury attorney can tell you specifics about how much your case is worth. Below are just a few factors that may impact how much your case is worth.
Kinds of Injury
The purpose of a personal injury case is to try to make the injured party “whole” again. What that means is that the injured party should be compensated for what they have lost and the damages they have suffered. There are a few common types of losses and suffering for which you may recover in a personal injury case:
- Lost Wages – lost wages comprise the money that someone would have otherwise earned from employment but now cannot because of the injury they sustained that was unreasonably caused by someone else. For example, if you were out of work for a month to recover from an injury and were not paid for that time, your case may involve asking the party at fault for the wages that were lost. Lost wages may also include future earnings that could not be earned because of the injury.
- Past and future medical Expenses – Medical expenses include the amount paid to doctors, hospitals, and other places for health care-related expenses.
- Pain and Suffering – Pain and suffering accounts for the physical, mental and emotional pain that someone has experienced as a result of the injury. As pain and suffering will be different for each injured person, placing a value on pain and suffering damages is the most difficult task for a jury in an injury case.
- Loss of a Family Member – Some close relatives can recover money even if they were not the ones personally injured. If someone is killed through the negligence, recklessness, or fault of someone else, in certain circumstances family members may be able to recover the amount of financial support they would have otherwise received from that person, as well as for their emotional pain and suffering due to their loss of the family member.
- Punitive Damages – Punitive damages are a way to punish the negligent party’s wrongdoing by making them pay extra damages to try to deter them and others from engaging in the same behavior again.
Florida Caps on Recovery
Florida has caps on the amount of money that can be given out by juries in only certain categories. For example, there is a $500,000 limit of medical malpractice recovery for non-economic damages when a practitioner is at fault. There is also a punitive damage cap of $500,000 or three times the amount of compensatory damages, whichever is greater.
Clearwater Personal Injury Attorneys
Case valuation is an important part of analyzing personal injury cases. Only a skilled attorney can help you to decide whether or not to accept a settlement for your case. If you are injured, you should talk to an attorney as soon as possible. Contact our experienced Clearwater personal injury attorneys at Roman and Roman, PA today for assistance with your case.