We are often asked this question when someone first contacts our firm. The answer is never simple. There is no magic personal injury settlement calculator. It depends on many factors.
How are personal injury claims calculated?
Some of the factors are as follows:
1. Liability
Before we can determine how much a case is worth we need to know what the liability is and whether or not our client was partially at fault or partially negligent in the accident.
2. Medical Expenses
We need to know what the full extent of the injuries are and what the medical expenses have been and what they will be in the future. These expenses must be reasonable and customary. These expenses must be related to the accident and not for other medical injuries or medical treatments. We will also want to know if there are any future medical expenses for future care and treatment because that also affects the overall value of a claim.
3. Pain & Suffering
We also analyze a client’s level of pain and suffering due to the injuries. This value can vary widely based on the severity of pain and duration of time condition was endured.
4. Loss of quality of life
This is an interesting element of case valuation. It is essentially those things you can no longer do which you were able to do before the accident. You should be compensated for that. We analyze what your activities were prior to the accident and what you can and cannot do post-accident – essentially the basis of the quality of life argument. For example, if somebody was physically fit and ran marathons and now they can’t run any longer or can’t go to the gym, then we can objectively show a significant quality of life issue and they should be rewarded an additional monetary recovery.
5. Lost Wages and Income
If a person misses work following the injury (and due to the injury) the other party should pay.
6. Insurance Coverage
This is the most important factor for case valuation because defendants sometimes have a minimum or inadequate insurance coverage and our clients do not have Uninsured Motorist or Underinsured Motorist coverage to make up for the difference between the defendant’s insurance policy limit and the true value of the injury claim.
The above are the most important factors we use to assess the value of a personal injury claim. The insurance company does the same thing.
If you would like us to determine how much your bodily injury claim is worth, please contact us at 1-800-718-4658 for a free case evaluation. You have a right to know what your case is worth. We will immediately let you know based on our decades of experience pursuing personal injury claims from Palm Desert to Modesto and beyond.
We are contingency fee lawyers who specialize in personal injury claims. We do no other type of law. We only charge a fee if we obtain a recovery against the insurance company or some other responsible party. Call us now for a free, no-pressure consultation.
Jeffrey Nadrich
Jeffrey Nadrich is a nationally-recognized California plaintiff’s personal injury attorney. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law. He has successfully represented thousands of injury clients over the last 40 years.
