If you have suffered a personal injury and are undergoing medical treatments to try to recover your health while making sure your personal property is also free of damage, you must be thinking of filing a personal injury lawsuit.
You may have already had a few sessions with your personal injury attorney to discuss your case, talked about what happened and gathered all the pertinent evidence. Finally, your attorney has all the paperwork ready and the lawsuit is filed. So, what comes next? The attorney for the defense must have enough time to perform all pretrial explorations and research and prepare for the trial.
What is the stated purpose of a personal injury settlement?
Its purpose is to make the plaintiff "whole" again. It is not to ensure a better financial situation for the plaintiff, rather the money should be enough to cover all out-of-pocket expenses that have accumulated due to the incident. It also contemplates the expenses that will be incurred in the future in the understanding that these funds will serve to restore as much normalcy as possible to the plaintiff's life. Some of the payout will go towards legal fees as well.
Why do so many personal injury cases end up settling instead of going to court?
The option of going to trial is always available to you. However, in real life, there is generally an insurance policy in place designed to cover your losses. In most cases, it happens that the insurance provider prefers to offer you a settlement amount with the understanding that you will not pursue the lawsuit further. They know that going to court will cost them money that they want to avoid spending. They also know how attractive an offer might be to you, considering how the legal system works and how much time you may have to end up waiting to get your day in Court. Another factor for you to consider is that if the case does go to Court, you may end up wasting a lot of time and getting nothing at the end if you lose.
How much should you accept as a settlement?
You have probably spent some time online researching the topic and have bumped into various settlement calculators. For them to give you a realistic estimate as to how much you can expect to receive you need to have some information handy. A better estimator of possible damages, however, is your personal injury lawyer.
Out of curiosity, and before you consult your lawyer, you may want to input some numbers into the calculator. You must put together a list of numbers which might include:
-
All your medical expenses - Keep a detailed list of what you have spent and expect to spend, if you know this figure
-
Pay stubs - Add them up to calculate how much you have been unable to earn due to your injuries
-
Estimates of property damage - If your car was damaged, how much will it cost to repair or replace it, if the property damaged is something else, answer the same questions
Other intangible items, such as an amount that would address your pain and suffering are best left to your lawyer to help you calculate them. 1-800-Injured is an attorney and medical referral service that can put you in touch with experienced personal injury attorneys.
