Someone that has received a large number of bills, after seeking treatment for a personal injury has some sense for what a personal injury case would be worth. Still, an attorney could provide that same victim with a clearer picture of the probable worth of such a case.
An insurance company looks first at the special damages.
The medical expenses are part of the special damages. Those expenses reflect the cost of medications and necessary medical equipment. By the same token, hospital costs and the cost of rehabilitation or physical therapy get added to the medical expenses.
Did the claimant experience a loss of family, society or educational experiences? Did the claimant have to forego the chance to take part in a family reunion or a special training session? Evidence that such was the case would increase the worth of a personal injury claim.
Had property damage been reported, along with the report of an injury? Evidence that such a report had been made would increase further the worth of a given victim’s personal injury claim.
Did the victim experience any pain and suffering?
Did the injury cause the victim’s level of stress to increase? Did it create an obvious level of embarrassment in the stressed individual/victim? Did it lead to development of depression, or a dissolution of family relations?
Those are all examples of pain and suffering. The number of such examples indicates what number to enter in an established formula.
The formula used by insurance companies:
The Personal Injury Lawyer in Richmond Hill knows that the insurance company adds up all of the special damages. Then it multiplies that total by a figure between 1.5 and 5. The greater the level of the victim’s pain and suffering, the larger will be that factor.
After obtaining that product, the insurance company then adds the amount of income lost by the injured victim. The final result obtained, after using that established formula indicates the worth of the related personal injury case.
Another element that needs to be considered:
The figure obtained by using the formula concerns the case’s worth, if the victim could not be charged with comparative negligence. Suppose, though, that the evidence showed that the victim had contributed in some way to creation of the injury-causing accident? In that sense, the formula figure would be incorrect.
How could the original formula figure be corrected? The insurance company would need to determine the percentage of fault that could be placed on the victim. That percentage could be applied to the worth, and the result subtracted from the figure that was originally calculated. Once that subtraction had been completed, the result should provide the insurance company with a more accurate value of the worth for the claimant’s/victim’s personal injury case.