People often don’t understand why some personal injury cases are worth a great deal more than others. The first factor to consider is always the extent of your injuries from you car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident, or other personal injury accident. As you would expect if your injuries are severe, permanent, or catastrophic, then the personal injury claim usually will have a very high value. However, it is important to also know that the amount of your actual recover can be higher or lower based on other important factors. Many of these factors include:
- Insurance Policy Limits: This is one of the biggest factors in determining how much a personal injury claimant will recover when the injuries are severe. If you have catastrophic injuries, but don’t have a lot of insurance coverage for your claim, then your recover will often limited to the extent of insurance coverage that exists to cover your claim. Commercial policies for big trucks, vans, and other commercial vehicles usually are significantly more than insurance policies for individual drivers. Our experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyers know how to identify all of the insurance policies that cover your claim, and how to verify the policy limits of each. Ultimately the negligent driver is personally liable for or responsible for damages caused by their negligent driving when they do not have sufficient insurance for the claim. However, as a practical matter, most personal injury claimants don’t try to recover from the negligent driver’s personal assets. Excess verdicts against defendants are vulnerable to being wiped away if the defendant files a bankruptcy.
- Prognosis: Many people don’t realize that serious injuries with full recoveries are not worth nearly as much as serious injuries that result with permanent on going limitations and medical problems. This is because permanent restrictions mean that the personal injury claimant is faced with on going work limitations and restrictions on daily activities. This permanent negative impact means that the injured party will be entitled to pain and suffering not only for the past, but also, for the rest of their life. Future pain and suffering and future medical expenses greatly increase the value over a claim that involves an injured party who made a full recovery.
- Venue: The venue for Georgia personal injury claims is usually the county where the defendant resides at the time that the personal injury lawsuit is being filed. Jury verdict research is helpful in tracking the jury verdict trends in each county. Currently, DeKalb County, Fulton County, and Clayton County are the counties with the highest. Metro Atlanta counties with lower or more conservative jury verdicts include Rockdale County, Walton County, Newton County, and Cobb County. Our firm utilizes jury verdict research to educate our clients and to negotiate higher personal injury settlements.
- Pain and Suffering: Pain and suffering is the compensation for the pain, the loss of enjoyment of life, the inconvenience, the stress, the mental anguish that can arise from personal injuries. The damages are in addition to the medical expenses, lost wages, and when applicable punitive damages. Attorney Richard Griffin often uses specific examples of how the plaintiff’s life has been disrupted to increase the pain and suffering damages. Before and after witnesses are usually the best to give real life examples of how the injuries have limited and restricted the injured party’s usual activities of life.
What injuries are usually involved in the highest personal injury recoveries? As a general rule the more serious your injuries are and the more permanent your injuries are play a huge role in determining the settlement value. Examples of injuries that typically have the highest value include:
- traumatic brain injuries
- spinal cord injuries
- herniated discs
- fractured (broken bones) vertebrae
- fractured (broken bones) legs, arms, feet, hands, hips, joints
- joint injuries requiring surgery
- facet syndrome injuries
- other permanent injuries and conditions caused by the auto accident.
Free Case Consultation: To discuss your case we encourage you to call us today at 877-724-6529 or 877-PAIN-LAW.
Free Settlement Evaluation: We also encourage you to submit your case to us with the below Settlement Calculator to find out the likely settlement value of your claim:
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