Personal Injury Settlement Amounts and How To Calculate Pain and Suffering
Personal Injury Settlement Amounts and How To Calculate Pain and Suffering
If you speak with the right personal injury lawyers, very high personal injury settlement amounts can be awarded to the victim. The more medical treatment that is required for injuries sustained or endured in, for example, a car accident, the more damages you can expect.
However, reaching a favorable agreement in a personal injury settlement is not always a simple thing without a professional attorney with experience helping you.
An insurance company will usually fight tooth and nail to avoid being burdened with a huge payout.
In such cases, having an experienced personal injury attorney is the best way to ensure that you receive fair compensatory damages for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, and emotional distress.
With years of experience handling high-profile personal injury cases and helping victims to walk away with a lot more than just an average personal injury settlement, Ehline Law is the go-to firm in Los Angeles, California, to guarantee a great result.
Call 833-LETS-SUE right now and talk to the leading experts in personal injury settlements.
What Is a Typical Personal Injury Settlement?
This is one of the first questions clients ask when they sit down for a free case evaluation with Michael P. Ehline and his team.
Victims want to know right off the bat how much they stand to get if they win their personal injury claim.
Most personal injury cases usually end up with the victims being awarded damages between $3,000 and $75,000.
However, personal injury settlement amounts vary greatly depending on the particulars of each case.
However, it is common to hear of millions of dollars being awarded to car accident victims that have suffered severe injuries requiring extensive medical treatment.
An example is Los Angeles family members who were awarded an eye-watering $4.9 billion after suffering horrific injuries in a car accident when their GM van exploded after a car crash.
Usually, the value of personal injury settlements is based on the following:
- The nature of the injuries sustained
- How experienced is the personal injury lawyer is
- The corporation of the defendant’s insurance company
- How much evidence is there to support the personal injury claim
- Any other circumstances that may require, for example, the judge to award punitive damages
Which Are Higher Settlement Injuries in a Personal Injury Claim?
Many types of injuries can cause a victim to seek compensation through a personal injury settlement claim.
These injuries are usually the result of one of the following:
- Car accident
- Motorcycling collision
- Slip and fall case
- Product liability
- Medical malpractice
- Wrongful death case.
In most cases, the average personal injury settlement amount offered by the insurance company differs according to the exact nature of injuries sustained.
The following are the types of injuries that can result in high medical bills in a typical personal injury settlement case:
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries are commonly the result of a car accident or something very similar. These types of injuries usually affect the muscles and similar soft tissue, including injuries such as whiplash, back injuries, sprained ankle or knees, and a strained neck, and are often treated by a chiropractor.
Regarding personal injury settlement amounts, you should not expect a soft tissue injury to have a huge payout because it is not considered life-threatening, nor does it usually result in permanent injuries.
The other problem is that the severity of soft injuries is purely subjective, making it difficult for even an experienced personal injury attorney to prove how bad the injuries are. Medical records offer very little in the way of evidence in this case.
Insurance companies know this very well and are good at exploiting this fact to negotiate a much lower settlement amount than the victim is entitled to.
Hard Injuries
The average personal injury settlement amount you can expect from hard injuries is much higher.
These types of injuries are usually a lot more severe, have a bigger impact on the victim’s quality of life, and, most importantly, are easier to prove in open court in terms of pain and suffering and medical expenses.
There are five types of hard injuries in personal injury cases, which are:
Head Injuries
There are few things more life-threatening than a traumatic brain injury. Not only are the damages sometimes long-lasting, but even after recovering, patients can still expect random bouts of dizziness, concussions, and headaches.
Besides the fact that head injuries often result in further serious complications, they are also very difficult to ignore early on, meaning victims are usually not aware of just how serious the injury is until it is too late.
Most insurance companies will try to quickly agree on a fair settlement amount before any further complications arise from a head injury. It is quite feasible to expect millions of dollars in compensation based on such injuries.
Broken Bones
Broken bones are easy to prove because you will need an X-ray to reveal the fracture. As long as you can show the broken bones clearly, the settlement amount will rise drastically.
The main reason broken bones will command high compensation is that you will have to spend a long time recovering and not be able to work.
This will affect you and your family if you are the main provider.
Wounds and Scars
Permanent disfigurement, usually caused by wounds and scars to the face or other body areas, can cause lifelong trauma and embarrassment for the victims.
As such, even in cases where these injuries ate not deemed severe, they can still be life damaging.
To receive a reasonable settlement amount for the injured person, the lawyer will have to show how the disfigurement has resulted in a lot of phycological stress for the victim.
Any medical bills resulting from efforts to reduce the disfigurement will also need to be compensated.
This is the situation where testimonies from experts, such as phycologists or plastic surgeons, can prove very useful in determining the impact of the scarring and the estimated cost of reconstructive surgery.
Joint Dislocation, Separated Muscles, and Torn Ligaments and Tendons
When such injuries are included in settlement negotiations, it is easier to feel much more sympathy for the victim due to how severe the injuries sound.
Even though these types of injuries do not usually result in a lot of medical expenses, people usually associate them with a lot of pain and suffering, which is a great advantage to the personal injury victim.
Spinal Injuries
Any personal injury case involving spinal injuries will usually result in a massive payout for the victims.
This is because spinal injuries usually affect a person’s ability to walk or care for themselves without much assistance.
Even in cases where spinal injuries do not result in permanent disability, a lot of physical therapy is usually required before the victims can go back to living an everyday and productive life.
The cost of getting a physical therapist and the future lost wages caused by limited mobility need to be included in the settlement agreement.
How a Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help
The claims process can be complicated without an experienced attorney and a competent legal team.
If you wish to claim compensation and receive more than the average settlement amount, you must approach a good law firm. If you were hurt at school or work, your need a lawyer to represent you or risk a smaller final settlement calculation after negotiating for months or even years on end. If so, you may have no option but to file a personal injury lawsuit! No thanks!
A lawyer can help with the following:
Research the Personal Injury Case
To determine what constitutes a fair settlement amount, a lawyer will have to conduct a lot of research into the circumstances of the case and compensate your above mentioned losses.
Any serious injuries will need to be accounted for and all the factors that may impact the settlement agreement.
Provide Legal Advice to the Personal Injury Victims
Once it is determined that you deserve compensation, your lawyer will devise an excellent strategy to prove pain and suffering in your injury claim.
The California justice system can be quite complicated, and without experienced attorneys assisting you, it is easy to miss some vital steps that may cause you to lose the case.
Fight for Your Rights
When you bring your injury claim to court, you can be sure that the other parties involved will come fully prepared with their legal representation close at hand.
That is why you need a good lawyer to fight for your rights if you are to stand a chance of receiving a good personal injury settlement amount.
Win Maximum Personal Injury Settlement Amounts
You must choose a law firm with a track record of routinely helping victims walk away with sizeable personal injury settlement amounts.
In car accidents, for example, there are so many things to consider, such as severe injuries, property damage, wrongful death, and even post-traumatic stress.
A good lawyer will ensure all these things are considered before agreeing on a settlement value.
Damages in Personal Injury Cases
The injured party in a personal injury claim can expect the following damages:
Economic Damages
These are the monetary damages awarded to the victim for the cost of medical attention, property damage, lost wages, and any other out-of-pocket expenses they may have had to pay.
Economic damages are usually easy to prove because all that is needed is the proof of these payments, for example, medical bills, lost time from work, or other receipts.
Non-economic Damages
Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, emotional distress, and post-traumatic disorder. The exact value is usually determined by the judge using the suffering multiplier method after listening to the arguments of your injury attorney.
Ehline Law Can Help With Your Injury Lawsuit
Did you know that with an experienced lawyer handling your injury case, you can have the case settled for a substantial personal injury settlement amount?
Ehline Law has helped many victims in your situation to fight against a determined insurance policy provider. Call Michael Ehline right now at 833-LETS-SUE and schedule a free consultation.
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Michael Ehline
Michael Ehline is an inactive U.S. Marine and world-famous legal historian. Michael helped draft the Cruise Ship Safety Act and has won some of U.S. history’s largest motorcycle accident settlements. Together with his legal team, Michael and the Ehline Law Firm collect damages on behalf of clients. We pride ourselves on being available to answer your most pressing and difficult questions 24/7. We are proud sponsors of the Paul Ehline Memorial Motorcycle Ride and a Service Disabled Veteran Operated Business. (SDVOB.) We are ready to fight.
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