Attorney Jim Desmond

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How Do I Value My Personal Injury Claim

How do I value my personal injury claim after a car, truck or motorcycle accident in the Louisville area?

First and foremost, the only one who can give you a reasonably accurate value for your personal injury claim is an experienced personal injury lawyer that has looked at all your medical records and bills.

Therefore, anyone who promises you they can get you “X” dollars from the start, is just trying to get you to sign up with their law firm.

Please don’t listen to your friends as they will tell you that they know of someone who did not get hurt, or did not get hurt as bad as you,  and he/she recovered $25,000.  While I wish that were the case, it most likely is not.  Insurance companies are not in the business of just handing out money and they fight before they just hand over money to an injured person.

Also, you don’t try to use standard formulas like three times your medical expenses.  Those formulas existed in the past and are no longer used by insurance carriers. These assumptions will take you down the wrong road and you may end up in a lawsuit because of false expectations.

Until someone looks at all of your medical records, no attorney can really provide you with a value for your case.  A case value depends upon a multitude of factors including: amount of property damage; length of treatment; type of treatment; lost wages; pre-existing medical conditions existing before the accident; liability for the accident; aggravating circumstances such as a drunk driver; insurance company involved and; prior experience with this particular insurance adjuster.

Honestly, rather than the value of your personal injury claim, let’s concentrate on getting you the medical attention you need to get better, figuring out how to get your medical bills paid and deciding how to minimize your medical expenses so that we can ultimately maximize the net recovery from your personal injury claim. After all, it does no good to recover a large sum on your personal injury claim only to have these funds go out the window to lawyer’s and doctors.

Also, I see many attorneys act like realtors when they first speak to a potential client and promise that the world to sign up the case.  Realtors, to obtain a house listing, have no problem using the figures you want to believe your house is worth only to tell you six months later, “Sorry I was wrong and the market changed.”  I won’t do that.  I am not going to promise you the moon and let you get your hopes up only to change my story once the first low offer comes in from the insurance carrier.

The answer to the question How do I value my personal injury claim is actually pretty complicated.

As an attorney who knows other attorneys who also have extensive personal injury practices, I have an advantage that you don’t.  Many times, without revealing information protected by the attorney-client privilege, I will discuss your case with attorney friends of mine so I can get their input as what they believe the case is worth.  Basically, I want to make sure that I am accurately valuing your personal injury claim.  After all, as an attorney who is always advocating for you, it is easy to start believing our own hype.  I don’t want to put you through the rigors of a lawsuit unless I am sure that the case justifies it and the insurance company has incorrectly valued the claim.

How do I value my personal injury claim after a car, truck or motorcycle accident in the Louisville area?  If you want an attorney who will give you a straightforward, honest evaluation of your case, I can do that. Call me on my phone, [number], so that we can discuss it.

Top 10 Mistakes You Can Make in Handling Your Own Automobile Injury Claim

Top 10 Mistakes You Can Make in Handling Your Own Automobile Injury Claim

10) Don’t go to the doctor.  The injury claim lives and dies on the contents of your medical records. If you don’t go to the doctor, it appears you must not have been in pain.

9) Not having the right kind of insurance before the claim occurs. It is: uninsured motorist; underinsured motorist coverage and; health insurance to make sure you can get your medical expenses paid for.  There is no guarantee that the at-fault driver has enough insurance coverage to satisfy your personal injury claim and this let’s us plan for worst-case scenarios.

8) Missing the Statute of Limitations.  Every case has a Statute of Limitations that varies by state and the type of case. The essence is that if your claim is not filed with the proper court in the prescribed time, the claim is barred like it never existed.

7) Immediately bringing up settlement to the insurance company. It makes you look like your primary concern is money. Instead, concentrate on your injuries and do what you need to get better.

6) Don’t settle your personal injury claim too early.  When an insurance company makes an offer to you immediately after the claim, they are trying to buy the risk that you may need more treatment.  Don’t think that they are doing you any favors.

5) Signing documents without reading them.  If you do sign a release of your personal injury claim, your claim can be done before it gets started.  I always tell my clients when they are signing a release, it does not matter how severe of an injury is discovered at a later date, you cannot recover anything further on their injury claim.

4) Guessing on distances and facts.  Many insurance companies want to do recorded statements with you immediately after the car wreck.  Sometimes, when facts are in dispute, that can be a good way investigate the claim further. However, if you guess, those estimates may be used to determine liability for the wreck.

3) Posting facts regarding the car wreck or your injuries to Facebook.  Very simply, for cases involving litigation, most defense attorneys will make you produce all your Facebook, or other social media, since the wreck.  To borrow a line from the Miranda warning, whatever you say can be used against you in a court of law.

2) Not understanding that all of your previous medical history is relevant to the injury claim.  Insurance companies may want several years of your medical history. The idea being that if they did not cause the injury but rather aggravated a pre-existing injury, your claim is worth less.

1) Becoming stubborn about the perceived value of your claim.  Very simply, we all want to believe our own hype.  A bird in the hand is always worth two in the bush and every jury verdict is a gamble.   Accurately predicting what twelve people will think is difficult for the best attorneys or judges.