If you’ve been injured in a car accident, you may be wondering if your case is going to settle, go to trial, or if you will just lose your case. No one, not even an injury lawyer like myself, can 100% guarantee what will happen in a particular case, but having handled hundreds of car accident injury cases throughout my career, I usually have a good idea of what to expect on a case once I know the facts of the case. To illustrate the points I’m going to teach you in this video, let me tell you the story of my past client, Rob.
Rob’s Story
Rob was in a rear-end motor vehicle accident. He was rear-ended by a driver that was inattentive. After the accident, Rob went to the hospital, but not in an ambulance. He had a friend drive him to the hospital later in the day after the accident happened. Rob suffered injuries to his head, left knee, left hip, shoulder, and back. Diagnostic testing was performed at the hospital, and it showed that Rob did not sustain any broken bones. It was a short hospital trip, and he was discharged.
Rob later sought additional medical treatment, including physical therapy and pain management treatment. Rob only had to receive medical treatment for a few months after his car accident, but it’s not uncommon to have to have several months of medical treatment after a car accident and, in some cases, even years of medical treatment, possibly for the rest of your life. Once Rob was finished with his medical treatment, we gathered all of Rob’s medical records and bills.
I then sent a written demand package on behalf of Rob to the at-fault driver’s insurance company demanding that they pay out the insurance policy limits. In response to our demand, I got an initial offer of under $4,000 to settle Rob’s case. This was a lowball offer, and I knew it.
1. Proving Liability
If you get a lowball offer in your case, you’re going to have to file a lawsuit in order to get a fair and reasonable settlement. The insurance company is going to make you work to get a fair offer in your case. Insurance companies know that by making lowball offers, some injury victims will take the settlement instead of fighting them in court. Do not accept the lowball offer. The wait is usually worth it.
In Rob’s case, after we got the lowball offer, I filed a lawsuit against the at-fault Liberty Mutual insured driver. After we filed the lawsuit in Rob’s case, it triggered the litigation process. During the litigation process, we answered written discovery questions on behalf of Rob that were sent over by the defense lawyer hired by Liberty Mutual. We also sent over written discovery questions to opposing counsel for the at-fault driver to answer. We produced Rob for his deposition. I also moved for a trial date, and we were ordered by the court to mediate the case.
2. The Litigation Process
We ultimately mediated Rob’s case a month prior to the trial date we were given by the court. Mediation is a settlement conference where a neutral party known as a mediator helps the parties try to reach a settlement in the case. Before we mediated the case, though, I requested one of the doctors that treated Rob to provide me with a report outlining the nature and extent of Rob’s injuries related to the accident. Once the doctor completed the written report, we provided this doctor report to the defense lawyer prior to the mediation. This report was very favorable to Rob and helped increase the value of his claim.
3. Mediation and Settlement
At mediation, just a month prior to our trial date, we were able to settle Rob’s case for over 10 times the initial offer we got on Rob’s case. Since Rob also got $10,000 in no-fault benefits that went towards his medical bills, the total recovery received in Rob’s case was nearly $50,000. So, we settled Rob’s case.
4. Viable Injury Claims
It’s been my experience that the vast majority of viable car accident injury claims settle prior to a trial. The three big keys in any viable car accident injury case are:
- Proving liability against another party.
- Damages incurred from your injuries such as medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
- Insurance coverage applicable to the claim.
If all of that is present in your case, you have a viable injury claim with very good odds of getting a settlement. However, like in Rob’s case, many insurance companies like Liberty Mutual will make you put in the work and effort through the litigation process before they make you a fair settlement offer.
5. Final Thoughts
There is certainly never a guarantee your car accident injury case will settle. Some small percentage of viable car accident injury cases still go to trial. It’s also possible to lose your injury case, like if you miss the statute of limitations time deadline to file a lawsuit. But as long as you file a lawsuit and push your case towards a trial, if you have a viable car accident injury case, you have a good shot at settling your case.
So, now that you know that most viable car accident injury claims settle, it’s obviously the case that you’re going to want to maximize the value of your car accident injury settlement. That’s why you should watch this video about to pop up right here, where I’ll tell you five tips to help you maximize the payout you receive if you have a viable car accident injury claim.
Lastly, if you’ve been injured in a car accident, slip or trip and fall incident, or dog attack incident in Kentucky, remember: don’t wait, call Tate.
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