Kentucky Personal Injury Attorney, Tate Meagher here today to speak to you about the number one question I get from my clients, and that is, how much is my injury claim worth? Well, there are a few different factors you have to look at.
Investigating Insurance Coverage
First, I’d start out with how much insurance coverage is available to you. You’ll certainly want to investigate that. I would highly recommend that you get an attorney to do that. There might even be some insurance out there that you’re not aware of that an attorney can track down for you, so I’d certainly highly recommend you get an attorney to do that for you.
Assessing Your Damages
After that, you really have to look at, what are my damages due to my injuries? The most common types of damages you can recover in an injury claim include medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Calculating Pain and Suffering
You might be thinking, how do you calculate pain and suffering damages? What we do as attorneys is look at historical data in the local jurisdiction where the case would be filed. We examine what types of similar cases have been filed there and what settlements or verdicts were awarded in those cases. We compare those cases to your case and come up with a range of what we think your case might be worth.
Percentage of Fault
Another factor you have to look at is the percentage of fault. Kentucky is what is called a comparative negligence state. This means that a plaintiff’s injury claim is diminished by the percentage of fault they’re determined to be by a trial or fact-finder, like a jury.
For instance, if you’re in a car accident and you are determined to be 50% at fault for the accident, and the other driver is determined to be 50% at fault for the accident, you can still recover from that other driver’s insurance company, but you’re only going to be entitled to 50% of the recovery.
Nature and Extent of Injuries
Lastly, you have to look at the nature and extent of your injuries. Obviously, someone with injuries where they’re going to be in a wheelchair or something for the rest of their life, that type of claim is going to have a higher value than, say, someone that has suffered neck and back injuries of a soft tissue nature. Not to say that those types of injuries don’t have value—they certainly do. I would encourage you to reach out to an attorney if you’ve sustained soft tissue neck and back injuries. These cases certainly do have value, but they’re not going to have the type of value where someone’s injured and they’re going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of their life as a result of those injuries.
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