Personal Injury Law
If you’ve recently been injured in a motor vehicle crash, you’re probably wondering whether it’s worth your time and effort to speak with a lawyer about your options. Generally speaking, if your injuries are superficial, you won’t incur many medical bills when addressing them and you won’t have to take time off of work to heal, you’re probably not going to need to file a lawsuit. You may benefit from speaking with an attorney about negotiating with insurance companies about property damage but your crash was relatively minor, so they shouldn’t need to do too much work to reach a fair settlement on your behalf.
But, if your injuries are severe and it’s possible, likely, or certain that another party’s negligence, recklessness, or intentionally dangerous conduct directly caused or contributed to the cause of your harm, it’s time to speak with an attorney about the potential value of your case.
Initial Questions
As an experienced car accident lawyer – including those who practice at Patterson Bray, PLLC – can confirm, the value of a car crash can’t be ascertained until three initial questions have been sufficiently addressed.
First, what caused your accident? By thoroughly investigating the circumstances of your collision, your lawyer should be able to answer this question accurately.
Second, can one or more parties be held liable for your harm? If your crash was no one’s fault, there will be no one to sue. If another’s reckless, negligent, or intentionally dangerous conduct factored into your crash, you may have a strong case to make. If you can be found partially liable for the harm you’ve suffered, your compensation may be reduced proportionately to the amount of fault assigned to you.
Third, how has your harm impacted your life? Have you incurred significant medical bills? Will your injuries require follow-up care? Have you lost wages due to the debilitating nature of your harm? What kind of pain and suffering have you been subjected to? By evaluating your economic and non-economic losses – and accounting for any reduction in the value of your case resulting from partial liability concerns – your lawyer should be able to accurately estimate the value range of your case.
Why Estimate a Value “Range”?
No attorney can ethically guarantee the outcome of a case. As a result, it makes far more sense to objectively assess a best-case and worst-case range of fairly valued compensation. That way, accident victims have a strong sense of what they may be entitled to but are not overly committed to the idea that they’re owed an exact dollar amount.
Once the value of your particular case has been assessed, you can determine whether pursuing that amount is worth your time and effort. If you aren’t owed much compensation, you may be at peace with the idea of cutting your losses. If, however, you are owed a significant amount of compensation, it may be well worth your time and energy to pursue what you’re entitled to.