What is the average settlement for a personal injury settlement?
It is pretty difficult to determine a broad-based value related to the average payout of a personal injury settlement based on the differing facts and injuries in every collision, along with the fact that many settlements are confidential and/or not widely published.
Most personal injury settlements that involve only minor injuries and chiropractic, or physical therapy treatment, will settle for between $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the length and extent of treatment, along with medical bills incurred due to the collision. However, if the injuries are more extensive, including spinal disc injuries and/or surgical procedures, the settlement value will greatly increase based on the extent of the injuries.
What are the factors that go into determining the value of a personal injury case?
The settlement value is based on injuries incurred, along with the losses the individual suffered as a result of the collision. Some of the main categories of damage that are considered before a personal injury case settles are physical suffering, mental anguish, and financial hardship, which would include lost wages.
Having an experienced personal injury lawyer manage your claim from the beginning will benefit the value of your claim. Their experience will help you detail and manage the paper trail to evidence the damages incurred due to the collision. While lost wages due to personal injuries are more easily documented than non-economic suffering, such as mental anguish, an experienced personal injury lawyer will explain how to detail and document these injuries to assist a court in assigning a value.
What types of personal injury cases pay the most money in verdict or settlement?
No case can guarantee payment or payment which is higher than any other particular personal injury claim. However, the more severe an injury that is suffered is, the higher the payout is likely to be in a particular personal injury settlement or verdict.
Higher settlements are likely to be found in cases involving fatal injuries of younger people whose family relies upon them for economic and moral support, severe injuries which require some level of surgical intervention and years of medical treatment, and permanent or incurable disabilities that linger for the life of the person or injuries which severely diminish the quality of life of an injured person.
It is hard to assign these types of injuries to any specific type of case. For example, a rear-end collision with extensive property damage at a high speed could cause minimal injuries, wherein a slip and fall may cause a person to suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The inquiry into the damages suffered and severity of injury ultimately will measure the value of your personal injury settlement or verdict.
How do laws or the law potentially reduce your personal injury settlement or verdict?
Comparative fault could reduce the value of your personal injury settlement or verdict. For example, if you are found by a court to be 10% at fault under Louisiana law for a collision where you were rear-ended, your total award in settlement or verdict would be reduced by 10%.
Similar accidents could result in differing payments in settlement or verdict.
Results may vary based upon the type of accident and injury. For example, in a case where a person is rear-ended by an eighteen-wheeler and receives a jury verdict of one million dollars, the award, injuries, and issues related to fault are unique to that case and jury. A very similar case could go to a jury and come back with very different results. Ultimately, a personal injury settlement and verdict are unique to each person, case, and factual scenario. Let our experienced personal injury attorneys go to work for you and help you document your claim so you can maximize the value of your personal injury settlement or verdict by calling our attorneys at 504-500-1111 today.