Sarasota Injury Law Blog

How much is my personal injury claim worth? Ever wonder how a Sarasota Bradenton Injury Attorney figures this out.This is a simple question with a complex answer. It might be easier to explain how rockets work or how to do open heart surgery. In fact, no attorney can honestly tell you what your case is worth at the outset. I ask clients during the first initial free consult whether or not they have a preconceived idea as to the settlement value of their claim. I want to determine what their expectations are and what they think their case is worth. I want them to say they have no idea what the case is worth and that they are relying on my education, training and experience. The better the case, the odds are that it will take longer before the case is ready for settlement discussions. Besides investigating the facts, law and evidence, I will monitor the medical testing and treatment. Relevant to the value of a case is whether or not fault is clear. If so, we just move on to assessing the damages, both economic like medical bills and non economic like pain and suffering. Fault is often fairly clear in an automobile accident. Who got the ticket? A large percentage of the time, it is the at fault party. That is why injury attorneys prefer automobile cases to premises liability claims, also known as slip and fall cases. In a slip and fall case, even in the best of cases, the client is going to be held partly to blame for his or her injury. The law calls this contributory negligence. In Florida, we compare the percentage of fault of the property owner with the fault assigned to the injured party. If the injured party was 50% at fault, which is often the case, he or she receives damages or money in an amount that is half of the total damages suffered. So if the medical bills are $30,000, the award will be for $15,000. In a slip and fall case liability is determined by whether or not the property owner, tenant or manager in control of the property had notice of a dangerous condition and failed to inspect for it, or discover it, and remedy it. Notice can be imputed when a hazard has existed for such a length of time that they are charged by law with having constructive notice.

Once liability is determined to be 100 percent the fault of the defendant or some percentage thereof, we must consider the nature and extent of the injuries. Are we talking about broken bones with surgery to put in hardware to hold the bones in place and allow healing. Or is the injury a simple muscle strain or ligament sprain? Is the injury documented by an objective medical test like an MRI or CT scan? Or is the injury only subjective pain that no doctor can objectively prove, unless there is swelling or spasm? How much are the medical bills? Has the client lost the use of an arm or leg? Is the loss temporary or permanent? Has he or she ever treated for this or a similar injury before? Can the injury be explained by natural aging such as low back pain due to degenerative disc disease or arthritis? This is why older clients have a tougher time proving their pain is due to traumatic injury as opposed to advanced age. Is the client a likable person that will be found credible by a jury of peers? Or does he or she have a prior history of criminal acts? Are the doctors neutral or do they have a reputation of favoring only injured people or only insurance companies? Did the client undergo surgery? Was the surgery major such as the replacement of a joint, like a hip or knee? Or relatively minor such as repair of a hernia. Or no surgery and just doctor visits and testing? How much and for what period of time did the client miss work? Was the client a highly paid surgeon or a minimum wage laborer? Will the treating doctor confirm that the client could not work based on restrictions to essential job duties. Will the lost wages be for a set period of time or for the remainder of one’s life? Will the client be giving up life long hobbies such as tennis, golf, running or swimming? Is there any surveillance video showing the client doing something he or she previously denied being able to do? Are there any medical records or witnesses to show that the injury pre-dated the alleged accident? Did the client tell the ambulance Emt or ER room doctor the same thing he or she is now saying as to what part of their body was hurt and how the accident happened? Was the accident in a small or large town, because it could mean a jury from a large and liberal metropolitan area like Miami might give a lot more money for the same injury than a smaller more conservative Florida towns like Sarasota, Bradenton or Venice.

I could go on and on. That is why it is never a simple matter to determine the value of a case. It is almost always like this: each factor above (and many more too numerous to mention, for example jury verdict research) are weighed and given consideration. The weight and consideration are based on years of education, training and experience. What I like to call the school of hard knocks. And there is no magic formula. But one thing I have learned over time, having worked the first half of my career defending the very insurance companies I now prosecute, and that is this: A good case is a good case and a bad case is a bad case. And if it is good enough, the adverse lawyer will not likely diminish it. And if it is an inherently bad case, no lawyer is good enough to win it. Getting to that categorization, either good or bad, however, means evaluating so many factors that there is no substitute for experience. You have to know the law and you certainly have to know the medicine. Your don’t get that from practicing in lots of areas of law a little. You get it from practicing in one area of law (injury law) a lot (or preferably exclusively). Does your attorney have almost 30 years experience handling injury claims? If so, you should probably trust his or her judgment when you are told the value of your case, after you are done with treatment and have reached your maximum recovery.

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