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Valuing Your Injuries After a Personal Injury Accident
Under the personal injury law, you are entitled to compensation when another person’s intentional act or negligence causes you harm. When seeking settlement for a personal injury case, it can be hard to determine the worth of your case. The value of your injuries will vary depending on the type and the extent of the injuries.
Two categories of damages will influence the value of your injuries – special damages and general damages. Special damages refer to economic damages that are easy to express in monetary terms. General damages refer to non-economic damages, which are hard to express in monetary terms, and may be hard to value.
Special Damages
Special damages include easy to calculate losses such as the cost incurred in seeking medical treatment for the injuries sustained. Special damages also include lost income due to the time the victim spends out of work before healing. Both short-term and long-term loss of wages due to the time you spend out of work is compensated.
In some cases, personal injury may lead to temporary or permanent disability. In the case of a disability, the compensation will be higher. All out of pocket losses that a victim may incur due to the personal injuries are compensated under special damages. Out of pocket expenses may include medical bills, costs of purchasing prescription medication, costs of surgical procedures, and physiotherapy fees, among others.
General Damages
General damages may include the pain and suffering a victim undergoes after suffering the injury. When evaluating pain, emphasis may be on physical pain and discomfort. However, anxiety, emotional distress, and other intangible effects of pain and injuries count when assessing compensation for personal injury.
The compensation awarded to a plaintiff after winning a personal injury lawsuit will depend on the extent of the damages sustained. At times, a personal injury case may be settled out of court through mediation or arbitration. Even out of court, the compensation awarded depends on the damages suffered.
The Multiplier and Per Diem Approaches
It is not easy to quantify and attach a monetary value to pain and distress that a victim of a personal injury accident may experience. However, there are some approaches mainly used by insurance adjusters when calculating the value of pain, distress, or suffering. The two most common methods of evaluating pain are the multiplier approach and the daily rate (per diem) approach.
The Multiplier Approach
This is the typical approach for attaching value to pain and distress. It entails first adding up all special damages; special damages are easy to determine, as they are quantifiable. The total special damage is then multiplied by a number/factor. Usually, the multiplier ranges between 1.5 on the lower side and five on the higher side.
Several factors determine the multiplier used, including the period you may take to fully recover from the injuries, the severity of your damages, the effects of the damages on your day to day living, and whether the other party is solely responsible for your injury. While negotiating for compensation using the multiplier approach, the point of emphasis is on determining the applicable multiplier. The injured person negotiates for a higher multiplier while the respondent’s insurer negotiates for a lower multiplier.
After multiplying the consolidated special damages with the multiplier, you arrive at a base figure for damages compensation. However, the base figure does not include lost income; lost income due to time spent out of work is calculated differently. Although the multiplier ranges from 1.5 to 5, this factor may change. For instance, a victim may feel so aggrieved after the personal injury incident and feel that the highest multiplier of 5 is not adequate to cover the damages. In such a case, the multiplier factor may be raised to 7 or even ten depending on the injuries.
As a victim, you may automatically assume that your pain and distress is severe and qualifies for a higher multiplier factor. The fact that you feel justified to receive an enhanced compensation does not mean that the compensating insurance company will feel the same. The insurance company may point out some questionable areas in your claim and lower the compensation you demand.
It is not advisable to exaggerate your injuries or to claim more than you deserve. This move would only leave you feeling frustrated as the claim is not likely to be successful. It is important to know that only a few cases of personal injury qualify for a multiplier factor of more than 5. Your Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer can help you understand the applicable multiplier. Thus, keep in mind these pointers:

  • The entire fault of the personal injury accident lies on the other party/respondent, and it is provable beyond doubt that the respondent is liable for the injuries sustained by the victim.
  • The injuries sustained must be extensive and painful. For instance, you must have some visible signs of injury, which may include tears, strains, wounds, fractures, or displacements that may call for surgical procedures.
  • A medical practitioner must evaluate and assess the physical injuries sustained. Medical practitioners can correctly report the extent of your damages. You may not be successful in your claim for a higher multiplier after a self-medical assessment.
  • The healing/recovery process must be prolonged. The healing period must exceed six months to qualify for a higher multiplier factor. Minor injuries that heal after a short period may not qualify for a special compensation computation.
  • Your medical report must indicate some form of permanent suffering or consequence because of personal injury. A permanent consequence may include constant pain, fractures, scars, or immobility. In cases of permanent physical disability, you may automatically qualify for higher compensation.
  • You medical practitioners must outline that because of the injuries sustained; you are likely to have some recurring medical problems. These may be degenerative medical issues even if you may have temporarily recovered.

With the above justifications, you may negotiate for a personal injury compensation that is more than five times your special damages. For example, you may be driving home in your car while a truck driver negligently hits your vehicle. Because of the impact, you break your back and you are confined to a wheelchair for a whole year. In determining your compensation, the amount of your special damages is six thousand dollars ($6,000). You may be able to negotiate a multiplier factor of more than five due to the severe impacts of the accident and the painful and dramatic nature of the injuries sustained. Therefore, you may get compensation of above forty thousand dollars ($40,000).
Per Diem Approach
The per diem approach is also applicable in calculating pain and distress. Per Diem is a Latin word meaning per day. Under this approach, the value of your suffering is calculated by demanding a certain monetary amount for every day you have to live in pain and distress as a result of the injury. The negotiating aspect under this approach is to ensure you get a fair daily dollar rate. Often, the compensation amount per day is determined by calculating the victim’s daily earnings.
For example, if you are involved in an accident and you break your leg, and you are forced to use crutches for two months/sixty days; for an additional two months, you stop using crutches, but you still experience pain, and you have trouble walking. While calculating your per diem personal injury compensation, your daily wages may form a basis of your compensation. For instance, if you receive a daily wage of one hundred and fifty dollars ($150), you will receive this amount multiplied by the number of your days of distress and suffering. In this case, the day comprises of two months of pain and using a crutch and the additional two months when you cannot walk properly. This will be a total of 120 days. Your total compensation will be your daily wage of $150 multiplied by 120 days. The total compensation will be $18,000 under the Per Diem approach.
It may be hard to use the Per Diem approach in cases involving permanent disability or long-term injuries. If you have long-lasting effects of a personal injury accident, your compensation may be made based on previous related judgments for cases in your jurisdiction. Only law practitioners have access to legal information relating to prior cases.
When seeking compensation, you may use both the Per Diem and the multiplier approach and compare the compensation figures you arrive at. This will form a good basis for your negotiation.
Division of Injuries
For valuing a personal injury case, injuries may be either soft tissue injuries or hard injuries. The main evidence for soft tissue injuries is the description by the victim while hard injuries are easy to detect through medical examinations.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries involve muscles and other soft tissues. Injuries under this category include strained joints or back. Insurance companies consider soft tissue injuries less serious than hard tissue injuries. Soft tissue injuries may not attract a high multiplier factor.
Hard Injuries
Hard injuries attract a higher multiplier factor as they are more severe, and their effects may last for an extended period. Hard injuries include dislocations, broken bones, cartilage tears, and head injuries, among others.
What Determines the Value of Your Personal Injury Claim?
To receive compensation after a personal injury accident, you have to prove the liability of the defendant. There are some aspects of personal injury, which revolves around negligence. By proving each of the elements, you can prove that you deserve compensation. The elements include:
Duty of Care– To prove the liability of another party, you have to prove that they owed you a duty of care. For example, a vehicle driver owes other road users, both motorists and pedestrians, a duty of care. Duty of care requires a person to act reasonably to avoid inflicting harm on other people.
Breach of Duty of Care– Your injury compensation will depend on your ability to prove that the party breached the duty of care owed to you. There are many ways of breaching a duty of care, the most common one being the failure to exercise a reasonable duty of care.
Causation– To receive compensation, causation must exist between the actions of the other party and the injuries you incur. For instance, in the case of a vehicle accident, where a driver hits your vehicle, the injuries sustained must result from the direct impact of the accident.
Damages/Injuries- For compensation under personal injury claims, the plaintiff must have sustained some injuries or damages because of the accident. If you are involved in a personal injury accident and you don’t suffer any damages, either economical or non-economical, you may not receive any compensation. Damages must have relevant supporting documents. For instance, if physical injuries are present, supporting medical examination records must be available. For emotional distress, supporting documents may include psychiatric reports.
Comparative Negligence May Affect Your Case
Under the concept of comparative fault, if your negligence contributed to the personal injury case, your compensation may reduce depending on the degree of your involvement and negligence. However, you may still be able to recover damages even when the personal injury accident is partly your fault. It is for this reason that after an accident, insurance companies may question you and try to establish if you knowingly or unknowingly caused the accident. If the insurance company finds you at fault, your compensation will greatly decline.
For example, if you are entitled to a compensation of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars ($120,000) but the court establishes that you are 40 percent at fault for the accident, your compensation automatically reduces by forty percent. You will, therefore, receive compensation of seven thousand two hundred dollars ($7,200).
Pre-Existing Conditions are Considered
Pre-existing injuries may reduce your compensation after a personal injury accident. You only receive compensation for the injuries caused by accident and not pre-existing ones. Insurance companies may try to prove that you had an existing injury to evade compensation. If you fail to see a doctor immediately after a personal injury accident, the value of your case drops significantly. The other party’s insurance company may argue that if you were in pain, and if the injuries resulted from the accident, you would have sought immediate medical care.
Your Age Matters!
If you suffer an injury due to another injury, your age may affect the value of your injury case. Age affects other factors that may determine the value of the claim. For instance, if you have reached the retirement age, and you currently do not receive wages, your injury claim would not include lost wages compensation in case of an injury.
The age of a personal injury victim also affects comparative negligence. For instance, if the victim is a child below the age of six years, even if the child acted negligently, his/her damages cannot reduce due to their negligence. However, if the child was in the company of his/her parents, the damages may reduce based on the negligence of the parent.
For example, if a toddler runs out of a mall and into the street and a driver hits him/her, the child is not at fault. Even if the child acted negligently by running into the busy street, comparative negligence does not apply. The child’s parent who may have let go of the child may be at fault instead, and this may reduce the personal injury compensation.
Age also has an impact on perceived pain and suffering. When awarding victims for future pain and suffering, younger people tend to receive higher benefits than older people do. This is because younger people have their whole lives ahead of them. Therefore, they may argue that they have a much longer period to experience pain and distress resulting from a personal injury than older people.
Younger people also have a longer period to endure lost enjoyment of life as a result of the injury. The limitations that come with an injury caused by accident may deny you the ability to enjoy life as a normal person would. You may not enjoy life if you constantly struggle with ill health or if you lose one or more of your senses, such as seeing or hearing. Severe physical disabilities, such as fractures, may limit your involvement in a wide range of recreational activities. You may not have the ability to take part in vocational activities, and you may shy away from social activities after sustaining an injury.
It is not easy to determine claims relating to the loss of enjoyment in life. How can you express the loss of enjoyment in life in monetary terms? No particular formula is applicable in determining this. However, with the guidance of a Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer, it is possible to argue for fair compensation.
In general, there are several methods of determining the value of a personal injury case. The most common are the multiplier, and the Per diem approaches. The value of your case will also depend on other factors, such as the presence of pre-existing conditions, your age, and comparative negligence.
 
 

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