Whether it’s slips and falls or car accident cases, most injured parties ask how much their personal injury case is worth. The value of your personal injury case is primarily based on the severity of your damages. However, other factors could increase or decrease the value of an injury settlement or jury verdict.
If you were injured due to someone’s negligence, you should consult with a lawyer. An experienced and skilled Baltimore personal injury attorney will work to maximize the amount of money you receive for an accident or injury. They’ll have the resources and time necessary to pursue every dollar of compensation available for your personal injury case.
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How Can a Baltimore Personal Injury Lawyer Help You Maximize Your Personal Injury Settlement?
Working with a personal injury lawyer has several advantages over handling your personal injury case on your own.
Some ways that a legal team helps to maximize the money you receive for an accident claim include:
- Completing a thorough and comprehensive investigation to identify all parties who might be liable for your damages
- Searching for evidence proving that the other parties caused your injury, including interviewing witnesses, gathering physical evidence, and compiling accident and police reports
- Consulting with expert witnesses, including medical experts, accident reconstructionists, financial experts, etc.
- Promptly filing insurance claims and monitoring the progress of each claim with the insurance companies
- Aggressively negotiating for the maximum value available from each party who contributed to the cause of your injury
In addition to pursuing reimbursement for financial losses, an attorney will work to maximize the value of your pain and suffering damages and will review your case to determine if it qualifies for punitive damages. The goal is to maximize how much your personal injury case is worth.
Calculating the Economic Damages for Your Personal Injury Case
Correctly calculating the damages in a personal injury case begins with the economic damages. Your economic damages include all the financial expenses and bills related to the accident, your injuries, and your recovery.
Examples of economic damages include:
- Medical bills and expenses, including hospitalizations, surgeries, doctors, and other costs of treatment
- The cost of various therapies, including vocational, occupational, physical, rehabilitative, and mental health therapies
- Your lost wages and other losses of income, including benefits, bonuses, commissions, etc.
- The out-of-pocket expenses you paid for personal care, medications, in-home personal or nursing care, travel expenses, etc.
Detailed documentation increases the value of the claim, so be sure to keep all receipts, billing statements, and other documentation proving the amount of expenses you incurred.
You should also carefully review the insurance company breakdown of economic damages. The company may try to discount your financial damages, such as excluding medical bills “written off” by providers due to a health insurance contract.
An insurance company may also try to calculate lost income without considering overtime, bonuses, paid time off, and other sources of income that you would have earned had you been able to work. An attorney is familiar with and will fight back against these tactics.
Recovering Compensation for Future Damages
If the accident caused permanent disabilities or impairments, you could be entitled to compensation for future damages, including:
- Ongoing medical, personal, and nursing care
- Future lost wages, benefits, and other income
- Diminished earning potential
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Disabilities and impairments
An experienced legal team will work with various experts to estimate future losses. For example, medical experts help explain the severity of your injuries and how that impacts future needs. Economists and financial experts assist in calculating future loss of income based on numerous factors.
Calculating Your Non-Economic Damages for Your Personal Injury Case
Non-economic damages represent the pain and suffering you experienced because of the accident and your injuries. Maryland does not have a standard formula to calculate pain and suffering damages.
Most insurance providers and courts use a multiplier method to determine the value of non-economic damages. You multiply the total economic damages by a number between 1.5 and five. The result is the value of non-economic damages.
Factors that increase the multiplier used to calculate pain and suffering damages include:
- Sustaining catastrophic injuries and life-threatening conditions
- Developing a permanent impairment or disability
- Longer recovery periods
- Significant decreases in your quality of life
- Losing the ability to be intimate with a partner or have a child
- Suffering from diagnosed conditions caused by the accident, including anxiety, PTSD, and depression
- Negative impacts on your personal and professional relationships
Personal injury lawyers will work with you to create a compelling narrative. They will explain the true impact of the accident and your injuries on your everyday life. They will also highlight what you cannot do and how your injuries have impacted your ability to enjoy the activities you did before the accident.
Partial Fault Could Mean No Compensation for a Personal Injury Injury Claim in Maryland
Unfortunately, Maryland uses the harshest form of contributory negligence in personal injury cases. Only a handful of other states and the District of Columbia use this standard.
Maryland’s pure contributory fault standard bars an accident victim from recovering any money for damages if the victim is partially to blame for the cause of their injury.
For example, if you contributed to the cause of a car accident, you could not recover any money in a personal injury lawsuit. It wouldn’t matter if you were just 10% to blame and the other driver was 90% at fault. The law bars you from recovering compensation if you share the slightest fault.
Insurance companies use contributory negligence claims to avoid compensating victims for their injuries and damages. The companies may use the standard unfairly when it does not apply.
Talking to an insurance claims adjuster without a lawyer could put you at risk for a contributory negligence claim. The claims adjuster may request a recorded or written statement. Beware!
The statements you make could be twisted to allege fault. Therefore, it is best to seek legal counsel before making any statements or answering questions about an accident.
Will Your Personal Injury Case Go To Trial?
Only a few personal injury cases go to trial. Instead, most claims are settled through negotiations. Generally, settling a case is quicker and less costly than going to trial. Furthermore, you cannot guarantee the outcome of a trial, regardless of the strength of your evidence.
However, some personal injury cases go to trial. If so, it’s best to have an experienced trial lawyer by your side.
Contact a Baltimore Personal Injury Lawyer To Discuss Your Personal Injury Case
If you have any questions about a personal injury claim, contact a Baltimore personal injury attorney to discuss your case and determine your legal options. Once the attorney knows the facts and circumstances of your situation, they will be able to assess how much your personal injury case may be worth.
Having an experienced lawyer will increase your chances of recovering the maximum amount of compensation possible in your personal injury lawsuit.
