After you’ve suffered injuries from an event that wasn’t your fault, you may be wondering how much your injury claim could be worth. The answer is: it depends. Below we’ll break down what goes into filing your personal injury claim and how Houston personal injury lawyers can help.

Ask a Personal Injury Lawyer: How Much Is an Injury Claim Worth?

The context and nature of the incident play a key role in your claim, whether it’s a work injury or medical malpractice. Although each case varies, it’s important to understand the commonalities among personal injury cases, like the types of losses you can include in your claim, how insurance companies operate, and why you’re better off hiring a lawyer.

Losses to Include in Your Claim

Before you obtain a settlement, you need to file a claim with the insurance companies that specifies your damages in the form of a demand letter. A demand letter will explain the incident in detail and the suffering you’ve experienced. Your losses can be broken down into two categories: economic and non-economic.

Economic

Economic losses include any suffering you’ve experienced that has an undisputable financial value. For example, you may have missed two months of work due to injuries. This lost income is a type of economic damage because there is a set monetary amount on your paychecks that you would have been earning each month. You can also include any property that was damaged as a result of the incident in your economic losses.

Economic damages also include your medical bills, from the hospital stay directly after the incident to all the follow-up treatments you need to recover. It’s important to wait to file your claim until you are in the late stages of your recovery and can learn more about what your total medical expenses be. If you settle too early in your recovery and complications occur later, you won’t be able to secure more compensation.

Non-Economic

Non-economic damages include losses that a monetary amount can’t easily define. Non-economic damages include loss of companionship, pain, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress. These damages are often the most difficult to assign a monetary value to because it is hard to put a number on what makes life worth living. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t seek to gain compensation for these damages.

It is normal for insurance companies to downplay your non-economic damages to avoid paying out a larger settlement. It is in your best interest to keep a detailed account of your emotional state in the months following the incident, as this can help you and your lawyer come up with what you think is a reasonable number for the non-economic losses in your claim.

How Insurance Determines What Your Claim Is Worth

Insurance companies will determine how much money they think you’re entitled to based on your detailed report of the incident, your recovery progress, and their own internal investigations. They take into account both your reported economic and non-economic damages, although they may disagree with the first number you asked for. You will often need to negotiate.

Once insurance companies come to a number, they may adjust it based on at-fault laws. In Texas, you can receive compensation for an injury claim if you were less than 50% responsible for the incident. Say someone ran a red light and hit you, but you were texting and driving. Although you didn’t cause the accident, you were breaking the law. The adjuster may find that you were 15% responsible for the accident and reduce your compensation accordingly.

Importance of Hiring Houston Personal Injury Lawyers

Hiring a personal injury lawyer in Houston can make or break your case. Chances are, you’re not experienced with personal injury law. Insurance companies know this, and some may try to take advantage of you by getting you to sign medical releases, make statements, and even manipulate you into admitting fault. Your lawyer will take the pressure off of you by handling contact with the insurance agents directly.

Your lawyer will also take the lead on the claims process. A lawyer will help you accurately assess your damages and make an appropriate claim. They’ll also gather all of the necessary paperwork and proof to back up your claim, which will make it more difficult for insurance companies to argue that you were at fault or try to reduce your award package.

The key takeaway to understand is that there’s no way to determine what your settlement will be ahead of time. However, you can set yourself up for the best outcome possible by keeping detailed records of your recovery process, securing documents that outline your losses, and working with a lawyer who will take some of the burdens off of your shoulders.

Read:

How to Expand Your Tech Start-Up Successfully

Rebecca

Rebecca Daniel, based in California, is an avid writer, with many years of blogging experience. She had been working as a professional writer for a while but now she goes on as a freelancer, devoted to enhancing her own knowledge in various niches and helping others do the same through her writings. When she’s not writing you can find her traveling and taking care of her dog, Misa.