When Life Gives You Lemons — Call an Attorney

When handling a personal injury case, there's a good chance that you can expect the opposing party to offer you a settlement instead of going to trial. In fact, approximately 96 percent of cases are usually settled pre-trial. Your personal injury attorney will work out the specifics of the settlement with you and help you negotiate for a larger amount of compensation; however, ultimately, the decision of whether to accept the settlement or not lies in your hands. Once you've been offered a settlement, take these 3 factors into consideration to determine whether the amount offered is sufficient.

Amount Left Over After Paying Legal Fees

Although the amount that you initially see might seem rather large, you need to take into account the fact that you still need to pay your personal injury attorney. Most of the time, your attorney will charge you a fixed percentage of the settlement that you are offered. This is also known as a contingency fee. You'll already know what the contingency fee is ahead of time; however, you should still double check to make sure that there aren't any additional legal fees that you might be responsible for. This might include the cost of submitting legal paperwork to the courts or the cost of hiring a medical expert to provide insight into your case.

Total the final cost of your legal fees and other fees associated with the case. Don't hesitate to ask your personal injury attorney if there's anything that you've missed. Subtract this amount from the total settlement amount you were offered, and you'll see that you're getting substantially less than what you might have expected. This final number is what you need to determine is sufficient or not to cover the total costs you've accumulated due to the accident.

Ability to Cover Current and Potential Future Medical Bills

Tally up all of your medical expenses so far to determine how much you've already spent on the case. You shouldn't settle until you've reached the maximum amount of improvement expected for your injuries. This will give you a better idea as to whether you might face additional difficulties in life later on from the aftermath of the accident. For example, you might be partially disabled, and this might prevent you from enjoying hobbies you did before or prevent you from doing your job.

You should consider the cost of future medical bills and whether the settlement amount will likely cover the total costs. Don't forget to factor in the fact that the cost of your medical bills might increase with time due to inflation. You also need to factor in other circumstances that play into whether you'll receive the medical care and attention you need. For example, if the medical facility offering the treatment you require is in another state, you'll need to factor in the cost of transportation.

Capability to Cover Wage Loss and Any Time You Might Want to Take Off of Work Later On

There's a good chance that you've already taken time off work for the accident, and your place of work might only cover you for a certain amount of sick days. Any additional time that you need to take of work is money out of your own pockets. Calculate any wages you've lost as a result of the accident, and make sure that the settlement amount can fully cover it.

There's a good chance also that you'll want to continue to take time off work in order to focus on your recovery. If that's the case, you must consider whether the settlement amount will be cover the cost of any wages you expect to lose in the future. It's important to note that you should also factor in the potential for any year-end bonuses or promotions that might have come out of you working rather than having to sit at home.

It's difficult to determine whether the settlement amount offered is reasonable and sufficient or not. It's also difficult to determine whether your attorney will be able to negotiate a better compensation amount for you, so it's important that you sit down to tally up your total costs first. Having the receipts and the numbers in front of you can give you a good idea of what the ballpark amount you expect might be. It can also help your attorney persuade the opposing party to up their settlement.

Consult a law firm like Hoffman, Hamer & Associates, PLLC if you have more questions about personal injury law and settlement claims.