“What is my case worth?” is a question clients often ask their injury attorney.
Here are eleven questions you need to personal injury lawyer Utah ask and answer to properly value your claim.
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF YOUR INJURIES?
This is the most important factor. If you have a serious injury that has a big effect on your life you should expect more compensation than someone Utah personal injury attorney who has a minor injury that heals up quickly.
A disc herniation that may require surgery is more valuable than a herniation that won’t require surgery. And, a herniated disc is more valuable than a mere bulge.
The job of an injury attorney is to take your case and do his best to find out all your injuries and make sure they are properly diagnosed and treated.
ARE THERE PREEXISTING CONDITIONS?
Under law you are entitled to the fair value of the aggravation of your preexisting conditions.
However, if your preexisting conditions were “asymptomatic” (no pain or other symptoms) then you are entitled to compensation for pain and disability when the accident “lights up” those conditions.
In ancient England there was a man with a paper thin skull. Another man accidentally struck him on the head causing serious injury. The courts said to the at-fault person: “tough luck, it doesn’t matter that you did not know of his vulnerable condition, you take your injured person as you find him”.
HOW MUCH ARE YOUR MEDICAL BILLS?
In the old days (20 years ago) case valuation was easy: you totalled up the medical bills and multiplied them by three and that was the value of the case.
Those days are gone.
The system got abused by people who ran up bills artificially. Insurance companies caught on and today no longer will automatically pay “three times meds”.
Still, the amount and the nature of your medical bills are factors. Surgery bills (so-called “hard meds) carry more weight than diagnostics. Chiropractic bills have value but not as much as those from an M.D.