A personal injury can wreak havoc on your life. If you’re reading this post, then you probably know that reality all too well. You or your loved one might be dealing with extensive physical pain and suffering, as well as the financial implications that have been unfairly thrust upon you, including medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, and lost wages. You or your loved one may even experience loss of enjoyment of life after one of these wrecks.
Fortunately, you don’t have to just sit back and allow those losses to control your life. Instead, you can be proactive in trying to impose liability and recover the compensation you deserve. Pursuing a personal injury lawsuit may be the best way to achieve this, but you might be unsure about how to approach your case, especially once you start receiving settlement offers. Should you take an offer to get quick compensation and move on with your life? Or should you fight it out in court for more?
Should you settle your case?
The answer is “it depends,” but here are some things you can do to build your case and better assess which option is best for you:
- Does vicarious liability apply? Employers can be held financially responsible for the harm that their negligent employees cause. So, if you’ve been injured in a truck accident, then think about a lawsuit against both the negligent trucker who harmed you and his or her employer. This is important to consider before accepting any sort of agreement.
- Beware of comparative fault: In a lot of accident cases, the plaintiff’s ultimate recovery will be offset by the percentage of fault attributable to him or her. So, you’ll want to take into account any evidence demonstrating that you were partially at fault and how you can combat that evidence.
- The value of your claim: Before you can tell whether a settlement offer is appropriate you have to know the cost of your damages. This means calculating incurred and expected medical expenses, your incurred and expected lost wages, and the financial value of your pain and suffering. This latter category leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which is why you need to be armed with a compelling story and strong evidence to maximize your chances of success.
- How juries have treated similar cases: Each personal injury case is unique, but there are a lot of similarities between them. So, by looking at other cases that were similarly situated, you may be able to better gauge your chances of success should you take your case to trial.
- The evidence establishing liability: This may seem like a no-brainer, but you need to thoroughly analyze the strength of your evidence and think about what you can do to maximize your chances of success at trial. This might mean having an accident reconstruction conducted and securing witness testimony.
- The terms of the settlement offer: Of course, the settlement offer needs to be looked at in light of your potential recovery. That fact, taken into consideration with the strengths and weaknesses of your evidence, can put you in a good position to assess the worthiness of a settlement offer.
- Your willingness to deal with stress and risk: Litigation can certainly be your best option, but there’s a lot of stress and risk involved. The process can be drawn out and juries can be unpredictable. So, you’ll want to think about how long you’re willing to wait to recover compensation and if you’re willing to take the risk.
Building the personal injury case you deserve
As you can see, there’s a lot to take into account when building and analyzing your case. This post is holistic, either. It doesn’t touch base on discovery and litigation strategy, which can be key to your case. So, if you would like a strong legal advocate on your side who can help you develop the strongest possible case under the circumstances, then you might want to think about contacting a law firm like ours for more information.