If you’re suing some person or entity because they harmed you, they call that a personal injury case in the legal world. Many lawyers practice personal injury law. They can make a good living that way since these cases work their way through the court system all the time.
If you sue a company or individual who hurt you or made you sick, you might head to the trial phase and have a jury decide whether you should get any financial compensation. However, these proceedings rarely reach that point. More often, the party who you allege harmed you will offer you a settlement deal.
You should know about some key aspects of compensation in settlement deals since these can impact how much money you eventually see. We’ll talk about some of the most prominent ones right now.
How Much Evidence Do You Have?
Let’s say you’re bringing a lawsuit against a company that made a product that hurt you. These product liability lawsuits happen often.
You have some anecdotal evidence that suggests the product harmed you. You might have a doctor’s report that clearly shows you sustained an injury or that you got sick and sought treatment. However, do you have direct evidence that ties your condition to the product you allege harmed you?
That can definitely impact how much money you might get from a personal injury settlement, if any. If you have a little bit of evidence but not very much, the company that you’re suing will see that during discovery. Their legal team will review the evidence. They might feel like they can give you a lowball offer because you don’t have an open-and-shut case.
You can decide whether to accept the amount that they’re offering. You must consult with your personal injury lawyer to see if they think you can get any more. However, if your case doesn’t seem like a slam dunk because you don’t have a great deal of evidence, you might accept a smaller settlement offer for that reason.
Whether You Can Eventually Recover or Not
You might also get either more or less money through a settlement in a personal injury case, depending on whether you can recover from your illness or injury eventually. Maybe you sued a company because one of their products cost you a limb. You can clearly prove their defective product caused the accident that lost you your arm or leg.
In that instance, you can probably expect more. You can presumably live without your arm or leg, but you will live a life dramatically and permanently impacted by what took place. The money you’ll get as a settlement for such a case will probably dwarf the amount you could get if you will recover fully from whatever occurred.
Whether Someone Died
In some instances where you might bring a personal injury case against a person or entity, you’re going after them for a wrongful death. Maybe you’re suing a drunk driver who ran down your spouse or one of your children. That’s a serious situation, and the courts will look harshly at a person who acted with such negligence. This individual will likely face criminal charges as well as your civil suit.
Their lawyer might advise that they settle, and when they do, you can expect them to pay you off with six figures or more. You will never have the deceased person in your life again. If you take the stand and give a victim impact statement, you might very well leave the jury in tears.
Probably, the defendant’s lawyer will try to keep things from ever getting that far. Instead, they will recommend to their client that they give you a generous settlement offer and hope that you’ll take it.
Whether You Can Ever Continue with Your Former Career
Maybe you have a situation where a person or entity harmed you, and they did some permanent damage. In the situation we mentioned a moment ago, where you lost a limb, maybe you can’t continue your career. Perhaps you had a job that requires the use of that limb, and even if your company made reasonable accommodations, there’s no way you could continue doing what you once did.
Perhaps you can accept another job that’s sort of like your old one. You might stay in the same field or niche, but you still can never go back to doing the precise thing that you could before. If so, you might tell a jury if you take the stand that you loved your old job and that it formed your whole identity.
Much like the case where you’re suing a company or individual for a wrongful death, the defendant’s legal team will probably advise that they give you a generous settlement offer in such a situation. They know that if you tell the jury that their client’s actions destroyed or at least derailed your career, you might get a huge chunk of money as compensation if the trial gets to the verdict stage.
Your Level of Patience
There’s one more factor that we should mention that can impact your settlement offer, and that’s your patience. It’s one that you might not immediately think about, but it can certainly come into play in some personal injury lawsuits.
Let’s say you feel strongly that a person or entity harmed you, and you have some evidence that indicates you’re telling the truth. However, once again, it’s not an open-and-shut case. In such a situation, the person or entity who you’re suing has a particular tactic available they might use. They could stall for time.
Every legal proceeding must work its way through the court system eventually, but if the legal team you’re going up against feels you’ll back off if they drag their feet during discovery, they might use that strategy. They might count on you getting so fed up that you’ll take a lowball offer just to end the proceedings.
