Time To Compromise Personal Injury Case
We're going to talk about: Is it time to compromise in my personal injury case? I want to tell you about a conversation I had with a client. This is a gentleman who was referred to me by a lady who I represented a number of years ago. He hadn't heard from her in a long time and referred to me. This gentleman, he was involved in a car accident and you it's pretty good impact, really solid dude, good job, responsible guy. He's a guy who is in the trades so he works with his body.
So when you got a back injury or something like that, it is a big deal or it certainly can be a big deal. When he called me, he had been to the doctor, he went to the hospital, got checked out. Then basically I told him what I tell everybody when I sign up a case. I'm like "look, the name of the game here is, you want to make as clean a medical record as possible because at the beginning of a case, you don't know if your back or neck injury is a permanent, serious injury or whether it's a temporary one".
Want To Know Your Injury Case Value? Calculate What Your Case Is Worth For Free...
Do Not Delay Diagnosis And Treatments
There's no injury or illness that benefits from a delay in diagnosis and a delay of treatment. In other words, it's always better to know sooner rather than later what's causing you the pain and to start fixing it. Because the sooner you start to fix it, the faster you get better, which is better for you and better for your life. In my opinion, you should always make decisions like that. You should never make a treatment decision based on what's good for your case or what will increase the value of your case.
Because you might have many opportunities to sue somebody in your life but you only get one body. So always make decisions based on what's best for your body and your health and your life. Anyway, time went by, he treated with his doctors that he knew, that he wanted to go to. He called us and told us like he is done treating, can we try to wrap the case up. So we ordered all of the medical records like we do, did an excellent summary, did a detailed demand letter and sent it to the insurance company, went back and forth.
Make A Clean Medical Record
It wasn't the best insurance company in the world and it certainly wasn't the worst one either. Their offer wasn't very good and I was able to get them to double what their offer was. Their initial offer, I got them to double it. Was it going to make my client rich? Was it going to make me rich? No. I called the client up because it's not a tremendous amount of money. Turns out at the beginning of a case I don't know if you're headed for neck or back surgery or shoulder surgery or knee surgery and neither do you.
The hope is that you get better. But by making a clean medical record, you make your case stronger and you're putting yourself on the road to recovery faster which is better for you. It doesn't hurt your case, it can only make your case better and more credible. I called him up and this guy makes a pretty good living. When I called him up, I figured he was going to give me a hard time. So I better dig in and really, I took notes when I talked to the insurance adjuster and I went through our summary and reread the records and all that.
Compromise Reasonably
Really what it came down to is, he had half a dozen or eight visits to the doctor in total. Had an MRI that showed a little bit of positive findings that could have just been there which is what we call pre-existing or it could have been caused in the crash. But the most important thing is, that the guy told me he's like "yeah you know it definitely was painful early on, it's been a year since the accident, I haven't been back to see a doctor in a long time, I'm doing fine, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't wrap it up".
My point is, this guy compromised and was reasonable even though the number wasn't a tremendous number. It was a smaller number, one of the smallest cases in my office. I think we're settling it in the ballpark for around ten thousand dollars. But then you factor in, he didn't really get any treatment. He visited the doctor a few times, got an MRI and just checked in with the doctor every month or two or every several weeks. Never went for physical therapy and hasn't been to see a doctor in six months and is doing fine now.
Get A Bigger Verdict
So how much money is a case like that ultimately? How much money is a jury going to award you? Even though liability was strong, the medical was no great shakes. It didn't really show a serious permanent painful injury and that's what we need to show a judge and jury to get a bigger verdict. If you don't have that, it's not going to scare the insurance company. If the insurance company isn't afraid of what might happen at trial, they're not going to make you a big offer pretty soon.
In this case, it was a happy ending. I was able to settle the guy's case in less than a year from the date that he got hurt and just less than six months after he was done treating. I consider it a win. The client was happy and the client was reasonable. But I can tell you I have had situations in the past where a client has an extremely challenging case and I tell them that up front. I'm like "look, it's a really rough one. I'll take it for you. I'll see what I can do. ". Even if there's not much to their medical care, they make a full recovery, they have an expectation in their head that it should be a hundred thousand dollar case when it's not even a ten thousand dollar case.
Don't Just Assume Your Case Isn't Worth Anything
So my point today is, one of the things an attorney can do for you is tell you what cases go for. And once all the data is in, they can tell you, is an offer in the ballpark, is it not in the ballpark? There are cases where we settle where I tell the client up front. I'm like "I don't promise anything but I think I could probably get you more if we filed a lawsuit.". But the client just doesn't want to do it. They've made a complete recovery and they just don't want to wait a year or two or more in court before the case is over and they just want to close the book on it and go on with their life.
On the other hand, I do have clients who want a million dollars for a very minor, low end temporary injury with no permanence. With those folks, I got to tell them, it might be time to compromise. So don't just assume that your case isn't worth anything, it's probably a good idea to talk to a lawyer. If you or a loved one's been hurt and of course, I always offer a free consultation. You can get a free consultation, no obligation, a hundred percent free and I will answer all of your questions. You can call me anytime day or night.
