When you suffer a personal injury and take it to court, your goal is to get every dollar owed to you to help you rebuild your life and right the wrongs. However, those cases often end in settlements. In that case, you’re not nearly as likely to get everything you’re asking for.
Of course, even if you have to take a settlement, you want to maximize how much you get. We have a variety of tips to help you navigate your case effectively and get the best result when it’s time to settle. In this guide, you will learn how to maximize your personal injury settlement.
Why Might You Accept a Settlement?
You might be wondering why you would even want to find yourself in this predicament. Doesn’t a settlement mean you can’t win the case? Well, not exactly. There are a variety of reasons a settlement might be a better option than continuing with legal action.
First, it might be too expensive to keep fighting, and you can either take a settlement amount or risk having to stop and not getting anything.
Then, there’s the possibility that the other side, even if you are entitled to compensation, has found a leverage point that could leave you with almost nothing.
You might also want to avoid the stress and unpredictable nature of the courtroom. A settlement, while not the full amount you might otherwise receive, is at least a guarantee of some compensation.
Tips to Maximize Your Settlement
Settlements might be the best option sometimes, but that doesn’t mean you need to accept whatever the opposition offers. In fact, you need to be willing to fight for what you’re owed, because the other end is going to try to lowball you as much as possible. Remember, if they wanted to do the right thing, you wouldn’t be in court trying to get compensated for something they caused.
1. Handle the Case Correctly from the Start
It’s unfortunate, but your ability to maximize your settlement value starts the second you become injured.
Every single detail of the event is going to be recorded and used by both teams, and that means that you can’t afford to make simple mistakes right after the event or any other time until the case is closed. This can include something as simple as saying “Oh, no. It’s not your fault” after the accident. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a major blunder.
Immediately focusing on being honest, not admitting to guilt, and avoiding divulging any information beyond the identification legally required in most types of personal injury cases are all crucial things to remember.
2. Stay Organized
Organization is pivotal in a court case. There are a lot of documents that need to be available, your story has to stay consistent, and you have to avoid leaving openings for your opposition to take advantage of.
This can be incredibly difficult to do, and even something as simple as contradicting a piece of evidence you have can be a major strength for your opposition’s argument. They will use this when trying to force a lackluster settlement because it means they have more power in the courtroom if you decide to keep pursuing that route.
3. Understand Legal Lingo
The average person typically doesn’t understand the extremely complex legal jargon that lawyers and legal teams use. At least, they don’t understand everything and how simple wording differences can have dramatic effects.
In court, this can be devastating, but even when negotiating a settlement, it can greatly devalue your settlement or put stipulations on it that aren’t acceptable.
It’s crucial to understand what the opposition is saying and what you’re agreeing to.
4. Seek Medical Help and Stick with All Medical Suggestions
When you get injured, immediately seek medical help. Not only that, but if your doctor suggests something such as physical therapy or other treatments, you must go to those things in order to maximize your personal injury settlement.
This is a common way for defendants to claim they’re not liable for the full extent of the injury. Let’s say you were recommended to physical therapy and only went to one appointment. They can say that you made the injury as bad as it is, and they only owe a fraction of the compensation you’re looking for. This often works, and it leaves victims financially drained.
5. Know the Value of Your Case
For the average person, $50,000 isn’t just a large amount of money. It’s absolutely life-changing and hard to turn down. However, what do you think if you accepted a $50,000 settlement just to find out the exact same type of case you went through got someone else 5 million dollars after giving up some for a lump sum settlement that wasn’t even maximized? You’d feel like you were ripped off.
That can easily happen if you don’t understand how much your case is actually worth. It’s not just the total cost of your medical bills. It includes lost wages, medical bills, services you need to use, making your home and car accessible if you can no longer use them normally, and many, many other things that you lost due to the injury. It adds up quickly.
To make it worse, the opposition is usually a company, and they know that the average person isn’t sure what their case is worth and how injury cases work.
Always Hire a Lawyer from the Start
That probably sounded like a lot to do on your own, and we barely scratched the surface of how complex each tip really is. Well, the best way to handle that is to not do it on your own.
A law firm can tackle all of those tasks for you, help guide you through the parts you have to handle yourself, and much more that we haven’t even covered here.
When you get the right lawyer on your side, even if it’s best to accept a settlement, the lawyer will know how to maximize your personal injury settlement with ease.
Of course, you also need to get a lawyer as soon as you can. Preferably, right after the event occurs.
At DeSalvo Law we specialize in helping clients navigate the appeal process and fight for the compensation they deserve. Whether you’re dealing with a slip and fall injury, work injury, dog bite, or any other kind of personal injury case, our team has the expertise to handle complex claims and insurance disputes.
If you have been injured and need a personal injury lawyer, contact DeSalvo Law today.
