What MOST LAWYERS Never Tell You About How Much Money Your Case Is Worth…

Want To Know Your Injury Case Value?  Calculate What Your Case Is Worth For Free...

Percentage Of Fault

Because in most states, definitely in Illinois, the amount of money you get at the end of the case is reduced by your percentage of fault that a judge or jury determines. If they say it's a hundred percent the defendant's fault, you get all of your damages. If they say it's 50 50 you get 50 percent of your damages. What that means is, if they award you a hundred thousand dollars in damages, but they say it's fifty percent your fault that means you get fifty thousand not a hundred thousand. So that's why that part is really important.

How Serious And Permanent The Injuries

The other big important part is, how serious and permanent are the injuries. In other words, let's say you break your leg and it heals and you're fine, and you have an occasional pain here and there but it's not bad. That's one outcome but let's say it's the same broken leg but then you need surgery and then that surgery doesn't fix it. And then you need another surgery and even after the second surgery, you have a permanent limp. It is a much bigger case. That's what I mean by this how serious and permanent the injury is makes a huge deal, and makes a huge difference.

Total Medical Bills

Also how big are the total of your medical bills. Now we're talking about the total amount that the bill of the bill from the hospital. We're not talking about what portion you paid, what portion Insurance paid, what portion was written off.

We're talking about the total amount of the bill from the medical providers, all of them added up. How big is that number and if you were working outside the home, you had a job that you had to miss time from and we can prove it with records like, tax records that factors in too. So obviously the more medical bills, the more on average the case tends to be worth, the more time off work, that can be substantiated with records of some kind.

No Documentations

I'll tell you I had a guy who did side work. There was this whole job. He was a mechanic and he just worked for cash and he worked out of his garage at his house. He wanted to do a wage loss because he told me he had a bunch of work lined up and probably lost about eight thousand dollars of income because of his injuries but not a single piece of paper to prove it and no tax records to prove it. That makes it really hard. We claimed it during the claim stage before we filed suit on it but without documentation, wage loss is really hard to prove.

How Rich The Person Or Defendant You Are Suing

Those are all the things most people know but what's another thing that you need to know? What's the thing that lawyers talk about and think about if they know what they're doing and that most people don't realize is a big deal? Well, it's how rich the person or corporation you're suing and how much Insurance you have and how many defendants are there.

So in some of the biggest cases I've been involved with, we started out with one defendant and then we did research into the case. And we were able to find corporate defendants and other corporations above the initial corporation. That is due to the law, called agency law, meaning who is legally responsible for those below them. In other words, it's an entire area of law that says who's legally responsible for the acts of the people lower than them on the organization tree.

Different Corporations

Sometimes you're not even talking about the same organization. You're talking about different corporations but sometimes corporations will set up a big company up top that really runs and controls everything. And then a bunch of little corporations with no obvious connection to the main corporation and then those little chords barely have any money, barely have any insurance. They do it for obvious reasons. They don't want to have to pay a big judgment, they don't want to be financially responsible for stuff like that.

Knowing agency law is huge and that's one of the first things I do when I investigate a third party injury case. And when I investigate a workers comp case, the question is, are there additional defendants that we can sue with additional money and additional insurance policies? But really, in most cases what it comes down to is, what is the quality the insurance company and what are the policy limits of the insurance?

Most Are Not Independently Wealthy

Now, if we're talking about like a car crash or a mom-and-pop store small business that we're suing, most of them are not independently wealthy. Almost never is it the case that the person is sitting on millions and millions and millions of dollars of assets. Usually most people on the road by state minimum which in Illinois is 25 000 per person or 50 000 per accident. That's the level of insurance company that's the law in Illinois at least as of the time of this article. And some people go up to 5100, which is good. A significant minority of people have 100-300, which means if you get hurt in a car accident, you can get up to a hundred thousand.

It is really true that at least two, three, four times a year I get somebody with a serious injury. Lots of medical bills, we discover who the insurance company is and there's a way that we can force them to disclose what their policy limits are. There are situations where my clients have serious injuries but big medical bills, well I'm still able to put money in the client's pocket.

Insurance Picture Is Important

Here's why the insurance picture is important to lawyers. And that's why something lawyers look at but they rarely discuss with their clients. That's why it's the big secret of knowing what your case value is. The reason why is, here's how it works. If you sue someone, they have low insurance, and you don't want to take the insurance, you want to sue them personally because you think you've got a case let's say worth 500 000. They only have 25 000 in Insurance, that's not enough, you want to go all the way with them.

The problem is, unless the defendant was doing something. Where there was a problem with their insurance or their insurance is going to pay up to the 25 and their insurance attorney is going to defend that defendant every step of the way even though they don't have more than 25 to pay. So be aware of that. It's not like you're just going to go to court just against that individual. But in almost all cases, that individual, at any time can file for bankruptcy.

File For Bankruptcy

Remember what I said like most people on the road are working class people, they don't have a bunch of money saved up, they're not in a really strong economic position. Well what happens is if you sue them and their insurance company says they want to go after your personal assets, they want to go over after the condo that you own, and they want to take your car and they want to garnish your wages forever.

That person is going to go file bankruptcy. And as soon as they have bankruptcy entered, every penny that they owe you in that case is wiped away. So they can file bankruptcy and even if you want to sue them for half a million dollars and you go get a piece of paper from the judge and jury saying they owe you that money. A thousand dollar bankruptcy two thousand dollar bankruptcy that piece of paper is null and void. They don't owe you anything.

Policy Limits Are Important

That's why the policy limits in most injury cases are super important. The lawyer wants to find out what the limits are, collect that money for you, cut the doctor bills down, as low as possible and get as much of that 25 000 into your pocket. Whether it's good insurance, whether the insurance limits are high, is one of the first things injury lawyers look at in an injury case.

Now, the other thing to think about it is, if it's if you get run into by a Coca-Cola truck or you fall in a construction zone where it's a major corporation running it and owning it. Insurance is not going to be the issue. Very likely not. If you get hurt during a surgery, very likely that insurance is not going to be an issue because hospitals are multi-multi-millionaire type organizations. They've got money to pay and insurance.

Limited To Smaller Defendants

It's usually limited to the smaller defendants where insurance is the major issue. Usually like car crashes and motorcycle crashes and stuff like that. But whether you got a big defendant or whether we can find multiple defendants that are major corporations, that's going to be a big deal.

That's what it comes down to. That's what injury lawyers almost never explain to their people. I hope this information helps you if you or a loved one ever need a lawyer or have questions about an injury case, whether it be a car crash, a work injury, fall down, dog bite, bar fight, nursing home abuse, medical mistake, whatever it is, you can always call me anytime night or day completely free to talk to me.