Personal injuries could be the result of a car accident, a slip and fall, domestic abuse, or a variety of other situations. Regardless of the reason behind the injury, you could be entitled to compensation through a personal injury settlement against the responsible party. Wondering what value your settlement holds? The following are some factors that could affect it.
Medical Care
If you have extensive medical care costs, you could have a greater chance at a higher settlement amount. Emergency room care, surgeries, physical therapy, prescription medication, prolonged treatment, and a variety of other medical expenses could affect the value of your settlement, making it higher than if your injuries were minor and only required a few visits to your primary care physician.
Property Damage
Many personal injury claims don’t include property damage, but there are some that do. For example, if your personal injury claim resulted from a car accident, you could be entitled to compensation to cover costs for repairing your car. If an expensive piece of jewelry was destroyed in a slip and fall accident, you could recover damages for that jewelry. Laptops, phones, and other technological devices could also fall into this category, making the value of a settlement higher.
Lost Wages
When your injuries are severe enough that you have to miss work, you could be entitled to lost wages. The length of time you are out of work will directly affect this amount. For example, if you end up in the emergency room with multiple surgeries and months of recovery, you could receive compensation to cover all those months you are out of work. If you don’t miss any work due to your injuries, this could make the value stay at the lower end.
Inability to Work
Future lost wages can also be considered when looking at personal injury settlement values. For example, if you run machinery as part of your job and your injury resulted in loss of a limb, you may not have the ability to work in the future. Perhaps you’ll have to be retrained to learn another skill that doesn’t require that limb, and you could be compensated for that training, making your settlement amount higher.
Learning More Through Your Lawyer
While this may seem like a lot, there are other factors that affect a settlement amount as well, and your lawyer can explain those to you. Contact a lawyer, like a personal injury lawyer from Hickey & Turim, today to learn more.