What is my Case Worth?
One question we hear a lot is “how much do you think my case is worth?” There are many fictitious formulas out there but when it comes down to making a settlement recommendation your Connecticut accident lawyer Frank McCoy, relies on some of the following factors:.
1. Economic Losses. This is things like past and future lost wages and medical expenses.
2. Non-economic
This is the losses involving pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment, and physical impairment. This is up to the jury to award and sometimes is an unknown variable in a case. Some factors that enter in to the non-economic loss is how persuasive are you at proving your injury? Do you have any objective tests like MRI’s or the like that demonstrate an injury or is the injury one that cant be shown to the jury. Some of the most challenging cases involve very serious injuries, but they can not be objectively documented. When that happens, the defense will try to imply that you are faking or exaggerating your injuries. This is the defense tactic on almost all of these cases. If Mother Teresa was rear ended and her injury didn’t show up on an MRI, there is a good likelihood that the defense would be implying that she is exaggerating. In that case, we need to try to prove the case with other witnesses and indirect evidence. This is harder to do, so the value of the case goes down.
3. Parties involved. A very charismatic likeable injured person does better than one that is not as likeable. This is unfortunate but true. The same is true of the defendant and a business defendant will inmost cases do worse than an individual.
5. Intangibles. In addition there are innumerable intangibles that go into the value of a case that are determined on a case by case basis.
6. Discount for Probability of Defendant’s verdict and/or plaintiff’s fault. Once that is determined, we then discount from that and contributions the plaintiff may have had in causing the accident. If we think the plaintiff is 20% at fault, we then we deduct that off the total value.
All of the above factors and more go into determining a case value.
So, when Connecticut accident lawyer Frank McCoy is asked, “What is my case worth?” Frank uses his 20 years of personal injury litigation experience in addition to the above variables to place a value on your case.
If we are not able to agree with the defense on the value, then the Jury is the ultimate decider of the value of your case.