3 Tips For Trying To Maximize A Personal Injury Settlement
A personal injury lawyer can't tell you what the maximum potential value of your claim might be. However, they can provide you with a few tips for trying to improve the compensation total. A typical personal injury attorney will encourage their clients to have these three things.
Patience
Few injury claims settle within weeks. Likewise, it's not always in the client's best interests to settle a case quickly.
The main argument for being patient is to ensure you reach peak physical recovery or as close to it as possible. You need to do this because you want to know the full extent of both your injuries and recovery. Otherwise, there's a risk you'll settle the claim and discover something else later. Personal injury law all but precludes coming back to a defendant for more money so you want to be sure you covered everything before signing a settlement.
You'll likely have to wait to collect reports from police officers, doctors, and first responders. If you need information from the defendant, such as maintenance logs from a building, you may have to wait for those items, too. However, the upside is you'll have a more complete claim when you do file.
Journal
Proving pain and suffering is critical to maximizing a personal injury claim's value. A personal injury attorney may encourage you to keep a journal. This should be a small notebook that breaks things up into days.
You won't need huge entries. Instead, you'll make a note of your current condition for the day. If someone had a head injury, for example, they'd want to note headaches. Typically, a personal injury lawyer will have you rate the pain on a 5- or 10-point scale. The goal is to show how often you experienced issues and what the severity was.
Official Documentation
The standard personal injury case is heavy on paperwork. From reports to bills, you'll have to show everything. This covers surgeries, rehab sessions, prescriptions, and medical devices necessary to your recovery.
Similarly, you'll need to document non-medical damages. For example, someone claiming lost wages will need to show what they were earning in the months before their injuries. The same goes for claims for the loss of marital consortium, parenting ability, and enjoyment of life.
When your lawyer believes they have all the information, they'll send a demand package to their defendant and their insurer. The defense will then have several weeks to assess the case and respond. They can accept the claim, try to negotiate a lower compensation package, or reject the case. Your attorney's goal is to convince them that their acceptance is the best choice.
For more information contact a company like Cardone Law Firm.
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