What is the Average Settlement for Personal Injury?
Average Settlement for Personal Injury Cases
A personal injury settlement often occurs after an accident victim initiates legal action against the responsible party. While not always true, many cases resolve through a settlement before ever proceeding to a court of law. Some statistics suggest that as many as 95% of pending lawsuits resolve in pre-trial settlements, which means that only one in 20 personal injury lawsuits is resolved in a court of law.
One of the most pressing questions that remain about personal injury lawsuits, however, is exactly how much the average settlement is worth. Unfortunately, there is actually no such thing as an “average” personal injury settlement.
Instead, the amount of compensation that a person can expect to receive depends on a number of unique factors. In many cases, however, it is possible to arrive at an average idea of how much a settlement will be by conducting research about similar cases.
The Factors Involved in a Personal Injury Settlement
Some of the factors that influence the amount of a personal injury settlement include the following:
- The damages that resulted from an accident. The amount received in a settlement is designed to compensate for numerous types of damages including emotional damages, lost wages, medical costs, pain and suffering, and property damage. The degree of these damages will influence the amount of compensation that you are ultimately able to seek.
- The value of the responsible party’s assets. An accident victim’s settlement can be limited if the person responsible for the accident has limited financial resources. As a result, it is a wise idea for an accident victim to take the responsible party’s amount of assets or insurance policy limits into consideration when deciding whether to accept a settlement.
Reaching a Final Settlement
To arrive at a final settlement amount, it is often critical to take a number of factors into consideration. Some of the steps that parties often follow to arrive at this amount include:
- Performing their own research on similar lawsuits
- Creating comparisons between past awards in similar cases
- Taking unique elements of a case into consideration
In many cases, a proposed settlement amount will be higher or lower than one party would like. Parties will then continue collecting information to determine the strength of a case. Parties often only sign a settlement agreement when there is a reasonable settlement offer.
Ways to Make Sure You Receive a Fair Settlement Amount
There are several tips that accident victims should follow to make sure they receive a fair amount of compensation. These strategies include the following:
- Avoid releasing your medical records to the responsible party’s insurance company
- Perform a full investigation of the accident by obtaining medical reports, police reports, and witness statements about how an accident occurred
- Understand the extent of all of the damages that you face following an accident
- Promptly file your case and begin pursuing efforts to obtain compensation for an accident
Speak with an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney
If you are interested in pursuing a settlement against the party who caused your accident, you should not hesitate to speak with the experienced personal injury attorneys at Ferrara & Gable. Our lawyers are committed to making sure that you obtain the best possible results. Contact our law office today to schedule a free initial consultation.