Hi, I’m Joe Miller, trial attorney with the law firm of Accidental Injury Advocates.  I want to welcome you to our practice series.  Here we try to answer a number of questions that folks may have about injury cases in general that we’ve heard over the years.

In this particular segment we’re going to deal one of the most common questions, which is how much is my case worth?  This is something we hear over and over again that people want to know the answer to.  So I want to go through some of the factors that determine what a case is worth, because really, until we know the specific facts of your case – and as I’ve said before in other places on these videos, your case is completely different from any other case for a variety of factors.  So let’s discuss what some of these factors are that may go into determining what an injury case is worth.

The number one factor that determines the value of an injury case, despite what you may think, is not the severity of the injuries.  It is not how bad the damage is to the car, or how bad the damage is to the other car, or the road conditions, or anything like that.  The number one factor that’s going to determine the value of your case is available coverage for insurance on your vehicle, on the other person’s vehicle, and overall.  Okay?

Why is that?  Well, we’ve had cases, and many attorneys have had cases in Virginia and North Carolina.  Of course, this applies less to what we call No-Fault states where everyone is required to carry a great deal of insurance.  But in Virginia and North Carolina – let’s start with Virginia.  The minimum coverage in Virginia is $25,000 for liability coverage.  That means if someone causes you serious injury or death, unless you have a very high underinsured motorist coverage, all that’s going to be available is the $25,000 limit of coverage on the defendant’s vehicle.

In North Carolina the minimum limit is $30,000 – $5,000 more.  So no matter what kind of severity of injuries you have, or even if there’s death God forbid, the maximum that can be recovered is going to be the minimum limits unless you have a higher underinsured motorist policy, which we discuss elsewhere in these videos.

So that can be very disconcerting because you know, you have a very serious injury, and what are you going to do?  You may ask well, why can’t we go after the defendant?  I mean, we can sue the person that hit me.  Why can’t we get more money from them?  And the reason is, as many of you know, that there’s a reason that people purchase minimum coverage most of the time.  That’s because they don’t have the funds to afford more coverage.  And that means that there’s probably not going to be assets there for you to obtain.  Even famous people like O. J. Simpson had a judgment against him, and it took years and years and years for the family to be able to recover anything from Mr. Simpson.  He tried to hide his assets.  He tried to run here, he tried to run there after they had obtained a substantial judgment against him.

So again, insurance coverage is the number one thing that’s going to determine the value of your case.  Obviously, you have a commercial defendant, a large trucking company, let’s say that’s going to have typically larger limits – you know, $1 million policy limit plus you have the value of the company itself, and all its assets – that’s going to be less of a factor.

First we have insurance limits.  Let’s go to number two.  What’s the number two thing that determines the value of the case?  And the number two thing is you.  What does that mean?  It means are you credible?  What is a jury going to think of you?  Are you going to follow the advice of your doctors?  Are you going to listen to your attorney?

I don’t care what kind of injuries you have.  If you don’t go to the doctor, if you don’t follow their advice, and if you’re someone that a jury potentially would have no interest in believing or giving any money to, the value of your case is going to be greatly diminished.  So number one is the insurance coverage, and number two is really you.  If the client is not credible, you know, not somebody who can be believed and not someone that the jury can sympathize with, it’s going to be difficult for the attorney to convince a jury to give that person some money. 

So again, let’s go back.  The first item is the insurance coverage.  The second item is you, and whether you’re a credible type of person.  And really the third item is the reputation and preparation of your attorney.

Number one, do they have a good reputation and are they known as an injury attorney amongst insurance adjusters, and folks that deal with these claims that are going to be on the other side of the claim?  If so, and if the defense attorneys and the insurance adjusters know this is a person that’s familiar with personal injury law, this is a person that get results, then it’s more likely that they’re going to put a higher value on the claim.

Another thing is, has the attorney prepared your claim properly?  Have they gotten all the documents and all the medical records, and everything that’s necessary to present your claim to the insurance company in a reliable, organized, efficient manner?  And if to goes to trial, you know, have they prepared your case and done everything that’s appropriate?  That’s also going to determine what goes into the value of your case.  So that’s number three.

Number one, insurance coverage.  Number two, your credibility.  Number three, your attorney.  And number four is really a variety of other factors that you’ve probably considered.  But just to list a few, some things that we’ve talked about before.

Of course, the severity of your injuries.  How bad were you hurt?  And of course, you know, the impact to your vehicle.  Obviously there’s a difference between a case where there’s been barely a bump onto your vehicle and there’s no visible damage, as opposed to something where they’ve had to cut you out of the vehicle to get you to the ambulance and to the hospital.  Big difference there.

Another thing is going to be, you know, did you have surgery?  Is there any permanency to the injuries that you’ve sustained?  You know, that sort of thing.  Also, how high are your medical bills?  What are the medical bills for?  Are they for really just very expensive tests that didn’t reveal anything, which is not going to impact the value of much, or are they for actual treatment that you had over a course of time that got you either better, or got you to a point where you maximally improved?

Again, all of these items that I listed that do impact the value of your case are not going to matter if we don’t – we have to go back to number one.  Remember, the number one thing is the insurance coverage.  Again, these things aren’t going to matter also as to number two.  If you’re not credible, and you’re somebody that can’t be believed, and somebody that the jury is not going to be interested in giving money to, all these factors are not going to really impact the value of the case so much. 

Also, number three which we talked about, the reputation of your attorney and the preparation of your attorney.  If they didn’t submit all these bills that you had, if they didn’t present your claim properly and show the damage to your vehicle, and show the insurance adjuster or the jury what you’ve been through in an appropriate way, then you’re not going to get a good recovery. 

So these really are all the things that are necessary that go into evaluating your claim.  I hope I’ve answered your questions.  I thank you for watching, and we look forward to getting to work on your case. 

Joe Miller, trial attorney.  Thank you.