Personal injury victims often ask me early on “what is my case worth.” My response is almost always “its too early to know.”
Every case is different. The value of a personal injury case turns on the facts, both liability and damage, that are particular to your circumstance. Although the law tells us the elements of damage that are recoverable, the amount of damages is up to the jury based on the evidence. Under the law, an injury victim can recover damages for past and future medical care, lost earning capacity, physical impairment, physical pain and mental anguish, and disfigurement. As you might imagine, medical care and earnings are often times easier to put a figure on than impairment, pain, mental anguish and disfigurement.
The amount of damages a jury awards is also influenced by the liability facts. That is, how strong are the facts that support your claim against the defendant and how egregious was the defendant’s conduct. Damage awards also turn on whether the jury thinks favorable of you and do you give the jury a compelling reason to award you money damages.
As you can see, estimating damage awards is as much art as science. Once sufficient discovery is completed, an experienced trial lawyer should be able to consider the facts and circumstances unique to your case and give you a reasonable dollar range that you could expect a jury to award. Even then, the amount of the jury award may surprise you.
