How Much is My Case Worth
Often people injured in accidents will ask how much is their injury claim worth. Injured victims have every right to money for the pain, injuries, lost wages, medical bills, etc that they have suffered due to someone else’s negligent driving, reckless behavior, etc. Case value varies a bit, similar to how the value of a house or even a car might be subject to some difference of opinion. However, estimating case value is not that hard, and for the injury lawyers at Ramunno and Ramunno, P.A. we have decades of experience in determining case value.
The first thing to look at is fault, if a person is at fault for a accident, for instance, if there’s a video tape of someone running a red light, even if that person has severe injuries, a fractured leg, a concussion, spine injuries requiring hundreds of visits to the doctor or even spine surgery, their claim is worth zero because they were at fault.
Assuming your not at fault for the accident, the next thing to look at is how skilled your injury lawyer is at getting money from the insurance companies and how much, if at all, the insurance companies fear the injury lawyer. At Ramunno and Ramunno, P.A., we take great pride in the fact that in this area we add enormous value to any injury claim, because insurance companies are afraid of us and don’t want to take us on. Unfortunately, some injured victims, whose cases could be worth a lot of money, can end up with much less if they chose the wrong injury law office.
The difference in what a person gets based just on what law office they hire can be massive, your case value can easily double or even triple. For instance, a case that would bring in a top offer of $10,000 with a weak injury law firm could bring in a top offer of $30,000 with a strong law firm that big insurance fears.
Next, a person’s case value is determined by their injuries, pain, symptoms, and diagnosis as documented in writing in the medical records and imaging studies, such as MRI’s, EMG’s and x-rays. The key phrase here is “in writing” – case value is not based on what doctors say to a injured victim, but what doctors put in writing in their medical records. If a doctor puts in writing that a injured victim has suffered a permanent injury this will increase the case value substantially.
Also, any lost wages or medical bills in excess of pip /no-fault coverage increases the value of a injury claim.
Below are some cases that our injury team has recently settled, however, unlike some law offices, we simply didn’t pick our biggest, we simply picked some car injury settlements.
1. Settlement in excess of $200,000, Injuries included: neck injuries with injuries to cervical (neck) nerve root (causing ongoing radiating pain into arm and numbness / tingling in hand) and also back injuries, including herniated discs that impinged on the thecal sac in the lumbar spine, EMG was positive and clinically correlated with the herniated discs in cervical spine, client got multiple trigger point injections and then epidural injections and had about 18 months of physical therapy, consisting of well over one hundred visits, and then chiropractic therapy, also saw a neurologist and a pain specialist many times.
2. $52,500 settlement, Injuries: Neck and back injuries with pain going into client’s leg, MRI proved there was a herniated disc in low back (lumbar spine), client treated for about 14 months with a chiropractor, generally at 5x to 3x a week, starting the day after the car accident, and saw a medical doctor who gave client ongoing prescriptions of Oxycodone, a series of trigger point injections and epidural injections.
3. $45,000 settlement, Injuries: cervical spine injury/neck injury, pain radiating into shoulders, treated for about fourteen months with a injury specialist who provided ongoing physical therapy and prescriptions and sent client for a MRI of her cervical spine and for a EMG by a neurologist which was positive for nerve damage a/k/a radiculopathy.
4. $38,000 settlement, Injuries: Neck pain, herniated disc proven by MRI, pain radiating into shoulder and arm with numbness and tingling in hand, positive EMG showing nerve damage and treated with an injury specialist for about 10 months who prescribed Percocet and other prescriptions.
5. $3250 settlement, Injury: Sore neck, went to emergency room, and saw a family doctor a few times, who sent client to physical therapy for about 1 month.
6. $8000 settlement, Injury: sore neck, treated for about 3 months with a chiropractor and a few visits to a medical doctor who prescribed pain medicine.
7. $26,000 settlement, Injuries: neck pain and a concussion, including headaches with blurred vision and confusion (diagnosed by a neurologist as post-concussion syndrome). Client treated with a chiropractor for about 7 months, also saw a neurologist for her concussion and got a MRI of her cervical spine.
8. $15,000 settlement, Injuries: neck and low back pain, client treated with a chiropractor for about 7 months, generally 1x to 2x a week, and got MRI’s of his cervical and lumbar spine, which were negative, and had a few visits to a pain doctor for prescriptions, including Percocet. PIP/no-fault coverage was not exhausted.
9. $1500 settlement, Injuries: neck and back pain, client went to the emergency room but then was unable to continue treating despite being in pain due to unrelated, severe medical problems.
10. $1000 settlement, Injuries: neck and back pain, one visit to the emergency room on the day of the accident.
11. $15,000 settlement, Injuries: neck and back pain, client went to the emergency room, and also went to a medical doctor, who prescribed medicine, and treated for about 7 months with a chiropractor and also got MRI’s of the cervical and lumbar spine, which were negative. PIP/no-fault coverage was not exhausted.
12. 68,000 settlement, Injuries: back and neck injuries with pain that went into client’s shoulder and arm and numbness in hand, also concussion. Client treated for about 12 months, including with a chiropractor who after about 11 months documented in writing that he felt client had suffered a permanent injury to her lumbar and cervical spine. Client also treated with a neurologist for her concussion and had a EMG which was positive for cervical radiculopathy and had MRI’s of her lumbar and cervical spine. Client had about $18,000 in medical bills in excess of pip coverage and the settlement represented $50,000 for her pain /injuries and the roughly $18,000 in outstanding medical bills, for a total of $68,000.
