Many individuals wonder, “How much compensation can I get for a personal injury?” after sustaining an injury caused by another person. You likely have medical bills, lost wages, pain, and potentially property damage for which you need compensation. But what is the average personal injury settlement amount? Continue reading to learn more, or call Ted A. Greve & Associates at 1-800-693-7833.
Personal Injury Compensation
Most personal injury settlements fall between a few thousand and a hundred thousand dollars. That’s a broad range, but personal injury encompasses a wide variety of injuries and circumstances. Your injury could result from a car accident, a slip and fall, a physical assault, or a workplace incident. And it could range from lacerations and strained muscles to complex fractures, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury.
Key Factors Influencing Settlement Amounts
Several key factors influence the compensation you could receive through a personal injury settlement, including the severity and type of your injury, your medical expenses and treatment costs, your pain and suffering, and the property damage caused by the accident.
Severity and Type of Injury
In general, the more severe your injury is, the more compensation you may be able to recover through a personal injury settlement. This is because injury severity impacts almost every other aspect of your case, from your medical treatment to your pain and suffering to the long-term complications and disabilities you suffer. Additionally, the type of injury you sustain plays a significant role in your treatment and whether you experience permanent disability.
For example, let’s say you got in a rear-end collision and experienced whiplash as a result. This injury may force you to take time off work to recover, attend physical therapy, and take prescription medication for pain relief. But if you were in a severe slip and fall accident, you may suffer a spinal cord injury that requires extensive surgery, leaves you unable to work for the rest of your life, and prevents you from enjoying your favorite activities due to paralysis.
Medical Expenses and Treatment Costs
Depending on the medical treatments you need to recover from your injuries, their costs can significantly contribute to the value of your settlement. Some surgeries and treatments can be very expensive, and a fair settlement should cover all of them as long as they’re related to the incident.
However, to get the full compensation you need for your medical expenses, it’s important to have extensive medical evidence to support your case. This means obtaining copies of your medical records, treatment plans, and doctor’s notes, and hiring medical professionals to provide expert opinions on your injuries and the recommended treatments for them.
Pain and Suffering
Most North Carolina personal injury cases have no cap on non-economic damages. The main exception to this is in medical malpractice cases, where there is typically a $500,000 limit on such damages. That means, in most cases, your pain and suffering can be a major factor in the overall value of your case.
Non-economic damages refer to the compensation sought for your losses without tangible value. The severity and extent of these losses are often subjective, meaning you need an experienced and compassionate lawyer who understands the suffering you’re going through and can fight for the compensation you deserve.
Property Damage
Property damage doesn’t play a role in all personal injury cases. For example, you may not have any property damage in a slip-and-fall case. However, it can be important for car accident cases or defective product cases that involve house fires.
When seeking compensation for property damage, it is essential to keep track of all bills received for repairing or replacing damaged or lost property. Although property damage is often a smaller part of personal injury settlements than medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering, it can still contribute to your overall settlement.
Calculating Your Personal Injury Settlement
Calculating the value of your personal injury settlement involves using different methods for different types of damages. Calculating economic damages usually consists of adding up the tangible value of your losses. For example, your lawyer would add up your medical bills, the value of your lost or damaged property, and the income you lost or are expected to lose because of your injuries.
Calculating non-economic damages is more subjective. Your lawyer will typically either use the multiplier or per diem method to calculate these damages. The multiplier method multiplies your economic damages by a number between 1.5 and 5 based on the severity of your injuries, and the per diem method assigns a value to each day you suffered due to your injuries. Regardless of which method your lawyer uses, it’s essential that they have a complete understanding of your injuries and their impact on your life to help you seek fair compensation.
Maximizing Your Compensation
The best way to maximize the compensation received through a personal injury settlement is to work with a knowledgeable and experienced attorney. An attorney will handle every aspect of your case, from the initial investigation through negotiating a settlement or representing your best interests in court.
The evidence a lawyer gathers through their investigation is often crucial for proving liability. And in some cases, there may be multiple liable parties. This could be the case if your injury resulted from a car accident where two drivers or a driver and a third party, like a vehicle manufacturer, are at fault. By identifying multiple liable parties, you can spread your damages across them and may end up recovering more compensation than you would have if there were only one liable party.
North Carolina also uses a contributory negligence system that bars plaintiffs from recovering compensation if they were at fault for the accident that harmed them in any way. This can be devastating for your case, which is why it’s vital that you work with a lawyer who can gather evidence showing you didn’t contribute to the accident.
Contact Ted A. Greve & Associates Today
If someone else’s actions caused your injury, call Ted A. Greve & Associates or contact us online for a free consultation with a skilled North Carolina personal injury lawyer. During your consultation, we’ll review the details of the incident, provide an initial estimate of your damages, and walk you through the process of seeking the maximum compensation.
