Personal Injury accidents often lead to significant economic and non-economic damages. Calculating the value of your claim often becomes troublesome for someone who is not well-versed in personal injury law.
It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with how to calculate the value of your claim as it will help you tremendously with setting reasonable expectations when dealing with the insurance companies and the outcome of your case.
Calculating Your Personal Injury Claim Value
Almost every personal injury claim consists of two parts: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages refer to the financial expenses incurred due to the personal injury.
The total value of your economic damages generally includes every provable financial damage incurred due to an injury. This commonly includes (but is not limited to) the following:
- Medical costs
- Damage caused to your vehicle
- Lost wages and earnings
- Future lost earning
Non-Economic Damages
Non-Economic Damages refers to the pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life due to an accidental injury.
Non-Economic damages are often quite difficult to quantify, and these can’t be easily calculated due to their intangible nature.
Most courts and insurance companies convert the value of the non-economic damages suffered by you into a “multiplier,” which is a simple number used to multiply the value of your economic damages.
As a general rule, cases involving more severe injuries result in a higher multiplier number.
In most cases, the multiplier figure ranges from 1.5 to 5 and depends on several factors, such as:
- Likelihood of your complete recovery
- The extent of your injuries
- Amount of future treatment needed
- Effects of your injuries on your daily activities and lifestyle
Injury Compensation Formula
There is an easy way to use injury compensation formula which can help you in calculating the value of your claim as follows:
(Economic Damages) x (Non-Economic Damages Multiplier) = Value of Your Claim
So, if your economic damages totaled $25,000 and your non-economic damages multiplier is 2 then the value of your claim will be:
$25,000*2 = $50,000
In cases of personal injury, other factors such as the issue of comparative negligence also play a significant role which may increase or decrease the value of your final award.
Conclusion
It’s always a good idea to hire an attorney who has experience dealing with personal injury cases. Here at Shocklee Paolino, we have high-profile and experienced personal injury lawyers who can assist you in accurately calculating the value of your personal injury claim. Don’t hesitate to contact us today for a free consultation to discuss your case.