Do you ever wonder how much your case is worth? There are a lot of factors that go into these cases. Contact Malloy Law Offices, LLC today and let us ease your mind!
One of the most common questions that I get asked all the time when I meet with a client or a potential client, for the first time inevitably is “what is my case worth?” My answer is always, “I’m not sure yet.” There are good reasons for that. There could be nothing worse than being wildly off about the value of a client’s case because you guess. So, the things you should take into consideration are the severity of the injuries. You know, god forbid if somebody dies as a result of an accident, the compensation is going to be very different than somebody who has a broken bone.
Permanent injuries, quadriplegia, paralysis, loss of limb, those types of things are going to make the case more valuable. Other things like who the insurance company is, is there insurance at all, what jurisdiction are you in, those are things that are going to affect the value of the case. How strong is your case, the facts of the case, what we call liability sometimes. So typically I would want to see the client’s medical records, medical bills, and if there are serious injuries. I might want to consult with the doctor or a vocational expert or life care planning expert.
If you meet with a lawyer for the first time and they just have a snapshot of your case and they give you a value of your case, you should be weary of that because a good lawyer is really going to do their due diligence and go through your case if you’re still in treatment, make sure you’re done with your treatment, if you need certain experts for certain things, get those experts, consult with the experts for damages categories that the attorney would need to to come up with the value of the case.
Eventually, down the road, we would have a conversation about the value of the case and I would talk or give the client a range of what I think the value of the case is. But, early on at the first meeting or one of the first meetings, I won’t typically or will never guess about the value of a case. It’s the most important question oftentimes that a client wants to know. If I can’t provide an answer, especially right away, then the best that I can do is talk through the client about how cases are valued and the factors that go into valuing a case. If you would like to know on how our attorneys go forward with these scenarios, click here to learn more.