CALL (800) 863-5312 TO SPEAK WITH A LAS CRUCES PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER FOR FREE Many factors are at play when determining the worth of a personal injury claim. In legal terms, the amount of compensation a successful plaintiff receives from a personal injury claim is called damages. The calculating the value of an injury claim …
When providing a settlement offer, an insurance claims adjuster looks at various factors to determine how much your injury claim is worth. First, they look at the total economic losses you have suffered. For example, if you were involved in a car accident and spent several weeks in the hospital recuperating, medical bills will have piled up. These bills will factor into your economic losses.
There are also non-economic losses that a claims adjuster may consider. Juries in personal injury cases are often asked to compensate for mental and physical pain, suffering, inconvenience, and loss of life’s pleasures that the plaintiff endured from the date of the accident. Though these non-economic losses are subjective, pathologists and neurological specialists will often be brought in to give expert opinions on how much pain the plaintiff is currently in.
Medical expenses are those expenses related to the medical treatment you received because of the personal injury accident. Because medical expenses can be derived from a number of different treatments, be sure to document every medical bill you receive. At trial or settlement, these bills will help the jury or the judge realize the amount of compensation you deserve. Below are some typical medical expenses.
Not all injuries can be fixed with a single stay at a hospital. Some injuries may lead to recurring visits to the hospital. For instance, if you were severely burned on several parts of your body and the doctor states that you will need surgeries over the course of five years to prevent infection, the cost of these surgeries would count as future medical expenses. Essentially, future medical expenses account for the medical expenses you will incur beyond the immediate point in time. Future medical expenses may even include the cost of modifications to the home and medical equipment.
An injury resulting from an accident may temporarily disable you from working. And unless your employer is generous and gives you a paycheck even if you do not show up to work, you will lose out on the money you could have earned but for your injury. A personal injury claimant may seek to be compensated for this lost income. To prove the amount of lost income, you must show evidence such as pay stubs or tax returns.
An injury resulting from an accident may prevent you from working altogether in the future. In such cases, you will want to seek compensation for future lost income. Future lost income is the income you would have received in the future if not for your accident. For instance, if you were a cook at a restaurant, but lost your hands in an accident and will no longer be able to cook, a judge or the jury will look at your wages when you were employed and extrapolate from this amount to determine how much you would have earned in the future as a cook.
When considering future lost income for child plaintiffs, the process can be difficult because the child likely was never employed in the first place. If your child was under 18 years old when he or she suffered an injury that permanently disabled him or her from working, there are many variables to determine your child’s future income. One of these is whether a specifically identifiable career existed for your child, backed with evidence. For example, if your child was 16 years old and had an internship at Microsoft, his or her future lost income would likely be worth more than that of a six-year-old who had just started attending primary school in a similar predicament. Thus, the 16-year-old would likely be awarded more damages for future lost income than the six-year-old.
You may also be compensated for property damage as a result of a personal injury accident. If your car was totaled because of the negligence of the other driver, the driver may be liable for the damages to your car.
In general, pain and suffering represents the emotional distress the plaintiff endures after the accident. Below is a list that may help you better understand what counts as pain and suffering.
There are generally two ways of calculating pain and suffering: the per diem, or “by the day” method, and the multiple method.
The per diem method assigns a dollar value for one day and then multiplies this dollar value for the number of days the plaintiff was affected by the injury. The dollar value tends to be the plaintiff’s average daily wage.
The multiple method is the more common method used by insurance companies to calculate the pain and suffering of a plaintiff. In the multiple method, the insurance claims adjuster will total the plaintiff’s economic damages and multiply this number by a multiple from one to five. The resulting amount will be how much the plaintiff is compensated for pain and suffering.
In New Mexico, courts use what is called a pure comparative fault rule when it determines how much compensation a victim receives. This rule allows a plaintiff to recover even if he or she is at 99% fault for the accident. However, the amount of compensation a plaintiff receives is reduced by the percentage of the plaintiff’s fault for the accident.
Not every personal injury calls for a lawyer. If your injury is minor, for example, then you probably will not need to call a lawyer. Perhaps you , but you suffered only a minor cut on your finger. You may have a viable claim against the grocery store, but there is no need to go through a costly legal process to obtain a check for a cut. On the other hand, if you received a severe back injury, you may want to consider a lawyer to help ensure you are fairly compensated.
Even if you are comfortable with the law, you may have trouble dealing with the insurance companies, which are often the ones providing the check. Thus, if your insurance company or the other party’s insurance company is being difficult, you may want to call a lawyer. An experienced lawyer may help you deal with the insurance companies, which are often very reluctant to provide full coverage for victims. An experienced lawyer may know the tactics of insurance companies that try to give less than what is owed and counter these tactics so that his or her clients have a chance of getting full compensation. Additionally, if you are unsatisfied with an insurance company’s offer, a lawyer may represent you at trial.
Lawyers may also bolster your claim by conducting depositions and looking for supporting evidence. For instance, in car accident cases, an experienced lawyer may try to find all the parties that are liable for the accident. Sometimes the lawyer may find a liable party that you may not have thought was a party to the accident.
The experienced attorneys at Zinda Law Group may be able to help you determine how much your injury claim is worth. After an accident, you shouldn’t have to worry about affording legal representation, which is why you don’t owe us anything unless we win your case. That’s our No Win, No Fee Guarantee.
Call us today at (800) 863-5312 for a free consultation with one of our Las Cruces personal injury lawyers.
Meetings with attorneys by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with a Las Cruces Personal Injury Lawyer for Free Calculating the total value of a personal injury settlement in Las Cruces is a complex process that involves skilled personal injury attorneys, investigators, and organized medical records. There are a variety of different personal injury claims, including car accidents, wrongful deaths, …
Here are the main factors that determine your compensation in a personal injury case:
Liability is not always easy to determine. In many cases, both parties can be liable to different degrees. For example, if a judge determines you were 40% at fault due to your actions, you may only be entitled to 60% of your potential settlement value.
Insurance plays a significant role in the value of a personal injury case. Often, the opposing party’s insurance coverage limits are the sole source of recovery for victims.
If you are involved in a car accident and the other person does not have insurance, your only source of recovery would be your own uninsured motorist policy. These policies are optional, and can be added to your existing plan if you don’t already have it included.
New Mexico state law requires drivers to carry a minimum amount of $25,000 in liability insurance. However, there is still a risk that the person at fault is uninsured.
For workplace injuries, almost all employers in New Mexico are required to offer workers compensation, with few exceptions. Workers compensation is a form of insurance that provides income replacement and medical benefits to employees who are hurt during work. Workers who are given this policy relinquish their right to for their employer for negligence.
A large portion of settlement value will be for medical bills, including from emergency room and primary care visits, physical therapy, or surgery, as well as from other specialists you may have visited to treat your injuries.
In addition to having a direct impact on your settlement value, medical treatment will also factor into your non-economic damage value, which we will explain in more detail below. Because of this, you must make sure to adhere to all doctor instruction and to not skip appointments. If the opposing insurance company discovers that you’ve skipped doctor and physical therapy appointments, the company can use that as evidence to discredit the full amount of damages you are claiming.
For example, a man gets in a car accident, suffers a back injury, and is told to go through six months of physical therapy for back pain. If he visits the physical therapist for three weeks, and then decides that it isn’t worth the time and stops going, it will be clear that his injuries are not severe enough to warrant consistent treatment, and that he is exaggerating his pain and suffering.
Any income lost from missing time at work factors into a settlement amount for a personal injury case. If you took paid-time off during your recovery, that amount should still be counted toward unpaid time.
In addition to time you’ve already missed from work, make sure to estimate how many hours you’ll miss in the future due to your injuries or treatment.
Similar to future lost income, make sure to include how much you expect to be billed over the course of your ongoing treatment and recovery.
This final term includes damages that cannot be directly attributed to specific bills or lost income. This is often referred to as “pain and suffering,” and has to do with things like an inability to spend time with family, prepare food, or partake in hobbies and interests.
This can result in varying damage amounts based on how the injury and incident has affected your mental and emotional well-being. Writing a demand for non-economic damages is an art form all its own, and requires exceptionally skilled attorneys to do it well.
At Zinda Law Group, our Las Cruces injury attorneys have the experience and knowledge necessary to help you. We have helped thousands of injury victims seek compensation for medical bills, loss of income, property damage, pain and suffering, and more.
If you or someone you know has been injured in an accident, our experienced personal injury attorneys would be happy to help you assess the potential damages of your case.
Call Zinda Law Group at (800) 863-5312 for a free consultation with a skilled Las Cruces personal injury lawyer.
Meetings with attorneys by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyers for Free If you or a loved one was recently injured, you may be entitled to seek compensation for your injuries. Once of the most common questions we are asked is; how long does it take to settle an injury claim? The answer is …
Even when a personal injury case does not go to trial, a lot of investigatory work needs to be done. Evidence has to be found, witnesses have to be interviewed, and often lawyers and clients on both sides of the case have busy schedules that prevent a case from settling quickly.
Reaching an agreement may also require a lot of compromise on the part of both parties. If you are willing to settle for less than what your case is worth, your case will likely reach a resolution in no time at all.
If, on the other hand, you feel your case is worth a substantial amount of money, be prepared for a lengthier negotiation process. Your lawyer will be able to advise you, based on their experience, how much they think your case it worth. This should give you a good indication as to whether you are being offered too little to settle. Knowing what the lowest you are willing to settle for will help you in negotiations, and will likely help you resist an offer that is lower than that bottom line.
There are a lot of variables that can lead to a speedier resolution to a personal injury case. Depending on the facts of your case, the opposing party may be more or less willing to settle. Having the upper hand in negotiations requires having strong evidence that cannot be disputed.
However, there are a lot of instances where even cases that otherwise seem open and shut can lead to years of litigation. These cases can be lengthy, and although settling a case may lead to an immediate end to the stresses of a lawsuit, settling too soon may lead to a result you are unhappy with. If you receive a settlement offer, be sure to think about all of the costs and benefits of accepting it before you make a decision.
At Zinda Law Group, our San Antonio personal injury attorneys have helped thousands of victims get their lives back on track after suffering an injury. We have the knowledge and resources necessary to help you seek maximum compensation for medical bills, lost income, property damage, pain and suffering, and all the other ways your injury has cost you.
Our firm also believes that a victim should never have to worry about their ability to afford excellent legal representation. That is why we offer 100% free consultations, and why you will pay nothing unless we achieve a favorable settlement, judgment, or verdict for your personal injury case. That’s our No Fee Guarantee.
If you or a loved one has been injured, call Zinda Law Group at (800) 863-5312 to receive your free consultation with our personal injury lawyers.
Meetings with attorneys are available by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with San Antonio Injury Lawyers for Free If you or a loved one was recently injured in a car accident, you may be focusing on your health and well-being. While this is the most important thing to do, if you wait too long to file a lawsuit, you may not …
A statute of limitations requires a lawsuit to be brought within a certain amount of time, or be forever barred. These statutes are generally for the benefit of the defendant in a case. In Texas, the statute of limitations for bringing claims involved in a car accident is two years. Insurance companies know that a case must be brought within two years, and so may try to stall you for those two years so you miss the deadline unintentionally.
Further, two years is really not that long of time when you are dealing with the aftermath of a car accident. You may have had a prolonged hospital stay, or may be working tirelessly on paying bills, not even thinking about financial recovery until years down the line. However, filing a lawsuit within two years of your accident will help ensure that you still have the possibility of recovering financially through the legal system, although it’s not guaranteed.
Evidence in car accident cases can fade quickly. Memories of traumatic events, like car accidents, are prone to mixing details up as time passes. Eyewitnesses who were not involved may have differing accounts of what happened on the day of the accident versus two years after the accident. Paperwork, like medical bills and police reports, can be lost in the shuffle of time.
Filing a lawsuit quickly can help prevent this loss of evidence and can help you get your life back on track. These lawsuits tend to be prolonged. Filing a lawsuit sooner, rather than later, may help reduce the amount of time you spend worrying about finances. An experienced car accident attorney may be able to help you recover financially, and may not require much input from you at all.
At Zinda Law Group, our car accident lawyers have helped thousands of victims get their lives back on track after suffering an injury. We have the knowledge and resources necessary to help you seek maximum compensation for medical bills, lost income, property damage, pain and suffering, and all the other ways your injury has cost you.
Our firm also believes that a car accident victim should never have to worry about their ability to afford excellent legal representation. That is why we offer 100% free consultations, and why you will pay nothing unless we achieve a favorable settlement, judgment, or verdict for your personal injury case. That’s our No Fee Guarantee.
If you or a loved one has been injured, call Zinda Law Group at (800) 863-5312 to receive your free consultation with our car accident attorneys.
Meetings with attorneys are available by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with Personal Injury Attorneys for Free The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides for the legal rights of all people–including U.S. citizens, legally admitted residents, or undocumented immigrants–to seek due process while in the United States. If you are injured through the negligence of another person but are not …
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with a Texas Instant Pot Injury Lawyer for Free Have you or a loved one been burned by a pressure cooker? You’re not alone. In February 2018, Instant Pot posted a warning about some of their models overheating. This post was shared nearly 2,000 times and received numerous angry comments. …
The way pressure cookers heat food can be innately dangerous to consumers if a product is defective or misused. Since the cooking process relies on a high pressure container, there is a lot of potential energy that can lead to an explosion.
These appliances cook food quickly with heat caused by pressure, as the name implies. If a consumer opens the lid of a defective unit, scalding hot food can splash out as the pressure is released.
This can leave people with serious burn injuries, as well as emotional trauma. The danger increases with certain kinds of foods, especially those high in liquid content, like chili, soup, or beans.
Since pressure cooker explosions normally happen while someone is cooking, burn victims are likely to be standing up, or sitting nearby at the time of the incident. Most of the burn injuries will occur on the head, arms, and torso.
Tragically, this may affect small children as well. Pressure cookers can be a convenient way to quickly cook for a large family, but sadly this can mean that children are in the proximity if a pressure cooker explosion were to occur.
A pressure cooker burn injury may entitle you to significant compensation.
Physically, explosion-related burns can lead to costly medical treatment. You may have suffered first-, second-, or third-degree burns from your pressure cooker splashing food at you. This can lead to medical bills from skin grafts, anaesthetics, surgery, physical therapy, and more.
Likewise, there is a large amount of damages from pain and suffering associated with these types of incidients. Since the kitchen is typically associated with food, family, and comfort, having a life-changing injury take place there can have a large impact on a burn victim’s mental well-being.
After an injury, the victims may not feel safe in their own homes. The effect can be much worse for children, as they may become afraid to spend time at dinner with their family.
On top of the damage-related factors, the manufacturer likely has a large commercial insurance policy, which will further drive up potential compensation. Because of the complexity of the damages in pressure cooker burn cases, settlements amounts can be quite high.
Immediately after a pressure cooker burn injury, you must first tend to any medical needs. Make sure to contain any bleeding and attend to any exposed injuries, and then seek medical help. Ensure your appliance is unplugged.
If you or members of your family have by an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker, your losses could be severe. Because burn injury cases are complex, you need seasoned legal representation to help you seek the compensation you deserve.
At Zinda Law Group, we will leave no stone unturned to secure the best possible burn injury settlement or court verdict. We will help you seek maximum compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, and more. And as one of our clients, you pay nothing unless we win your case.
Call Zinda Law Group today at (800) 863-5312 for a free consultation with a skilled El Paso burn injury lawyer. Meetings with attorneys by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with a Tucson Personal Injury Lawyer for Free According to a 2014 study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 43 million American have overdue medical debt on their credit reports. Medical bills are likely to arise after an accident and can quickly add up. Even if you have insurance, there …
Failure to pay a bill affects the biggest factor that determines credit scores: payment history. So if you ignore your bill because you think your insurance will pay, the medical provider will eventually send the unpaid bill to collections. Debt collection can cause your credit to take a hit in a big way, dropping a score anywhere from 50 to 100 points.
Additionally, these collection accounts remain on your credit report for up to seven years. However, medical collections will drop off your report if the bills are paid by your health insurance.
You have multiple credit scores, and each can be impacted in various ways. Medical collection accounts carry less weight on the latest version of your FICO score, the FICO 9 model. However, the most widely used report, FICO 8, takes account of all small collection amounts over $100 and treats all collections the same whether they are paid or unpaid.
As of September 15, 2017, the three credit reporting agencies are required to follow a 180-day waiting period before putting an unpaid medical bill on your credit report. Any unpaid medical bills that are later paid by your insurance will be removed instead of damaging your score further. This new waiting period provides time for the insurers, doctors, and patients to examine and remedy any billing disputes or discrepancies.
Keep up to date on your medical bills and make sure you don’t have an outstanding balance. Many people end up in collections because they don’t pay a bill that they assume their insurance will pay. Make sure you understand your policy and follow up with your insurer if you are not sure what portion of a bill you are responsible for.
At Zinda Law Group, our Tucson accident lawyers know that injuries can result in not only physical and emotional burdens but also financial ones. We have helped thousands of clients recover compensation for their injuries, and we will fight tirelessly to help you seek maximum recovery for damages related to your accident, including medical bills, property damage, lost wages due to missed work, pain and suffering, and much more.
Call Zinda Law Group today at (800) 863-5312 for your free consultation with an experienced Tucson injury lawyer. Meetings with attorneys by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with a Tucson Personal Injury Lawyer for Free After being injured in an accident, you may be left wondering if an insurance company can limit or prevent the type of medical treatment you receive. The short answer to that question is no. You have a right to receive all the …
Often, people injured in an accident will pay out of pocket for health care, just assuming they will be reimbursed by the other person’s insurance company. Do not do this.
When your own insurance company finds out that the other party was responsible for your injuries, they will seek reimbursement from the other insurance company. They have more resources and expertise than you do, so you should take advantage of the insurance you pay for and allow your insurance company to seek reimbursement for any costs they cover on your behalf.
If your own health insurance company refuses to cover a procedure, you may want to consider speaking with a lawyer before deciding on a course of action to determine if the proposed procedure is likely to be covered by the eventual settlement award.
Your own insurance company may be denying coverage because it believes the procedure is not medically necessary. However, the other party’s insurance company cannot do this. They cannot stand between you and treatment recommended by your physician. Should they choose not to pay, they will be forced to defend that decision in court.
While an insurance company cannot prevent you from obtaining the medical care you desire, they are not required to pay for every imaginable procedure. Often, decisions about medical care are made soon after an accident, before your injury claim has even really begun. After being injured and seeking health care, you will attempt to include hospital and doctors’ bills in the settlement package that the insurance company offers.
As is always the case, the insurance company is a business and will attempt to settle the claim for the lowest amount possible. Assuming you have $10,000 of medical bills, they may only be willingly to pay $5,000. Working with an attorney, you can offer proof that the value of the claim is much higher. Alternatively, your attorney can work with the hospital or doctor to accept the $5,000 as full payment for the care provided.
If an insurance company is trying to stand between you and medical care that you desire, contact an attorney immediately. A well-qualified attorney will evaluate your claim, and help you seek reimbursement for your health care costs.
Call Zinda Law Group today at (800) 863-5312 for your free consultation with a Tucson personal injury lawyer. Meetings with attorneys by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with a Tucson Personal Injury Lawyer for Free If you or a loved one was injured due to the fault of another, you may be due compensation to cover your expenses. Often this is an emotional, overwhelming time, and few of us have prepared for such situations. What if you …
If you are starting your search from scratch, the best place to begin is by asking friends and family if they have used a personal injury attorney whom they would recommend.
Another good resource for your search is an online legal directory. Legal directors often include reviews and will give you some information about a law firm or a particular attorney. Some of the top legal directories include FindLaw, Nolo, Justia, and Avvo.
Once you have found some attorneys in your area, explore what kind of cases they have handled in the past and read their client reviews. This information can be found on their webpages, social media sites, Google, or Yelp. Here are just some of the other things to look for in your search:
Once you have narrowed down you search, contact the law offices and arrange a free consultation. The consultation gives you an opportunity to find out if the attorney is experienced in handling your type of personal injury claim. But what you really need to determine is if you are comfortable and confident with this injury attorney. Consider preparing questions in advance of the consultation. Such things to ask include:
Pursuing a personal injury claim can be overwhelming and challenging. Having the right personal injury attorney will help relieve the anxiety as you seek compensation. Remember, you want to choose an attorney experienced in cases like yours, but especially one you are comfortable with, that is on your side throughout the process.
At Zinda Law Group, our Tucson injury lawyers have helped thousands of injury victims seek compensation for such damages as medical bills, lost wages, property damage, pain and suffering, and much more. We are dedicated to providing our clients with all the knowledge and resources of a large firm while still giving them the personalized and compassionate attention of a small practice.
We also work on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay nothing unless we achieve a favorable settlement, judgment, or verdict in your case.
Call Zinda Law Group today at (800) 863-5312 for a free consultation with one of our Tucson personal injury lawyers. Meetings with attorneys by appointment only.
Call (800) 863-5312 to Speak with a Tucson Personal Injury Lawyer for Free Arizona, along with every other state, has laws called “statutes of limitations,” which establish time limits when certain lawsuits must be brought. The statute of limitations doesn’t mean that the lawsuit must be finished before that time; rather, the laws mandate that …
In Arizona, a law referred to as Arizona Revised Statute 12-542 sets the statute of limitations for personal injury lawsuits in the state. The law says that lawsuits alleging personal injury must be started within two years after the incident that led to the injury.
For example, if you were injured on March 3, 2016, you would have until March 3, 2018, to formally start your lawsuit. If your suit has not been filed with the court by the close of business on March 3, 2018, then you will likely be prohibited from suing the culpable party.
There are certain situations in which the court may agree to extend the relevant time limit. If you are wondering if your case might be one of those situations, contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible.
A court rule known as the “rule of discovery,” or the “discovery of harm rule,” dictates that the two-year time limit will be extended if the victim was unaware of his or her injury. In those cases, the two-year limit begins on the date when the victim discovered, or should have reasonably discovered, the injury.
To extend our above example, assume you were injured on March 3, 2016, but didn’t know it. (This is unlikely to happen in a car accident or slip and fall accident, but may be more likely when the injury or harm results from medical malpractice or other similar actions.) Assume you discover the injury on November 10, 2017. As long as the delay in discovery between March 3, 2016, and November 10, 2017, was reasonable, the two-year time limit for your case will begin on the later date and will end on November 10, 2019.
Personal injury lawsuits are typically very complicated matters, and it is in your best interest to have a dedicated legal advocate on your side who can counsel you on your legal rights and the correct steps of the process.
At Zinda Law Group, our Tucson accident lawyers have helped thousands of injury victims recover compensation for medical bills, property damage, lost income, pain and suffering, and much more. We also work on a contingency fee basis, which means our clients pay no upfront costs, and fees are only collected after we win their case.
If you have been injured, call Zinda Law Group at (800) 863-5312 for a 100% free consultation with one of our Tucson personal injury lawyers. Meetings with attorneys by appointment only.
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