Personal Injury / Wrongful Death Settlement

When an injured person comes to our office for a free consultation, they often ask one of our personal injury attorneys to estimate the amount of the settlement they can expect. Unfortunately, no simple formula exists to find out how much a personal injury or wrongful death claim is worth. A great variety of factors play into the ultimate settlement figure.  Some factors will be specifically related to the facts of your case; other factors will depend on the experience and reputation of your personal injury lawyer. Types of personal injury cases can range from auto accidents to nursing home neglect and injury.

Will the insurance company look out for your best interests?

Without an attorney, the insurance company will try to convince you that your claim isn’t worth much. It is in the insurance company’s best interest to settle your personal injury claim as cheaply as possible.  Because we take our personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis (your attorney fees are a percentage of whatever we recover for you), we are motivated to get you the largest personal injury settlement amount possible.  Even after the attorney fees have been paid, an individual who is represented by an attorney will recover more in damages than an individual who tried to do it alone.

Does it pay to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer?

At the Law Office of Channing Migner, P.C., we have been handling personal injury and wrongful death cases for over 25 years and have represented thousands of personal injury clients and their families.  Once we gather medical and economic information, we can make a decent estimate of what a jury would award you.  We then use the evidence and expert witness opinions we have gathered to convince an insurance adjuster that you have a worthy case and that a jury would award you just damages to compensate you for your injuries.  At the Law Office of Channing Migner, our reputation for excellence precedes us in the negotiation process.  The insurance adjusters know that we have the skills and resources to succeed at trial.  Negotiation skills, when matched with the threat of trial, can effectively maximize the amount of a personal injury settlement.

What individual factors determine the worth of a personal injury settlement?

If you have been involved in an accident, your accident settlement can depend upon many factors such as:

• Severity of the injury or whether the injury resulted in a change of appearance, such as facial scarring or disfigurement
• Severity of the impact of the accident
• Length of treatment for the injury
• Whether future surgery is recommended
• Amount of permanent tissue or nerve damage that resulted
• How much work was missed and how much pay was lost
• How the injury affected your lifestyle
• What kind of career you had, and whether it was permanently lost or affected by the injuries
• Whether your actions contributed to his or her injuries
• The amount of the defendant’s insurance policy.

 Workers’ Compensation Settlements

Unlike personal injury settlements, Workers Compensation lump sum settlements are not based on pain and suffering at all and do not take into account how the injured person’s lifestyle has been changed because Workers Compensation is a “No  Fault” law.  Lump Sum settlements are usually based on an estimate of how long the worker is likely to be partially or totally incapacitated from employment in the future. They also take into consideration any permanent injury to the individual that affects his or her functioning.