Because trucking accident injuries tend to be more serious and the insurance coverage higher, trucking accident settlements tend to be higher than typical car accident settlements.
How much your case is worth will depend on what kind of damages you will be able to recover. Every injury, every injured person, every accident and every case is different and deserves a thorough evaluation. Two people can have the same injury and one can suffer little while the other suffers a great deal; or one offers better proof than the other with more complete documentation or better witnesses. Moreover, the value of a trucking accident lawsuit is as much determined by the area in which the case is filed, as it is by the injuries involved. A jury in New York City or San Francisco, for instance, might award the same injured person a great deal more money than a jury in a small town in Tennessee or Iowa. Two different juries, even in the same county, may react very differently.
In general, the difference between your quality of life before the trucking accident as compared to after the accident will play a significant role in the damages you recover.
Economic Damages - damages that are quantifiable - are fairly easy to estimate. In general, there is no limit to economic damages. Economic damages include past and future loss of earnings, past and future medical expenses, and other expenses associated with the injury. The value of these damages can significantly affect the total of your settlement. For example, if you are an investment banker making millions a year, your loss of future income is going to be a significant figure. On the other hand, if you are a retired elementary school teacher, your loss of future income will not. Likewise, if you are seventy years old and have broken your leg, your past and future medical expenses will be far lower than those of a nineteen year old who suffers a debilitating spinal cord injury that is going require life-long, around the clock nursing.
“Non-economic damages” - often referred to as “pain and suffering” damages - can vary widely from jury to jury and from state to state. Some states have put a limit on non-economic damages. So in states that limit pain and suffering you might only be able to recover $250,000 in pain and suffering, while in another state, your pain and suffering may be worth $1.5 million.
In most trucking accident cases, past case law, settlements and court decisions dealing with similar injuries are used as guideposts to determine settlement value ranges. Additionally, the insurance company will place a value on your injury, based on similar injuries it has dealt with. For example, a serious head injury may be “worth” $500,000 to $750,000, while a spinal cord injury would be valued at $1.2 million to $1.5 million.
Whether your settlement value will be on the higher or lower end of a possible range of settlement values depends on a variety of issues. To arrive at a fair settlement, one needs to look at the strength of the case and amount of fault, the local practice and precedent, the severity of the injury and how long it will continue, how clear the tie is between the accident and the injury/symptoms, how bad the defendant is and who it is, how much insurance there is, who the lawyer is and how well he or she negotiates, and how desperate the injured is to settle the case. There is also the subjective element: the sympathy of the jury, demeanor, the appearance of the injured, juror perceptions, makeup of the jury, and so forth.
Based on these factors, an experienced truck accident attorney will know the settlement value of your case from the perspective of the insurance company, and the amount the case might return if it went before a jury. All of these considerations will drive the negotiations and ultimate settlement your attorney will work for on your behalf. |
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