What is the value of your personal injury claim? It depends. The value of your personal injury claim against the person who caused your injuries can include damages like medical bills, lost wages from missed work, or use of sick leave or comp-time as a result of the accident. If you suffer from physical or psychological injuries into the future, the value of your personal injury claim can include money for future medical treatment and future pain and suffering. The value of your personal injury claim might also include other losses like reimbursement for mileage to and from doctor appointments, child care, or other costs incurred as a result of being injured and not being able to do daily activities that you used to do before being injured. These types of damages are called economic or special damages.
Pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and inconvenience as a result of the accident is another type of damages. These damages are called non-economic or general damages.
The value of your personal injury claim depends upon how badly you were injured and how being injured impacted your life. Only you can really know the value of your claim. But, unfortunately, you are not the one who gets to decide what the person at fault, or their insurance company, will pay you.
The insurance company will only pay what they think your claim is worth. The value that the insurance company places on your claim is affected by every aspect of you injuries and loss. If the insurance company does not understand your claim, the insurance company will not pay you what your claim is worth. If the insurance company thinks a jury in Boise, Idaho won’t give you any money for your claim, then the insurance company is not going to pay you what your claim is worth.
Did you know that Idaho law also dictates what your claim is worth? It is true. Idaho’s legislature has limited the amount of non-economic damages that an injured party can get. The cap is currently set at $324,478.18. That’s right. A person can be rendered completely disabled and suffer pain for the rest of their lives, and Idaho law only allows them $324,478.18 for their general damages. This is true even if a jury wants to award more. A judge would be required by Idaho law to lower the amount that a jury awarded in non-economic damages in excess of $324,478.18.
Of course, that assumes that a jury can understand the magnitude of a person’s injuries. Often, members of a jury have not been through the same or similar experience as an injured person. As a result, juries often have a difficult time calculating a sum of money that is reasonable to compensate a person for their injuries. A jury member’s perception of a dollar may also impact how they value a claim. The value of a dollar to a jury member who makes minimum wage is very different than a jury member who make an executive’s salary.
Other things can drastically impact the value of your claim is whether your insurance company or medical providers have subrogation interests or liens placed against a settlement of judgment. While these interests can sometime be negotiated down, these types of claims impact the value of an injured person’s claim.
With all these challenges to claim valuation, an injured party’s best bet to hire an experienced injury attorney. An experience injury attorney will know how to minimize potentially negative aspects and challenges to your claim while maximizing your recovery.