Virginia Personal Injury Calculator
Were you injured in an accident in Virginia that wasn’t your fault? You could be entitled to recover compensation – although it can be challenging to know how much you’re owed without experienced legal guidance.
The Richmond personal injury attorneys at Marks & Harrison have the knowledge and experience to calculate the total extent of the losses you’ve suffered and seek the full amount you deserve. Hiring our law firm to represent you in settlement negotiations can significantly improve your chances of recovering a fair amount.
Contact us today for a free, no-risk consultation. Below, we will examine how personal injury calculators work and why it is crucial to estimate the value of your claim before negotiating with an insurance company.
Should I Confirm With a Lawyer?
Before you draft and send a demand letter for compensation, you should consult with a personal injury attorney to ensure you are demanding an appropriate amount.
You must take numerous factors into account when determining the value of your claim, including your present expenses and your future ones – to say nothing of the losses that are harder to assign a dollar value, like pain and suffering.
An attorney can help by independently calculating your damages and confirming the proposed amount.
Damages and The Multiplier
The money you can recover in compensation through a successful settlement is called damages. Compensatory damages come in two main types: special damages and general damages.
- Special damages, which compensate you for financial expenses such as hospital bills and lost earnings, are relatively straightforward and can be calculated by adding up the total value of each expense.
- General damages, such as those for pain and suffering, are intangible and are therefore harder to quantify, but every bit as real. Insurance adjusters and attorneys sometimes use a multiplier to calculate general, non-financial losses.
To assign a numerical value to your general damages, an insurance adjuster or attorney will take the full amount of special damages and multiply that figure by a number between 1.5 and 5, called the multiplier. The more severe your injuries and the more serious your need for ongoing treatment, the higher the multiplier will likely be.
Insurance adjusters are more likely to be conservative with their multiplier since their ultimate goal is to save their employer money, while you and your lawyer will argue for a higher multiplier.
This can result in disputes, which is just one reason why it’s essential to have an assertive attorney on your side.
How Can a Personal Injury Settlement Calculator Help You?
To secure financial relief after an accident that someone else caused, you will likely need to file an injury claim with the at-fault party’s insurer. Once you’ve submitted your claim, your attorney will negotiate with an insurance adjuster.
Before you begin negotiating with the insurance company, it’s important to independently calculate the amount of money you are willing to accept. Once you’ve signed a settlement agreement, you will not be able to take the insurance company to court to seek additional funds.
Determining your total losses can be tricky, especially if you require ongoing treatment or are likely to have ongoing expenses. A personal injury calculator can help you determine your current costs and predict your future financial losses.
What Should I Know When Estimating My Personal Injury Settlement Value?
It can be challenging to predict exactly how much a specific settlement will be worth because unique factors in each case may ultimately influence the value of a claim. Some of the factors include:
- Medical expenses – Medical expenses may include hospital bills, medical care, doctor’s visits, ambulance rides, diagnostic tests, scans, other imaging tests, and prescription medications.
- Future medical expenses – If you suffered severe injuries or became disabled due to the accident, you might need long-term treatment, in-home care, rehabilitative care, physical therapy, medical equipment, or home and vehicle modifications.
- Lost wages – If you must take time off work to recover, you could claim lost wages. The easiest way to calculate lost income is to examine your pre-accident pay stubs and multiply that by the amount of time you have to miss work.
- Future lost income – If you suffer a disability because of the accident, you might not be able to do the same job as before. Depending on your injuries, you could be placed on light duty, or you might not be able to work at all. Future lost income is the money you would have earned at your job if the at-fault party had not injured you.
- Pain and suffering – Pain and suffering include physical pain, emotional distress, mental anguish, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and other intangible losses. Your attorney can assign a value to your non-financial losses using a multiplier.
What Types of Injuries to Include in Calculation?
The severity of your injuries will affect your financial losses and any settlement you receive. When calculating a settlement demand, you should be sure to include losses related to injuries, such as:
- Accidental amputations and other disfiguring injuries
A skilled personal injury lawyer can tabulate your total losses and determine the total value of your claim on your behalf to seek the total compensation to which you’re entitled.
How Much Money Will I Take Home from My Settlement?
While it is impossible to estimate the value of your injury claim without knowing specific details related to your case, it is generally true that the more serious your injuries and losses are, the more money you will be entitled to claim.
In addition to your injuries, the at-fault party’s insurance policy limits will also impact your claim.
Legal representation is vital if you hope to obtain the full and fair compensation you deserve. Insurance companies are infamous for using various tricks and tools to minimize payouts. Insurance companies might offer you a settlement right out of the gate that seems generous but doesn’t cover all of your expenses, particularly those you aren’t yet aware of. The last thing you want is to shoulder some of the cost of your future treatment or lost income yourself.
Contact a Virginia Personal Injury Attorney
Were you injured in an accident in Virginia that someone else caused? If so, contact a Richmond personal injury attorney at Marks & Harrison today to discuss your case and legal options. We have the resources to conduct a thorough investigation of the accident, collect evidence to support your claim, calculate your financial and non-financial losses, and pursue the financial relief you deserve.
Reach out to our office today for a free case evaluation to get started on your accident claim.
