How Are Personal Injury Settlements Calculated?

For a personal injury action, one of the arts is being able to come up with a number that you, as the attorney, think is fair and reasonable and have a discussion with your client about and it is different from case to case. One of the things I tell our lawyers is they’ll present a case at a lawyer meeting, and we’ll give opinions as to what we think is fair and appropriate compensation. Sometimes I think people can fall into the trap of saying, “Well, I settled this hip fracture case for this, so this one that I’m handling right now must be worth the same amount.” That’s not true. The true answer is the only people that can actually tell you what a personal injury case is worth are a jury. You want an attorney that is going to really listen to you, to really value what you’re going through. I think it takes time to really understand your client and to really understand how the injury that he or she sustained has impacted them on a daily basis. So there’s not a set answer, but it is sort of an art, and you want an attorney that’s really going to fight to maximize the value of your case.