How Do We Calculate Damages In A Rhode Island Personal Injury Case? If you were injured during a Providence accident, you may want to know how much your case might be worth. Calculating damages is a complex process for any serious injury case. A personal injury lawyer can’t make truly educated estimates until the accident attorney knows much more about your case. A RI injury attorney can tell you the categories of available damages, which apply to every Rhode Island personal injury case. Once you know the various types of damages, you will begin to understand what your case might be worth. If you need more information about personal injury law in Rhode Island, contact a Rhode Island personal injury lawyer. A RI injury lawyer will help you get the compensation you deserve.
To really know your case value, the injury lawyer in RI will have to study your medical records related to the accident, along with any prior similar medical records. The car accident lawyers will also need to know how this injury has affected your life. Then the negligence attorneys have to evaluate different factors such as the strengths and weaknesses of: your account of the accident, your witnesses, the defendant, and his witnesses.
There are many other pieces of evidence we might need to review, to accurately value your case. For example, in a slip and fall case, RI slip and fall lawyers might need to review the defendant’s store maintenance records in in order to prove that they negligently maintained the floors. A Providence premises liability lawyer might need to hire an expert to determine whether the tortfeasor violating any safety codes, building codes, lighting standards, or the like.
What Are The Categories Of Available Damages In Personal Injury Cases?
During any Rhode Island personal injury case, we can recover past and future medical bills caused by the accident, past and future lost wages caused by the accident, and pain and suffering. Personal injury law actually divides all damages into two categories, which are economic and non-economic.
Economic damages are those that involve actual financial loss. They include things like medical bills, lost wages, and rehabilitation expenses. Non economic damages, by contrast, do not have a precise monetary value because they are more subjective. Some examples of non-economic damages are pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of the enjoyment of life.
Car accident damages
Orlando, Florida personal injury lawyer Tina Willis explains, “Juries can decide that either of these two categories are worth any amount they want, after hearing the evidence, which includes things like your medical records & bill summaries, doctor and witness testimony, and your testimony about how the accident has affected your life. So the best way to get the most money possible is to hire a lawyer who will effectively tell your story, which can go a long way in convincing the jury that your case should be settled on the higher end of what’s possible.”
You might want to read more about how auto accident damages are calculated whenever you hire a car accident lawyer. Learning more will prepare you to help your lawyer gather critical evidence he needs to present your Providence personal injury case in the strongest possible light. (Please understand, however, that the auto accident laws are slightly different in Florida. The article linked above will give you a better idea of how lawyers generally evaluate auto accident cases. But Providence residents will need a Rhode Island lawyer.)
In Rhode Island, if you suffered a serious or catastrophic personal injury, contact David Slepkow, Esq., with Slepkow, Slepkow & Associates. A Rhode Island personal injury lawyer or a RI personal injury attorney will help you get the compensation you are entitled to. Many cases are settled before trial, or even before suit is filed. In those cases, you and the defendant, or insurance company adjuster, have to predict what a jury might decide, then settle based on your prediction. RI personal injury lawyers and RI injury attorneys often have years of legal experience to help you determine what is a fair settlement.
How Do We Calculate Economic Damages?
Economic damages are the easier part of the case. These can be measured simply by using a calculator and adding the numbers from medical bills, lost wages, and any other monetary damages you have suffered. To help you recover this money, you should be diligent when saving the documents needed to prove your case, including hospital bills, medical receipts, lost wages, and that kind of thing.
How Do We Calculate Non-Economic Damages?
Non-economic damages are much more difficult to predict, for lawyers on both sides, insurance adjusters, mediators, when we are trying to resolve cases. Since these numbers are difficult to predict, and insurance companies need some method of resolving cases efficiently, many of them will use a formula to begin the negotiation process.
There are a couple of different popular formulas
The Multiplier Method Of Calculating Rhode Island Personal Injury Damages The method insurance adjusters most prefer to get a ballpark estimate for pain, suffering, and emotional damages is multiplying the total medical expenses by 1.5 to 5, depending on the seriousness of the injury, and the extent to which the victim’s life activities have been limited. Then they add lost wages to that total, to arrive at a final amount.
This is only a rough estimate and starting point, however. There are unique cases that involve few medical bills, but serious injuries, like an accident that led to serious hearing or vision loss. But, for most cases, this formula gives us a good way to settle a case when the other side doesn’t want pay more, our client doesn’t want to (and shouldn’t) accept less, and neither side knows what a random group of strangers (the jury) might decide a year or two later.
The “Per Diem” Method Of Calculating Personal Injury Damages
Another formula for calculating pain and suffering damages is to assign each day after the accident a “per diem” (per day) value. Following this method, you would essentially receive a set amount of money, per day, for each day you have lived with pain and suffering. Very often a reasonable rate for this daily calculation would be the amount you earn daily in your job. However, this formula can be difficult to justify, so insurance adjusters usually prefer the other formula. If your case goes to trial, this is one way your Providence personal injury lawyer might try to convince the jury to give you more money for your pain and suffering.
Damages Might Be Different For Accidents In Other States
Different states have different laws, which means that different formulas might apply when calculating damages. Additionally, these are only estimates to start the negotiation process. Your Rhode Island personal injury lawyer may have good reasons for recommending a higher or lower amount, depending on the unique facts of your case, including any problems that might necessitate a lower settlement (such as a prior similar medical condition) or good reasons that the value should be higher.
How Much Will A Jury Decide Your Personal Injury Case Is Worth?
If you have a very serious injury case, then we may need to file a lawsuit, and ultimately present your case to a jury. Juries do not have to follow any of these formulas, although we can suggest methods for them to consider. But jurors likely will consider your credibility and likability, the defendant’s credibility and likability, medical evidence, lost wages evidence, witness testimony, expert testimony, facts proving that the defendant caused the accident, and many other factors.
You Need A Providence Rhode Island Personal Injury Lawyer
If you’ve read this far, you must have been the victim of a serious accident. If that is true, you absolutely need to consult a Providence personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. We can help the most when we get involved earlier, because critical evidence can disappear quickly.