If you have a serious back or neck injury, you may be desperate for any settlement you can get. However, this is what the insurance companies want: they want you to take any settlement they offer and be done with the case.
It is important to review all settlement offers with a lawyer and negotiate with the insurance companies to see that your damages cover everything you need covered. A settlement is not “good” unless it accomplishes your goals of paying for medical care, covering your lost wages while you cannot work, and compensating you for your pain and suffering. You can only settle once; you usually cannot undo it or go back for more money later.
Call our California personal injury attorneys at the Law Office of John J. Perlstein today at (213) 252-1070 for a free case evaluation.
How Settlements Work in Neck and Back Injury Cases
Before you get to an actual settlement, your case usually goes through these steps:
Gathering Evidence and Building a Case
You start a case by gathering evidence of what happened. This gives you leverage when trying to convince the insurance company to pay you.
Your personal injury lawyers then build a theory of the case – the big picture about what happened, how you were harmed, and why the defendant is at fault.
Calculating Damages
We take the evidence about harms and injuries and use that to calculate damages on our own instead of using the insurance company’s calculations. Once we get a good idea of what the case is worth, we can present that demand to the insurance company.
Initial Claim
In court, we can file a complaint to tell the court what damages we want and what our basic case says. The defendant also gets a copy of this formal claim.
Low Settlements or Denials
Insurance companies usually offer a low settlement at first, hoping you will take it and end the case. Don’t take it if it is too low.
Negotiations
We can go back and forth with the insurance company or their lawyers and demand higher damages. By showing them our strong evidence and arguments, we can ideally avoid trial.
Accepting a Settlement or Going to Trial
If we can reach a fair settlement that covers your needs in full, we can advise you to accept it. If you do not want to accept a settlement or offers are still too low, we can go to trial instead. This puts the question before a jury instead of the insurance company.
The Right Way to Calculate Damages in a Neck and Back Injury Case
To arrive at the correct value for your case, we need to take all damages into account and calculate them properly.
Gather Records and Bills
We need all of the bills and records associated with your case to find proof of every dollar we need to claim. This means medical bills, receipts from replacement services, pay stubs, bank records, and more.
Calculate Economic Damages
From there, we can account for all costs you faced and income you missed because of the injury so far.
Project Future Costs
We can then project those costs into the future for ongoing harm, such as lost future earning capacity, ongoing healthcare costs, and more.
Calculate Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering puts an economic value on non-economic harms like pain, emotional distress, etc. This usually happens through two calculation methods:
- The Multiplier Method has us choose a multiplier and apply it to the economic damages to get a total for non-economic damages.
- The Per Diem method uses a per-day cost of pain and suffering and multiplies it by the number of days you have or expect to face pain and suffering.
Accepting a Lump Sum vs. a Structured Settlement
The settlement that is right for you may come in one payment or multiple payments over time.
Pros of Lump Sums
If you receive all of the money at once, you can
- Use it how you want
- Invest it so it grows according to your specifications
- Pay for emergency expenses by dipping into the funds as you need to.
Cons of Lump Sums
However, a lump sum also means
- Money management skills are more important
- Having a lot of money can burst your asset limits for Social Security Disability unless you put it in the right kinds of accounts.
Pros of Structured Settlements
When the money comes in periodic payments over time, this can mean
- You do not have to think about finances as much; the settlement is ideally structured so you get enough each month for your needs.
- Income can be structured in such a way to keep you eligible for programs like Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid) or marketplace health plans.
- You can always sell the structured settlement if you need to cash it out.
Cons of Structured Settlements
At the same time, a structured settlement can be hard in these ways:
- A fixed income doesn’t allow flexibility for emergency expenses unless you sell/cash out the whole settlement.
- If the amount is too low, you may struggle every month without additional income.
FAQs for Neck and Back Injury Settlements in California
Are Neck and Back Injury Cases Expensive?
Often, yes. These injuries often involve high pain and suffering because they hurt quite a bit and affect your activities of daily living and income. For example, people with serious back injuries might not be able to sit, stand, or lie down for a long time, making basically everything harder.
How Do You Know What Your Case is Worth?
Talk to a lawyer. The only way to know the true value of your case is to crack open the books and account for every item of damages, which is hard to do on your own.
How Do You Know When to Accept a Settlement?
Talk to a lawyer. In some cases, a settlement might look good, but it may be missing pain and suffering, or it might not account for all of the reasonably foreseeable costs of ongoing medical care.
Call Our Back and Neck Injury Lawyers in California Today
Call the Law Office of John J. Perlstein’s Los Angeles personal injury lawyers at (213) 252-1070 to discuss your case today.