Before filing a personal injury lawsuit, you should know what it’s worth. That way, you can appropriately anticipate your recovery in Texas.
The exact value of your claim is based on your specific losses. We can break your losses into economic and non-economic damages and calculate them from there. Calculating economic damages involves identifying and adding up all possible financial losses from an injury. Calculating non-economic damages differs, as these losses are much more subjective. Appreciating your claim’s value before filing is important, as it can stop you from accepting a lowball settlement offer from a defendant. When preparing you for your possible recovery, our lawyers can gauge the likelihood of you getting punitive damages from a jury in Texas.
To schedule a free case review from our Dallas personal injury lawyers, call The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. at (817) 476-1797.
Figuring Out How Much Your Texas Injury Claim is Worth
When determining the value of your injury case in Texas, our lawyers will assess both your economic and non-economic damages. Evaluating losses with a keen eye and documenting them as they start rolling in are important equally important when preparing a lawsuit.
Assessing Your Financial Damages
Generally speaking, a claim is worth more if a victim incurs more compensable damages. The most expensive damages are typically from medical treatment. The cost of an emergency room visit after an accident may be substantial, especially when coupled with additional surgeries, tests, or treatments. Financial damages leave traces, like bills and invoices. Our lawyers can keep track of all medical damages as you incur them to collect proof of your losses. Your lawsuit should cover all reasonable medical expenses related to your injuries, including future costs not yet incurred.
Victims should also determine how much income they have missed out on while recovering from personal injuries. Our Arlington personal injury lawyers can refer to employment information and previous tax returns to calculate your lost wages exactly. Victims who cannot return to work at the same earning capacity as before an accident may get compensation for future lost income.
Any other damages related to the accident, such as transportation costs, childcare expenses, or in-house medical care, should also be compensable.
Assessing Your Emotional Damages
The second factor to consider when assessing your case’s value is the emotional impact on your life. Serious and life-altering injuries pose emotional hurdles for victims, not just physical and financial ones. For example, the difficulties of relearning tasks after a back injury could make a victim develop depression. Not being able to engage in activities you once enjoyed might have a similar impact on your mental health and emotional well-being.
Calculating the value of non-economic damages is much different than the process of calculating economic damages. Our lawyers may do this in one of two ways. Using the per diem method, we can assign an appropriate daily rate to your pain and suffering and multiply that by the number of days, weeks, or months you anticipate experiencing emotional distress. We may enlist mental health experts to testify or give statements that support our calculations.
Another option is the multiplier method, which involves picking a multiplier, generally between 1.5 and 5, and multiplying that by the victim’s total economic damages. The exact multiplier chosen is based on the victim’s injuries. For example, if your injuries are severe, the multiplier used may be closer to the higher end of the scale. Again, if necessary, we can use medical experts and your medical records to support our choice of multiplier when calculating your emotional damages in Texas.
Are Claims Worth Less When Injury Victims Settle in Texas?
Settling or winning at a trial can give injury victims the compensation they need in Texas. That said, approaching settlement negotiations without knowing your claim’s worth could lead to you settling for an unfair amount.
The inherent value of your case is the same whether you settle or get a jury award. That does not mean that settlements and jury awards are always identical, however. Often, settling out of court requires concessions from both parties. Injury victims who need compensation fast might jump at lowball settlement offers and then find themselves unfairly compensated.
To ensure you do not undervalue your case during settlement negotiations, allow our lawyers to pinpoint your exact losses so that you know them going in. We can then leverage compelling evidence during settlement talks, like eyewitness statements, photos, surveillance footage, and medical records, to convince the defendant to settle at a fair amount out of court.
Going to court is not a guarantee of success. To win at a trial, you must have enough evidence to meet the standard of proof and show that it is more likely than not the defendant caused your injuries. Preparing your case for the possibility of court can benefit you during settlement negotiations and mean you are ready for a trial if necessary.
Can Gross Negligence Make Your Injury Claim Worth More in Texas?
When defendants injure victims because of gross negligence, juries might award victims additional damages in Texas. These are known as punitive or exemplary damages.
Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.001, juries use exemplary damages to punish defendants, not to compensate victims for any losses they incurred. That said, punitive damages are given to victims.
According to § 41.003(a), plaintiffs can typically only get punitive damages if they prove, through clear and convincing evidence, that defendants acted with fraud, malice, or gross negligence when causing their injuries. Gross negligence might be any action done without care or respect for others, like drunk driving.
Getting punitive damages might increase your recovery substantially. That said, there are caps on punitive damages in Texas. Under § 41.008(b), the limitation on punitive damages in injury claims is $200,000 or twice the amount of awarded economic damages plus up to $750,000 of awarded non-noneconomic damages, whichever amount is greater. If a defendant’s actions are felonious, there is no cap on punitive damages in the case. When preparing your case, our lawyers can explain your chances of getting punitive damages so you know what to expect moving forward.
Call Our Injury Attorneys in Texas Today
Call The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. for a free case review from our Grapevine, TX personal injury lawyers at (817) 476-1797.