A sudden injury can completely derail your life, impacting your health, job, personal life, and ability to accomplish daily routine tasks. Often, these effects are temporary, but the financial losses from even a week of lost earnings can cause financial hardship when combined with unexpected medical expenses. A severe or catastrophic injury can be life-altering, leaving you with an uncertain future. Many injury victims want to know if pursuing a personal injury case against the party responsible for their injury is worthwhile, or if it will only lead to further distress and expense. How likely is it that you’ll succeed if you file a personal injury case?
A Personal Injury Lawyer Does Not Charge Upfront Fees
First, it’s critical to know that a reputable Kansas City personal injury attorney will offer you a free evaluation of your case. During this initial consultation, the attorney assesses your case and lets you know if your claim is valid. If the attorney believes you have a strong enough case, and you hire them to represent you, you typically pay nothing until the end of the case. Then, you only pay the attorney’s fees if they’ve successfully obtained compensation for you through a settlement or jury award. This is a contingency-based payment. The attorney takes on all financial risk while they work on your case and then takes a pre-agreed-upon percentage as their fee, so there are no financial risks to you.
Most Personal Injury Cases End In a Settlement
Once an attorney moves forward on a case, they conduct an in-depth investigation to prove the at-fault party’s liability. This requires evidence proving that they owed a duty of reasonable care to you, they breached this duty, and their breach of duty directly caused your injury. Then, they carefully calculate your damages like medical expenses, lost wages, and a monetary amount for pain and suffering based on a formula using your medical expenses. Once your attorney has ample evidence, they send their findings to the appropriate insurance company, such as an auto insurer after a car accident or premises liability insurance after a slip-and-fall injury. An estimated 95% of personal injury claims end with a settlement. This requires your attorney to negotiate with the insurance adjuster to reach a mutually acceptable settlement amount. An experienced personal injury attorney prepares every case as though for trial. The insurance company knows they may have to pay far more for a trial, encouraging them to offer a settlement during negotiations. Sometimes arriving at a settlement agreement requires all involved parties to attend one or more mediation sessions.
What If My Personal Injury Case Isn’t Resolved With a Settlement?
When an injury causes exceptionally high financial damages, an insurance company may fail to offer an adequate settlement or may dispute, delay, or deny a valid claim. In these cases, the injury victim and their attorney may pursue the case in court by filing a lawsuit within the state’s statute of limitations for personal injury. Court cases take longer to resolve than settlements, but juries are usually more sympathetic to injury victims than careless or reckless defendants and their profit-protecting insurance companies. This means that a case that goes to court typically ends with a large jury award for the injury victim’s damages.