One of the most common questions that arise when considering filing a claim for compensation is “will it be worth it?” It is commonly known that filing a claim is a long, laborious and stressful process. It is not something to be taken lightly. Even if your legal team does most of the heavy lifting for you, you still need to be involved and able to commit to the case. So it’s not uncommon for many people to want to know if the hard work and potential stress involved will be worth it.
To answer this question, your legal professional will first need to know what your idea of value is. For some, a claim will be worth it if you can have your day in court, stand in front of a judge and say, “these people did me wrong, they were negligent,” so that a judge agrees with you and confirms that you have won their case is enough for some. But for others, the financial outcome of the case is what makes it worthwhile—if the lawsuit is won, will it provide enough compensation to make the job at hand worthwhile?
Most clients tend to fall in the middle of these two, the fact that they feel they have been treated negligently and want to prevent that treatment from happening to someone else is a big part of their motivation, however the aspect financial is also present. and it must be enough to make the work worthwhile.
Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible for any legal professional to answer any of these questions. There is no guarantee that he will win your claim just because a company has taken over. Things happen in cases that make weak claims much stronger and strong claims much weaker, and these events can occur at any point in the claim. Just because your legal profession says you have a 70% chance of winning at the beginning of your lawsuit does not mean that on trial day you will still have a 70% chance of winning, you may only have a 50% chance or that they have 80% circumstances change regularly.
It is also almost impossible to give an assessment of a claim right at the beginning. This is because your legal professional will need to break down your compensation into what are known as General Damages and Special Damages. General Damages are compensation for pain, suffering, loss of comfort, and Special Damages are monetary loss. Money you have had to spend because of your injury that you would not have had to pay otherwise. For example, the pain relievers he had to buy, the time his friends and family spent helping him that they wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been injured.
Therefore, in order to provide adequate value, your legal professional will need to know all of your financial losses suffered due to the negligence, as well as have a detailed medical report from an independent medical expert to assess the burden and suffering of your injury.
Once your claim has reached the point where you have provided your legal professional with all the information regarding your financial losses and it has been examined by an independent medical expert, a financial value can be assigned to your claim/
To calculate your overall damages, your legal professional will review and analyze your medical report detailing your injury, your treatment, and your symptoms. The report may also venture a guess as to when your symptoms will resolve or stabilize. Once your legal professional has that information, he turns to a publication called the Board of Judicial Studies Guidelines which lists various injuries and gives a value range. For example, wrist injuries, Medium TO) Injuries that result in the complete loss of function in the wrist. Deformity may increase award depending on severity are worth between £35,000 and £72,500.00
Once your legal professional has a hiatus, they will look at past case law. They will look for cases where someone has sustained an injury similar to yours and had a similar recovery period. The mechanics of the case don’t matter. So if you sustained a broken wrist in a car accident that healed completely after six months, your lawyer would not be looking for someone who suffered a broken wrist in a car accident. They’ll be looking for a case where someone suffered a broken wrist that healed completely after six months. Once a few cases with similar injuries and recovery times have been found, inflation will be added and you will have a figure.
Unfortunately, just because your legal professional says your claim is work £5,000.00 does not mean you will receive £5,000.00 at the end of the day. Negotiation will cause the figure to change; If you settle before trial, you will generally be advised to accept a slightly lower figure, as it eliminates the risk of going to trial. If you win at trial, the judge will award you compensation.
Regarding Special Damages, these are paid to cover all the costs you incurred as a result of your injury, they are essentially reimbursing/reimbursing you.
There are a large number of various expenses that can be claimed, such as:
- Travel expenses for medical appointments and treatments such as Physiotherapy
- lost profit
- Time friends and family spend helping you do tasks you would normally do yourself.
- Prescription or non-prescription drugs
Advice: Save your receipts! I cannot stress this enough. You will be required to prove your loss, and you will have a hard time doing so without receipts.
In conclusion, it is up to you to decide how much your claim is worth to you. Compensation is divided into two headings General and Special. General is the payment received for your injury and Special is the compensation received for any financial loss you have suffered. The two headers are then added together and give a figure to start negotiations.