If you are planning to make a slip and injury claim after a fall on someone else’s property, the first thing that strikes your mind is probably how much your case is worth. Every slip and injury case is unique but all of them have some basic elements that must be taken into consideration while determining the value of a slip and fall case.
Most Slip and Fall Cases are settled outside the court even before a lawsuit is filed. Settlement is the outcome of a successful negotiation where a mutual agreement is reached between the two parties regarding the compensation amount. The injured individual usually accepts the amount little less than what the slip and injury case is worth whereas the property owner’s insurer coughs out more than it initially wants to play.
In slip and fall cases, a personal injury lawsuit is made when two parties fail to reach a mutually agreeable outcome. The injured may put across an excessive demand whereas the property owner will go against making a reasonable offer. But personal injury cases are complicated and expensive, a reality that both parties are most unlikely to overlook. It explains why only a few slip and fall cases make it all the way to the courtroom where only one side becomes the winner and the other side is the loser and no one can predict what the outcome will be.
Valuation of Damages in a Slip and Fall Case
The losses incurred by an injured person in a slip and fall case are called “damages”. Some damages such as medical expenses and lost earnings are easy to quantify. But “pain and suffering” are less concrete and more confusing losses. These receive a price tag based on an educated guess guided by the damage awards in the past cases.
Every slip and injury case is characterized by a certain kind of uniqueness. As a result, even the most pragmatic analysis can only guess damages in a slip and injury case within a broader scope.
If a slip and fall incident results into a lingering or permanent injury, the `subjective’ damages are pretty high and not easy to quantify. It allows the attorneys representing the plaintiff and the defendant to put different values on the damages and that makes negotiation more complicated. A smaller damage claim, without heavy complications, is likely to fall into a more reasonable range agreeable to both parties for a successful settlement.
Injury Impacts on Particular Plaintiffs
The type and extent of injury in a slip and fall accident plays a key role. It helps if you have a good understanding of how these injuries give a blow to particular plaintiffs. A less subjective angle is the plaintiff’s capability of earning before and after the accident. If the plaintiff used to earn a fat salary and is a young person with several working years ahead, but is unable to work in the same field or earn the same amount after the injury, the award covers the gap between the person’s income before the injury and earnings after the injury. If the injury has a little or no impact on the earning, the damage award will expectedly be less.
Hire services of a skillful attorney from King Law’s Syracuse, NY office to figure out how much your slip and fall injury is worth.
