It’s natural to want to settle your case as quickly as possible after you’ve been involved in a personal injury accident. That said, it helps to be prudent and wait for the best and biggest settlement possible.
You need to put your own value on a case if you’ve ever been involved in a personal injury accident. This comes even before you start negotiating a settlement. This is because you need to know how much money your case is worth before you can start to negotiate a fair settlement from the defense. You want to aim the settlement amount for what you would get if your case won in court.
First issue: your chances of winning a trial
You need to think about what your chances of winning are if your case actually went to court. This means that you have to understand the evidence presented that’s against to you as well as the credibility of all of the witnesses that you have lined up.
Second issue: what might a jury award as damages?
Personal injury cases tend to have two types of damages that you can win:
● Special damages – the damages that can be calculated to the penny
● General damages – the damages that can’t be calculated to the penny
Special damages include lost earnings, medical bills, lost earning capacity, and other calculatable medical bills. General damages include expenses that can’t easily be calculated like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and other related claims, as per personal injury lawyer in St. Albert.
Putting it together
Your chances of getting a settlement depend on two factors:
● Your chances of winning your settlement
● The likelihood that a jury will award you a settlement
Negotiation tactics
It’s not hard to settle your case once you have a good idea as to what your case will settle for. The first thing that you should do is send the defendant’s insurance company a demand letter. Remember that the defendant’s insurance company will always offer you an amount that’s much lower than what you ask for in your demand letter.
You need to keep that in mind when drafting your demand letter. Make sure that your initial demand is at least twice what you really want. You need to also reduce your demand to what the defendant’s insurance company is willing to pay you. Basically, reaching a settlement that is fair to you is important. If the insurance company denies your claim or is paying pittance, it is essential that your personal injury lawyer in Red Deer takes the case to court. When it is litigated in front of the judge and jury, evidence is provided as proof, you know that you have a chance to get higher amounts as compensation.