If you or someone close to you has suffered an injury in an accident caused by another party’s negligence in Dallas, you may be eligible to seek compensation. Working with an experienced Dallas personal injury attorney can help you maximize your settlement. When evaluating your case, your attorney will consider various factors that influence settlement value. Being aware of these key factors can set realistic expectations when negotiating with insurance companies.
Liability
A primary factor is the ability to demonstrate clear liability. Your attorney must prove the defendant’s breach of duty directly caused your accident and injuries. Strong evidence of negligence—such as police reports, eyewitness statements, video footage, etc.—can strengthen your argument for higher compensatory damages. Comparative negligence laws in Texas allow you to recover damages even if you share partial fault, but your payout decreases proportionally.
Personal Injuries & Medical Treatment
The type, severity, and prognosis of your injury impact your case’s value. Hard quantifiable damages like medical bills and lost wages are easier to verify, and unfortunately, the yearly economic cost exceeded $167 billion in 2021. Intangible damages like pain and suffering can increase your payout but may need vocational experts to testify on their long-term effects.
Your treatment history also matters. Judges and insurance adjusters want to see you actively treating your injuries, not remaining passive. Large gaps without medical care can decrease your settlement. Ongoing treatment needs that extend years into the future can conversely increase your payout.
Insurance Coverage
The biggest ever compensation payout for a medical injury was $172 million in 2013. However, the maximum payout you can realistically expect largely depends on the defendant’s available insurance coverage. Even with strong liability and quantifiable damages, a defendant may lack assets beyond insurance. Policies have limits, so asserting larger demands won’t necessarily produce better settlements if coverage caps are low. Identifying all potential policies at play early on creates transparency when evaluating settlement offers.
Location & Jury Verdicts
Verdicts and settlements for similar cases in your jurisdiction impact expectations. Our legal team analyzes Dallas jury verdicts involving related injuries, adjusting for inflation. Verdicts that widely exceed or fall short of your demands reveal how local adjudicators have valued cases like yours. Location-specific data offers far more reliable comparison metrics when calculating settlement ranges with insurers.
Loss of Income & Earning Capacity
Settlement values increase if your injury reduces your earnings or compromises your future earning potential. Quantifying lost income using tax returns and employment records helps substantiate these damages. Vocational experts can project long-term impacts on your earning capacity over future years. The higher your demonstrable losses, the more leverage to demand higher payouts.
Comparative Fault
Even minor faults cited against you can decrease your settlement substantially despite defendant’s negligence. Factual disputes around your own contributing negligence when asserting liability against a defendant gives insurers leverage to reduce settlement offers. Your legal team’s ability to rebut such arguments can maximize your payout.
Personal Injury Attorney’s Reputation & Resources
According to experienced Dallas personal injury attorneys at Anderson Injury Lawyers, an attorney’s reputation and resources also impact settlement value. A lawyer known for taking cases to trial versus quick settlements conveys strength. Robust financial resources to undertake trial litigation if negotiations fail pressure defendants to settle rather than risk larger verdicts awarded by juries at trial. Your lawyer’s capability to credibly threaten a trial can lead to exponentially higher settlements.
By understanding how these key factors affect potential settlements or court-awarded verdicts in Texas, you can assess your options with your attorney. An experienced law firm accounting for these variables when negotiating maximizes recoveries for clients.
