When a personal injury occurs that is believed to be the fault of another person or group the very first thing that a person should do think about all of the costs involved that were a direct result of the personal injury. Every medical bill, insurance payment, repair bill, or any other bill should all be saved in order to be able to gain a clear picture of the estimated value of the case. Now a personal injury attorney in Tucson can of course provide these same estimates for free during their consultation, but it is also beneficial to come to the consultation prepared and with a decent idea of what to expect from a possible settlement.
Estimating a settlement is way more than just adding up all of the expenses incurred. Actually, adding up all expenses incurred is just the beginning. To start with, the victim needs to gather all of the bills and payments made for medical, car repair, car rental costs, and any income that was lost from being injured. Once collected, the victim then needs to add up all of the costs in order to compute the total damages incurred.
Now a personal injury claim is more than just the total amount of the damages incurred. After the total is added up, a pain multiplier (or sometimes called a suffering multiplier) is applied to the total. This multiplier can vary depending on the severity of the injury. At a minimum, the multiplier is set at 1.5 times the damages and costs incurred. On average, this pain and suffering multiplier is usually 2.5 to 3 times the damages and costs.
How to Determine the Pain and Suffering Multiplier
A personal injury attorney in Tucson can walk a victim through the process of determining what the multiplier is. It usually involves a series of questions about the incident and the result injuries that occurred because of the incident. Typically minor injuries receive 1.5 times the costs. Injuries that involve broken bones or any injury that results in a temporary loss of mobility usually have a 2.5 to 3 multiplier. The more serious injuries such as a permanent disability or any type of disfigurement can have a multiplier of 5 or more. Finally, extreme cases can see a multiplier as high as 10.
There are a lot things taken into consideration when determining the amount a claim should be worth. It is more than just adding up numbers, though. By doing so, it at least gives all parties a ballpark figure to work with when trying to settle a claim. A good attorney can walk a victim through the whole process and make things much easier.
