When you have a slip and fall due to negligence of others, it is essential that you get amply compensated for that injury. In many cases, the person or the company responsible for your accident will have to file an insurance claim for your personal injury. However, in some cases, the personal injury claim may not be honored and then you would have to take full legal action with the help of a lawyer. Many slip and fall settlements are completed only after appropriate legal action is taken to secure your personal injury claim. However, a question that many victims who had an accident due to negligence of others will ask is the question of how to determine the slip and fall settlement amounts. How do you find the fair amount that will compensate for your pain and suffering? What amount of money will cover the excessive pain and suffering that you may have endured or will continue to endure for a certain period of time?
Determining this claim amount will depend on a variety of factors. These factors are dependent upon criteria such as the extent of the injury, the duration of the injury, the pain caused by the injury, the amount of time lost from work or school due to the injury, as well as any presence of scar injury, which will remain on your body for a long duration. All of these cases will be difficult to decide, since there aren’t set of criteria for determining slip and fall settlement amounts. Each case will need to be decided on its own merit, so that an appropriate compensation can be given to each person. Naturally, your lawyer will be of help, since he or she will be able to give you proper guidance to help understand the dynamics within the legal purview.
For example, let’s say that your finger was fractured as a result of an accident caused by the negligence of others. Now, you might ask for $ 15,000 as a settlement amount. This may sound too much for someone on the outside. However, if you earn your living by writing reports and if you are not able to type anything due to a fractured finger and if you are going to lose your work for 3 months, then as you can see, $ 15,000 will not sound like an outrageous amount. In retrospect, imagine that you are a senior citizen and you had a hip fracture. Then you may want to ask for $ 80,000 or more. Again, this may sound like an outrageous amount, but if you think about it, a senior citizen’s hip will not recover as speedily as a young person. In fact, an elder person will have to go to rehabilitation centers for many months and the bills can pile up very quickly. Naturally, then asking for $ 80,000 in compensation will be a very natural thing.
As another example, consider a person who was working as a teacher. Imagine that as a result of concussion in an accident, he may have difficulty concentrating. For a teacher, his or her mind will be the greatest asset. Hence, a head trauma could mean that he or she could not work in his or her own career. Then asking $ 200,000 or more would not be outrageous. Hence, a personal injury claim will need to be handled on an individualistic basis. The victim’s overall situation, loss of income, loss of potential must be taken into account, before the compensation amount can be calculated. Especially, where loss of work is concerned; that loss should be directly put in the compensation amount on top of any other pain and suffering compensation values. Of course, your attorney will guide you, but you will also have to be upfront, so that your losses can be understood clearly.
↑ Back to Top