If you’ve been injured in a car accident, then you have a lot of needs, including medical care, rehabilitation, and financial resources to cover your recovery costs and your everyday expenses. Without legal action, you can be left in a difficult position, with your savings eaten away and uncertainty blanketing you.
That’s stressful for sure, but the good news is that pursuing a personal injury lawsuit may give you the relief that you need.
As you take legal action, there’s a fair chance that you’ll be offered a settlement. In your time of need, it’ll be tempting to jump on the first offer that’s made, but you should practice restraint. After all, the settlement that’s being offered to you might not be in your best interests.
How can you tell if a settlement offer is right for you?
Remember, you don’t have an obligation to settle your car accident personal injury case. If you want, you can take your claim to trial to try to recover the full extent of your damages. Before deciding which way to take your case, though, you should consider the following:
- How much your damages are worth: This is the starting point in analyzing a settlement offer. If you don’t know the value of your personal injury claim, then you’re going to struggle to figure out if a settlement offer is appropriate. So, carefully calculate your lost wages, medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, taking into account both incurred and expected damages.
- How the offer stacks up: Once you know what your damages are, you can analyze how close the settlement offer comes to recouping your losses. This will give you direction as to whether you need to push back for more. The settlement offer might even be close enough to what you’ve lost that you’re comfortable accepting it.
- The strengths and weaknesses of your case: The evidence supporting your claim is going to be your biggest negotiating tool when you’re trying to settle your case. The stronger your evidence, then, the more aggressive you can be. If your case has some glaring weaknesses, though, then you’ll need to be more careful, as forcing your case to trial could be risky.
- Your ability to hold out: As we’ve discussed previously on the blog, there are ways to cover your expenses while you wait for your case to play out. If you’ve exhausted those resources or you struggle to gain access to them, though, then you might find yourself in a financial predicament. If you’re unable to hold out to fully litigate your case, then you’ll need to craft a negotiation strategy that gets you as much as possible as quickly as possible.
Before heading into settlement negotiations, you need to have a command of the facts and be able to anticipate the defense’s arguments. By doing so, you’ll hopefully be able find the best path forward for your case.
Are you ready to build an aggressive personal injury case?
If you are, then now is the time to gather your evidence and craft your legal arguments. Once you have those in hand, you can develop your negotiation strategy. All of this can be overwhelming when you’re focusing on your recovery, but you should take comfort knowing that you can seek out as much support as you need. Doing so can ease your tension and assist you in advocating for what you truly deserve.