How Much is a Personal Injury or Car Accident Case Worth in Tampa?
Video Transcript:
Hi, this is attorney Mike Hancock, with Hancock Injury Attorneys. And one of the most frequently asked questions I get from my clients, uh at our initial meeting and during the process, is what is my case worth. Uh, that’s one of the most important questions I can answer for my clients, but it’s also one of the most difficult especially at the very beginning of the case.
How much your case is worth, uh, is dependent on many factors. Uh, is the defendant going to admit that they were 100 percent fault? Is the defendant going to try to blame you in any way for causing the accident? What is the extent of your injuries, what are your injuries? Will you need future medical expenses and future medical treatment? Those are all factors that go into an evaluation of what your case is worth. Without going into specifics as to what an individual case is worth, let me try to answer, what you’re legally entitled to recover as compensation in a personal injury claim in Florida.
If you’re injured in Florida, and you’re entitled to compensation, you’re entitled to a number of different elements of damages as we describe. And those elements of damages include, past medical bills, any future medical bills that may reasonably be incurred in the future. You are entitled to cover your lost wages, in the past and in the future. Uh, you’ll learn that if we’re talking about future lost wages, the law describes those as loss of earning capacity in the future.
Uh, so that sometimes if one of my clients, uh, used to be able to make forty or fifty thousand dollars before an accident, but because of his injuries or her injuries is only able to make twenty thousand dollars a year after the accident that twenty to thirty thousand dollars is your loss of earning capacity per year and we factor that out to the future.
In addition to medical expenses and lost wages, you’re also entitled to recover money for pain and suffering and emotional anguish. And not only pain and suffering and emotional anguish in the past, but based upon your injuries and your particular case uh there will be a future element of pain and suffering and emotional anguish that the law will allow you to recover.
