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Clients ask our attorneys daily what the value of their Maryland brain injury might be. Calculating a brain injury is an incredibly complex process. Here, we provide a general guideline for calculating the value of your claim. First, it is essential to know that a brain injury is perhaps the most debilitating injury you can suffer due to negligent conduct. As brain injury attorneys in Maryland, we also handle wrongful deaths, survival actions, and generally the most emotionally traumatic cases available. We do this because we understand how difficult it can be. We know you may feel lost and unsure of your next steps. Having practiced personal injury law in Maryland for over 70 years, we can guide you toward maximum compensation for your injuries.
Brain injuries are among the most devastating traumas that an individual can experience, leading to profound medical challenges and significant lifestyle changes. At Gelb & Gelb, we seek to account for these lifestyle changes. We understand that they can be as expensive as they are difficult. You may be unable to work after your injury, or you may be wondering how much a brain injury attorney costs. We are here to answer all these questions for you. Our attorneys are pleased to provide a free case consultation and evaluation for all prospective clients. Candidly, we cannot estimate the value of your case at such an early stage. To do so would be unethical, not to mention impossible. However, we can arm you with the knowledge of how to calculate the value of your case, as well as the steps you need to take to maximize your compensation.
First, the value of a Maryland brain injury case is not necessarily the same as the amount you will ultimately recover. This is due to a couple of reasons. First, we may settle your case. There are several reasons why settling is a good idea, and there is a reason why about 95% of personal injury cases settle. To name a few, you save money on costs, legal fees, and time and gain certainty. If we do not settle your case, there is always the chance that we will be unsuccessful.
No attorney can make guarantees because you never know who is on that jury panel, what they think, or their state of mind. Accordingly, settling is a way of mitigating risk. The downside is that you sometimes recover less than if we do file suit. This is approached on a case-by-case basis, and no one can force you to settle a case, as it is always your call whether you have an attorney or not.
The second component to consider in compensation for your brain injury case is oftentimes decisive in how much you recover. This hinges on how much insurance coverage is available. In Maryland, the minimum allotted car insurance policy allows for $30,000 in coverage per person or $60,000 per occurrence. For a severe brain injury that changes the trajectory of your life, this comes nowhere close to covering your damages.
These are just two of the many components that go into calculating the value of a Maryland brain injury. Below, we explore precisely how to value your damages. But note the more difficult it will be to prove certain elements of your claim, or how weak our witnesses’ credibility is, can dictate to some extent how much leeway is given in a settlement negotiation. On the other hand, if we have rock-solid evidence and compelling witnesses, we have all the leverage we need to maximize the value of your case.
The severity and permanence of the injury play a crucial role. Generally, the more severe your injury, the more valuable your claim is. When assessing the factors affecting the value of a Maryland brain injury, we must also examine the county in which we are filing suit. For example, a brain injury case in Prince George’s County is typically valued differently than one in Montgomery County, Maryland. Some counties have reputations for awarding higher verdicts than others. Additionally, we must consider whether we are suing a well-known entity for your brain injury. For example, if the defendant is beloved in the community, a jury may view them more favorably, even when it is undeserved based on the facts of your case. Of course, this can work in your favor, too.
Your age is also a factor affecting the value of your claim. If you are 16 years old and can never work again or enjoy basic parts of life, your damages are far more extensive than those of a person at the end of their life. While both injuries have significant value, a jury generally agrees that there is more loss for a younger person.
The value of a Maryland brain injury consists primarily of economic damages. Economic damages can be divided into two categories. The first is medical expenses related to your brain injury. The second category is for lost wages. For a more severe brain injury, you may require ongoing medical care. This is common both with brain injuries and with paralysis cases. In either event, you may require full-time nursing. For an injury that is not your fault, where you can no longer work, the defendant must compensate you for this economic damage.
As your Maryland brain injury attorneys, we calculate what this cost will look like. Note that pursuing this damage is not necessarily an award. Rather, civil tort law views it as a way to compensate you or bring you back to whole. Of course, there is no way to fully get you back to whole. That is where noneconomic damages come in.
Noneconomic damages represent the emotional pain and suffering you must now go through due to no fault of your own. Unlike economic damages, there is no exact formula for calculating this. Instead, we consider the totality of the circumstances. As alluded to above, the court considers your age and how much of your life you are losing due to the negligent or reckless conduct of the defendant. In general, we consider a list of damages. These are pain and suffering damages, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and all the many things that fit into those categories. This list is theoretically infinite. If you were married before your injury but now are divorced, you may be entitled to compensation. However, note that we must prove the causation element for each part of your life we seek to include in your claim.
Thus, we must prove that and how the injury could have led to a divorce. We may do this by taking testimony from your ex-spouse, saying they do not desire to take care of you now that you are injured. We would also consider the state of a marriage before the injury and show a clear drop off in the relationship’s health.
Calculating the value of a Maryland brain injury requires consideration of a seemingly infinite number of factors. We are here to help simplify this process.
Call our office today for a free case evaluation at (202) 331-7227.
Copyright © 2024 Gelb & Gelb, P.C. All rights reserved.