Settling a DC Hotel Injury Case
Suffering an injury at a hotel can be debilitating physically, temporally, and financially. Physically, you may suffer a significant injury that causes you months of pain and discomfort. Whether you are shot, stabbed, assaulted, or slipped and fell at a DC hotel, the pain can linger for months. Financially, you may be unable to work for months. While our DC hotel injury lawyers will fight for your right to compensation for lost wages, not getting paid by your employer at the moment can cause severe financial discomfort. Together, there is a debilitating temporal element. These issues can last for several months or even years, depending on the nature of your injury. One thing that can help resolve your case quicker is settling a DC hotel injury case.
Advantages of Settling a DC Hotel Injury Case
Settling a DC hotel injury case has several advantages. The first two advantages are finality and certainty. When you go to trial, there is always a chance you will lose. This is not the fault of the attorneys, nor is it due to the fault of the fact pattern. Sometimes, a jury votes in a way that defeats all common logic. Many lawyers agree this only happens in about 10% of cases, which is unlikely. However, it is far more likely to happen if we go to trial than if we settle a case. When you settle a DC hotel injury case, the two parties come to an agreement. When we are coming to the terms of the agreement, there is certainty in what we are agreeing to.
The second key advantage is finality. Even if we are successful at trial, the defense may appeal. The appeals process can drag out the legal process by several months or even years. This stands in stark contrast to a settlement agreement. A settlement agreement can be executed long before you even get to trial, which that process can take about a year in Washington, DC.
A third advantage of settling is that it is cost-effective. If we are unable to settle your case, we will file suit. Unfortunately, filing suit is almost always more expensive than settling. When we go to trial, our legal fees are higher; we must pay filing fees, court fees, expert witness fees, deposition fees, and more. These are unavoidable costs if we want to win at trial. And in almost all circumstances, the costs are outweighed by what your case is worth. However, this process is less ideal when compared to settling a DC hotel injury case.
Hotel Liability as it Relates to Settlement
Hotel liability as it relates to settlement is critical. Suppose that your damages are worth a substantial sum. However, establishing liability by a preponderance of the evidence at trial is tricky. For example, we may have one uncredible eyewitness against a convincing witness whose testimony favors the defense. Even if the hotel is technically legally liable for your injuries, going to trial is risky. Thus, a hotel injury attorney may consider settling for less than the total value of your case if the hotel’s liability will be an issue at trial. Of course, our DC hotel injury lawyers at Gelb & Gelb will carefully describe your options and the likelihood of success if you choose either. Moreover, we will always advocate for what we believe is the best possible scenario for you that best serves your interests.
Assessing Your Injury and Calculating Damages
At trial, a jury hears the facts of the case presented by witnesses, and during opening and closing statements, it decides what your injuries are worth. However, when settling a DC hotel injury case, we do not have a jury to go off of. Instead, our DC personal injury lawyers use their 70 years of experience practicing injury law in Washington, DC, to evaluate your injuries and calculate your damages. As discussed above, we must also hedge our bets to some degree when considering the weight and persuasiveness of the evidence at hand.
Moreover, we must consider how a jury in a particular county will favor you versus the defendant. In one case, the hotel may be a historic DC landmark beloved by the local residents and thus an unfavorable defendant to sue. On the other hand, it may be a public nuisance that local residents want destroyed. This would be a favorable scenario and make us less likely to settle. Or, at the least, we will use this information to our advantage when negotiating a settlement of your DC hotel injury case.
The Settlement Process
When settling a DC hotel injury case, the settlement process cannot begin until you are discharged from medical treatment. Only at that point can we evaluate your damages. At that point, we know how much your medical expenses are, your lost wages are, and how long you have suffered physically, and we examine any lasting ailments like scars. We also consider any future damages like future medical expenses, loss of future earning capacity, and any indefinite or chronic pain you will suffer from in the future. If you cannot enjoy your favorite hobbies ever again, we will consider this when evaluating the value of your case. We do not know the full extent of any of these elements until you have completed your medical treatment or it has been sufficient time to understand your injuries.
Commencing Negotiation
Then, we send a demand letter to the adverse insurer for settlement. It takes them about 30 days from receipt to evaluate our demand, read through your medical records, and value your case. Then, we begin the settlement negotiation process. This can take days, but it often takes a few weeks. Often, it can be challenging to get the insurers’ adjusters on the phone to communicate with them. When we speak to them, their settlement offers generally only partially represent the value of your case, and we must persuade them why your case is worth more.
We sometimes have to follow additional steps, like getting any remaining balances due to your medical providers, Medicare, or Medicaid. We cannot settle your case until we have this lien information. Consequently, there are times during the settlement process when we must wait to hear back. We are feverishly following up with all appropriate parties to get this information as quickly as possible so we may resume our negotiation.
When to Consider Trial
We consider trial while settling a DC hotel injury case in two instances. The first is when the defense for the hotel denies liability outright. In this instance, they accept no responsibility, leaving us no choice but to take the hotel to court to win you the compensation you deserve. The second instance is more common. This occurs when we cannot agree with the defense regarding what your injuries are worth. We may believe your case is worth $100,000, and the hotel will only offer up to $70,000. Of course, the choice is yours to accept the offer anyway. However, it is our duty to advise you on what we believe your case is worth and explain the advantages and disadvantages of filing suit instead of accepting the offer.
Speak to an Attorney
When settling a DC hotel injury case, speak to a skilled hotel injury lawyer to discuss your options and next steps. Call Gelb & Gelb, P.C. today at (202) 331-7227 for a free consultation.
