When it comes to filing a personal injury claim, or any lawsuit that involves an insurance company, obtaining the type of settlement you are seeking is always a challenge. It is why individuals are always encouraged to contact a reputable law firm if they are looking to file a personal injury claim against an individual or business. Firms such as racinelaw.net in the Idaho Falls area can help with these matters, because they have the experience over many years of trying these cases. So what does it take to win a personal injury case? Let us take a look at some key negotiation tips.
- Correctly Assessing Special Damages
Far too many people go into these cases with an inflated idea about how much money they should receive. For instance, if you were badly injured in a car accident and you are looking to get money out of the other party’s insurance company, you have to come up with an accurate record of the damages you suffered. Take into account the hospital bills you had to pay, the time you had to take off work and if you suffered any long-term injuries or illnesses because of the accident.
- Looking at General Damages
There are some other types of damages, such as physical suffering, mental anguish, emotional trauma and distress that are also included in personal injury claims. Unlike the damages that are material and easy to calculate, these can vary based on individual claims. But even with these types of damages, it is really important to take the time to talk over the claim amounts with your attorney. For instance, it is not feasible for you to demand 2 million dollars in emotional distress if you are unable to prove any type of emotional distress during settlement talks or in court. In most cases, you can hope to double the amount you receive for special damages with general damages, but do not hope to go too far beyond that with your calculations.
- Come up with a Settlement Offer
When you have done all the major calculations in partnership with your attorney, you will have a figure in mind for how much you would hope to receive from your personal injury case or settlement negotiations. In most of these cases, you will start out by having settlement talks, where both parties make an offer and hope to reach a compromise. You will only go to trial if these talks are unsuccessful.
For the settlement talks, make sure you have come up with a reasonable figure as your first offer. Take the amount that you calculated in steps one and two, and raise it to come up with your first offer. The initial offer should always be a little bit higher than the amount you will eventually be happy to obtain, because you want to see how much the other side is willing to budge on their offer.
When you have your initial offer, and a figure for your ideal settlement amount, you can let your lawyer handle the rest of the negotiations!
