After a personal injury lawyer has agreed to represent a particular client, then it becomes that same lawyer’s goal to win a fair compensation for that new client. That fact helps to explain the reason why no personal injury attorney agrees to take every case.
The injury lawyer in Kitchener retained by clients with a personal injury claim realize that their chances for winning the case increase, if the client has a suitable amount of evidence. For clients that are claiming an injury, that evidence should include a record from a doctor that has followed and treated their injury.
Whenever accident victims have failed to seek medical attention as soon as possible, an insurance company could use that fact against them. An insurance adjuster could accuse any of those same victims of failing to mitigate their injuries. An attorney’s awareness of that fact could explain the attorney’s reluctance to take certain cases.
Prior to the negotiations that should lead to a settlement, a personal injury lawyer would know how to calculate the value of the client’s damages.
The economic damages are the sum of the totals from all the medical bills, plus the amount of the client’s lost earnings.
The non-economic damages represent the value of the client’s pain and suffering. A lawyer’s experience should help with the estimation of that value. Insurance adjusters often use a computer program to determine the value of a claimant’s pain and suffering.
In the absence of a computer program, a personal injury attorney needs to adjust for issues of liability, multiple defendants, if there are any, the client’s characteristics, and the degree to which the client’s injuries were or were not mitigated. After making all those adjustments, the personal injury lawyer knows the true value of a given client’s damages.
Once that value has been established, then the lawyer-client team should be ready to work on the demand letter. In that letter, the adjuster must be told what amount of money the client/claimant is asking, as compensation for the accident-related injury. The demand is usually greater than the amount that the lawyer and client expect to receive.
Once the adjuster has responded to the demand letter, and the negotiations have begun, then personal injury lawyers can demonstrate their awareness of the ideal approach for anyone that is negotiating with an insurance adjuster. That negotiator needs to be patient; adjusters do not want to be placed under pressure.
But that patience has to be balanced with a generous amount of persistence. The claimant should insist on the adjuster’s cooperation. A personal injury attorney should be able to guide clients, so that each of them can achieve the proper balance of both unfailing patience and assertive persistence.