Is my personal injury case worth pursuing?

If you are injured in some type of accident, be it a car accident or other accidental injury, you must decide whether it is worth pursuing your case as a legal matter. Of course, this decision should only be made after consultation with a personal injury attorney. After your consultation, the decision to continue with the claim will depend on the answer to a question: Is it worth it? There are three main factors that will influence your decision to proceed with your claim. Those factors are: (1) the probability of showing responsibility; (2) The severity of the injury; and (3) The level of difficulty of the case.

Negligence and legal responsibility. In each accident and injury case, you must be able to demonstrate that some other person or entity is legally responsible for the incident. By proving legal liability, you must be able to show that someone else was "negligent." Neglect means not using reasonable care. For example, if you stop at a red light and are suddenly hit by another vehicle, you may have a strong claim that the other driver was negligent for not paying attention. On the other hand, if you were hit from the rear because the other driver's brakes failed, then you might have a harder time showing that the other driver was negligent in causing the car accident. Another example would be a local liability case. For example, if you slip and fall on the water of a newly mopped floor on a supermarket island, then you should be able to demonstrate that the store was negligent in causing your fall, especially if there were no warning signs. On the other hand, if you slipped in the water that a customer recently spilled, you may have a harder time proving that the store's management was negligent. As you can see, proving negligence against the other party depends on all the facts and circumstances surrounding any particular incident.

Injury and damage. The amount that any party can collect in a given case depends on the injury or damage resulting from the accident. If you are involved in a car accident but were not injured then you would not have a claim. At the same time,medical bill review can range from relatively minor at one extreme, to very serious injuries, even with permanent disability or wrongful death. Of course, the more serious the injury, the more likely the claim will bring higher compensation for monetary damages. Also, when an accident results in a wrongful death, the amount of recovery can be quite considerable, especially if the deceased left a spouse and dependent children.

Difficulty of the case. Not all cases are easy to win. Legal cases are very challenging and require extensive preparation, especially if a lawsuit is to be filed or if the case goes to trial. Although a rear-end car accident may be easy to win, a car accident at an intersection may be more difficult to win, especially when drivers claim they have the right-of-way. Furthermore, the lack of eyewitnesses can also increase the difficulty of the case, as the case would now depend solely on the credibility of each side's version of events.

So how do these factors play into the decision to pursue a case? Although a case may be clear on the issue of negligence, there may not be a very serious injury, such as a light whip, cut, or bruise. At the same time, the case could be relatively easy to prepare for a possible settlement, so it is worth pursuing. Furthermore, there may also be a case where demonstrating negligence could be challenging, but the accident resulted in very serious injury or even wrongful death. Although this case may have a higher difficulty factor, the potential for a higher recovery may make the case worth pursuing. Generally speaking, a person may have difficulty finding an attorney where the probability of proving negligence is small, injuries are relatively minor, and the case requires a considerable amount of time and effort to establish.