Although winning or reach a settlement in a personal injury case can be an ordeal on its own, there are still challenges as you figure out whether your winnings are enough. You need to cover multiple requirements, such as medical costs and lost wages before even getting to lost possessions and your personal life, and there aren't easy-to-read price tags for everything that changes after an injury. Here are a few things to consider before accepting any random offer.
What's Wrong With Accepting Offers?
Unfortunately, when you accept a settlement offer after injury, you're accepting the fact that a certain amount of money and/or servers will be enough for your condition. Except for in the most extreme cases when a worsening condition is life-threatening and agreed upon by most medical professionals almost immediately, it means you can't easily ask for money.
The other party has rights as well, and no one should live under fear of being asked for more money after an agreement has reached. Even if your estimate was low by all accounts, there are times when an injured party may change the details of their condition every few years, and an open-ended legal system could put a person in debt for the rest of their life with unaccountable amounts of money.
For you, this means that your first guess needs to be as close to realistic as possible. Realistic, in most cases, means aiming high more than conservatively low estimates.
What Costs Are Involved?
Your medical costs must come first, and everything else comes after. Your personal life, career, and family will be better served if you can return to good health or get as close to better as possible.
There are few situations where letting others benefit from your medical money will be a good idea, and any "good ideas" that use up your medical funds can be easily improved upon with early planning. If you're worried about bills, tuition, or someone else's medical costs, those costs can either be added later as a jeopardized responsibility that you would be paying if you weren't injured, and funding can be sent to keep the situation stable during settlement.
If utility bills and food for your household's survival bother you, that's small change and not worth losing your medical money. Personal losses can be added, and unless you're already independently wealthy, the amount of money needed to support household needs (not wants) is a negligible amount that can be added to the more important costs later.
If your job is in jeopardy, you can either get lost wages or work on getting trained for a new position. Vocational rehabilitation can change your life after a bad situation and may be less money that your legal opponent has to spend.
This doesn't mean worrying about what your legal opponent spends. It means figuring out what will be a more likely agreement that a judge or mediator would agree to after reviewing documents.
Speak with a personal injury attorney to discuss other aspects of getting your settlement amount to the right level.
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