You may be planning on filing a personal injury case because you might be hoping to secure a settlement to help cover losses and expenses related to your personal injury. You probably want to be sure that your settlement is as large as possible, and you could be wondering what you can do to help ensure this happens. The following are a few different things that you can do that can help you get a higher personal injury settlement.

Hire Legal Representation

You might be offered a settlement on your own, but it might not be as much as what you're hoping to get. You might not really know about the best negotiation tactics to use to get offered a bigger settlement, for example. Even though you will have to pay legal fees to hire a personal injury lawyer, you'll probably still find that you can get a much bigger settlement if you hire an attorney, even after you factor in how much you're paying for legal fees.

Speak Up About How Much You Think You Deserve

Many people never actually speak up about how much they think they should be compensated for their personal injury cases. However, there is a good chance that you might have a figure in mind, and if this is the case — or if you are willing to calculate a figure, based on your expenses and losses related to your personal injury case — then you should bring it up to your lawyer. Be prepared with documentation and a breakdown of why you think you should be given a settlement of this amount. At the very least, this can be a good starting point for negotiations. Just make sure that you mention the settlement amount to your lawyer first, rather than bringing it up to someone from the insurance company. Your lawyer might find that you are actually owed more money than what you are thinking, for example, so you don't want to lowball yourself.

Negotiate a Lower Contingency Fee

One thing that you might not have thought about is the fact that your personal injury lawyer will typically be paid on a contingency basis. Basically, this means that their legal fees will be paid to them in the form of a percentage of your settlement amount. You might be able to negotiate a lower percentage, particularly if you are willing to do some of the work — such as gathering up documentation — or if your case is relatively straightforward. This can help in two ways. If your lawyer agrees to a lower legal fee percentage, then they might work even harder to help you get a higher settlement amount, since this will be necessary for them to get paid a higher amount in legal fees. Additionally, since you'll be paying a lower percentage in legal fees, you'll get to keep more of your settlement.

For further information, contact a personal injury compensation lawyer in your area.