What’s Your Auto Injury Case Worth?

What’s my case worth?  It’s the most common question we get.  As car accident lawyers, we will share with you the steps that you need to take to determine what your case is worth.

We know you hear from friends, family, solicited and unsolicited, about what your case is worth. The truth is that there are three things that you must complete before you can ever have a discussion about what your case is worth. 

1. Maximum Medical Improvement:  You have to be done treating medically or at least know what your future medical entails. You need to be at Maximum Medical Improvement. This is the point where the doctor releases you, with or without restrictions.  While sometimes it’s when you fully recover, for others it’s not that simple.  It’s essentially when your providers say, “We’ve done everything we can do and you’re as good as you’re going to get.”  It’s only at this point that you can move on to the next stage. 
2. Request Medical Records & Bills:  Next, you must request all your medical records so that they can be analyzed.  You can request those from your medical providers for free or for a very nominal charge with a HITECH medical records request.  Please feel free to contact us for the correct form.  
3. Analyze Medical Records & Bills:  Lastly, you want to get an itemized list from each provider for all your related medical bills.  You’ll need to remove any bills that are not related to your case (i.e. treatment for unrelated conditions).  You’ll need to create a spreadsheet and tally them up, itemized by provider, and get a grand total for all your medical bills. 

Then, when you have all three, you can sit down and have a good discussion about what your case is worth. This is the very basic information you’ll need to get started. The biggest mistake people make is trying to settle their case too early, before treatment is over, only to learn there is much more treatment needed.  Of course, we’re here to help you. If you would like for us to do all the work for you, please reach out to us.  We’d be glad to help you.