Maximizing Your Personal Injury Settlement
At Strong Law Offices, our personal injury attorneys work to build a strong case right from the first phone call we receive from our clients.
Our legal team wants to learn as much as possible about the facts and circumstances of your personal injury accident. This includes how, when, where, and why an incident took place. We consider all avenues of recovery and cause of action, such as:
- Negligence
- Strict liability
- Violations of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code
- Violations of statutes or local ordinances
- Violations of building codes
- Violations of association rules or regulations
- Other types of laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, or standards of practice and/or standards of industry.
This enables us to determine the best method to maximize your injury settlement.
Investigating Your Personal Injury Case
When investigating your case, our Injury law firm endeavors to obtain the proper evidence to help ensure your recovery is maximized. We gather:
We obtain contemporaneous reports, such as police reports, 911 transcripts, witness statements, emergency room records, prompt care records, primary care physician records, diagnostic treatment study records, specialty surgical records, and any other medical documentation involved with the treatment and care of your personal injury.
Our personal injury lawyers also discuss with our clients the need to provide accurate and detailed histories to all medical providers. All of this information can be accumulated and organized to maximize the settlement or recovery on behalf of the personal injury victim.
Impressions Matter When Maximizing Injury Settlements
We work with our clients to make sure they are making a good impression in front of any finders of facts. This may include insurance adjusters, defense attorneys, jurors, judges, medical providers, independent medical examiners, or other persons they may come in contact with throughout the entirety of our legal representation.
Other Ways Our Personal Injury Lawyers Work to Maximize Your Personal Injury Settlement
There are a number of other ways the personal injury attorneys at Strong Law Offices work to maximize your settlement. For instance:
- Personal injury victims may require future medical care such as surgeries, physical therapy, prescriptive pain medications, medical device implantation, replacement or maintenance, nursing home care or life plans, or expert consulting services to give or render opinions on future medical needs. Our injury lawyers will work with you to gather evidence about future and prospective medical treatment.
- Our office also seeks out expert witnesses who can assist our clients in gathering evidence to demonstrate the liability of the at-fault parties for the personal injury.
- Experts can also be retained and used as independent witnesses and/or controlled witnesses to provide information about past lost wages, future lost wages, cost of future medical treatment, and the need for ongoing future medical care.
Maximizing Workers’ Compensation Settlements
Workers’ compensation settlements often include awards for permanent partial disability, wage loss or wage differential, and permanent total disability benefits through medically qualified total and permanent disability or odd-lot permanent total disability. Injured workers may also be entitled to vocational rehabilitation services or educational services when they are permanently unable to perform the tasks required for their usual and customary profession.
Our workers’ compensation lawyers can help maximize your workers’ compensation settlement in a variety of ways.
- We gather all of your medical records and seek opinions from medical providers who have treated the injured worker to establish permanent disability, permanent work restrictions, limitations on activities of daily living, or AMA impairment ratings as required under the 6th Edition Guidelines.
- Our injury lawyers also utilize vocational rehabilitation counselors to determine labor market surveys, reasonably stable labor markets, job placement services, educational placement services, retraining costs, potential lost wages and/or lost earnings. We gather opinions from a vocational rehabilitation expert to enhance the potential for maximizing your workers’ compensation settlement.
- The workers’ compensation attorneys at our law firm also seek medical opinions for prospective medical care, future medical costs, such as prescriptive medication, future surgeries, maintenance of medical device implantation, or other future medical needs. We obtain information about applicable life care planning, nursing home care, long-term care needs, handicap-equipped vehicles, and handicap modifications of your home. This helps ensure that the severely disabled workers are able to maintain living standards after the injury.
Strong Law Offices utilizes all of the above in addition to other methodologies to maximize workers’ compensation settlements.
Maximizing Personal Injury Settlements FAQs
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions from our clients.
What is a reasonable settlement for a car accident?
A reasonable settlement for a car accident can vary from State to State. In Illinois, there are several factors used to determine what is a reasonable settlement. These factors include, but are not limited to the following:
- Is liability of the at-fault party accepted or denied by the insurance company?
- What is the total amount of medical expenses incurred by the injured party?
- What are the lost wages or lost future earnings incurred?
- What is the nature and extent of the injuries involved?
- What are the future damages?
- What is the loss of a normal life?
There is no set mathematical formula for determining what is a reasonable settlement. Obtaining an attorney who is experienced in automobile accident settlements will generally obtain higher settlements than non-represented injured persons.
How do auto insurance companies determine settlement amounts?
Insurance companies determine settlement amounts by examining many factors. Insurance carriers examine the liability or responsibility of the at-fault party, otherwise referred to as the insured. The insurance carriers also examine the medical expenses incurred and lost wages incurred.
However, insurance carriers also use negative factors, such as past claims, pre-existing conditions, criminal background checks, background investigations, and accident scene pictures or photographs which minimize the force of impact. Obtaining an attorney for an insurance claim will oftentimes render a larger settlement.
How do I get the most money from a car accident?
Retaining an attorney will oftentimes maximize a money settlement from a car accident. An experienced car accident lawyer will examine the liability of the at-fault party. An experienced attorney will also investigate the accident scene, the force of impact, and the nature and extent of the injuries and damages.
Our law firm handles a variety of car and motor vehicle accident cases including – but not limited to – truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, taxi accidents, train accidents, boat accidents, or DUI and distracted driving accidents.
What is a good settlement offer?
A good settlement offer should make the injured party whole. A good settlement offer should provide compensation for medical expenses incurred in the past and medical expenses to be incurred in the future. A good settlement offer should also compensate for the lost wages sustained.
Most importantly, a good settlement offer should provide monetary compensation for the loss of a normal life and/or permanent disability. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney knowledgeable in good settlement offers for car accidents and negligence can be very helpful.
How much should I settle for pain and suffering?
There is no set rule or formula for determining pain and suffering. Pain and suffering is determined on a case-by-case basis and is a very subjective standard. There is no diagnostic test or methodology to quantify or measure pain and suffering. However, an experienced personal injury attorney can highlight medical facts and evidence from the ordinary experiences of life to maximize settlements for pain and suffering.
Should I accept the first offer from the insurance company for damage to my car?
Insurance companies oftentimes will make a low first offer for property damage to cars damaged by negligent drivers. Insurance carriers for at-fault parties are responsible for the fair market value of property damage. It is recommended that an independent appraisal from the dealership be obtained. Alternatively, there are many online sources that will give you a range of fair market value for the property damage done to your vehicle.
What happens if I reject a settlement offer?
Rejection of settlement offers is part of the negotiation to achieve the best settlement possible. Under contract law, once an offer is rejected, that offer becomes null and void. Alternatively, you can make a counteroffer in hopes of receiving a better offer.
A verbal acceptance of an offer can result in a binding agreement. Negotiations with insurance companies can be difficult and challenging. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney will help avoid the pitfalls of settlement negotiations.
How is a settlement paid out?
A settlement can be paid out in many forms. Typically, insurance carriers payout settlements by a check or draft on the insurance companies’ checking account. However, direct deposits can be requested and are oftentimes obtained particularly with the assistance of an experienced personal injury attorney.
How long does it take to get a settlement after an accident?
The length of time for a settlement to be processed can vary from case to case. It is not advisable to settle a personal injury case if medical treatment is ongoing and the injured party has not reached maximum medical improvement.
The length of time for settlement oftentimes depends on the medical recovery process. It also can depend on whether a lawsuit is necessary to achieve a successful settlement. Obtaining an experienced personal injury attorney knowledgeable in expediting settlements can be helpful.
How much money can you get from an accident?
The amount of monetary compensation from an accident varies from case to case and accident to accident. Each accident has unique factual circumstances. For example, disfigurement or scarring injuries oftentimes have very small amounts of medical expenses, but lead to a lifetime of disfigurement and can result in very large personal injury settlements.
Conversely, soft tissue injuries oftentimes do not achieve high settlement results without the assistance of an experienced personal injury attorney.
Is it better to settle or go to court?
Most civil law matters settle out of court. Typically, 95% of cases are settled out of court. Obtaining an experienced personal injury attorney who has taken cases to trial can lead to an optimization of your settlement.
However, if the settlement is low, an experienced personal injury attorney is needed in order to navigate the difficult civil justice and accident system.
Should you accept the first settlement offer?
It is advisable that the first settlement offer should never be accepted. Typically, insurance carriers will make low settlement offers and offer quick payment in order to entice an unknowledgeable injury victim into accepting a settlement that does not reasonably and fairly compensate the accident or injury victim.
Obtaining an experienced personal injury attorney who can assist you in making a settlement determination can be helpful.
How long do you have to accept a settlement offer?
Settlement offers can remain open for indefinite periods of time or, alternatively, settlement offers can remain open for only for limited periods of time. Oftentimes, insurance carriers put time limits on settlement offers in order to entice injury victims into quick settlements. An experienced personal injury attorney can assist in determining how long a settlement offer will or could remain open.
What types of personal injury cases do you take?
Personal injury lawyers at Strong Law Office deal with a variety of personal injury cases including – but not limited to – brain injury, spinal cord injury, slip and fall accidents, wrongful death, burn injury, amputations, disfigurement injury, and more.
What types of workers’ compensation cases do you handle?
Worker’s compensation attorneys at Strong Law Offices handle a variety of workers’ comp cases including – but not limited to – chronic pain, crush injury, knee injury, shoulder injury, neck injury, foot injury, eye injury, construction accidents, factory accidents, farming accidents, and more.
What types of medical malpractice cases do you handle?
Medical malpractice lawyers at Strong Law Offices deal with a variety of personal injury cases including – but not limited to – nursing home abuse, hospital malpractice, or birth injury. We have law offices in Peoria, Chicago, Bloomington, and Springfield.