Evaluating a Personal Injury Claim
By Aaron Larson
March, 2005
Contents
When evaluating whether or not personal injury litigation should proceed, the three general areas which must be evaluated are the nature and extent of the plaintiff's injury, the strength of the plaintiff's case, and the collectability of the defendant.
Nature of Injuries
The nature and extent of a plaintiff's injuries often play a significant role in personal injury litigation. First, people with mild to moderate injuries often simply choose not to litigate, whatever the merits of their case. Second, when weighing the cost of litigation against the size of a potential recovery, many plaintiffs realize that between the costs and burdens of litigating a case and the size of any verdict or settlement they are likely to recover, it doesn't make sense to pursue a lawsuit.
Strength of Claim
There are many cases in which people are seriously injured, but there is not a viable personal injury claim which can be pursued. For example, sometimes people are responsible for their own injuries, and there is no defendant to be sued. Sometimes a defendant will possess an extremely powerful defense to the plaintiff's claim, such as absolute immunity, qualified immunity, or governmental immunity, which will make it impossible (or near-impossible) to prevail in court.
Collectability
The third factor in evaluating a personal injury case is whether the defendant will be collectable - that is, the plaintiff may have suffered serious injury, and the plaintiff may have a very strong case against the defendant, but if the defendant has no money, resoures, or insurance with which to pay a verdict or settlement, there is little to no chance of collecting any money at the conclusion of the litigation.
When a plaintiff presents substantial injuries, a strong claim, and a highly collectable defendant, it is highly likely that a lawyer will agree to take the plaintiff's case on a contingent fee basis, usually meaning that the attorney will advance the costs for the litigation and will collect an attorney fee only if the lawsuit is successful. If one or more of these elements is weak, or is absent from a case, it is more likely that an attorney will decline the case, or will agree to pursue the case only if the plaintiff pays an attorney fee (often hourly in nature).