Hello, my name is Roger Ghai, and I’m an attorney. I practice injury law in Kennesaw, Georgia. I handle a good deal of single event cases, such as car accidents and trucking accidents. I wanted to talk this morning about the values of cases and how those values are determined, as we get frequent questions from clients wanting to know really what the value of the case is. Let’s go through a few of those factors. The first and foremost factor is, what is the actual injury? Okay? For example, you can have somebody who was involved in a relatively minor car accident case. Maybe they received a medium amount of treatment. Average amount of treatment may be four or five, six weeks from the chiropractor. They were released from the chiropractor. They didn’t have to have any shots, no epidurals, no surgery, no recommendations for surgery. Maybe the property damage was very slim.
Another factor to consider would be where the accident happened and whether the defendant has to be sued. Even in a simple little case like that, the factors are considered almost in every case. So if you have a case where you could have a really great case from a liability perspective and I mean, it could be a rear end collision, it could be significant injuries to the clients. But if you’re in a conservative county where the jury verdicts actually tend to be for the most part lower, that’s going to be an important factor in determining the value of the case. And another important factor in determining the value of the case will be whether you have been consistent with your medical treatment. So, especially during the COVID-19 crisis here, it’s going to be somewhat difficult.
Although I think there’s going to be a little more simply from the insurance companies because clients could have been hurt, but they were worried about being exposed to the COVID-19. And so they did not go into their doctors to get the necessary medical treatment. But let’s say absent, let’s say that there was not a COVID-19 virus concern. And let’s say that the client went into the doctor, they were inconsistent with their treatments. They didn’t follow the doctor’s recommendations. They were very sporadic and maybe they didn’t even go to very many treatments. So that case is not going to be able to receive as much compensation and settlement as somebody who consistently went to the doctor and they followed the doctor’s instructions and they followed any followup care and they did this on a consistent logical basis without any huge gaps in treatment.
Now, sometimes you can have a gap in a case. And if it can be explained, such as a person may have had a death in the family and had to attend to a family member for a week or two, those types of things are reasonable and can be explained to a jury. They can be explained actually to the insurance adjuster and the client, isn’t going to be penalized for that. So those are some of the factors. Another factor would be whether your doctor’s willing to testify and participate favorably in your case.
A lot of times doctors do not wish to become involved in litigation, and whenever we try to get them involved in the litigation, it can be very expensive to have their depositions taken by video. It’s even more expensive to have them come in and testify at trial. And so if the doctor’s willing to support the case on the other hand, and we’ll definitely say something to the fact that the motor vehicle accident of January 5th, 2020 more likely than not caused the client’s injuries, your injuries, or that to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that the injuries were caused as a result of the wreck. Then you’re going to have a much stronger case. If you have any questions about how your case should be evaluated, feel free to call my office at (770) 792-1000.