How West Palm Beach Injury Lawyers Identify Solid Settlement Offers

In West Palm Beach personal injury cases, there is strong incentive for both sides to settle things out-of-court. Trials are expensive, time-consuming, and often emotionally-wrought. Florida statute also provides strong incentive: If either side rejects a reasonable settlement offer and the end result at trial is a judgment ends up being fairly close to that amount, the party who rejected the offer can be compelled to pay the other side’s attorney fees.

As the plaintiff, even if you win, an order to pay the defense’s attorney fees can significantly cut into the amount of compensation you ultimately receive. So the question becomes: How do I know if a settlement offer is reasonable?

The best way to have high confidence is to hire an experienced West Palm Beach injury lawyer with a track record of success in cases similar to yours. They are going to instinctively have a strong sense of what your case is worth — and how to properly verify the figure they’re thinking of.

As skilled Palm Beach injury lawyers, we have a number of specific methods we employ to help us pinpoint that number.

Consider Economic Factors

You’ve heard the saying, “time is money.” That is one of the most compelling arguments for avoiding trial in a personal injury case. Sometimes they’re necessary – but they’ll almost always cost more.

The longer a case drags on:

• The more work there is for attorneys, which translates to higher attorney fees for both sides.
• The less the same amount of money is worth, thanks to inflation.
• The more time the plaintiff will lose at work or spend traveling for court dates, depositions, etc.

Settling sooner rather than later is usually in your best interests – but only if the settlement offer is fair. It’s not uncommon for insurers to lowball plaintiffs. It’s important to have an experienced attorney who can help you decipher whether an offer is fair or not.

Retaining a Valuation Expert

A good injury lawyer is going to have a strong sense of what your case is worth early on based on educated guesswork. But the longer a case goes on, the more precise we need to be about that figure if there’s any chance it’s going to go before a judge or jury. For this, we typically turn to a valuation expert.

Well-supported valuation reports help by:

• Demonstrating your good faith in the negotiation process.
• Signaling to the insurance adjuster that you are serious about your claim – and won’t be afraid to take this matter to a jury, if need be.
• Showing that you indeed have a legitimate claim for the amount you’re seeking.

What the valuation expert is going to tell us is the “break even point.” This is the exact amount needed for you to break even financially. It’s more focused on tangible losses (lost wages, medical bills, property damage, etc.) than non-tangible losses (loss of life enjoyment, physical pain and mental suffering, etc.).

Knowing exactly what the financial break-even point is provides us with a strong position from which to negotiate.