At Garrison Law Firm, we handle many serious injury cases. However, what if your injury is not debilitating, not permanent? What if it is just a hassle over a period of a few weeks as you recover from a sore neck or back, a stiff knee or elbow, or any other temporary injury that will heal but, in the meantime, will be no fun to deal with?
Can you benefit from hiring a lawyer with only minor injuries?
The short answer is probably.
Suppose you require and get physical therapy or chiropractic treatment to get over the effects of your injury. In that case, the proper lawyer can help get you a recovery that will exceed what you could get on your own, even after attorney fees and some costs.
At Garrison Law Firm, if you hire us and then have a quick magnificent recovery, we will end our representation and let you settle the case on your own without any fees.
If we do not believe we can improve your recovery, then we will tell you so and let you go it on your own.
So, there are no financial risks in signing up with us before you get into therapeutic treatment. You are essentially hiring us promptly to be an insurance policy if your recovery takes more than a few days or weeks.
In the meantime, we can advise you of your rights and guide you toward appropriate treatment options.
Many of our clients are pleasantly surprised by what their case ends up being worth. Of course, some clients are surprised that their case is not worth more than we calculate, but those are folks relying on poor information.
Most people know that they have no idea how to value their case and are pleasantly surprised by our results for them.
Your bother-in-law or next-door neighbor may have an opinion on your case’s value, but they, at best, are relying on limited information or, worse, just guessing.
We at Garrison Law Firm have handled several thousand injury cases over decades and possess much more relevant information to enable us to judge the value of your case properly.
The goal of settling a smaller valued case is not to offend the insurance company with a ridiculous demand but to properly present your case to maximize the result within the value’s reasonable expectations.
Remember, trying a case to a jury can be expensive and risky. Smaller cases are better settled if possible.
True, some smaller cases have to be tried to a jury because an insurance adjuster and the defense attorney will not be reasonable with an adequate offer. We have been there and done that. However, most of the time, adjusters will offer enough to make trial too risky an option.
So, since we are talking about smaller valued cases, let us demonstrate what we can do for these clients.
How have we helped clients with minor personal injuries?
A few years ago, we took one smaller case to trial and won 7 ½ times the insurance company’s best offer.
Our client witnessed an auto accident at night and stopped to help. When the police arrived, our client was asked by an officer to go up the road a couple of hundred feet to direct traffic into the far right lane to avoid the accident scene in the far left lane of travel.
Our client activated a glow stick that he carried in his car for emergencies. He successfully directed traffic in the lane away from the accident and emergency personnel until another officer arrived to replace him.
Our client then walked back toward the accident in the far-left lane, the lane he had directed traffic away from. A motorist ignored the directions to move right, and the accident in front of her hit our client from behind, throwing him down the road several feet.
Our client was taken to the hospital by ambulance and checked out for serious injuries. After x-rays, it was determined that he had no serious injuries and was treated and released.
He went home scared that he could have some undetected injury that might kill him, as had happened to his friend just a few months earlier.
To make a long story short, our client fully recovered from his head, neck, and back injuries in about three months after undergoing physical therapy.
He spent the first week freaked out that he might suffer the same fate as his deceased friend.
The insurance company only offered him $5,000 in a settlement. That offer was made after a suit was filed and made as a last offer at a mediated settlement conference.
The case proceeded to trial months later. The case was tried in one day, and the jury returned with a net verdict for our client of just over $37,000.
This is an example of a case where the insurance adjuster and lawyer miscalculated the case’s value. Most other cases of similar nature would settle.
Let’s look at a smaller case that did settle properly.
A motor vehicle whiplash injury case
We recently settled a case for $19,000 for a routine whiplash rear-end motor vehicle accident.
Our client was hit at a low-speed impact causing only minor damage to her vehicle. The car was not totaled and was repaired for around $2,500. She did not take an ambulance to the emergency room but drove herself to the hospital later that evening when she started feeling headache and neck and back pain.
She had x-rays of her neck and back, was checked out, and was discharged with prescriptions for some pain reliever and muscle relaxer. She was advised to see her doctor in a few days if her pain did not subside.
A week later, she went to her primary care doctor, complaining of continued pain, and was given a prescription for physical therapy three times per week for six weeks.
She missed one week of work totaling $800 and fully recovered by completing therapy.
Her billed medical expenses totaled about $7,500. She had health insurance, which paid $4,500, and she paid $800 in deductibles and coinsurance. The remaining unpaid medical bills were waived by the medical providers’ accepting her insurance plan.
We would consider her special damages (paid medical expenses and lost income) to be $6,100. Our attorney fee was $6,333, her health insurance had a right to recover their costs from her settlement, but we negotiated that amount down from $4,500 to $2,000.
Our advanced expenses to get her medical records totaled $200.
So, our client’s net settlement for her claim was about $10,500. Before contacting our office, the insurance company offered our client to pay her medical expenses, $500 for lost wages and $1,500 for pain and suffering.
She would have only received $2,000 in her pocket, but she got over $10,400 by having Garrison Law Firm represent her and negotiate her claim. That recovery is normally tax-free.
If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident or other accident, please call Garrison Law Firm to learn your rights and more about the process needed to get you the proper settlement. 317-842-8283.
