So, you’ve been injured in Massachusetts and you’re wondering, “What’s my case worth?” The truth is, it’s a complicated question. Why? Because there’s a number of things that make up value.
So, first of all, we have to make sure that you’re going to win your case because there’s really two hurdles to every case. The first hurdle is proving the defendant is negligent. Duty, breach, causation, damages. There’s another video on our website about how to prove your case. So, let’s say we’re over that hurdle. We’ve proved the defendant is negligent. You win.
The second hurdle is how much do I win? Well, you’re entitled to pain and suffering. You’re entitled to lost wages. You’re entitled to medical bills. You’re entitled to scarring if you have any. You’re entitled to residuals, future medical bills going forward. You’re entitled to a consortium claim if you have a partner who was affected by your claim. You’re entitled to permanency, which means that you have an injury rated by a doctor after you’ve reached what we call maximum medical improvement. Basically, the doctor says you’re as good as you’re going to get. If you’re 100%, you don’t have a permanency value. If he says you’re less than 100% and gives you a rating, he says you have a 10% permanent rating, you’ve lost 10% of the use of your body, that has a value into the future.
So all of those categories, right, pain and suffering all the way to permanency, each one of them has variables, right? Do you have only soft tissue injuries when we look at pain and suffering, or do you have objective findings? Meaning, is there something that we can find on a CAT scan, an MRI, or an EMG that shows us a diagnostic test that says this is what’s wrong with you? And based on that injury, there’s obviously more value because we assume based on your medical records and the seriousness of your injury that you have greater pain and suffering. So your medical records, of course, are the key to the value in your case. So number one, you want to make sure of course that you’re treating regularly with your doctor and going to the right doctor. Do you need an orthopedic? Do you need a neurologist? Do you need a psychologist or psychiatrist? Like, what do you need for treatment based on your injuries? Make sure you get the right treatment. Do you need diagnostic testing? Get the testing because I can only get you as much as I can prove, right? Just because you tell me this is the worst pain I’ve ever felt, it’s a hundred out of a one on a 10 scale, right? But if that’s not reflected in your medical records, it’s hard to prove that, right? Because you’re biased. It’s your body.
So, how do we prove the value? We prove the value by looking at all those categories. Now, if you want to get an idea today of what you think it might be worth in the future, you can go to our website and check out our personal injury value calculator. It’s going to ask you a lot of questions.
Now, you’ll see some calculators out there. In my opinion, it’s a scam. It’s going to say, “How much damage was there in the car?” and a couple of other questions. There’s no way that’s going to determine the value. You just heard me say how complicated it is. So, everybody that does SEO and builds websites and says, “Oh, there’s so many questions. People aren’t going to want to answer all those questions. Then I don’t want to give them the value because it’s not a real value.” Use our calculator and it’s going to give you a real value because it’s going to talk to you about your pain and suffering. Is it a soft tissue injury? Is there an objective finding? How long did you treat for? Who did you treat with? What was your lost wages? Answer all the questions and it’s not going to give you an exact value, but it’s going to give you a range from the tens of thousands of cases that we’ve handled either through settlement or through litigation. And so, we took all of those values, built a really complicated formula, and provided it to you in our calculator. So, remember, you want to determine what the value of your injury case in Massachusetts is really worth, two things. Number one, go on the website and check out our calculator or anytime just call us and we’ll let you talk to one of our attorneys. We’ll go through your case with you and we’ll help you determine what that’s worth.
