How Do Insurers Value an Injury Claim: A List of Facts

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

How Do Insurers Value an Injury Claim: A List of Facts

Written by Malman Law, reviewed by Steve J. Malman.

If you have injured and filed a personal injury claim one of the most important things that probably crosses your mind is how much is your claim worth? Well there are certain factors that insurance companies use in order the calculate and determine how much your claim is actually worth. For starters, let’s highlight a list of items that an insurance company is obligated to compensate.

1. medical care and related expenses
2. income and wages lost due to your accident
3. permanent physical disability or damage
4. loss of social, educational, or family experiences such as missing school because of your accident
5. disfigurement
6. emotional damages including stress, depression, embarrassment etc. due to your accident.

How the formula is calculated

Determining compensation is difficult because there is no completely accurate dollar sign to place on pain and suffering. Because of this reason, most insurance companies have a damages formula which they use to calculate the value of your personal injury claim. They generally start with what is known as a “base figure” this number is the total of all medical expenses related to your injury. The next step then is to add any wages lost because of the inability to work because of your injuries. This calculation when both of these numbers are added together this generally tends to be the basis of the negotiations.

Percentage of Fault

Most often times than not an extreme key factor that goes into determining compensation for your injury is the extent to which each person involved was at fault for the accident that occurred. As with the compensation, determining an exact number for fault can often times be tricky, but if you have a rough percentage of how much you are at fault then that percentage will be deducted from how much the insurance company will pay you, if you a little at fault  your compensation will be higher versus being a lot at fault.

As you can see there are multiple factors that insurance companies must take into consideration in order to determine how much your personal injury claim is worth. It is important to cooperatively work with insurance companies and your lawyer to get the compensation that you deserve for your pain and suffering.

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