Knowing the right course of action after an accident or injury may leave you with many questions. You might ask yourself how long it might take to see a payout or if you’d even get enough to make the process worth it. You might wonder how often cases like yours win, or how difficult it is to find an attorney who will take your case. All these concerns are valid, and you have good reason to think things through. Not every personal injury claim results in a monetary reward. Most cases won’t even go to court. And, depending on the type of personal injury claim you have, the odds of success fluctuate.
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How Much Is My Personal Injury Claim Actually Worth?
Personal injury law covers a broad group of claim types. It includes everything from medical malpractice to defective products. In this article, we’re going to focus on three types of personal injury claim types: dog bites, product liability, and slip-and-fall cases.
Most attorneys take a personal injury claim on a contingency basis. This means there are no out-of-pocket costs to you to get started. In fact, you’ll only pay the attorney when you receive an award. The average personal injury claim takes just over a year to resolve, but half the cases filed settle in about four months.
How Much Is My Dog Bite Claim Worth?
The odds of you or a loved one sustaining a dog bite injury increase almost every year. Why? Because the number of pets increases almost every year. Except for 2002 and 2015, pet ownership in America goes up each year. There are more than 63 million homes in the United States with pets. In homes with dogs, more than 38% of those homes have 1.6 dogs each. Additionally, more than 15% of Americans acquired a dog during the pandemic.
These numbers mean it’s likely that even if you don’t own a dog, you will encounter them in your everyday routine. You might see dogs when you take a walk, go for a jog or just run some errands. The numbers also show dog bite-related personal injury claims rose more than 162% between 2003 and 2020. In 2020, the average personal injury claim payout for dog bites totaled $50,245.
Some homeowner’s policies will cover dog bites. If not, all the costs you incur — medical bills, missed work, emotional pain and suffering — will come out of your pocket. Your only other option is to get a personal injury attorney to negotiate on your behalf with the dog’s owner. Personal injury attorneys can also help secure payment for your vet bills if another dog attacks your dog.
How Much is My Product Liability Case Worth?
Product liability cases arise when a product, drug or medical device injures someone. This might mean an ingredient in makeup made someone sick (such as talc tainted with asbestos, which is well-known for its cancer-causing properties). It might also mean that something made improperly caused your injury (such as a pressure cooker you can open before it’s fully depressurized).
If using a product as directed injures you, chances are good it’s an example of product liability. The awards for this type of personal injury claim vary widely. This is because the circumstances can vary widely, too. Lawyers settle most product liability cases out of court. In 2018, the median award for a product liability-related personal injury claim that went to trial was $100,000. Extremely high and extremely low awards can skew payout averages, so using the median award is more representative of an average case.
How Much is My Slip-and-Fall Case Worth?
Slip-and-fall accidents happen more often than we might realize. The statistics show that more women than men experience slip-and-fall accidents. In addition, bone fractures occur in 5% of all slip-and-fall accidents. Slip-and-falls are the leading cause of worker’s compensation claims in people at least 55 years old.
A slip-and-fall personal injury claim falls under the umbrella of premises liability law. Slip-and-falls happen often in the home (and often on the ground level). However, the types of slip-and-fall injuries we’re talking about here are those that happen at a business or otherwise public place.
Of those, most plaintiffs that file a personal injury claim receive an average payout of $33,000. But there are important caveats to this statistic. Most of these are for cases that lawyers settled out of court. Slip-and-fall cases that went to trial in court resulted in jury awards averaging between $169,902 and $1.3 million. The more serious your injury, of course, the greater your potential monetary award.
How Do I Know If My Personal Injury Claim Is Worth Pursuing?
Working with a personal injury lawyer can help you determine if your case has a good chance of resulting in an award. If so, that will make it worth spending the time and energy to pursue your personal injury claim. Not every case will result in a large award that compensates you for pain and suffering. But many will result in an award large enough to cover your medical bills and lost time from work. All LegalASAP attorneys work on a contingency basis, meaning there is no fee unless we win your case.
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Lisa Allen
Lisa Allen is a writer and editor who lives in suburban Kansas City. She holds MFAs in Creative Nonfiction and Poetry, both from the Solstice Low-Residency Program in Creative Writing at Pine Manor College. Prior to becoming a writer, Lisa worked as a paralegal, where she specialized in real estate in and around Chicago.
