What is My Case Worth in Georgia?
Chapter 6: What is my Auto Collision Case Worth?
The short answer to that question is that each case is different. There are several factors that control the value of a case and each is important. In this portion, we will go through the factors and then we will cover some case by case examples.
The biggest misconceptions on value that people have are:
Now that you know what does not control the value, let’s look at the factors.
Factor #1: The Seriousness of the Injury
This is by far the most important factor. The more serious the injury is, the more a jury will care; and the more the jury will award in damages. The insurer’s offer is always based on what a jury might ultimately do. They spend buckets of money tracking jury verdicts and tweaking their computer based evaluations to make sure that they price their cases in such a way as to minimize cost and risk. If a jury would care about the injury, the insurer will offer more money for it.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue cases are the most common type of case that Georgia courts see. If the client treated conservatively and made a good recovery after physical therapy, then the jury will of course care, but they are not going to award a large amount of money. On the other hand, some people with soft tissue cases make a slow recovery and continue to struggle with pain issues for years. If the medical testimony is credible, then the jury can return a sizeable verdict.
However, as a general rule, if the x-rays and MRI scans do not show an injury and the diagnosis is soft tissue injuries, you should expect that the insurance company will “low-ball” you and some will not even offer the full amount of the medical bills. This is a certainty if there was not a lot of damage to the car.
Many of the lower quality insurance companies will argue that soft tissue injuries are unimportant. For example, recently the adjusters that handle claims for a certain insurer of last resort in Georgia tried to “low-ball” a client who had incurred $12,000.00 worth of medical care from an orthopedic medical doctor including injections and physical therapy that went on for three months. The insurer refused the demand for the $25,000.00 policy limits and their only argument against paying the limits was "this is only a soft tissue injury." After that conversation, we put his case into the courts and we will take a verdict in excess of their $25,000.00 limits due to their sloppy claims handling. The point is, just because an insurance adjuster says your claim is not worth much because it is an injury to a soft tissue, does not mean he is right. You must accept the fact that to get the true value of the case, you may have to file suit and try the case.
So, “what is the value of a soft tissue injury in Georgia?” “Soft tissue” is a term that covers literally hundreds of body parts. A strain/sprain injury to the spine that was treated with an emergency room visit and moderate physical therapy lasting less than two months with a complete recovery and cost less than $3,000.00 is worth less than $10,000.00 in front of a jury. There are of course exceptions to every case. Remember that for a soft tissue case, a dominant factor in the insurance company’s evaluation is how bad the damage to the car looks. Jurors are less likely to believe that an injury occurred if there is minimal damage to the vehicle. These days, it does not take much to cause $1,000.00 in damage to a car, so the best predictor of the jury’s concern for the client is what the damage looks like. If it looks serious, then the jury will take the case seriously. Conversely, if there is very little damage to the car, a Georgia jury is going to hesitate before empathizing with the Plaintiff and the insurer will not pay much on the claim.
The adjuster will consider the amount of the damage to the car, the dollar total of the gross medical bills, the total amount of the lost wages and the nature of the injury and how long it took to recover. These are all components of the seriousness of the injury.
You must also look at your pre-crash health. Did you have these same complaints in years past? Have you been injured in other car accidents in recent years? The insurance company will have a print out of any prior insurance claims you have ever made and these include workers compensation claims.
Serious Injuries
For serious injuries, it is impossible to generalize about value. One thing is certain; if the injury is serious, hire a lawyer because the insurance carrier will not pay the correct value on the claim unless they believe you are willing to file the lawsuit.
Factor #2: The Severity of the Crash
This one is pretty obvious. The more serious the damage to the cars, the more likely it is that a jury will understand how the injury could have occurred. Even with massive medical bills, some carriers will refuse to pay if the property damage looks low because arguing that the injury could not occur in a low speed collision is such a powerful common sense argument with the jury. I am certain there are some people that claim a crash caused their injury when it really pre-existed but I am equally sure that there are some people that are just fragile and it does not take much to push them into the realm of lifelong pain. Understand that however you come down on the issue, the insurer will not treat the claim with any respect if the property damage is low.
Factor #3: The Client’s Personality
It would seem obvious, but many clients are surprised to hear that their personality drastically affects the value of a case. The true value of a case is decided by 12 jurors sitting in judgment of the facts, and if they like you, they award more money. If they don’t like you well…. it goes the other way. I have had cases made and broken by the client’s personality. What I advise all my clients before deposition and before trial is to remember that jurors like the responsible citizen, not a whiner. The character you demonstrate in handling adversity says a great deal about who you are and jurors will take care of you if you behave like a reasonable person. Be kind, be forgiving, be the kind of neighbor the juror wants on her street. Don’t exaggerate and speak with earnestness of what you have gone through. Jurors are very good as sorting the B.S. from the truth, and they will award a verdict accordingly.
Factor #4: Venue
Venue for Georgia State and Superior and Magistrate Court cases is the County in which the case will be tried. All residents of Georgia, be they corporations or people, are entitled to be sued in their home county. There are a few notable exceptions for tractor trailer collisions and for cases involving multiple defendants, but as a general rule, this holds true. Generally speaking, urban, lower-income jury pools tend to award higher verdicts for damages and insurance companies know this. For the Atlanta area, I would rank the most favorable counties to bring a case in as follows 1) Clayton County, 2) Dekalb County, 3) Fulton County, 4) Gwinnett County. Gwinnett is changing rapidly and is growing more generous in their verdicts. Outside of Columbus, Macon and parts of Savannah and Glynn County, the rest of the State is fairly conservative and juries do not award decent verdicts unless the injuries are significant.
Therefore, when evaluating a case, it is important to know where the suit will eventually be brought.
Factor #5: The Amount of Liability Insurance
The hardest news that I have to deliver to some clients is the fact that our practical ability to make a dollar amount recovery for them is controlled to a large extent by the amount of insurance the defendant carries. We have handled wrongful death cases where there is only $50,000.00 in liability insurance and the defendant does not have any personal assets. While a Georgia wrongful death case is clearly worth over a million dollars, the $50,000.00 in insurance money is sometimes the only money available.
Clients will often ask, can’t you sue the person individually? Sure, but if the at fault driver does not have cash in the bank or much equity in their home, you will not find a lawyer that will take the case on a contingency fee basis because there is no way for the lawyer to get paid. The old adage is true; you cannot get blood from a stone.
The identity of the insurance carrier also plays a role. Each insurance company has a different personality, as do the individual adjusters. Certain carriers are dirt bags and will “low-ball” you all the way until trial while a scarce few will try to get things worked out without litigation.
Real Value Examples
Client sustained a concussion and some memory loss in a collision that caused $10,000.00 in damage to her vehicle. She did not go to the doctor for over a week and did not complain about memory problems until over a month after the collision. No offer before suit and I took the case over from another lawyer. After State Farm Insurance deposed three of my clients treating physicians who all testified that she had post concussive syndrome, we were able to get State Farm to pay the limits of their policy of $100,000.00.
Client was killed in an industrial accident and the case settled in suit for an amount in excess of one million dollars.
Client sustained a femur fracture with open reduction internal fixation surgery after a bad head on collision. Farm Bureau paid $250,000.00 policy limits after being presented with over $70,000.00 in medical bills from Grady hospital and plastic surgery estimates to correct some eyelid scarring.
Client sustained soft tissue injuries and treated with the emergency room and physical therapy near Elijay Georgia after a bad head-on collision. Although her medical bills only came to $3,500.00, we were able to present a lost wages claim of over $3,000.00 and ultimately settled the case with for $15,000.00 with Liberty Mutual Insurance.
Client was rear-ended in Dunwoody, Georgia and vehicle sustained only $2,300.00 in property damage. Client was diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation 8 months later and had a microdiscectomy with just over $30,000.00 in medical bills. The Insurance Carrier denied the claim and offered only $5,000.00. We filed suit and during discovery we proved that the surgeon would link the crash with the injury and ultimately settled the case for $115,000.00 when the client weighed the risks of the jury not relating the surgery due to a delay in reporting the radicular complaints.
Client struck in head on collision with her Ford Expedition totaled. She had emergency room bills of $3,400.00. Infinity insurance refused to pay more than $4,000.00 before trial. Trial verdict of $9,500.00 for the client because client was able to explain how she had to miss out on her 20th anniversary family reunion while laid up in a hotel bed in Florida due to the injuries.
Rear-end collision with $3,500.00 in property damage to the car. Defendant was insured with Progressive insurance. The client had a $500.00 emergency room bill and $3,000 in chiropractic bills. Progressive would only offer $3800.00 before the lawsuit. Case ultimately settled for $7,000.00.
A client in Paulding County, Georgia was in jeep that flipped. He sustained a traumatic injury to his wrists resulting in carpal tunnel surgery on one hand. We were able to get USAA Insurance to tender the $25,000.00 policy limits and then took another $45,000.00 from Cincinnati Insurance as the Underinsured Motorist Carrier.
Rear End Collision caused by a driver insured with Grange insurance causing $5,000.00 in property damage. Client had $7,700.00 in medical bills and $2,100 in lost wages. Client chose to accept the last pre-suit offer for $20,000.00 despite the claim having a higher value in litigation.
Copyright © 2009 by Christopher M. Simon, All Rights Reserved
The short answer to that question is that each case is different. There are several factors that control the value of a case and each is important. In this portion, we will go through the factors and then we will cover some case by case examples.
The biggest misconceptions on value that people have are:
- People believe that the insurance companies will pay them a tidy sum for a minor injury just to avoid litigation costs.
- People believe that the value of their case is mathematically determined to be two or three times their medical bills.
- People believe there is compensation for the hassle and annoyance factor.
Now that you know what does not control the value, let’s look at the factors.
Factor #1: The Seriousness of the Injury
This is by far the most important factor. The more serious the injury is, the more a jury will care; and the more the jury will award in damages. The insurer’s offer is always based on what a jury might ultimately do. They spend buckets of money tracking jury verdicts and tweaking their computer based evaluations to make sure that they price their cases in such a way as to minimize cost and risk. If a jury would care about the injury, the insurer will offer more money for it.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue cases are the most common type of case that Georgia courts see. If the client treated conservatively and made a good recovery after physical therapy, then the jury will of course care, but they are not going to award a large amount of money. On the other hand, some people with soft tissue cases make a slow recovery and continue to struggle with pain issues for years. If the medical testimony is credible, then the jury can return a sizeable verdict.
However, as a general rule, if the x-rays and MRI scans do not show an injury and the diagnosis is soft tissue injuries, you should expect that the insurance company will “low-ball” you and some will not even offer the full amount of the medical bills. This is a certainty if there was not a lot of damage to the car.
Many of the lower quality insurance companies will argue that soft tissue injuries are unimportant. For example, recently the adjusters that handle claims for a certain insurer of last resort in Georgia tried to “low-ball” a client who had incurred $12,000.00 worth of medical care from an orthopedic medical doctor including injections and physical therapy that went on for three months. The insurer refused the demand for the $25,000.00 policy limits and their only argument against paying the limits was "this is only a soft tissue injury." After that conversation, we put his case into the courts and we will take a verdict in excess of their $25,000.00 limits due to their sloppy claims handling. The point is, just because an insurance adjuster says your claim is not worth much because it is an injury to a soft tissue, does not mean he is right. You must accept the fact that to get the true value of the case, you may have to file suit and try the case.
So, “what is the value of a soft tissue injury in Georgia?” “Soft tissue” is a term that covers literally hundreds of body parts. A strain/sprain injury to the spine that was treated with an emergency room visit and moderate physical therapy lasting less than two months with a complete recovery and cost less than $3,000.00 is worth less than $10,000.00 in front of a jury. There are of course exceptions to every case. Remember that for a soft tissue case, a dominant factor in the insurance company’s evaluation is how bad the damage to the car looks. Jurors are less likely to believe that an injury occurred if there is minimal damage to the vehicle. These days, it does not take much to cause $1,000.00 in damage to a car, so the best predictor of the jury’s concern for the client is what the damage looks like. If it looks serious, then the jury will take the case seriously. Conversely, if there is very little damage to the car, a Georgia jury is going to hesitate before empathizing with the Plaintiff and the insurer will not pay much on the claim.
The adjuster will consider the amount of the damage to the car, the dollar total of the gross medical bills, the total amount of the lost wages and the nature of the injury and how long it took to recover. These are all components of the seriousness of the injury.
You must also look at your pre-crash health. Did you have these same complaints in years past? Have you been injured in other car accidents in recent years? The insurance company will have a print out of any prior insurance claims you have ever made and these include workers compensation claims.
Serious Injuries
For serious injuries, it is impossible to generalize about value. One thing is certain; if the injury is serious, hire a lawyer because the insurance carrier will not pay the correct value on the claim unless they believe you are willing to file the lawsuit.
Factor #2: The Severity of the Crash
This one is pretty obvious. The more serious the damage to the cars, the more likely it is that a jury will understand how the injury could have occurred. Even with massive medical bills, some carriers will refuse to pay if the property damage looks low because arguing that the injury could not occur in a low speed collision is such a powerful common sense argument with the jury. I am certain there are some people that claim a crash caused their injury when it really pre-existed but I am equally sure that there are some people that are just fragile and it does not take much to push them into the realm of lifelong pain. Understand that however you come down on the issue, the insurer will not treat the claim with any respect if the property damage is low.
Factor #3: The Client’s Personality
It would seem obvious, but many clients are surprised to hear that their personality drastically affects the value of a case. The true value of a case is decided by 12 jurors sitting in judgment of the facts, and if they like you, they award more money. If they don’t like you well…. it goes the other way. I have had cases made and broken by the client’s personality. What I advise all my clients before deposition and before trial is to remember that jurors like the responsible citizen, not a whiner. The character you demonstrate in handling adversity says a great deal about who you are and jurors will take care of you if you behave like a reasonable person. Be kind, be forgiving, be the kind of neighbor the juror wants on her street. Don’t exaggerate and speak with earnestness of what you have gone through. Jurors are very good as sorting the B.S. from the truth, and they will award a verdict accordingly.
Factor #4: Venue
Venue for Georgia State and Superior and Magistrate Court cases is the County in which the case will be tried. All residents of Georgia, be they corporations or people, are entitled to be sued in their home county. There are a few notable exceptions for tractor trailer collisions and for cases involving multiple defendants, but as a general rule, this holds true. Generally speaking, urban, lower-income jury pools tend to award higher verdicts for damages and insurance companies know this. For the Atlanta area, I would rank the most favorable counties to bring a case in as follows 1) Clayton County, 2) Dekalb County, 3) Fulton County, 4) Gwinnett County. Gwinnett is changing rapidly and is growing more generous in their verdicts. Outside of Columbus, Macon and parts of Savannah and Glynn County, the rest of the State is fairly conservative and juries do not award decent verdicts unless the injuries are significant.
Therefore, when evaluating a case, it is important to know where the suit will eventually be brought.
Factor #5: The Amount of Liability Insurance
The hardest news that I have to deliver to some clients is the fact that our practical ability to make a dollar amount recovery for them is controlled to a large extent by the amount of insurance the defendant carries. We have handled wrongful death cases where there is only $50,000.00 in liability insurance and the defendant does not have any personal assets. While a Georgia wrongful death case is clearly worth over a million dollars, the $50,000.00 in insurance money is sometimes the only money available.
Clients will often ask, can’t you sue the person individually? Sure, but if the at fault driver does not have cash in the bank or much equity in their home, you will not find a lawyer that will take the case on a contingency fee basis because there is no way for the lawyer to get paid. The old adage is true; you cannot get blood from a stone.
The identity of the insurance carrier also plays a role. Each insurance company has a different personality, as do the individual adjusters. Certain carriers are dirt bags and will “low-ball” you all the way until trial while a scarce few will try to get things worked out without litigation.
Real Value Examples
Client sustained a concussion and some memory loss in a collision that caused $10,000.00 in damage to her vehicle. She did not go to the doctor for over a week and did not complain about memory problems until over a month after the collision. No offer before suit and I took the case over from another lawyer. After State Farm Insurance deposed three of my clients treating physicians who all testified that she had post concussive syndrome, we were able to get State Farm to pay the limits of their policy of $100,000.00.
Client was killed in an industrial accident and the case settled in suit for an amount in excess of one million dollars.
Client sustained a femur fracture with open reduction internal fixation surgery after a bad head on collision. Farm Bureau paid $250,000.00 policy limits after being presented with over $70,000.00 in medical bills from Grady hospital and plastic surgery estimates to correct some eyelid scarring.
Client sustained soft tissue injuries and treated with the emergency room and physical therapy near Elijay Georgia after a bad head-on collision. Although her medical bills only came to $3,500.00, we were able to present a lost wages claim of over $3,000.00 and ultimately settled the case with for $15,000.00 with Liberty Mutual Insurance.
Client was rear-ended in Dunwoody, Georgia and vehicle sustained only $2,300.00 in property damage. Client was diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation 8 months later and had a microdiscectomy with just over $30,000.00 in medical bills. The Insurance Carrier denied the claim and offered only $5,000.00. We filed suit and during discovery we proved that the surgeon would link the crash with the injury and ultimately settled the case for $115,000.00 when the client weighed the risks of the jury not relating the surgery due to a delay in reporting the radicular complaints.
Client struck in head on collision with her Ford Expedition totaled. She had emergency room bills of $3,400.00. Infinity insurance refused to pay more than $4,000.00 before trial. Trial verdict of $9,500.00 for the client because client was able to explain how she had to miss out on her 20th anniversary family reunion while laid up in a hotel bed in Florida due to the injuries.
Rear-end collision with $3,500.00 in property damage to the car. Defendant was insured with Progressive insurance. The client had a $500.00 emergency room bill and $3,000 in chiropractic bills. Progressive would only offer $3800.00 before the lawsuit. Case ultimately settled for $7,000.00.
A client in Paulding County, Georgia was in jeep that flipped. He sustained a traumatic injury to his wrists resulting in carpal tunnel surgery on one hand. We were able to get USAA Insurance to tender the $25,000.00 policy limits and then took another $45,000.00 from Cincinnati Insurance as the Underinsured Motorist Carrier.
Rear End Collision caused by a driver insured with Grange insurance causing $5,000.00 in property damage. Client had $7,700.00 in medical bills and $2,100 in lost wages. Client chose to accept the last pre-suit offer for $20,000.00 despite the claim having a higher value in litigation.
Copyright © 2009 by Christopher M. Simon, All Rights Reserved