How To Determine Value of Back Injury Claim?

While there are many different types of back injuries, there are some common factors to consider during a determination of any back injury’s value.

First list the victim’s compensable losses.

The medical costs would belong on such a list. That would include both the current costs and any anticipated in the future. Had the victim lost wages, while recovering from the injury? That would be a compensable loss.

Here again, a personal injury lawyer in Hamilton might offer proof that the victim had lost earning potential. In that case both present and future wages would be lost. There might be a loss of consortium. The challenges cause by the injured back might trigger development of emotional problems.

Pain, like emotional problems does not have a clear monetary value. Insurers use a multiplier. That entails multiplying a sum of the medical costs by a factor of 1.5 to 5, depending on the nature of the back’s condition.

The various factors that might affect the back injury’s value

If the back had been injured in an accident, the allegedly responsible person might claim the existence of shared fault. That could be the case if the driver of a car were paralyzed as the result of an accident.

Perhaps that driver had been following another motorist a bit too closely. On the other hand, it could be that the driver of the second vehicle had been using a cell phone, when the two cars collided. That would certainly be a case of shared fault.

In addition to shared fault, a victim’s failure to mitigate the effects of the harm that was done to the back could lower the value of the same victim’s injury. There are a couple scenarios that could highlight a failure to mitigate a back injury’s effects.

For instance, someone might get a strained back muscle while doing a chore for the owner of a business. If the person with that strain decided to “live with it,” instead of going to the doctor, then that action could cause the condition to become worse. An insurance company would not agree to pay the medical costs for a condition that the victim had failed to treat properly.

Alternately, a doctor might tell someone with a bad back to buy and use a brace. The patient might decide to ignore the doctor’s suggestion. That might case the back’s condition to get worse. The insurance company would not cover the medical costs for a condition that had been aggravated by the victim’s actions.

A possible added value

That could arise, if the doctor anticipated the need for future surgery. That would mean more medical costs. It could also mean more forced time off from work. More lost wages.