What is a Car Wreck Case Worth in Alabama?

If you are injured or damaged in a car accident due to another’s careless driving, then you’ve definitely thought about how much money your car wreck claim or case is worth. This is a very typical and natural question to ask if you, or a family member, were hurt in a car accident through no fault of your own. Unfortunately, this can be a difficult question to answer, especially if you are still undergoing medical treatment and not able to work.

If you’ve been hurt in a car wreck and you are in the process of hiring an attorney, you need to be very skeptical of hiring any attorney that attempts to assign an actual settlement value to your case at the hiring point. As will be discussed in great detail below, no attorney can realistically or accurately assign a value to your claim during an initial consultation because there are too many unknowns and uncertainties. Further, it is very likely that the attorney will not have reviewed any of your medical records at the hiring point and these records are critical to determining a settlement value on any car accident claim.

If an attorney assigns a value to your claim before you hire them, they are likely doing so simply to get you to retain them. They are likely “telling you what they think you want to hear” in order to convince you that hiring them is a good decision. Then, at some point well after you hire them, they will backtrack and assign a lower value to your claim. This can be construed as a “bait and switch” of sorts by an attorney. Do not fall prey to these types of tactics because if you do, you will only be setting yourself up for disappointment and frustration as your case proceeds.

When doing research online about what a car accident case is worth in Alabama, victims will often see websites inviting them to provide information and data about themselves, the car accident and their injuries. These websites and/or settlement calculators will promise that if you provide certain information and answer certain questions, then you can get a specific answer about the settlement value of your car accident claim. However, these settlement calculators are not reliable tools and often do not provide any information about the potential settlement value of your claim. Instead, these settlement calculators are principally designed, and launched, by other law firms or car accident lead generation companies. The real motivation or intent of these settlement calculators is to get your name and contact information for purposes of contacting you to see if they can represent you in your car accident claim. Victims should avoid providing personal information through these settlement calculators. Otherwise, you might also become a victim of predatory tactics by unscrupulous attorneys and lead generation companies.

Instead, victims of car and truck accidents should search for an attorney that has vast experience handling car and truck accident cases and has a proven track record of generating great results for their clients. Victims should review the verdicts and settlement results for the law firm and should only retain lawyers and law firms that exclusively represent personal injury victims. For a claim or case involving bodily injury sustained by you or a family member, you should not trust your case with an attorney that only occasionally practices in this area of the law. Only attorneys with vast experience handling car and truck accident claims can have an intelligent and informed discussion with you about the potential settlement value of your claim.

The team of attorneys at Hollis Wright Law Firm only handles personal injury cases with a heavy focus on car and truck accidents. Our law firm has been representing victims of car and truck accidents for over twenty (20) years, and our attorneys have amassed some of the largest car and truck accident verdicts and settlements throughout Alabama. If you or a family member were hurt in a car wreck, then call TODAY for a FREE and CONFIDENTIAL assessment of your Alabama car accident claim. We can be reached at 844.LAW.TALK, 205.324.3600 or online here.

All car and truck accident cases are handled by Hollis Wright & Clay, P.C. on a contingency fee basis. This means that we don’t get paid unless we recover money on behalf of our client. Put differently, our fee is conditioned upon us successfully recovering money on your behalf. The fee for our services is a percentage of the total recovery and that percentage is discussed and agreed upon before the representation is undertaken. We want to make certain that our clients understand exactly how the contingency fee arrangement works and that our client is completely comfortable with the fee percentage before ever asking them to sign a fee agreement.

Every case is different but there are common factors that almost always influence the overall settlement value of a claim. Articles and websites online typically categorize case values in this way:

• $15,000 or less – minor injuries involving an emergency room visit with no follow-up treatment. Alternatively, no emergency room visit but same or next day visit to a primary care doctor with a few follow-up visits.
• $15,000 to $50,000 – same type of treatment as above with several visits to physical therapy and/or chiropractic treatment. Typically involves sprains, strains and injuries to the soft tissues of the body such as whiplash.
• $50,000 to $100,000 – same type of treatment as first two bullet points above combined with lost wages, MRIs, multiple visits to the doctor and physical therapists. Could also include non-surgical broken bones and tears as well as epidural injections for spinal injuries.
• $100,000 to $250,000 – same type of treatment as first three bullet points above but also involving some type of surgery or maybe a night or two in a hospital but often involving a full recovery.
• $250,000 to $500,000 – typically involves a multi-day hospitalization and/or some type of serious surgery (inpatient or outpatient) with physical therapy and rehabilitation.
• $500,000 to $1 million - typically involves a multi-day hospitalization and some type of serious surgery (inpatient or outpatient) with physical therapy and rehabilitation. Includes meaningful lost time from work and permanency in the form of physical impairment or scarring.
• $1 million plus – Severe injury cases involving surgery(ies), lost time from work, extended stay in hospital, lost time from work, significant rehabilitation impairment or log-term effects from injury, future medical treatment and losses.

While the above settlement ranges can be used as a guide or benchmark for a car accident claim, they really cannot be relied upon very much when it comes to assigning an accurate settlement value. There are simply too many factors that must be considered by an attorney’s evaluation of each claim, and the settlement value of a claim can dramatically increase or decrease depending on these factors and others. The common factors that apply to a car accident evaluation are:

• Liability Issues (Who was at fault?)
• Policy limits of the involved automobile insurance
• Hospitalization vs. No Hospitalization
• Surgery vs. Non-Surgery
• Emergency Room Treatment vs. General Practitioner
• The Injured Body Part
• Medical Records and Medical Bills – Past and Future
• Health Insurance vs. No Health Insurance
• Lost Wages – Past and Future
• Permanent Impairment or Scarring
• Pain and Suffering and Emotional Distress – Past and Future
• Pre-existing Injuries and Conditions

Determining who was at fault in a car accident is a critical first step in the analysis. How did the adverse driver carelessly or wrongfully operate their vehicle? This must be established by the victim or person filing the claim. Further, Alabama is a contributory negligence state, which means that if the person filing the claim also did something wrong in the operation of their vehicle that contributed to the accident, then they can be completely barred from recovering for their injuries. Thus, a close examination of the facts surrounding the accident and establishing complete fault by the adverse party is important and part of what the Hollis Wright legal team does for each client. Even a little bit of fault on the part of the victim or person bringing the claim can reduce the overall value.

The unfortunate reality in Alabama and every other state is that a car accident claim is typically only worth what can be obtained through available automobile insurance. In Alabama, the minimum amount of automobile liability insurance is $25,000 and most people that have automobile liability insurance coverage only have these minimal limits. And some have no coverage at all despite Alabama law requiring it on every vehicle. For commercial vehicles requiring a commercial driver license (CDL) to operate, the minimum liability limits are $750,000 and $1 million if transporting hazardous cargo.

To further protect victims of automobile accidents, however, Alabama has what’s known as uninsured (UM) or underinsured (UIM) motorist coverage that you can purchase on your own automobile(s). Alabama uninsured (UM) or underinsured (UIM) motorist coverage is designed to apply in circumstances where the at-fault driver either has no coverage at all or does not have enough coverage to fairly compensate the injured person. Every Alabama resident should purchase as much UM/UIM coverage as they can possibly afford in order to protect themselves and family members. The UM/UIM coverage is quite affordable relative to the potential benefits. Thus, while your injury and damages may call for a higher settlement value, injured victims will generally be limited to a settlement at or within the insurance coverage limits.

Generally speaking, this heavily influences the value of a car accident claim. If someone is injured and hospitalized for a day or longer, this will likely increase the value of your claim and make it greater than a claim involving no hospitalization at all. However, this is not always the case. Many victims are discharged from the emergency room and instructed to follow-up with a doctor the next day and when they do, they are diagnosed with a severe injury that is treated through outpatient surgery and extensive rehabilitation. Also, a hospitalization for an extended period that is associated with multiple surgeries will increase the value more than a multi-day hospitalization for monitoring purposes only.

Our law firm has represented many clients over the years who were injured in an automobile accident. We have seen almost every injury imaginable. In terms of pursuing injury claims for car accident victims, a claim involving surgery will typically be more valuable than a non-surgical injury. However, there are exceptions. What if the person needs surgery but cannot have the surgery based upon other health conditions and simply has to live with the pain and discomfort associated with the injury. This certainly could be an instance where a non-surgical injury could be worth more.

Our team of attorneys routinely represents individuals injured in car accidents that go to the emergency room either by ambulance or private vehicle immediately following the incident. We also represent individuals that don’t go to the emergency room but instead go see a doctor the same day of the incident or the following day. In general, taking an ambulance from the scene and getting treated in an emergency room will result in a more favorable settlement than seeing a general practitioner.

In terms of the overall settlement value, the body part and/or the injury location matters. For instance, a broken pinky finger that does not require surgery will likely be worth less than a broken index finger that does not require surgery. An injury that causes a scar on the face will be more valuable than a similar injury causing a scar to a body part that is almost always covered up with clothing. With a serious injury, settlement values are influenced by the physical or functional impairment to the body parts. A serious leg injury to someone that has a job involving standing or crouching all day will sustain a greater long term impact than someone who has an occupation where they are seated most of the day.

Your medical records and bills will heavily influence the settlement value of your car accident claim. How the records describe your injuries, the severity of the injuries, the longevity of treatment, the invasiveness of treatment, was surgery performed or recommended and whether you sustained a permanent injury, all influence the value. Victims typically reach out to an attorney early in their treatment and/or while treatment is ongoing. Since treatment is ongoing, it is premature for an attorney to try and accurately assign a value to your claim. The value of the car accident claim is likely to increase as you undergo further medical treatment.

Additionally, at the time a victim hires an attorney, the attorney usually does not even possess the medical records regarding the treatment. The injuries from the car accident may ultimately involve or require future medical treatment and medical bills. Whether you’ll need future medical treatment, however, is typically not known until you’ve reached “maximum medical improvement” or recovered to the extent you will recover. It would be irresponsible for an attorney to assign a settlement value to the claim without ever reviewing the medical records and bills and not knowing whether you’ll need future medical treatment for the injuries.

Also, the amount of the medical bills can influence the settlement value of the claim. The higher the medical bills the more valuable the claim will be. Also, whether health insurance resolved the medical bills, and for what amount, will also influence the value. Typically, if a health insurance company pays medical bills from an accident and then you pursue a claim against the at-fault driver, your health insurance company will be entitled to some level of reimbursement for what it paid to satisfy your medical bills. This is known as a right of subrogation. Every lawyer has to consider the subrogation in terms of a settlement value, and the subrogation amount is typically not finalized or known until later in the claims process.

If you lose wages after being involved in a car accident, then these losses can be claimed as part of your damages and considered in evaluating a settlement range. These losses can involve past and future wages. Past lost wages are those wages that you missed from the time of the accident until the time of settlement. Future lost wages represent wages lost from the time of potential settlement into the future, for perhaps the rest of your life depending on the severity and disabling nature of the injuries. Oftentimes, these wage losses can be difficult to quantify, and the attorney will need to enlist the expertise of a vocational expert and/or economist to calculate. Our firm routinely uses these experts to arrive at wage loss amounts for our clients.

If the victim is seriously injured in the car accident, then an attorney should always consider the extent to which you are permanently injured, scarred or disfigured. If you sustained a permanent injury as a result of a car accident, then you can claim this as part of your damages under Alabama law. Disabling and/or disfiguring injuries can occur in many forms and involve all kinds of body parts. Permanent injuries have the potential to significantly increase the settlement value for any car accident claim. However, a doctor typically will not have an opinion about whether you have suffered a permanent injury, and the extent of said permanency, until you have finished treating and/or recovered as much as you will recover. This is why it is difficult to assign a settlement value for severe, catastrophic injury cases early in the process. Factoring in a permanent injury to the settlement value is typically done towards the end of the client’s treatment and through consultation with your doctors.

Every bodily injury, no matter how minor or severe, comes with some level of pain, suffering and emotional distress. Alabama law allows injured victims to claim and recover money for the pain and suffering they have endured since the accident occurred as well as what they will likely endure into the future. The same applies for past and future emotional distress and mental anguish suffered by the victim. It is incumbent upon any attorney representing victims of a car accident to explore these damages and maximize a client’s recovery by digging deep to truly determine how the injury has impacted their client emotionally and how much pain the injuries caused them. If an attorney fails to do so and fails to present these damages to the insurance company for the at-fault driver, then you will likely get a settlement offer for less than what your case is really worth. The attorneys at Hollis, Wright & Clay, P.C. are well-trained to discover and/or determine the details of the pain suffered by our clients as well as the mental anguish they experienced in order to maximize their recovery.

With certain types of injuries, it is incumbent on any attorney to determine whether their client sustained an injury, or suffered from a condition, related to the same body part before the car accident occurred. This issue most commonly appears in the context of neck and back injuries where a client hurts their neck or back in a car accident but was either already going through treatment for neck or back problems or had an injury to their neck or back at some point prior to the subject car accident. Injuries and conditions to the same body part that were pre-existing can negatively impact the value of a car accident claim. If a client experienced pre-existing problems, then that has to be considered by the attorney when assessing a reasonable settlement range. The insurance companies work extremely hard to determine if a claimant was already suffering from problems in the subject body part and will certainly attempt to use such information to keep the settlement value lower. It is critical that you have an attorney that knows how to counter these tactics and to differentiate between your pre-existing condition and the problems you are experiencing after the subject car accident. Our team of attorneys at Hollis, Wright & Clay, P.C. know exactly how to present and argue these issues so that you will be in the best possible position to maximize your settlement.

Talking with an attorney before you hire them is very critical to achieving a successful settlement in a car accident case. You should never hire a law firm without being able to speak to an attorney at that firm as part of the hiring process. If you cannot even talk to an attorney when you are trying to decide whether to hire them, then you’ll undoubtedly have trouble getting them on the phone after you retain them. Some firms will attempt to sign you as a client by using investigators or intake personnel before you ever speak to an attorney. DO NOT hire such a law firm. At Hollis, Wright & Clay, P.C., you will always speak to an attorney before being asked to sign with our firm.

Finally, when considering an attorney or law firm to handle your car accident claim, you should inquire about how many personal injury cases they are handling at any given time. Some law firms are set up for each attorney to handle a high number of cases where each case likely has a low value. These types of law firms will often have each attorney handling well over 100 files at any given point in time. In our experience, any attorney handling over 100 files at a time cannot provide good customer service to each client. Such a high volume number of clients usually results in very poor communication with the clients, a lack of trust and confidence by the client and ultimately a poor outcome because the lawyer simply does not have the time to properly and thoroughly work up each case. At our law firm, we intentionally handle a lower volume of cases so that we can provide each client with high quality legal services and maximize their recovery.

If you or a family member were hurt in a car wreck, then call TODAY for a FREE and CONFIDENTIAL assessment of your Alabama car accident claim. We can be reached at 844.LAW.TALK, 205.324.3600 or online here. Our attorneys have decades of experience handling and evaluating car accident claims and know how to determine a maximum settlement range for your case.