April 9, 2011
Top 5 Questions Before Using a Personal Injury Calculator
Using a personal injury calculator helps you work out how much your auto accident claims are really worth. Here are the top 5 questions people ask about assessing the exact value of their car insurance settlement.
1. So How Exactly Does the Personal Injury Calculator Work out my Auto Accident Claim?
The most basic approach that is known to be implemented for accident injury claims is:
Pain Multiplier X Medical Payments + Loss of Income
The “pain multiplier” is a number commonly between 1.5 and 5. This multiplier number is chosen depending on the extent of your auto accident injuries; the more major your injuries, the higher the multiplier.
For instance, a minor injury like a sprained neck is more inclined to get a small multiplier (1.5-3). While a far more severe and excruciating injury, like a broken leg, would get the greater multiplier (3-5). The multiplier number might even go to higher numbers (10) for much more serious and permanent injuries.
The very next step that is involved in the claims formula is your medical expenses, also called “special damages.” These bills include the price of your medical treatments, visits to the hospital, ambulance ride, X-Rays, pain supplement etc.
The last thing that is included in your insurance settlement is your loss of income. This refers to the total amount of take-home pay you missed because of your injuries. For example, if you’re injuries caused you to stay at home from work, then your lost total wages would equal your daily pay rate times the amount of work days you had missed.
2. How Soon Should You Begin Using a Personal Injury Calculator?
The most important time to use the personal injury calculator is towards the end of your medical treatment. Always have your injuries accurately diagnosed and reviewed before filing an injury claim. This provides you a more precise estimate of your total medical bills that ought to be provided in your final settlement.
3. Who Should Not Use the Personal Injury Calculator?
A lot of personal injury claims involve minimal injuries that don’t require you to immediately hire an expensive lawyer. For these particular claims, you may use the injury calculator to get a basic estimate of what your auto accident settlement could possibly be worth.
But the truth is, there are insurance claims which should not be handled without having the help of a skilled injury lawyer. Each of these auto accident claims involve more severe and long-term injuries like irreversible disabilities, lost or severed hands or legs, painful head injuries etc. If you were badly injured, your best course of action is to meet with a lawyer who is knowledgeable about claims similar to your various injuries.
4. How Reliable is the Personal Injury Calculator?
The injury calculator isn’t going to give you the exact finalized settlement, but a first estimate of the amount your injuries are really worth to the insurance companies.
Most people would claim that the injury calculator is too simplistic. That it does not deal with the intricacies and subtleties of an individual’s personal injury claim. Some people are quick to mention Colossus, an advanced software program used by the insurance companies to examine insurance claims.
Then again, the greatest advantage of trying the personal injury calculator is not to tell you what will be your exact settlement amount. The most important benefit is to help you understand how your specific settlement amount will be determined. The settlement calculator emphasizes that the range of your final settlement amount will be mainly based on:
*The severeness of your injuries
*Your complete medical costs
*Your lost income
These are going to be the essential points in your injury settlement irrelevant of which specific software program you use.
5. Should I Use the Injury Calculator?
You will always have the choice of getting a lawyer further down in the claims process. The best advice is to use the settlement calculator to get a quick evaluation of what your car accident claims can be worth.
Learn more ways to increase your car accident claims and personal injury settlements
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