California Personal Injury Blog

The lives of your loved ones are invaluable. Despite this, wrongful death claims require placing a dollar amount on the financial and emotional losses incurred by the death. An Orange County personal injury attorney will explain in this article several of the factors that can affect the value of the wrongful death claims.

Lost Wages

If the deceased was the primary source of income for his household, a large part of determining the value of a wrongful death claim is determining how much the deceased would have earned during his lifetime. This determination involves not only looking at the deceased’s current wages, but also his probably future wages. These are usually determined by looking at the deceased’s promotion history, as well as salary trends within his industry.

If the deceased was a recent graduate with no wage history, vocational experts may be needed to testify as to what wages the graduate probably would have earned with his skills.

Funeral Costs

Funeral costs are not as important a factor as lost wages, but they are still included in claim valuation.

Loss of Consortium

A majority of a wrongful death claim is intended to cover emotional damages and the loss of companionship and affection that the deceased provided to his family members.

Liability

As with personal injury claims, the valuation of wrongful death claims is heavily dependent on the strength of the evidence that the insured is responsible for the deceased’s death.

An experience Orange County personal injury attorney is vital to getting what your family deserves on a wrongful death claim. Call Samer Habbas today for a free initial consultation.

It is not uncommon for negotiations between the insurance adjuster and your Orange County personal injury attorney to come to a standstill. However an experienced Orange County personal injury attorney knows how to restart stalled negotiations. Here are some of the tactics he may use:

1. Work with the Adjuster.

An experienced attorney knows when it would be advantageous to work with the claims adjuster instead of against him. If the claims adjuster is not purposefully stalling, the hold-up in the negotiations may be because the adjuster needs some document or piece of evidence before he can proceed.

The trick to this is to get a commitment that negotiations will resume once whatever has been procured is in the adjusters’ hands.

2. Get the Adjuster to Commit to a Timeline.

Experienced personal injury attorneys also know when to press the adjuster to commit to a timeline. If the adjuster gives an estimate for how long it will take him to investigate your claim, your attorney knows when to follow up on the adjuster’s investigation and can pressure him if the estimated date comes and goes.

3. Document Everything.

Experienced personal injury attorneys also document his agreements with and commitments to the claims adjuster. If the insurer fails to meet state-law or industry standards regarding investigation timelines, your attorney can use this documentation as leverage to resume negotiations.

An experienced Orange County personal injury attorney is simply your best chance of receiving the settlement you deserve on a personal injury claim. Call Samer Habbas today for a free initial consultation.

If you have been injured and are filing a personal claim with an insurance company, you may be wondering how the insurer places a value on your case and whether it will prefer to settle your case or proceed with litigation. The factors that go into this are very complicated and varied, and an Irvine personal injury attorney will be able to give you a fuller explanation.

One important factor is the nature of your injuries. More severe injuries such as broken limbs, ruptured internal organs, and other easily-provable and objective medical impairments are worth more than subjective or less severe injuries such as soft-tissue injuries, emotional distress, and musculo-skeletal injuries. This can result in some odd disparities, such as the fact that broken legs are worth more to insurance companies than whiplash-related neck and back injuries, even though the former tend to heal much more quickly than the latter. A compound fracture is easily visible and apparent to a jury, while a low back or neck injury is not so visible, which makes the former worth more to insurers.

Another important factor is your loss of income. Any lost wages or lost profits you have suffered as a result of your injuries are easily measurable; thus, insurers want to see them. For those with hourly jobs, the lost income is easily measured by taking the amount of lost hours and multiplying by his or her hourly rate, but if not, a letter from your employer with supporting records giving a specific dollar amount for lost income is sufficient documentation. Self-employed workers will have a more difficult time, especially if they keep incomplete records, and those who primarily receive money “under the table” probably have no grounds for a lost wage claim.

If you have more questions about the value of your case, contact experienced Irvine personal injury attorney Samer Habbas today for a free consultation.

It can be a very unpleasant task to place a value on a wrongful death claim. However, if the deceased’s family members are to get the settlement they deserve, an Orange County personal injury attorney must be familiar with the factors that influence the amount that insurance companies are willing to pay out.
One such factor is the deceased’s life expectancy before his death. In general, younger victims who would have had many years in the workforce in their future tend to result in larger settlements. This lost income represents a clear financial loss to the survivors.

This consideration can be complicated if the deceased died before developing significant work skills and settling into a career. Without a clear earning level at the time of death, the amount of income that the surviving family members have lost becomes harder to project. The insurance adjuster is likely to make a very conservative estimate as to what the deceased would have earned over his lifetime and it will be up to the Orange County personal injury attorney to fight for a fairer estimate.
Another factor is the marital status of the deceased. Specifically, most states only allow the spouse of the deceased to make a wrongful death claim. If there is any ambiguity as to the deceased marital status, (such as when more than one person claims to be the deceased’s spouse) the negotiation process is likely to be significantly delayed as each of the claims are evaluated.

The death of a loved one is traumatic enough. Don’t deal with the insurance companies by yourself. Call today for an appointment with an experienced Orange County personal injury attorney.