How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth?

Oregon Personal Injury Law Questions and Answers

Q: How much is my Portland Personal Injury case worth?

A: To preface this section, we should make it explicitly clear that the only people who know the answer to this question are the members of a jury. We don’t know how much your case is worth.  The judge doesn’t know.  The insurance adjuster certainly doesn’t know.  The way we estimate what a case is worth is by figuring out what a jury is likely to do in a given case.  And this can never be more than an estimate.

Be wary of any lawyer who tries to tell you what your case is worth during your first phone call or meeting.

Until your lawyer has reviewed all of your medical records, seen photos of your car, spoken to witnesses, read the police reports, etc, he/she will have no idea what your case is worth. Accurate estimates require full information.

That said, there are two basic kinds of “damages” you can recover for a personal injury case in Oregon: Economic Damages and Noneconomic Damages. In the past, these were called “General Damages” and “Special Damages,” respectively, but the proper terms are Economic and Noneconomic.

Economic Damages is compensation for any money you’ve lost due to the collision.  This includes:

• money to repair your car (or the full value of the car if it was totaled);
• money to pay for medical bills;
• money to pay for household services that you could not do because of your injuries;
• lost income due to injuries that prevented you from working; and
• money for future economic losses.

Noneconomic Damages means money for injuries that are not as easily given a numerical value.  Some examples are:

• pain;
• humiliation;
• mental suffering;
• emotional distress;
• inconvenience;
• interference with normal activities;
• damage to a person’s reputation; and
• aggravation to a previous injury.

Punitive Damages. In the right case, it can make sense to try to get punitive damages, but most injured people are better off seeking only Economic and Noneconomic Damages.  In Oregon, the State takes 60% of any Punitive Damages.  Then your lawyer will typically take 20%, leaving you with only 20%, which is then taxable.  In the end, an injured person usually only ends up with about 10-15% of punitive damages.

When we estimate what a case is worth, we use our experience and knowledge to try to predict what a jury would do with your case.  We will only make this estimate after we have all of the relevant information.  At that time, we will tell you the probable value that we believe your case has.

Related Personal Injury Topics:

• Winning Your Smaller (under $10,000) Injury Case
• How Insurance Determines the Worth of Your Case
• The Worth of Pain and Suffering in a Personal Injury Claim