7 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Personal Injury Settlement

If you have been injured in an accident due to someone else’s negligence, filing a personal injury claim can help ensure you receive fair compensation.

However, the value of your personal injury settlement will depend on how well you build and negotiate your case.

Here are seven effective ways to increase your personal injury settlement value:

1) Gather Evidence to Support Your Claim

After an accident, documentation is fundamental. The more evidence you can produce to substantiate your case and injuries, the higher your final settlement value will likely be.

You should start collecting relevant records as soon as possible.

• Police reports from the accident scene.
• Medical records and bills from urgent care clinics, doctors, and specialists who treated you.
• Witness statements corroborating the other party’s liability.
• Photographs of property damage, injuries, unsafe conditions, or defective products.
• Receipts, pay stubs, and other records to prove financial losses.

Your personal injury attorney will know how best to apply your evidence to demonstrate accident liability, the severity of your injuries, and the full extent of your damages.

2) Seek Prompt Medical Attention After an Accident

You must get immediate medical attention following an injury, even if you don’t think you were seriously hurt.

Seeing a doctor as soon as possible:

• Establishes the severity of your injuries and whether you require ongoing treatment.
• Creates a paper trail documenting the degree of harm suffered and the level of care obtained.
• Helps avoid allegations that your injuries resulted from a preexisting condition or unrelated incident.

By showing how much the accident disrupted your personal and financial life, you can justify more significant compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment, and other costs.

So don’t delay—your comprehensive medical file will strengthen your injury claim.

3) Hire an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney

A lawyer who practices in injury law can significantly increase your settlement amount.

A skilled California personal injury lawyer will:

• Assess who may be liable and the validity of negligence allegations.
• Determine the total value of your claim based on damages incurred.
• Handle negotiations with insurance companies to demand top-dollar settlement.
• Take the case to court when parties cannot reach a fair resolution.

Because most insurers try to minimize payouts, having an aggressive yet reasonable advocate on your side levels the playing field. The best law firms have a track record of delivering maximum compensation to injured clients.

Don’t just pick any lawyer—your settlement depends on hiring the right one!

4) Calculate and Document All Your Damages

To establish why you require substantial compensation, your attorney will assess and prove every monetary and non-monetary loss caused by the accident.

These damages can include:

• Past and future medical expenses: bills for hospitalization, surgery, therapy, medication, assistive devices, in-home care, etc.
• Lost income or wages: salaries and benefits lost due to time away from work.
• Property damage: repair or replacement costs for personal belongings, home furnishings, or vehicles.
• Pain and suffering: physical discomfort, emotional distress, PTSD, loss of companionship.

Keep careful records of all accident-related costs and how the accident has impacted your daily life – the more proof of injury available – the more insurance companies will likely have to pay out.

5) Maximize Pain and Suffering Damages

Beyond concrete financial losses, you can collect significant “non-economic damages” for emotional trauma and decreased quality of life after an injury.

Do the following to build the best possible case for pain and suffering compensation:

• Document impairment to family relationships, loss of mobility or independence, and inability to participate in activities that previously brought joy.
• Obtain statements from close connections that your personality or disposition changed due to constant agony or anguish.
• Research awards in similar past cases to establish reasonable compensation benchmarks.

By highlighting all the negative ways the harm you endured has derailed normalcy, you strengthen grounds for more generous settlement concessions from liable parties.

6) Consider Going to Trial if Settlement Offers are Too Low

Most parties settle their injury claims out of court through negotiations between attorneys. However, if the defendant or insurer refuses to propose an adequate settlement figure or counteroffer during mediation, bringing legal action before a jury may be the only recourse.

Key reasons to take an injury case to trial:

• Average jury awards or verdicts in California are higher than settlements.
• Unwillingness to accept an unjust payout.
• Chance to publicly expose negligent behavior.

Of course, there’s no guarantee who jurors will favor. However, credible legal representation and ample supporting evidence increase your odds of a substantial damage award.

7) Retain an Experienced California Personal Injury Law Firm

The best ally for significantly increasing your injury claim value is retaining a reputable personal injury lawyer.

At Pasternack Injury Law in California, we carefully assess each client’s case. We provide legal advice to help ease the confusion around settlements, court hearings, and other legal issues after an accident.

With extensive experience securing compensation for accident victims statewide, our attorneys know how to extract fair settlements from insurance companies and try cases before juries when negotiations break down.

Contact us today for a case evaluation.