What does valuing an injury case mean?
“Valuing” a case means coming up with a best guess at what a jury might award the person who is suing for a knee injury (the plaintiff), and then guessing what the person being sued (the defendant) or the plaintiff would be willing to pay or accept to settle the case before trial.
The two big factors in valuing the case are the extent of the plaintiff’s injury, i.e. how bad the knee injury is, and how likely the jury is to find the defendant liable.
Estimating the Plaintiff’s Damages
Estimating the potential recovery with any degree of accuracy is quite difficult for one main reason: at trial, it will most likely be a jury that ultimately decides just how much money the defendant must pay the injured plaintiff.
Some personal injury damages, like medical bills and lost wages, are easier to predict. “Concrete” damages like these will mostly be based on the amount the plaintiff demonstrates he or she has paid and/or will continue to pay. For subjective, less concrete damages like “pain and suffering,” predictions are at best an educated guess based on awards in similar knee injury cases in the past. Because every case and every jury is different, even the best analysis will still only predict pain and suffering damages within a broad range.
