Our New Orleans car accident attorneys are different from other personal injury attorneys — we will NOT give you an amount just to get you to hire our law firm. We are honest when we tell you that we cannot give you an amount until we thoroughly investigate your spinal cord injury claim and you should NOT want us to give you a number. You want us to conduct a complete investigation before placing a value on your claim because a complete and thorough investigation can result in a higher value for your spinal injury claim.
Factors That Influence the Value of Your Spinal Cord Injury Claim
In addition to the choice of an attorney, other factors impact the value of your spinal cord injury claim.
- Amount of Out-of-Pocket Damages
Your out-of-pocket or financial damages directly impacts the value of a spinal cord injury claim because you are entitled to be reimbursed for all economic losses. Examples of the financial damages we include in your claim are lost wages, medical bills, travel expenses, physical therapy charges, cost of medical supplies, and costs of hiring help to perform household chores. Keeping detailed records of all financial costs related to the accident and your injury can help increase the value of your claim.
- How Much Insurance Coverage is Available
Even if your claim is very high, the amount of insurance the other driver has can limit the value of your claim. Because many people in New Orleans carry minimum insurance, the amount you can receive for your spinal cord injury claim could be much lower than the actual value of the claim. Our attorneys search for every possible source of compensation to increase your chance of recovering full compensation for your damages.
- Severity of Your Injury
The severity of your injury also impacts the value of your claim. In most cases, the more severe your injury, the higher your claim is worth. For example, suffering partial or complete paralysis will increase the value of your claim much more than a spinal cord injury that only requires physical therapy to recover. We work closely with your physicians to obtain a prognosis that explains any future damages, so that we can include those damages in the value of your claim.
- Comparative Negligence
If you are partially at fault for the crash, the value of your claim can be reduced. Under Louisiana law, a driver who contributes to the cause of the collision is not entitled to receive full value for their claim. Therefore, if the other driver can prove that you contributed to the cause of the crash, the value of your claim can decrease. We work hard to prove that the other driver is 100 percent at fault to avoid any issues with the value of your claim based on liability.
Call a New Orleans Car Accident Attorney for Help
If you have suffered a spinal cord injury, our attorneys want to help. Contact Attorney Fred Olinde of The Olinde Firm for a free consultation. Call our office at (504) 587-1440 or 1-800-587-1889 to request a free consultation with a New Orleans accident attorney.