Hi, I’m Brent Probinsky of the law firm of Probinsky & Cole.
Obviously, one of the first questions that clients ask us when they come to me us is “I’ve been injured. I broke my leg. I fractured my knee. What is the value of my case? What can I expect in this case?” And it’s a fair question. We have to evaluate a couple of things. First of all, how serious are the injuries? Are they permanent? Will they heal over time? Will they impair your ability to enjoy life, to function, to work, to earn money? Will your injury require a surgery? How many surgeries? How much will they cost? Will you be disabled?
In personal injury cases, disability affects two things. One is how you’re suffering emotionally in your incapacity, your capacity enjoy life is gone. That’s a claim that you’re entitled to. Your physical pain and suffering, you’re entitled to in Florida. Also, what is your lost earnings, your potential lost earnings? So, all those things go into the value of the case.
We’d also have to consider how did the accident happen? Who was at fault? If you’re 50% at fault, and the person involved let’s say they ran a stop sign but you weren’t paying attention. Let’s say you’re both 50% at fault, and let’s say the case is worth $100,000. Well, now it s worth 50,000 because you’re 50% at fault. It doesn’t mean you don’t recover but you recover less compared to your percentage of fault.
So, we really have to evaluate with the case and sometimes when you – when they come in to see us, our clients don’t know the extent of their injuries or how serious it is. It takes time to see that, to evaluate that, see what their doctors say and then determine whether it’s permanent or not. Obviously, a case that has a significant permanent injury has much more value than one where someone has a minor injury to their spine and extremity or a fracture.
A case could be worth $10,000. A case could be worth millions. So, it really depends. This month we settled two cases in the multimillion dollar range. One was a person that fell off a roof, a young man and unfortunately he fractured his back and he’s a paraplegic. It was a worker’s compensation case and we settled the case in the millions of dollars. He won’t recover his capacity to walk but he has enough money to have therapy, to have assistance and to have help to help him the rest of his life.
So, we work very hard to do the best we can for our clients. We work closely with them to guide him through the complex process of a legal claim or a lawsuit and do the best to wrap up the case and provide benefits so they can be cared for, for the rest of their life and do the things for their family, their wife and children they couldn’t do before because of their injury. Thank you.
If you have legal questions and your matter happened here in Florida and you’re thinking about bringing a lawsuit, I invite you to pick up the phone and call me at (844) 335-4667. This is what we do every day and I’d be happy to chat with you.
