New York City Personal Injury Lawyer - Joel J. Turney

How is my case valued?

Answer: One thing is for sure - placing a value on a person's injury is extremely difficult. For this reason alone there are more personal injury cases in our courts' Trial Assignment Parts, that any other type of Civil matter.

However, there are three basic factors that are taken into account in the attempt to place value on the case. The first is liability, the second is damages, and the third is ability to pay.

Liability is the extent that someone other than the injured person is at fault for the injury (either by fact or law). In negligence cases, New York recognizes a pure comparative fault scenario. In other words, if there is a question of degree of fault, the trier of fact after being instructed by the Judge as to the law, is asked to make the assessment of fault based upon relative degree - adding up to 100%. For example, if the plaintiff is found to be 25% at fault and the defendant found to be 75% at fault, then the plaintiff will only recover 75% of the total damages. Generally, a defense usually makes a claim of comparative fault; however, there are many cases where as a matter of law none exists. However, there are also many cases where comparative fault is a significant issue, but given the extent of damages it still may be well worth proceeding.

The second factor, extent of damages, in a personal injury case standing alone is very difficult to value. There are many losses sustained in injury cases where no amount of money can justly compensate. However, our Civil Justice System has no means other than monetary compensation. The law generally recognizes different categories of damages. The first is pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life since the happening of the injury to the time of trial or settlement (this is commonly referred to past pain and suffering). The second category is loss of earnings since the happening of injury to the time of trial or settlement (this is commonly referred to past loss of earnings). The third category is future pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, to the extent that there is a finding of permanence - this can be a projected figure based on life expectancy tables. The fourth is future loss of earnings, to the extent that the person is not working or is earning less or is unable to continue in an expected career path as a result of the injuries sustained at the time of trial or settlement. There is also a category of damages for a spouse for loss of services and consortium. Lastly, is some cases, punitive damages may be recoverable, if the plaintiff can establish conduct that is “ gross, wanton, malicious, and culpable as to evince utter recklessness, or where it was act was perpetrated by evil, reprehensible, or wrongful purposes or motives .”

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