How Much Can I Get From Personal Injury Shoulder Settlement?

Both shoulders are vulnerable to sustaining an injury that is caused by an accident or an act of negligence. As the most flexible joint in the body, the shoulder contains three bones, as well as several muscles and tendons that stabilize the three bones.

Here are the three most common types of shoulder injuries, all of which can develop from the impact generated by a personal injury incident.

Separation

The ligaments in the joint where the shoulder and collarbone meet tear, which leads to the development of a separated shoulder. This type of shoulder injury is especially common when someone slips and falls. The incredibly hard impact tears the ligament and the collarbone is forced out of place. You should feel a lump on your shoulder if you sustain a separated shoulder.

Dislocation

When the shoulder either rotates too far or pulls back too hard, the top of the arm can pop out of the socket that is attached to the shoulder. Victims of dislocated shoulders feel both pain and weakness, with the area around the dislocated shoulder developing bruising and swelling. Your shoulder also might feel numb. The powerful impact of a car accident is a frequent cause of a dislocated shoulder.

Torn Rotator Cuff

This is the shoulder injury that causes pitchers and quarterbacks to miss a significant amount of time on an injured list. A rotator cuff represents a group of muscles and tendons in the shoulder that secures the arm in place to allow you to raise your arm. The two most common reasons why a rotator cuff tears are because of a fall or considerable overuse. Your rotator cuff wears down as you age, which makes a tear more likely as you get older.

Since 1988, the personal injury attorneys at Morgan and Morgan have recovered more than $14 billion in monetary damages for our clients. We also have helped clients gain approval for insurance claims that pay for the costs associated with a shoulder injury. Although you can file an insurance claim without the legal support of a highly-rated lawyer from Morgan and Morgan, you should consider hiring an attorney who has experience negotiating personal injury shoulder settlements.

Interacts With Your Insurance Company

Without a personal injury attorney to represent you during the insurance claim process, your insurance company might try to take advantage of your lack of knowledge and experience handling the filing of an insurance claim. Your legal counsel acts as an intermediary by communicating directly with the insurance adjuster processing your claim. Insurance companies are much more likely to approve an insurance claim when a policyholder has legal representation.

Conduct a Thorough Investigation

With a presence throughout the United States, Morgan and Morgan has the capacity to send investigators out into the field to conduct thorough investigations of every type of personal injury incident. In addition to working with an investigator, the attorney from Morgan and Morgan handling your case gathers and organizes evidence to submit with your insurance claim. One of the most important documents is the formal incident report, which can come from a business or the law enforcement agency that responded to the scene of a personal injury incident such as an auto collision.

Determine a Reasonable Value

After reviewing your medical bills, as well as the documents that demonstrate how much time you missed work, your personal injury lawyer calculates a reasonable value for your insurance claim. If the other party committed one or more acts of negligence, your personal injury attorney calculates a different value for monetary damages awarded for a civil lawsuit. Your insurance company either approves or denies your request for compensation. The insurer also might submit a counteroffer, which starts the process of negotiating a favorable settlement.

Negotiations with a representative from your insurance company begin when your insurer submits a counteroffer to your lawyer’s original offer of compensation. Your attorney can either accept, reject, or make a second counteroffer that your insurance company reviews. The back and forth exchanges of counteroffers can go on for several rounds that last for several weeks. How long your attorney participates in negotiations depends on three factors.

First, the strength of your case determines whether your insurance company agrees to settle your claim. The more persuasive evidence that you submit, the more likely negotiations should take no more than a couple of exchanges. Second, how fast you want to settle your claim is important for your lawyer to consider. Maybe your medical bills have put you in financial distress, which means the sooner you receive compensation, the sooner you can return to financial solvency. Third, how much you want to settle your claim for is important because it gives your attorney a value to base every round of negotiations.

There are several reasons why insurance companies balk at the offer made by a policyholder or the lawyer representing the policyholder. Your insurance company might question the necessity of one or more medical procedures. For personal injury shoulder settlements, a large percentage of the value of medical bills concerns treatments and physical therapy sessions. Your insurance company also might question the length of time you received medical treatments. Countering this argument requires your healthcare provider to submit a notarized statement describing your prognosis for making a full recovery. You also might have to prove the severity of your injuries to receive just compensation.

Two of the most common reasons why negotiations stall concern whether a policy covers the insurance claim and whether the claimant is determined to have caused the personal injury incident.

Settling an insurance claim through negotiations is one way to reach personal injury shoulder settlements. The second way to negotiate a settlement happens during a civil lawsuit. The attorneys representing both parties go through a more formal process, with the goal being the same as it is if you settle with your insurance company. The value of personal injury shoulder settlements is based on three types of damages.

Special Compensatory Damages

Also referred to as economic damages, special compensatory damages covers the costs associated with your shoulder injury. You include the cost of diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions. Your personal injury lawyer also can ask for compensation for prescription medications and the use of an assistive device, which for a shoulder injury often includes some type of stabilizing device like a sling.

Because a shoulder injury can force you out of work for an extended period, your lawyer also requests compensation to cover the value of lost wages. You need to submit copies of bank statements, as well as copies of your most recent income tax return.

General Compensatory Damages

Filing a civil lawsuit provides you with the opportunity to request more than economic damages such as the cost of medical bills. You also have the right to ask for general compensatory damages, which are the non-economic costs associated with your case. Pain and suffering is the most common type of general compensatory damages. Sustaining a shoulder injury as a result of a traumatic event can trigger mental and emotional symptoms such as fear, anxiety, and depression.  Your attorney calculates a fair value for general compensatory damages by including the value of special compensatory damages in an equation.

Punitive Damages

If another party committed at least one act of negligence, you have the right to ask for punitive damages to be included in a personal injury settlement. However, the other party’s lawyer might refuse to include punitive damages because they are typically awarded by judges that hear civil lawsuits. Consulting with the personal injury attorney that you hire from Morgan and Morgan determines whether you settle without punitive damages or you decide to stop negotiations to continue with litigation.

Morgan and Morgan charges legal fees on a contingency fee basis. This means you do not pay any upfront legal fees. Instead, your attorney receives payment when you receive compensation from your insurance company and/or the monetary damages awarded by a judge.

Schedule a free case evaluation to learn more about personal injury shoulder settlements.