The number one Illinois personal injury question is, “How much is my case worth?” While I think people should focus on their health above all, I get why that’s something they are curious about.
Another thing to think about is how to get the highest value for your case and what it takes to actually get to a settlement being offered that you’d want to accept. Interestingly enough, those two things usually have the same answer.
To get the most money for a settlement, you want to get the best lawyer for your case. And to get a settlement offer that maximizes what you can get, you also need the best Illinois personal injury lawyer for your case.
Insurance companies don’t just hand out money. They make billions of dollars a year by minimizing what they spend on a case. Their strategy is often to deny and delay even when it’s unreasonable. Some car accident insurance companies have taken the strategy that they will fight every case. Their thought process is that if lawyers know that they’ll have to work hard, they won’t want to take on some of the cases. Sadly that strategy seems to work. It can be hard to get a good lawyer for a case worth less than $25,000.
The way insurance companies actually give you their best offer is dependent on two things. One is they realize they have high risk if the case goes to trial. That means they could have to pay out more money than they think they should.
The second way you get a great settlement is by your lawyer doing the work that needs to be done. You may have heard the phrase “settled on the courthouse steps.” That means that a case was resolved right before a trial was set to begin. To do that, your attorney would have taken all of the depositions needed and gotten the case actually ready to go to trial. It’s a lot of work! And it costs the lawyer more than time, but also money.
Insurance companies also will settle cases with firms that have a reputation for doing the work and actually going to trial. If they don’t think your lawyer will take two weeks to try a case, they won’t ever offer fair value. But if they know that the firm you hired has tried lots of cases successfully, they are much more likely to acknowledge that reputation and be fair in their offer.
And the reality is that the closer you get to an actual trial, if your case has strong facts, the much higher leverage you have to get a great settlement offer. So while this doesn’t mean you’ll never get a good settlement before a lot of work has been done, it’s a huge risk to not hire a firm with a reputation of going to trial.
Final thought. These firms with a great reputation often make a case worth more money. That means that if one law firm would tell you to take a $2 million settlement, they’d be able to get you $4 million. Every case is different of course, but there is a reason that we see the same firms getting top results year after year.
If you’d like to speak with a lawyer for free to discuss which law firm is best for you, contact us any time. We promise to treat you like a family member or friend.
