Whether we’re talking about a motor vehicle accident, medical mistake, or slip-and-fall, one of the surest paths to unfair financial compensation is signing off on the insurance company’s initial settlement offer without first running it by a Naples personal injury lawyer.
This might be OK if the only losses you’ve suffered are property damage and some minor injuries. But if you were hospitalized, had bones broken, had to take off work for a while, etc., it’s important to avoid signing away your rights to pursue full and fair damages by agreeing to the first settlement offer insurers put in front of you without having a lawyer look at it.
Insurance companies commonly try to take advantage of the fact that you are in shock, traumatized, concerned about money, and don’t realize your case may be worth a lot more. If you sign off on the first settlement agreement they thrust in front of you, you could well be signing away your right to a great deal more money.
At the very least, having a Naples personal injury lawyer review it will give you peace of mind that the deal you’re inking isn’t going to be to your detriment down the road. Settling an injury case too quickly means you might not have a complete sense of the full scope of your losses – in which case a settlement can mean you’ll be losing money.
It’s not about being greedy. It’s about making sure you don’t end up paying out of your own pocket for an injury caused by someone else’s carelessness.
Most Naples Personal Injury Cases Are Resolved Via Settlement
To be clear: There can be many advantages to settling a Naples personal injury case as opposed to taking it to trial. Among those:
- Quick resolution. Trials can take a long time – months, even years. Fair settlements can be obtained rather quickly. Just don’t rush to sign off until a qualified injury lawyer reviews it.
- Certainty. Both sides have a measure of control in the outcome when they negotiate a settlement out-of-court. If you take it to a judge or jury, there’s no guarantee of a favorable outcome.
- Reduced costs. The longer a case drags on, the more it’s going to cost everyone in attorney fees, expert witness expenses, etc. Not to mention, you’ll have bills piling up.
More than 95% of injury claims are resolved this way. Sometimes, there’s no need to even file a lawsuit. But the key to fairness is making sure all of your damages – past, current, and future – have been taken into consideration. You also need to be sure that you have considered every claim avenue (all relevant insurance policies, etc.).
As Naples personal injury lawyers, we do not caution against settling injury cases in general. It’s not even about waiting a set amount of time. (Definitely don’t take TOO long to decide your course of action. The Florida statute of limitations in most personal injury cases is 2 years, per F.S. 95.11.) The issue is settling right away without any input from your own attorney. Insurance companies have their own attorneys on staff. You want someone who will look out for YOUR best interests.
What You Could Lose in Quickly Signing a Settlement
If you sign a settlement agreement after an injury, you’re generally going to forfeit any right to future damages – even if you later realize you were rightly owed a whole lot more. After you settle, you can’t reopen the case or file another lawsuit – even if the settlement agreement was unfair.
For fair settlement of a Florida personal injury claim, plaintiffs need to have a good understanding of the following:
- Whether they’ve reached maximum medical improvement. In other words, have you fully recovered or reached a stable point in your treatment and aren’t expected to make much additional progress? If you have not, you at least need a good sense of what that looks like and when you will reach it. Without this understanding, it’s hard to quantify the actual impact of your injuries.
- How the injuries have impacted your life. Do you know yet whether this is going to require additional treatment, therapy, medication, etc.? Can you still work in the same capacity? How has it affected your close relationships and your ability to enjoy all the things you did before the injury? All of this also factors into how much your case is worth.
- Your legal rights and options. You might have a strong case to ask for more money from the insurer(s). Or you might not, but you should have a clear understanding of how the law applies to your case before signing anything.
Even if you’re fairly confident that what you’re about to sign is in your best interests, having a Naples personal injury lawyer give the agreement a once-over helps ensure you aren’t making a big mistake.
If you have been injured in Fort Myers, Port Charlotte, Sarasota, Cape Coral, Naples, or Key West, contact Garvin Injury Law at 800.977.7017 for a free consultation.
Additional Resources:
How to Hire a Lawyer, The Florida Bar
More Blog Entries:
5 Must-Know Facts About Florida Personal Injury Law, Dec. 13, 2023, Naples Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog