Settling your case is a big decision because the most important thing happens, and the insurance companies love it, they don’t pay you any more bills and they don’t give you any more wages and they put you on a microfiche, and they’re done with you.
You need to be careful. I say this every day a lot. The value of your case for settlement is what they’ll spend on you in the future.
So if my client has a surgery in the future and we ascertain the surgery is worth $10,000 and you’re going to be out of work six months, we can add those widgets, I call “building blocks”.
In your case, it might be worth $20,000-$50,000.
You’re paralyzed and you need diapers and catheters the rest of your life, they’re going to spend millions on you. Your case is a million-dollar claim.
But the value is what they’ll spend on you in the future. The next thing is to figure out what exactly is another opinion, because a lot of times, you want two opinions from the doctors. Two heads are better than one.
One doctor says “no surgery,” one says “yes,” the value of your claim comes up.
And finally, you need to be careful because the adjuster is calling the human resource boss man and they’re talking to each other all the time, “Do you want this guy still here? Is he a good employee? Is this somebody that we’d enjoy getting rid of?” because a lot of times, they’ll request a voluntary resignation.
If I represent you, that’s going to increase the value because they are asking you to quit the job that you have. It doesn’t happen in all cases, it happens on a lot.
So settlement is washing the case out, stepping away from the workers’ comp where they don’t pay you any money and they don’t pay you medicals, and it’s all determined by how much they are going to pay in the future.
