If you’ve been injured at work, then you probably know you’re entitled to a settlement, and you may even be able to get yourself a hefty sum depending on the severity of your injuries. However, you’ll need to work with a work injury attorney in Houston to ensure you know when a settlement is worth taking. Your attorney will also let you know when you should fight for more.
Ask a Work Injury Attorney in Houston: How Do You Know If a Settlement Is Worth Taking?
The easiest way to figure out whether or not a settlement is worth taking is by talking to a work injury attorney. Check out this site to contact several of the top work injury attorneys you’ll find in Houston. Your attorney knows when an insurance company is lowballing you. They’re also aware of when it’s unlikely that they’ll give you a higher offer. Therefore, following their advice is key.
You and your attorney will work together to come up with a sum to claim before your employer’s insurance company even makes you its first offer. This means that from day one, you will have a good idea of the kind of sum you’re looking at accepting. You may not win the exact amount you’re claiming, but the offer you accept should be close enough to the original number. You and your attorney will base how much you claim based on various criteria.
What Kind of Compensation Can You Claim After a Work Injury?
1. Lost Wages
Becoming injured on the job usually leads to you having to take some time off to recover. If it’s a minor injury, then you may only miss a couple of days, but if it’s something major, you may find yourself out of work for months. Regardless of how long you haven’t been working, your employer’s insurance company will have to reimburse you for what you would’ve earned had you been working your usual hours.
2. Future Lost Wages
Unfortunately, some injuries are so bad that they leave you disabled and unable to work full-time. If you’ve been left unable to work full-time or unable to work at all for the foreseeable future, then you can be reimbursed for what you most likely would have earned had you been working your usual hours.
This stands true even if you’ll be unable to work for the rest of your life. You’ll be compensated for what you would have earned between now and retirement, including any bonuses, vacation pay, and pay rises you are likely to get.
3. Medical Bills
Keep all medical bills you paid or are being asked to pay after your injury. You’ll be reimbursed for the cost of your treatment. You may be asked to undergo a medical assessment to prove your injuries did, in fact, come as a result of the injury you obtained at work. The assessment will be done by an unbiased party who isn’t your regular physician.
4. Future Medical Expenses
Sometimes treatment doesn’t end when you leave the hospital after having your initial injury dealt with. You may be on medication, need physical therapy, or need major adjustments to your home to accommodate a disability. You can be reimbursed for all of these things in a settlement after being injured at work. Your doctors and attorney can work together to predict how much you’re likely to pay in medical expenses based on the injury for the rest of your life.
5. Emotional Damages
Every injury, even a minor one, can cause some emotional distress. There’s a formula your attorney can use to calculate how much you can be paid in emotional damages after an injury. From there, you can evaluate how much this injury has impacted your life, and the sum you can claim for emotional distress will grow depending on the impact the injury has had.
6. Legal Bills
One of the best things about personal injury law is how injured parties are expected to pay for legal aid. A workplace injury is a type of personal injury, so it falls under the umbrella of personal injury law. Personal injury attorneys charge a contingent fee, so if you don’t win a settlement, then they don’t get paid. Your employer’s insurance company will have to pay your legal fees on top of the rest of your compensation if you win your case.
Any well-practiced work injury attorney will be able to tell you when it’s worth taking a settlement offered by your employer’s insurance company. They know the number you should be striving for, and they’ll always know when it’s unlikely that an insurance company will make a higher offer than one they’ve already presented to you. Following your attorney’s advice is key to getting a fair settlement after a work injury.