It is only natural to want to know the potential amount of compensation you may receive after sustaining an SCI in a preventable incident. After all, SCIs can come with enormous lifetime costs that can easily total more than $1 million.
The short and unsatisfying answer to that question, however, is it depends. Although most SCIs inflict large expenses on their victims, the amount of money a victim can hope to recover may vary.
Here are some of the most important considerations for Manhattan lawyers, insurance companies, judges, and juries in valuing a claim:
The nature and impact of the SCI. As we described above, SCIs vary in their severity and the impact they cause in a person’s life. As a general matter, the more severe the SCI and the more profound its effects on a person’s day-to-day life, the more money the person ought to receive as compensation.
Your age, family situation, income, and overall state of health before the SCI. A variety of factors having to do with the victim’s own life circumstances play into the calculation of appropriate damages for an SCI. Some of these factors seem fair, some perhaps less so. For example, compensation depends in part on age and overall health, which makes some sense since the cost of living with SCI will be greater for a victim with a longer expected lifespan. On the other hand, compensation also depends in part on the size of the victim’s lost income, which seems a little arbitrary since the impact of SCI is just as large (if not larger) on a person with low income as a person with high income.
The financial resources available to pay your claim. As a practical matter, the money available to pay damages can affect the value of a claim for damages. A legally liable party with lots of insurance can, in effect, pay more than a legally liable party with minimal (or no) insurance. This is why it is important to hire a lawyer with the skill and experience to identify and pursue all parties with a potential legal liability for your SCI.