Is There A Minimum Personal Injury Settlement Amount in Colorado?

---

There is no minimum personal injury settlement amount in Colorado per se; it is a strict matter of negotiation between the insurance carrier and our office. The settlement amount in any particular case will depend upon various factors.

Does The Severity Of My Injury From An Auto Accident Ensure A Larger Settlement?

The severity of injuries from an auto accident make a larger settlement more probable and it is certainly one of the things that an insurance carrier looks at in evaluating how much money they want to offer to settle a case. Generally, they will offer a lesser amount for a lesser injury, and they will offer more for a severe, more permanent injury that will require extensive treatment. However, sustaining a severe injury will not necessarily ensure a larger settlement. For example, a person may have been significantly injured, but the injury may not have necessarily been the defendant’s fault.

If a person was severely injured in an automobile collision and there is no evidence to demonstrate that the other driver was at fault, then the simple fact that a person was severely injured would not ensure a large settlement (or any settlement at all, for that matter). Not all cases are that clear and sometimes the issues of liability and fault are highly disputed. We will certainly do everything we can to advance a client’s argument, which is usually that the other driver was either totally or substantially at fault for causing the collision and the subsequent injuries and damages.

What Is Maximum Medical Improvement? How Might It Affect My Personal Injury Case?

The term “maximum medical improvement” is derived primarily from the workers’ compensation system and applies when a person who was injured on the job brings a claim against their employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier. However, it applies to other kinds of personal injury cases as well, including auto collisions, slip and falls, animal bite cases and any type of injury that was substantially not the claimant’s fault. A person is said to have reached maximum medical improvement when their treating provider deems that the treatment has run its course. In other words, it means that a person has reached a point at which their condition will no longer improve with additional treatment. Ultimately, it is based on the opinion of the medical provider, because as attorneys we are not trained in the medical field.

Unfortunately, some people will never fully recover from an injury. For example, a person may reach a point at which they have healed 80 percent and will never reach 100 percent recovery. If there is still a deficit between a person’s current condition and a state of full recovery at the time of maximum medical improvement, then that deficit would be considered permanent. The extent of a person’s recovery or lack thereof will affect the value of their case.

For more information on Minimum Personal Injury Settlement Amount, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (303) 870-8492 today.