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You've suffered a significant injury and you want to know how much is your case worth?
My name is Michael Hill and I'm an attorney here at Spangenberg, Shibley & Liber law firm
in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm a medical malpractice and personal injury attorney. And I want to
tell you a little bit about what is the difference in compensation for particular cases. The
first thing that needs to be considered in determining how much a case is worth is the
venue or the location where the case is pending. The juries that are selected for cases come
out of the county where the case has been filed. So the jurors in Cuyahoga County or
Franklin County or Hamilton County may decide cases differently or decide the monetary value
of a case differently than someone in Tuscarawas or a different county. That's because jurors
bring in certain biases or have certain views about lawsuits and how much their worth. That
maybe sometimes seems a little unfair but that simply the way things are. The other
thing that we need to look at is your age. How old are you or were you when the injury
occurred? If you were 19 years old when you suffered an injury, it may be worth more than
if you were 90 years old when you suffered an injury. That's in part of how long you'll
be asked or will be required to suffer the effects of this injury. Another thing that
needs to be considered is your condition both before and after you were injured. For example,
if you were hit in an automobile accident and now have shoulder problems there is going
to be a question as to whether or not you had pre-existing shoulder conditions before.
Your condition before the accident and after the accident needs to be considered and becomes
part of the evaluation in determining how much your case is worth. Another factor in
determining how much a case is worth is lost earnings. What I mean by that is how much
money you were making before the injury occurred. Let me give you an example. If you were making
$100,000 dollars before the injury occurred and you're forced to be out of employment
for 6 months, an attorney like myself can hire an economist who can come in and put
together an evaluation and tell you this is how much money you've lost over time. And
that's a finite number that we can present to the jury and they can evaluate that. In
the same way, if you were making $100,000 dollars a year and you'll be forced to miss
future employment, again, we can bring in an economist and we can show how much lost
earnings you'll have in the future. So of course, if you made $100,000 dollars at the
time of the injury there's going to be a different amount of money that can be compensated then
if you were making $20,000 dollars or were unemployed at the time of the incident. We
also need to look at medical bills. Even though people have a similar injury, sometimes the
medical bills are different. And again, medical bills are something that can be compensated.
So if you have had to pay $100,000 dollars in past medical bills, that's something that
can be presented to the jury and they can award for that. Likewise, if you're going
to need future medical care -- future surgeries, rehabilitation, physical therapy, whatever
it is -- we can present that to the jury and they can make a determination based on how
much in the future you'll be asked to pay. What we also need to look at is your own personal
pain and suffering. That's the conscious pain and suffering that you've gone through as
a result of the injury. That's less difficult -- or that's more difficult -- to predict
and that's something that depends on what the jury awards based on them viewing the
specific client. Now these are just simple examples of what can be awarded in a medical
malpractice or personal injury case. Now to get a clear evaluation, we need to look at
a specific client and specific injuries and how much the lost earnings, medical bills
and everything else taken as a whole. My name is Michael Hill. If you have questions, pick
up the phone and call me at Spangenberg, Shibley & Liber law firm. I'd be happy to talk to
you. I speak with clients like you on a daily basis. Thank you for watching.