There are two ways to find out what a personal injury case is worth. One is the insurance
company way. The other is the way of the trial lawyer storyteller.
Insurance companies value cases robotically. They add up the medical bills, make a table
of the diagnosis codes from the medical records, and then feed this data into software that
they have developed.
The software then spits out a dollar amount. To the insurance company this is the “value”
of the case.
The way that trial lawyers like me find the value of the case is to find the story of the
case.
Let’s take for example two individuals with identical injuries: 1) a herniated disc in the
neck, and; 2) nerve injuries in the hand.
One of the injured is a concert pianist and the other is a computer programmer whose
passion is chess.
Both have pain in the neck and radiating numbness and weakness down the arm. Both
have nerve injuries in the hand that cause permanent loss of motion in the ring finger,
with pain and numbness while sleeping.
On the surface, the injuries may seem identical. However, each injured person has a
unique story.
The Concert Pianist
The concert pianist’s livelihood and personal identity depend upon the dexterity of her
fingers. The loss of function in the ring finger causes the end of a career built upon years
of dedication, study, and practice. Her parents went into debt so that she could study at
the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her greatest thrill was the thundering applause
and the bouquet of flowers brought to her on stage after her first solo performance with
an orchestra. The inability to perform the intricate movements required to play her
repertoire shatters her dreams, wipes out her life’s work, and takes away an identity she
has known since childhood.
The Chess-Loving Programmer
The computer programmer suffers pain and limitations, but, with occupational therapy, is
able to find ways to adapt and continue pursuing his career and hobbies. He suffers
constant pain in his neck and the pain in his ring finger wakes him up at night. However,
by alternating between sitting and standing every 30 minutes, and by using adaptive
cushions and braces, he is able to continue his job as a programmer, and continue to play
in chess tournaments. The quality of his life is greatly diminished, but his career and
identity have not been wiped out.
These cases have the same injuries but different stories. Both have value, but one has
more value. However, the insurance company software will say that the cases have the
same value. The insurance company does not care much about the story. The insurance
adjuster is authorized only to input data into the software and follow the direction of the
software.
Finding and then telling the client’s story leads to a fair value for each individual case.
Every case is different because every person is different.
Of course, a lawyer should try to settle the case for the client in pre-litigation settlement
negotiations. To do so, the trial lawyer must speak the language of the insurance
company software, and ensure that the insurance company uploads all data that will show
the highest value that the software will allow. Sometimes that value can be acceptable.
Many times it is unfairly low. Once the lawyer leaves the terrain of the insurance
company settlement software and moves forward in litigation, he can harness the power
of the story.
Some lawyers accumulate large numbers of cases through massive advertising, and then
delegate much of the work to secretaries and paralegals. Such a massive volume of cases
makes it impossible for the lawyer to learn his clients’ stories. The lawyer loses the
power of the story, and has only the language of the insurance company software– – just
a table of bills and a list of injuries that his paralegal has assembled. A lawyer without
the story is not able to obtain a fair outcome for his client.
When the value that the insurance company software comes up with is unfairly low, the
lawyer must litigate the case. First, he has to get to really know his client, so that he can
know his client’s story. Second, he has to tell the story with his opening statement at trial,
and through testimony and documents he presents at trial.
Insurance companies don’t care about stories, but people on juries and on arbitration
panels do. The human story will always triumph over the algorithm.
John Evans Injury Law
