Does the Age of the Victim Matter in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
Age is definitely a consideration in personal injury lawsuits. For example, a younger person who suffers a long-term injury loses more “earning capacity” than an older one. Aside from that, society possesses an instinct of guardianship when it comes to children, and this instinct tends to carry into its institutions.
Aside from the tendency to award larger settlements in cases involving an injury to a child, insurance companies might offer more or less on the basis of other age-related factors. The following are other factors that can influence a settlement.
Stage of Life Factors
Life is simply more expensive in certain stages than in others. The average 30-year-old, for example, may have just been getting their career on track, paying a mortgage, and barely staying afloat before being injured. These factors can increase the value of a plaintiff’s case substantially.
Many plaintiffs in their thirties and forties are likely supporting at least one dependent. For heads of households, the number of dependents for which they are responsible is a huge factor in personal injury suits because the injury affects multiple people and causes a greater degree of harm.
On the other hand, some stages of life are well-established and more stable. A retiree, say, who suffers a broken bone may have no other obligations than to go home and focus on recovery. The injury could be the same as the 30-year-old’s, but the retiree probably doesn’t take a crippling financial hit. These factors are more reflective of the attitudes of juries and insurance companies than actual civil statutes.
Pain and Suffering
It’s a bit strange to think of pain and suffering as an age-related factor, but it can be. In the eyes of many, an injury inflicted on a younger person is more egregious because a younger person will have to live with the injury longer and has thus lost more quality of life.
The Legal Tendencies of a Plaintiff’s Age Group
Insurance is strictly numbers and probability; there’s not much room for compassion. If insurance companies could weigh pain and suffering in pounds and ounces, they would. This is not so evil as it sounds; it’s just a matter of practicality. Juries and the system of litigation at large acts as a counterbalance to the cutthroat nature of the insurance business.
A plaintiff’s age group tells insurance companies a lot about where a case is likely to go. The hypothetical retiree from earlier might be willing to settle for less than the 30-year-old whose injury had severe, long-term financial consequences. Since insurance companies don’t know plaintiffs personally, they use what statistics tell them are the attitudes and circumstances of age groups.
Occasionally, this strategy backfires, and insurance companies run into a retiree who has all the time in the world and wants to spend it negotiating a larger settlement. In the long run, however, this kind of age profiling is an effective tool for insurance companies, which manage to avoid trials in the vast majority of all personal injury cases, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Getting the Best Settlement
It may seem like common sense, but the first thing anyone should do when injured is consult an experienced personal injury lawyer. You can click this link to complete a free personal injury case evaluation form with a multilingual firm.
A personal injury lawyer will consider all of the facts and determine the value of a case based on its strength and scope. With the plaintiff’s go-ahead, the firm will then begin pretrial negotiations for the determined amount. Attorneys have an advantage in negotiations because they understand the value of a claim, and they won’t be tricked into settling for less. Furthermore, economic damage analysis is essential for helping juries and judges understand complex financial issues and make informed decisions.
