Evaluating Long-Term Impacts in Personal Injury Settlements
Don’t let long-term impacts in personal injury settlements short-change you.
You can see immediate impacts of a personal injury case: the hospital bill, ambulance ride, initial surgery, and so on…
The problem is: few people stop to think about long-term impacts that could cost hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of dollars in the future.
Without factoring in future medical needs, you may be settling for pennies on the dollar.
Misjudging long-term impacts can destroy your financial future. That’s why it’s important to fully understand long-term impacts in personal injury settlements before signing a settlement agreement.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- How Long-Term Impacts Shape Settlement Values
- The Hidden Costs Most People Miss
- Why Future Medical Expenses Are So Important
- How to Calculate Long-Term Financial Impact
How Long-Term Impacts Shape Settlement Values
Future effects are the hidden threats that destroy personal injury payouts.
Here’s why: Based on Statista data, 95% of personal injury cases get resolved without going to court. Most people are just happy to get some quick money and don’t bother thinking about how things will look five, ten, or twenty years down the road.
Serious injuries have a nasty habit of coming back to bite you later in life. A traumatic brain injury “feels” a lot less bad when you’re able to see what that looks like years down the road. All the cognitive therapy, specialized equipment, and medical monitoring that comes with TBI adds up.
Experienced personal injury lawyers like Bourdon & Tortolero know that every single settlement must account for long-term impacts or risk becoming a huge financial mistake years later.
Average personal injury settlements have settled at around $113,391 from 2016 to 2023. However, individual cases involving long-term impacts often settle for much higher dollar figures. Savvy lawyers know how to properly evaluate future needs and include them in settlement figures.
The Hidden Costs Most People Miss
If you want to know what makes the difference between a good settlement and a great one…
It’s understanding the hidden costs most people never anticipate.
They’re not just medical bills — these are life-altering expenses that can ruin your finances for years to come.
Future Medical Procedures
Injuries may require further surgery or medical procedures in the future. Joints wear out. Scar tissue builds up and causes problems. Old injuries can get infected years later.
These are not just possibilities. They’re very likely. Everything that might occur later must be counted in the final settlement amounts.
Long-Term Rehabilitation
Physical therapy is often ongoing long after you leave the hospital. In some cases, people need years, even decades, of additional rehab. This costs money for weekly PT, OT, ST, pain management, and even counseling.
Medical Equipment and Modifications
Serious injuries often require lifestyle changes that cost a fortune. Wheelchairs. Home modifications (ramps, widened doorways). Vehicle modifications (swivel seats, ramps). Specialized equipment. Replacement costs. Maintenance. All these things cost money.
Something most people don’t realize is this…
Wheelchairs wear out. You need a new one every 3-5 years on average. A single wheelchair can cost $30,000 or more. Multiply that by a few dozen replacements over a lifetime, and you have six-figure medical equipment costs.
Lost Earning Capacity
This is often the biggest hidden cost of all.
Getting hurt stops you from going back to your old job, or at least earning the same pay. You could still have a job, but the money you make would be lower. Over a lifetime, that can easily add up to the millions in reduced lifetime earnings.
The younger someone is when injured, the bigger the money loss from reduced earning ability. (The reason you see big dollar settlements for people in their 20s or 30s).
Why Future Medical Expenses Are So Important
Upcoming medical costs aren’t simply figures written on paper. They’re your lifeline to a decent quality of life.
Here’s the harsh reality: after you put your name on the settlement agreement, you can’t change your mind. You cannot reopen the case later, asking for more money when your medical needs change. It’s over, forever.
Which is why getting future medical costs wrong can be disastrous.
When properly accounted for, future medical expenses are what drive catastrophic injury cases to settle for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
The Calculation Challenge
Figuring out future medical expenses isn’t guesswork or fortune telling. It’s an educated process of medical expert review, economic projections, life care planning, and statistical analysis using life expectancy data.
It’s a team effort of professionals working together to make sure the numbers are correct.
Types of Future Medical Costs
Upcoming medical expenses cover:
- Ongoing doctor visits
- Future surgeries
- Long-term medications
- Medical equipment
- Home healthcare needs
- Transportation to/from appointments
Each of these has subcategories and needs to be thought through in detail.
How to Calculate Long-Term Financial Impact
Calculating long-term financial impact is both art and science.
It starts with a comprehensive medical evaluation of your condition. What do doctors project your long-term prognosis to look like? What type of ongoing treatment and care will you need in the future?
Then you have economic experts factor in things like healthcare inflation, geographic cost of living factors, and even changes in insurance coverage over time.
Tomorrow’s expenses must be calculated as today’s value (what that future money equals right now). This involves a complex calculation of investment returns, inflation rates, and risk factors.
Big things that impact these projections include:
- Age of injury victim (younger means higher lifetime costs)
- Severity of injury
- Pre-existing conditions
- Geographic location (urban areas cost more for medical services)
Without expert testimony from doctors and economists, it’s nearly impossible to get proper compensation for long-term impacts.
Making Sure Nothing Gets Missed
The biggest mistake is rushing to settle the case.
Insurance companies love quick settlements. The longer a case lingers, the more likely it is the full extent of long-term impacts become clear. They’d much rather pay out a small sum now than risk a large payment years down the road.
Don’t be fooled. Take the time to fully evaluate long-term impacts before signing any settlement offer. This may mean waiting for your condition to stabilize, getting multiple medical opinions, or working with economic experts.
Be wary of settlement offers that do not include future medical costs, come very early in the process, or come with pressure to settle quickly. Remember – once you sign it’s over, no second chances.
Maximizing Your Long-Term Recovery
Getting maximum long-term compensation takes strategy.
Document everything. Keep records of medical treatments, time off work, and activities you can no longer do. Get multiple medical opinions from various specialists to develop a complete picture of future needs.
Work with experienced professionals — personal injury attorneys, medical experts, financial analysts. Don’t rush. Good settlements take time especially when your condition is still evolving.
Wrapping It All Together
Long-term impacts in personal injury settlements are not just about money. These decisions affect how well you’ll live in the years ahead.
Getting this part right means having the resources for proper medical care and financial security. Getting it wrong means struggling to pay for basic living costs for decades to come.
The fact that 95% of cases settle before trial makes making sure you get fair compensation for long-term impacts all the more important. Don’t allow insurance company tactics to make you accept less money than you should get.
Take the time to fully evaluate your long-term needs. Work with the experienced professionals who understand how to project future costs. This is probably your single opportunity to receive the money you’ll require for your entire lifetime.
The person you become later will be grateful you handled this correctly.