Dietrich Law Firm PC Jed Dietrich How to Value a Personal Injury in Buffalo NY

We also like to bring you great information when it comes to protecting yourself. We're going to talk a little bit about being hurt, whether it's on-the-job it's in a personal injury situation and we brought in Jed Dietrich who's a wonderful respected local attorney to talk about this. Because anybody who's had anybody in their family hurt or have been the victim of some kind of accident and it brings into mind a personal injury suit. Jed, you and your team have to work with, what do you ask for in damages. And that can be daunting to someone who's not working with an attorney. I think sometimes we undervaluate, undervalue ourselves and you need a professional to come in and say here's what you're looking at. That's right Linda and before we get started I wanted to thank all of our veterans today. Today is Veterans Day and the kids are off from school but a lot of people are working and I think some people forget in today's society what sacrifices folks are making over there and in Iraq and in Afghanistan and some of the other places.

Whether you're for the war, against the war, you’ve got to be for the troops either way. So I personally recognize the sacrifices that were made by our folks now and over the years. Many decades people have made sacrifices to make this democracy what it is. Well said. And then that brings us to my job, as a lawyer, to represent people and try to help them through the system. Make it easy for them and at my office that's what we do. As you know, we return every phone call within one business day and when people call and they have questions we have answers. And we're talking today about damages in a personal injury claim. How do you determine how much somebody's case is worth? And what you do is, there are instructions from a judge and these instructions have been created over the years, many years, and they've said let's take a look at what juries look at and let's try to determine the most rational way to figure out how much somebody is entitled to as a result of an injury.

And what they generally look at is your time missed from work and if you miss a certain amount of time from work and you make let's say $1,000 a month and you miss 12 months and right there you should have at least $12,000 in compensation and then they take a look at what's more difficult, it's called pain and suffering, and when you talk to a personal injury lawyer or when you think about hiring a personal injury lawyer generally that's the first thing that comes to mind. What is the value of my case because I'm in pain and I didn't do anything wrong I'm sitting in a light and I get rear-ended. I did not deserve that. And you get into a situation where you say I can't go to work. My doctor says I cannot physically work. So, in a car accident setting, we're lucky because we're in a No-Fault state, which means that your wages are reimbursed by your own No-Fault company to a certain extent and your medical bills are paid by your own insurance company.

So that's great you have got a security blanket there and if you're in a car accident, you are injured you cannot work you have a security blanket. What you need is a lawyer to represent you concerning your pain and suffering from something like that. So you get hit by a drunk driver, you get rear-ended, you can sometimes you can have a pedestrian and I've handled all of these cases in my office. We have a team a smaller team in our office. We try to say we treat every client like family and and we treat people the way we want to be treated. And I'm happy to answer some calls today if people want to call in and if they don't get through to our lines they can always call me at my office at 716-839-3939 and we're available. My website is calljed.com and I have got some information there.

So when we're talking about the value of injuries we're looking at how much time someone misses from work and then we try to determine what their pain and suffering is or their loss of enjoyment of life. In New York there's a specific charge that the judges and the juries talk and talk about and hear and it's your inability to enjoy life like you used to. You like to go out and walk your dog and you can't walk around Delaware Park anymore then you can't walk around Delaware Park and there's a value to that. And what it is is what a judge or a jury may think it is or what we negotiate on your behalf and I've got the experience of handling many many cases over many years over a decade. I've just been handling serious injury cases to have a pretty good feel for what the cases are worth and to try to make the best out of every particular case that I can. I didn't realize that it really started with the judge that's interesting to me.

It does. The judge is in control. We like to say the judge is the king of the sandbox. So the judge makes the rules and in the courtroom if there's an big ambiguity with the rules and if there isn't there's a certain set of rules that are prescribed they're called pattern jury instructions. Interesting, so can you can the jury actually go higher or lower than what the the judge states? Now well typically when it comes to valuing an injury the judge will give a set of instructions to the jury and the jury will then apply the instructions to a specific case. So let's say somebody has a broken foot the judge will say, okay if the person’s at fault, you're entitled to money or damages. You have to value now the damages for the period of time the person missed from work, potentially, or for the period of time they couldn't enjoy their regular activities and the judge says you have to value your loss of enjoyment of life.

So the jurors then say to me in jury selection or after the case is done “well how do we value how much a case is worth?” Well, you have to make certain analogies. A house is worth, let's say, $100,000 in Buffalo. I mean you can tear down a house and rebuild a new house. You can never get a new foot if you're stuck walking with the limp. And Jed you're so right. And for you to do that without the expertise of a good attorney you're really only short sheeting your own bed. You really need to get a professional in there to take a look at this and Jed is your guy. The Dietrich Law Firm located at John James Audubon Pkwy in Amherst. Give them a call (716) 839-3939. (716) 839-3939 and you'll get Jed and his wonderful staff to be able to talk with you. calljed.com that's also a great way to get in touch. Thank you, that’s enlightening. Really good to know. Okay we'll see you again soon.