How much is my lawsuit worth?

Question

January 2005 was dining in a restaurant and was eating coleslaw, took a spoonful of it and put it in my mouth, spit it out and discovered that I had just put glass in my mouth. About a week later was hospitalized and developed an infection in my tongue. Spent about a week in the hospital and for about a year was on prescribed heavy duty narcotics. Summer of 2006 had an ablation done in my mouth to ease pain. The people we are sueing have REFUSED to settle outside of court. We have an arbitration court date set for January 2008. Basically says that if we win arbitration the max that will be awarded is $50,000. My lawyer says if this is won we can then go in for more money. SO IN THE END HOW MUCH WILL THIS CASE BE WORTH?

Answer 1

You will probably only get your actual medical bills reimbursed and if you are lucky, your lost wages.

Check out the message boards at www.lawyers.com.

You don't just get rich because there was a piece of glass in your food. You only get *actual* damages and perhaps a small amount for your pain and suffering. But please check out lawyers.com, it's very informative and free!

Answer 2

First, refusing to settle out of court has no effect at all on the value of the lawsuit. If I was on the jury I would likely award actual medical bills. If you could show lost wages resulting from the injury, I may award damages for that. Unless those damages exceeded whatever the arbitration awarded, I would NOT award you attorney's fees. If you were offered a reasonable settlement, you could have avoided the attorney fees by accepting it.

Answer 3

The possible damages include past and future medical bills, lost wages, if any, due to the injury, plus a subjective amount for pain and suffering. Keep in mind that you have a duty to mitigate your damages, which means to keep them as low as possible. So the damages would be reduced if the defendant could prove that you failed to obtain the proper medical care or did not follow doctor's instructions to the T, or if you failed to return to work after the doctor gave you a release, etc. The facts given are insufficient to allow a specific educated guess.

Answer 4

Is it disputed that the glass came from their resturant?

Dont expect Defendants to make you an offer before the arb judgment. You will have a better idea after your arb hearing. If a judgement is made in your favor, Defendants will most likely try to settle with you. Defendants will proceed to offer you a settlement amt. within the low range of their insurance policy limits. A great way to determine what range to expect is to look at similar case settlement amounts in or near your jurisdiction. I'm sure your attorney will have an idea... call him, he is your attorney.

Answer 5

nicely all-state protects you from Mayhem (you're Mayhem) and your settlement would be based on the quantity of your medical costs. i might wager like 50-100k after a magnificent 3 year wait, assuming you have a attorney , getting hit by utilising a vehicle isn't any humorous tale particularly if there is everlasting injury.

Answer 6

Well you should be entitled to not only hospital visits payment but also payment for "stress" or however they refer to it as.

How much is the company worth? If its a tiny restaurant then I doubt you will get a whole lot. I remember some woman sued and received from Dunkin $100,000 just because she took a sip of coffee and burned her tongue I believe.

Answer 7

It really depends on how good your lawyer is, but I'm assuming it would at least be worth double or triple the arbitration based on the information provided.

Answer 8

If you're just looking for a greed-oriented "solution", look for it to blow up in your face if you push it too hard and try to get a bigger payday.