The damages that you’ve suffered in your car accident probably have you looking for financial resources, and you probably needed that support yesterday.

Navigating your losses can be enormously stressful, too, given that you’ve probably been left without the income that you need to cover extraordinary medical expenses. Making matters worse is the fact that your pain and suffering and physical limitations may be more than you feel like you can contend with.

The good news is that you may be able to recover compensation through a personal injury lawsuit so long as you can show that your accident and your injuries were caused by someone else’s negligence.

As you navigate your claim, it’s important to remember that a settlement offer may not be best for you even though it promises to give you a quick infusion of cash.

Reasons why a settlement may not be best for you

Even if a settlement offer looks great, it might not be the best option for resolving your case. Here’s why:

• Your case might be worth far more: Settlement offers are always going to be for less than your claim is worth. But to figure out if it’s at least in the ballpark, you need to know what your claim is worth. To do so, you’ll need to carefully analyze your damages, including your lost wages, incurred medical expenses, anticipated medical expenses, and pain and suffering.
• You may have stronger legal arguments than you think: During settlement negotiations, the other side is going to try to get you to doubt the strength of your case. They might do this by questioning your evidence or indicating that they have experts who will contradict your position. Make sure you have a firm grasp of the facts of your case and the evidence that you’re prepared to present so that you have an understanding of your case’s strengths and weaknesses. After all, your case may be strong enough to proceed to trial to recover the full extent of your damages.
• Your claim may proceed faster than you expect: Although a personal injury case may take a while to get to trial, your claim may proceed faster than you expect. In other words, you might not have to wait as long as you expect to obtain a judgment in court, which is often a factor when people decide to take a quick settlement offer.
• You may not feel like justice was served: Although much of the focus in a personal injury case is on recovering the compensation that you need to offset losses, there’s another aspect of your claim: finding accountability. If you settle your case, then you might later end up feeling like the driver who harmed you got off easy. By taking them to trial, though, you may end up obtaining the accountability that you hoped.

An attorney can help you analyze the best path forward in your case

Figuring out the best course of action in your case can be difficult given that you’ve got a lot of considerations to take into account. But you don’t have to analyze your case on your own.

You might find it helpful to have a legal advocate on your side who can help you identify your case’s strengths and weaknesses, which will assist in providing you with direction as to the best path forward.