Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Cases Typically Settle Differently than Workers' Compensation
Settling a case for a workers’ compensation claim may seem similar to its “cousins”-- the case in civil court for personal injury or medical malpractice, but in fact there are significant differences. Though they bare a family resemblance, beneath the surface they have distinctions.
In personal injury and medical malpractice claims, there is a proof of fault component that is not present in workers’ compensation cases. However, the trade-off, is that there are more types of damage remedies in civil court cases than in workers’ compensation, so the amount recovered can vary much more. In workers’ compensation, the damage potential is usually more defined, because it is more specifically related to the injury, recovery, and wages.
For this reason, civil lawsuit awards of damages are capable of showing more disparity by region, from Chicago area to downstate Illinois. A Chicago jury, for example could place a value for an injured back at $100,000, factoring in pain and suffering. A similar injury could be assessed by a Peoria jury as being worth $50,000.
This kind of variability by region is not usually seen in workers’ compensation cases. Though some judges may be more conservative than others, it is not necessarily based on geography as it can be with jury trials. Since the damage award is pegged to more specific measures, a worker with, for example, a herniated disc that makes $40 per hour should have a similar outcome to someone in Carbondale working a similar job and with a similar injury.
Because workers’ compensation damages have these differences as opposed to personal injury and medical malpractice, settlement would also correspondingly be different. With a more measurable likely outcome, a settlement offer should be more measurable as well, and should not vary widely between Chicago and downstate.
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