When two cars collide or someone slips and falls on an icy sidewalk, calling them “accidents” implies they were caused by bad luck or chance. Accidents that cause people to suffer severe injuries can usually be attributed to negligent behavior. A driver looking at a text message or building owners who fail to maintain their properties are only two examples of negligent behavior causing accidents.
If you suffer injuries in an accident, the law allows you to file a personal injury lawsuit to make the negligent party compensate you for the losses you incur. While you wait for an award or settlement in the case, you may be unable to work because of the injuries.
Meanwhile, adding to your struggle to find the money to pay living expenses are the mountain of the bills from doctors, hospitals, and others providing treatment for your injuries. A lawsuit loan may offer a solution to end the financial hardship by making it possible to pay your bills while your personal injury case is pending.
Common Types Of Personal Injury Claims
According to the National Safety Council, which prefers to use the term “preventable” instead of “accident” in its reports, the most currently available data shows there were 173,040 preventable deaths and 48.3 million preventable injuries during 2019. More than 4.5 million of the injuries and 39,107 of the deaths were the result of accidents involving motor vehicles. Other causes of personal injury claims include:
- Defective products and equipment.
- Medical malpractice.
- Premises liability, including slip-and-fall accidents.
- Workplace accidents.
- Dog bites and animal attacks.
- Accidents within the home, including falls, burns, and electrocution.
Negligent conduct that causes another party to be harmed and sustain financial loss is a common element in all personal injury claims.
Types Of Losses An Injured Party May Incur
Personal injuries caused by someone’s negligence result in the injured person incurring financial losses. The purpose of a personal injury claim is to make the injured party whole again through a monetary award or settlement. Some of the types of losses recoverable through a personal injury lawsuit include:
- Lost earnings.
- Lost or diminished future earning capacity.
- Medical expenses, including physicians, hospitals, physical and occupational therapy, diagnostic testing, prescription medications, nursing care, and other expenses related to treatment of the injuries.
- Projected costs for future medical treatment and care due to the injuries.
- Pain and suffering endured by the injured party.
You may be getting pressure from billing offices of some of your health care providers to make payments in order to continue under their care. Mention the financial difficulty you are experiencing to your personal injury attorney who may be able to persuade some of your creditors to delay their demand for payment until your case is settled. You can go here for more information about how an attorney can help you.
If the pressure to pay the bills continues, you may want to look into borrowing from a relative or a bank. However, a relative may need the money and only be able to offer a very short-term solution, and banks may not be willing to lend money to someone who is out of work and without an income.
Lawsuit Funding May Offer A Solution To Pre-Settlement Financial Hardship
Borrowing money in anticipation of a judgment or settlement in your personal injury case may be a solution to your financial challenges. You may see it advertised as lawsuit funding, lawsuit loans, settlement funding or several other names, but the concept behind it is the same regardless of the name used to identify it.
When you apply for lawsuit funding, the information the funding company asks you to provide focuses exclusively on the lawsuit. This is because unlike traditional loans where the lender looks to you for repayment, lawsuit funding companies rely on their determination of the likelihood of a judgment or settlement awarding you compensation and its value. The company advances a portion of the value of the case to you.
The funding company takes a risk because repayment of the money it advances comes from the judgment or settlement. If you do not win or the amount awarded is insufficient to repay the advance, the company cannot look to you for repayment. In exchange for taking this risk, the company charges interest on the money.
Fees, interest rates and terms differ depending on the company you decide to use. It is a good idea to shop around and compare lawsuit loans from different companies.
Get Input From Your Attorney About Lawsuit Funding
Discuss your decision to seek a cash advance to help pay living expenses and medical bills through lawsuit funding with the attorney handling your personal injury claim. The high interest rates charged until repayment of the cash advance makes it expensive, so get advice from your lawyer about the case and the timeline for its settlement in order to decide whether lawsuit funding is right for you.
About the Author:
Jared Stern is an experienced financial professional with six years of experience in the pre-settlement funding industry. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in economics in 2014, Jared began his career in Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions investment banking division. After working with another pre-settlement funding company for two years, Jared founded Uplift Legal Funding in 2017 to give injured plaintiffs a better choice in lawsuit loans.