People often look to Google to get information, but oftentimes the only thing that Google reports are things we in the legal field call outliers. These are cases that are either extremely low or extremely high, but the benefit of contacting an attorney, we have access to resources that the general public does not have. We’re able to access databases that track each and every jury verdict that comes through the state of Michigan and by doing that we’re able to look at everything across the board and see those general trends.
And how we look at these trends is by, again, an individual basis of looking at each and every injury and breaking it down on that basis and using what are called value drivers. Value drivers are those injuries that are taken into consideration to come up with a settlement range. It’s a similar process that insurance companies do to also generate a range for the adjuster to settle a claim and that’s, again, why it’s of utmost importance to contact an attorney because a good, effective attorney can game the system that insurance companies use by making sure that that range the insurance company is starting with is much higher than it would otherwise be."