How do you qualify for pre-settlement funding from your personal injury lawsuit?
How to qualify for and be approved for a pre-settlement legal funding requires 3 basic elements;
- There must be actual significant damages to you,
- The defendant must be clearly responsible for the damages caused, and
- The defendant must have the ability to pay for any legal settlement awarded to you.
Seems a bit obvious, right? But, let’s break these down a bit further.
Actual Damages. Even if there are “actual damages” most accident claims are resolved without having to hire an attorney to file a legal claim. In these cases, the damages are small and require minimal care; maybe a few cuts and bruises, or a single visit to a doctor, but they’re not serious enough to disrupt someone’s life. The actual damages to qualify for a legal funding must be significant enough to cause real harm to a person and their well-being. For example; as mentioned an injury such as a broken bone, back sprain, or nerve damage would likely have a better chance to qualify than a few cuts and bruises.
Questions to consider to determine how to qualify for a pre-settlement legal funding would be; does my injury require me to take time off work to see a doctor for treatment? Does my injury prohibit me from doing my normal job? Will my injury cause long term problems? Your injuries don’t have to be life-threatening, but they need to have caused real pain and suffering.
Clear Responsibility. What does “clear responsibility (liability)” mean? It means that the evidence will show that the person(s) or organization is directly involved in causing the accident, or in the case of a workers’ comp case, the employer could have prevented the situation that allowed the accident to occur. For example, in a car accident, the driver who caused the accident may have borrowed the car from a family member, the driver would be clearly responsible, but not necessarily the owner of the vehicle. There are always exceptions but these are simple ways to understand the definition as it applies to qualifying for a pre-settlement funding on your personal injury case.
Ability to Pay. This condition to qualify is a bit trickier. In most personal injury lawsuits it’s not the actual defendant that will pay for the damages, but their insurance company. If an individual or organization that is responsible for causing the accident (the defendant) doesn’t have insurance to cover their responsibility, then the legal funding company will look to see if there are enough assets held by defendant to cover any potential award. In any case where the individual doesn’t have insurance it isn’t likely they will have the assets required to pay for the claim. In the case of a business that causes an accident, if they don’t have insurance they may still have enough assets to cover the liability.
We understand this may still be a bit confusing, and as mentioned there are always exceptions to the above conditions. If after reading this you’re still not sure if you would qualify or not, please don’t hesitate to call us. We can help to clear things up, and we can take your application right over the phone in just a few minutes. Based on your application and a quick call to your attorney, we can let you know if you qualify so you can get the financial help you need!
Remember, there is no cost to apply and there is no obligation. So call today at 1-800-730-4313.