subject: Soft Tissue Personal Injury Actions – Obstacles in Obtaining Lawsuit Funding [print this page] Soft Tissue Personal Injury Actions Obstacles in Obtaining Lawsuit Funding
Lawsuit funding for personal injury cases is tricky business. Compounding the matter is the difficulty in assessing the nature and extent of the injuries. This post will discuss the obstacles many clients find in obtaining lawsuit cash advance funding for "soft tissue" injuries.
Lawsuits for negligence are filed every day against those parties who breached their duty of care for the Plaintiff's safety and that breach resulted in damages. Many negligence cases involve damages specifically limited to pain and suffering from physical injuries. The types of physical injuries are numerous and include spinal injury, fractures, musculature, tendon, or ligament tears, and many others. Lawyers who practice personal injury often label injuries even further. One example is labeling a plaintiff's injuries as "soft tissue".
A "soft tissue" injury is one that is usually muscular in nature and cannot be recognizable through "objective" diagnostic testing. What is "objective testing" is often argued, but normally tests such as MRI's, CT scans, X-rays, are recognized as tests which will accurately assess whether there is an injury. Normally, these tests will not show any abnormality in soft tissue injuries. However, this is not to say there is no injury. It only means those specific tests could not see it.
Of course, insurance carriers are all too ready to pounce on this fact and deem soft tissue injuries as minor ones. This simply is not true, which anyone who has ever had a muscle spasm can attest. But insurers routinely utilize the failure of the above mentioned diagnostic tests to recognize these injuries as an opportunity to minimize the value of the plaintiff's claim. One example is the passing of a "lawsuit threshold" for personal injury claims in jurisdictions (such as New York and New Jersey) preventing claimants from making a claim against other insurers for soft tissue injuries in automobile accident cases.
The result is seen in the reduction in settlement values for soft tissue cases nationwide. In fact, many attorneys decline taking on a case involving "minor" injuries because it is not a profitable use of their time.
Unfortunately for many plaintiffs, labeling their injury as soft tissue produces a sizable obstacle to obtaining lawsuit funding or cash advance especially for an automobile accident lawsuit loan. The reason is simply because personal injury lawsuits of this nature do not command a high settlement value. When one considers the availability of pre settlement funding for personal injury lawsuits, litigation finance professionals must take into consideration all aspects of the case in an effort to assess the minimum amount of settlement the case will ultimately receive.
Because soft tissue lawsuits usually command a relatively small amount in settlement, without other damages such as lost wages, property damage, etc., funding companies are hard pressed to find room to advance a great deal of cash in these matters. Fortunately, many funders will advance small amounts cash for plaintiffs seeking a short term financial boost. Nevertheless, lawsuit funding is very difficult for underwriters to justify for soft tissue cases.
Thank you for your interest in the pre-settlement loan business.
pmc
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