What is my Case Worth?

When prospective clients come into my office to see me, they generally have two questions at the end of our initial visit. These questions are "Do I have a case?" and "What's it worth?".

The second question is often a lot harder to answer than the first one. In fact, the answer to the question "what is my case worth" at the time of the first visit is almost always either "nothing" because there isn't a case at all, or "I don't know" because there are so many different factors involved in determining what a case is or might be worth. Primarily these issues have to do with the facts of the case, but just as important are issues of the prospective client's perception - and how a jury would perceive the client.

In the first place, anyone who deals with trial lawyers on a regular basis will soon notice that we are a skeptical bunch. I am lied to so often by prospective clients and witnesses (under oath or not, respected professionals to homeless people) that I confess that I am a little doubtful when my wife tells me what we are having for dinner. For this reason, when people come into my office seeking legal help, the first step is to weed out the liars from the truth tellers.

Unfortunately, there is another class of prospective clients: those who really believe something happened that didn't, or have an incorrect perception of how something happened. This is just plain human nature: ask ten witnesses to an event to describe what happened and you will get at least five different versions. In any trial of any case, you will see a mixture of out and out lies, rationalizations, excuses and different points of view.

The second thing that goes into my analysis is an evaluation on how my client will come across to the jury. Some people, no matter what their background is, just don't come across well: they seem unsure of themselves or dishonest even when they are telling you where they live. Prejudice is also a significant issue. Illiterate minorities who speak bad English don't fare well in front of the kind of juries they are likely to get in this area, where the people who show up for jury service are predominantly white and conservative. That isn't "fair", but it does impact the question "what is my case worth?" A white, pretty, married school teacher mother of two is going to get a better verdict than a fat, ugly, minority, unmarried, unemployed mother of two, even if exactly the same thing happened to both of them.

That's a fact. It isn't a "politically correct" fact, but in discussing a case's value with my minority clients, it wouldn't be honest for me to pretend that prejudice doesn't exist. Believe me, they aren't surprised to hear that it is going to be a tougher fight for them, and are grateful for a blunt discussion of the issues rather than a pretense that the issues do not exist.

The third thing that has to be considered in any analysis of case value is where the case is going to be tried. In real estate, it is said that the three main rules of real estate value are location, location - and location. The same can often be said about value of particular lawsuits. Just as a four bedroom home in the best part of the Metroplex is worth ten times what the same house would be worth in another area, so a case that would be worth $50,000 in one part of the state is worth $500,000 elsewhere. For example, juries in Dallas and Ellis Counties are known state wide to be very stingy on awards to plaintiffs who are injured - but generous in awarding damages for business losses. In other parts of the state, juries are very sympathetic to people who have been physically injured, and are not impressed with purely economic losses.

Of course, there are many, many other factors to be considered it determining the value of any particular case. It is a certainty, however, that nobody can tell what a case is worth from a half hour conversation with only one witness. The other thing to bear in mind is this: trials occur when the two different sides can't agree on the value of the case - and there are a lot of trials going on in every jurisdiction in this country every day.


John Polewski is a board certified attorney with offices in DeSoto