What is normal payment for a scar?

Hi:

My name is Robert Johnston and I am a Personal Injury attorney in Horry County.

I read the answer that the other attorney gave you and with all due respect to him, I disagree. When he says, "we're not talking a large amount of money." That is not necessarily true. Scars are something that you carry for the rest of your life. Some scars can be down-right hedious looking. He is right about certain factors such as your age and occupation. But that only as an affect to a certian affect. A scar is still a scar. I have had some really great sucesses at bringing claims for scarring.

What we usually do with a claim that is primarily based on scarring, is we recommend that the client go see a plastic surgeon. We then get certain documentation from that physician as to the cost of repairing the scar, how much medial treatment or procedures that may involve, the estimated costs of those procedures, and to what extent they will be able to make the scar not visiable to people. We then use this documentation to ask for more money and to support our claim. The more expensive the plastic surgeon costs are, the more the case is worth. This can amount to a substantial increase in the value of the claim, as plastic surgery is very expensive.

Please also remember that not only are we dealing with a Personal Injury claim based on a scar, but there also has to be pain & suffering. I don't think its feasible to have a 2 inch scar without pain & suffering.

Then on top of that, we look to the facts and circumstances of the accident to see if we can pursue Punitive damages under the law. Your basic legal damages in these cases is what is called, Compensatory Damages. However, there are certain situations in which we are allowed to incorporate into our claim additional money based on Punitive Damages. These are allowed when what the at-fault driver went beyond mere Negligence, and his/her actions amount to Gross Negligence. There are different approaches to this. One common way is that we always investigate to see if the at-fault driver received a traffic citation and what the outcome of that citation was. If the person did recieve some sort of a ticket for causing the accident and lost a trial or paid a fine, then that automatically substantiates our claim.

In addition to everything that I have mentioned, there is also the consideration of the total medical treatment that you received and what the dollar amount of that is. The more your medical bills are the more your case is generally worth.

What I have written out here is not all inclusive. There is a lot to these cases and I was just trying to give you a brief overview.

Please be careful about pursuing this claim on your own and without the assistance of an attorney. Here is why. There are a lot of legal matters that people can handle on thier own. I do not blame someone for trying to save money and do something themselves. The problem with these cases is that you will not save money. The reason is, the insurance company knows that you have no ammunition. They know that they can treat you poorly and not fairly compensate you for everything you have been through, because you have no recourse. Without recourse, then they simply do not take you very serious and do not regard you as a threat. What I mean when I say you have no recourse, is that the insurance company knows that only an attorney has the ability to file a law suit and take the case to trial. And that is the last thing that the insurance company wants. Under no circumstances do they want to let a jury decide how much to pay, as they could potentially lose much more.  Insurance companies are ruthless. They are in the business of making money. The less they pay out in claims, the more money they make. It is as simple as that.

Should you have anymore questions or are thinking about retaining an attorney, you are welcome to call or email me. My law firm is in Horry County, but I represent people throughout the state.

There are a lot of variables here.  One of them is where in South Carolina you would be going to court, if necessary, because the same injury can be worth more, or less, from one county to another.  Another is your age, another is your occupation.  A scar is worth more if you are younger, because you will have to live with it for more years.  If you're a model, the scar is worth much more than if you are a longshoreman.  And how discolored, raised, jagged or otherwise eye-catching or uncomfortable your scar is would also have something to do with this.  Ordinarily, though, we're not talking a large amount of money.