As you can see, each case is different and that is one of the real advantages of hiring Pittsburgh wrongful death and auto accident attorney Bernie Tully. We have experience and can advise you accordingly.
3. Your attorney in your accident case is not allowed to tell the jury how much he thinks the case is worth. In California, for example, juries are allowed to be told by the attorney how much they want to settle the case. Not so in Pennsylvania. Of course, we would want to tell the jury how much we think the case is worth. But the law in Pennsylvania is that you are strictly forbidden from doing so.
You can see where that would work to a real advantage if we were allowed to do so. Because the defense would have to say what they think the value is also. And given that, they jury would likely give some amount if the defense is agreeing that there is value to the case.
Let me give you an example. Suppose we represented you on a car accident case in which you were injured and you had to have neck surgery. Suppose we said to the jury at the close that we think the case is worth $500,000. Then after we are finished, the defense would have to get up and give their closing argument and they do not want to appear ridiculous by saying that you are not entitled to any money. Therefore, maybe they would say that they think the case is worth $100,000. It is likely that a jury would give you at least $100,000 in that situation because the defense is admitting that you should be getting that much money. But in Pennsylvania we do not have that luxury. So there are no guidelines for the jury to follow in terms of value. They might, after evaluation, think that $50,000 is a fair number. I think you can see that the current system in Pennsylvania can cause some real issues in a personal injury case.
The one thing for sure you can count on is that if you hire Pittsburgh wrongful death and auto accident attorney Bernie Tully to represent you in your injury case, I will use my experience to give you an honest assessment as to the value of your case and what I think is in your best interest. After that you can decide whether you agree with that or not. We will always follow what your final decision is, but you will definitely get my input prior to making that decision. We believe that will help you a lot in terms of at least guiding you as to what is in your best interest.
Thanks for reading.
Bernie the attorney