Personal Injury Attorney Ben Schwartz explains to his son Charlie how much he would be awarded for a broken leg in a personal injury claim.

Hey Folks, I’m Attorney Ben Schwartz,

Today I have my special guest, my son Charlie Schwartz, who is 10 years old. Charlie is not in school today and so he came to the office with me and decided he wanted to shoot some videos.

Ben: So Charlie, do you have a question that you want to ask me on video today?

Charlie: Yep!

Ben: What question do you have?

Charlie: How much would I get, most times, for somebody breaking my leg, if I sue then and I win the case?

Ben: If somebody breaks your leg and you sue them for a personal injury case, you want to know how much are you going to get, (Ben utters to Charlie): Here, be careful with the cable! Be careful with the cable!

Charlie: On average?

Ben: On average? That is a really good question and it’s a very hard question for me to answer because there is lots of variables that go into that. One question that I have is, how did they break your leg? Are they a negligent driver, and they ran a red light?

Charlie: Kicked my leg as hard as they could!

Ben: They kicked your leg as hard as they could and now you want to sue them? Okay, why would they kick your leg?

Charlie: Because they were mad at me because they thought I did something, but I did nothing.

Ben: Okay, you are completely innocent?

Charlie: Yes.

Ben: You didn’t do anything wrong?

Charlie: No.

Ben: It was a case of mistaken identity. Is that right?

Charlie: Okay, I guess so.

Ben: Okay, so someone made a mistake and they confused you with a bad guy. They kicked your leg, it broke your leg, you have a broken leg and you had to go to the hospital and now your leg is in a cast. You can’t play basketball.

Charlie: No, my leg had to get amputated.

Ben: Oh your leg had to get amputated?

Charlie: Actually no, say both cases, if my leg is in a cast or if it goes…

Ben: Let’s just put it in the cast.

Charlie: Okay.

Ben: We want to be positive, so let’s say your leg is in a cast. Now, for the next two months, you cannot play basketball, that’s your favorite sport. Right? And you are stuck walking with crutches to assist you, to maintain your stability. You got to go to a bunch of doctor’s appointments. You got to do physical therapy and then you are all better. Your leg heals up and it’s all better. Right?

Charlie: Yay!

Ben: So, let’s say we sue the person and we go to trial and we have a jury. The jury is going to have to give you an award. The award is going to be based on your medical expenses. How much were your medical expenses? Let’s say they’re $15,000.

The jury will award you $15,000.

Charlie: WOW!

Ben: Then you have pain and suffering. So perhaps the jury awards you another $15,000 for your pain and suffering. You are only ten, you are not employed, so there are no lost wage claim here, so you get zero dollars for lost wages. And you completely healed with no expectations.

Charlie: Since I’m only ten, I spend less money and I have $30,000 now, and now I can spend a lot of money.

Ben: Oh no, you don’t have $30,000.

Charlie: Yes I do!

Ben: The jury awarded you $30,000, but you have to pay the attorney’s fee.

Charlie: Oh yeah!

Ben: You have to pay litigation expenses.

Charlie: So I have like $15,000.

Ben: So now you are down to $15,000 and here’s what you need to know.

Charlie: Okay.

Ben: You are 10, you are not going to get $15,000. It doesn’t work that way. The money has to go into a special account called a uniform transfer to minors act account or a UTMA account. It’s a special account at a bank and your money is going to sit in that account until you turn 18 and then you can use it to pay for college.

Charlie: Maybe I just won’t go to college.

Ben: Uh we’ll talk about that in a few years, but the answer to your question is, Now you will get nothing but down the road, you will have money that you can use to put towards something like college.

Charlie: I’m not going to go to college until I’m done with the NBA.

Ben: While you are in the NBA, you could use that money to pay for your shoes or travel expenses.

So, all right, well that is a very good question. I appreciate you asking me that question. Do you want to say anything about your YouTube channel or on the video?

Charlie: Yep! If you like basketball, then subscribe to BTAG, all capitals on YouTube, thank you.

Ben: Folks, I’m attorney Ben Schwartz, if you have a question, not about NBA, not about basketball, but about the practice of law, or personal injury litigation, send me an email at ben.schwartz@SchwartzAndSchwartz.com.

Thanks for watching!