The attorneys at Powell, Zero, Mundy consider many factors in assessing the value of damages alleged in a personal injury lawsuit. For 110 years, we’ve made these assessments on behalf of our clients in helping maximize recovery of damages in all types of personal injury matters. With the potential for any case to be “backlogged” in the Pennsylvania court system, any competent and experienced personal injury attorney must consider delay damages under Rule 238 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure (“Rule 238”).

The purpose of Rule 238 is to compensate a plaintiff for the delay in recovery in a civil case involving bodily injury, death, or property damage. This is accomplished by providing a plaintiff with interest upon damages for the period of time commencing one year after the date original process was served in the action and ending on the date of the award, verdict or decision. The rate of interest is based upon the prime rate annually provided by the Wall Street Journal, plus one percent. Some Pennsylvania personal injury cases have lasted longer than a decade and while this is rare, a three-year old case with $1,000,000 in damages would yield delay damages of over $125,000.

Delay damages must never be an afterthought in a personal injury case involving bodily injury, death, or property damage. Delay damages are significant figures in the total value of a case and must be accounted for when assessing the potential value of a lawsuit.