My Aunt Sally Got $40,000 for her personal injury case. Isn't my case worth at least that?

One of the issues I struggle with is the occasional client who expects a certain monetary outcome from his/her case based on what a friend or family got from another unrelated personal injury case 5 or 10 years ago.  They'll say, "Well, I was talking to my friend Bob and he got $35,000 for his personal injury case. He barely had a scratch on his car. How come I'm not getting $35,000?"  Or they will say, "My friend Suzie told me she got $60,000 for her personal injury and she never even went to the doctor!"  You are going to get a lot of input and "advice" from friends and family members, and that may affect your expectations.  However, trust me when I tell you that every case is unique in many ways.  Also, many other factors affect the "value" of your case.  You can't expect to get what Aunt Martha (who lives in New York) got on her injury claim.   Factors such as age, jurisdiction, the adjuster assigned to your case, residual injury, amount of property damage, the current economic climate, and much more can affect your case.  Comparing your result to the results of others is a futile exercise.