Suing For Personal Injury

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Think you get hurt, you get a lawsuit, you get lots of money? Think again.

A Washington, DC man who apparently took his career advice from Wiley E. Coyote dropped a banana peel in a DC metro station, looked in the direction of surveillance cameras, backed up and, oops!, slipped and fell and sued the metro for $15,000 claiming leg and hip injuries. He won an arrest for fraud.

This is the thing. There are many people who think they can win the personal injury jackpot by suing the premises on which their injuries allegedly or actually happened. But you need to know that even in the case of an actual injury, you'd only receive money for the injury that isn't covered by medical insurance, plus whatever pain and suffering you can prove - a harder claim to make if you go to see a lawyer before seeing a doctor for your hmm pain (you'd be surprised how often that happens).

Even in legitimate injuries cases, an arbitrator will generally calculate your pain and suffering at about 3 times your actual medical costs, not enough to buy that high powered Acme explosives kit you've been pining for.