How Much is My Bed Bug Lawsuit Worth? Lawyer Explains

Whitney, LLP’s attorneys help consumers understand How Much is My Bed Bug Lawsuit Worth?

Our lawyers represent victims of bed bugs in cases involving infested apartments, hotels, AirBnBs, vacation rentals, hospitals and mattress and furniture companies. We primarily represent clients in Maryland.

We have recovered over $13,000,000 for our Clients in bed bug cases as compensation for bites, scarring, emotional distress and property damage.  

• Click here to review our prior bed bug settlements and verdicts;
• Click here to read what some of our clients have said about us; and
• Click here to read our blogs on our bed bug cases, settlements and other bed bug legal issues.

What Is Your Case Worth? We offer Legal Consultations and most Clients pay no out of pocket fees or expenses. Call us at 410 583 8000, or use our Quick Contact Form, to discuss your potential case.  Here is our YouTube Channel for more videos.

Transcript for:

How Much is My Bed Bug Lawsuit Worth?

Hi, this is Dan Whitney with the Whitney Law Firm here in Towson, Maryland. Today, we’ll be talking about. How much is my bedbug lawsuit worth? So, of course, it’s a great question if you’ve been dealing with bedbugs. I am qualified to discuss this because I’m an attorney who handles bedbug cases. I’ve handled hundreds of bedbug cases over about the last 10 years. And the question is, how much is your case worth? There’s no one set answer. It depends on a variety of factors.

Should You File a Lawsuit to Get More Money? Often, Yes.

One big difference is, are you just going to settle your case, maybe send a demand letter to the hotel without filing a lawsuit, ask for a certain amount of money, and see what they give you? A lot of lawyers do that. The other way to do things is to file a lawsuit, use litigation as a tool to discover, for instance, in a hotel, just how many infestations were in the hotel. How many infestations were in that room?

Daniel W. Whitney, Sr. and Daniel W. Whitney, Jr. of Whitney, LLP

Was a Prior Infestation Ignored? That Increases Value

In response to the infestations that did occur in a hotel or an apartment in an apartment complex, what steps did the management company take to make sure that the infestation was properly treated, properly detected in the adjacent rooms or apartments, and that all the necessary precautions were taken, a series of treatments, the adjacent inspections, all those things? And the only way to know that generally is to file a lawsuit and obtain that information. If you just want to settle, send a demand letter and settle, your case almost certainly is not going to be worth as much because you don’t have the knowledge to create the leverage to make the case be worth more. So putting that aside, whether just to send it a demand letter and settle without filing suit, or to file suit and get information and really determine the facts behind how bad the situation was, which is worth a lot, the settlement value of a bedbug case comes down to a few things.

Take Photographs and Video of Bites and Bugs for Evidence

One, photographs of bites. In other words, evidence of bites. If there’s no evidence of bites, it’s not a good thing. If you’ve only got a couple bites, your case is probably not going to be worth as much as if you had dozens or hundreds of bites. Of course, that’s bad. But, of course, no matter how many you have, you’ve got to take pictures and or video. There must be evidence. Evidence is the tool that lawyers such as myself use to demonstrate to the other side, defense counsel or an insurance adjuster, you don’t have to take my word for it that it was a miserable experience and my client was bit 50 times. look at these photos. Look at these photos taken the day of, taken three days later, taken a week after that, and so on to show the progression of how it was bad and if there was any scarring to show how the bites developed into scarring, because of course, scarring is a significant component of what a case is worth. So there’s the photographs of the bites and any scarring, that’s an important component.

Medical Treatment for Bites, Swelling and Disfigurement

Of course, if there’s medical treatment, you went to the doctor and there’s a medical record that says, “Dan Whitney was seen at the doctor’s office for bedbugs. He’s got bedbugs here, here, here, here on his body.” It’s always helpful to have a medical record that demonstrates not only that the issue exists, but also that it was significant enough for you to actually get up, break your routine, and go to the doctor to get treated. Whether it sounds silly or not, it is a factor whether somebody simply just went at all.

And, of course, the cost of the medical bills is something that is recoverable as well. The other component that is extremely significant is proof of the actual infestation itself. If there are no videos or photographs of the bedbugs themselves, you’re going to have a very tough time recovering anything because you’re going to have a problem with causation.

But as to the value itself of a case, I’ve been in front of a jury and recovered a $800,000 verdict. I’ve settled cases for several $1000, depending on the facts. It could just be a few bites in a hotel room over one night. And everything else is somewhere in between. Verdicts have been recovered of over $1 million. It really just depends on the facts and especially the facts of, how long was the infestation in that room or in the apartment? Did the landlord or property manager know about it? And if so, what did they do? If they closed their eyes and said, “I really don’t care. I’m just going to let it ride. I’m not going to treat and I’m going to keep putting apartment tenants or hotel guests in there,” that’s very bad.

Valuing a Bed Bug Case

Because they showed they did not care, the case is going to be worth more because it’s inflammatory behavior. But, of course, all cases are different, any settlement is not a guarantee of any future settlement, and every settlement is fact specific. So really, it’s three components, evidence of the bites and scarring, any medical treatment, and, of course, proof of the actual bugs, whether by photo or video. The photos of the bites and the evidence of the bugs are really the two main components, with the medical bills being a third component, but not as important as the first two. So I hope this has been helpful.

For more information on what is a bedbug case worth, and what is the settlement value of a bedbug case, please tune into some of the additional videos on our channel. Thank you for watching. And, of course, if you have any questions, I offer legal consultations. So please feel free to call or visit our website, www.whitneyfirm.com. Thanks a lot, and please tune in for more information. Take care.

What Is Your Case Worth? We offer Legal Consultations and most Clients pay no out of pocket fees or expenses. Call us at 410 583 8000, or use our Quick Contact Form, to discuss your potential case.