A car accident that results in a serious injury or permanently disabling condition could change your life dramatically. In addition to the physical trauma and the ordeal of treatment that you’ll have to go through, sustaining a serious injury can cause you to suffer extreme financial hardship. Taking legal action against the person who was responsible for your injuries can equip you to navigate your situation better. Getting help enables you to stay focused on your physical health instead of having to worry about paying for your care or affording basic living expenses. Here are some important considerations about what type of compensation you may be able to seek.
Evaluating Your Individual Damages
To get a sense of what a personal injury claim for a car accident may potentially be worth, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of how the law treats damages. In the context of personal injury claims, damages represent the total financial harm that you have sustained as a result of someone else’s wrongdoing.
Damages are unique to individuals and not certain types of injuries. There is no flat fee form of compensation that plaintiffs can get for a broken leg or a neck injury, for example. The damages that you recover depend on more than the type of injury that you’ve experienced.
An knowledgeable attorney can help you assess the scope of financial harm that you have suffered as a result of your accident. If your damages are extensive, it is extremely important that you work with experienced counsel that has proven success helping clients recover large damage awards. Limit your search to firms that have a strong track record with car accident claims such as Jacoby & Meyers Personal Injury Attorneys in Manhattan. Locally based practitioners that specialize in this area of the law can help you make well-informed decisions about pursuing a remedy.
Examining Types of Damages
While some forms of legal damages are punitive, the vast majority aim to address claimant’s direct and consequential losses. Medical expenses and lost wages are common damages that people seek in personal injury actions. For the most part, judgments with punitive damages are limited to cases in which a wrongdoer’s conduct was particularly egregious. Large punitive awards tend to have a deterrent effect against future wrongful content.
Personal injury plaintiffs need to bear in mind that the goal of getting damages is to put you as reasonably close to the whole as possible. In other words, damages can fill the gap between the difference between your health and finances before the accident and after it. Courts don’t issue money judgments with the goal of punishing a wrongdoer but rather holding them accountable to the person who they have wronged.
Part of a money judgment or settlement may contain payment for your pain and suffering. It’s hard to assign dollar amounts to pain. The more serious or long-lasting pain is, the greater the potential damages. Nevertheless, there’s probably no sum that provides meaningful compensation for an injury that has caused you to experience acute suffering or significantly diminishes your quality of life. Damages for pain and suffering simply aim to acknowledge and mitigate your ordeal.
Dealing With Insurance Settlement Offers
When a drivers insurer approaches you with a settlement offer, being too quick to jump on it could prove to be a regrettable decision. Insurers have an active interest in mitigating their losses, and that entails settling claims for the smallest amount possible. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that any claim someone presents to you is inherently going to be unfair or unreasonable. Nevertheless, you need to consider offers carefully to determine whether they would provide you with compensation that will be sufficient to cover your most immediate and foreseeable expenses that you have yet to incur.
Ultimately, your decision to seek a legal remedy could play a role in your recovery. Getting compensation could help you move on from an accident with less stress and uncertainty about your financial future.
