Suppose you sustained injuries that another person caused negligently or deliberately in an accident. The law grants you the right to file a personal injury claim for compensation for your losses. The amount you can recover as compensation differs but generally ranges from $3,000 to $75,000, with an average of $52,000.
You may wonder how to evaluate your damages to determine how much you deserve as compensation. In this article, we will consider five factors you can use to evaluate your personal injury damages.
- Your Injury
The type of injury you sustained, and its severity are instrumental in evaluating your personal injury damages. Personal injuries range from minor to severe, including auto accidents, medical malpractice, workplace accidents, and other accidents that injure victims. The rule of thumb is that the more severe the injury a victim sustains, the higher their compensation amount.
“Severe” means you took time off work or lost your source of income or ability to earn. It also means you can no longer enjoy some things you used to enjoy – at least not in the same way. Usually, injuries that yield these results are permanent – such as facial disfigurement, loss of limbs, and brain trauma.
- Your Medical Records
When you have a personal injury case, the wise thing to do is keep your medical records diligently. These include surgery costs, rehabilitation services, admission costs, emergency room charges, and other medical expenses linked to your injury. Personal injury law allows you to claim reimbursement for these costs; therefore, track them after your accident.
Typically, you would get a larger settlement if the post-accident treatment you received included surgeries and complex procedures like reconstructions. Also, if it will take you a long time to recover from your injuries, you are entitled to a larger settlement.
- What Ratio of Fault is Yours
Accidents caused by multiple parties are not uncommon, as is an accident where you are partly to blame. For example, you got hit by a drunk driver while speeding. Depending on your jurisdiction, the court will consider that you were speeding to evaluate your compensation.
Some states use the comparative negligence law; others use contributory negligence law; both affect your compensation. Under contributory negligence law, victims will not get anything if they share even one percentage of the blame. Under comparative negligence law, however, they may still recover compensation, but their percentage of fault will reduce it.
- Psychological and Emotional Distress
Physical injuries are not the only things accidents cause; victims also suffer mental harm, such as depression, anxiety, and grief. These are potentially debilitating emotions that are capable of reducing a person’s quality of life.
Therefore, emotional and psychological suffering is instrumental in calculating how much a victim walks away with as compensation. Although hard to calculate, an experienced personal injury lawyer can help show how these non-physical injuries will affect you.
- The Insurer’s Policy Limit
The insurer’s policy limit also determines how much a personal injury victim can recover as compensation. However, insurers are only sometimes honest; they may refuse your claim or hesitate to pay the total policy limits. That is why you need a lawyer; your lawyer can take the case to trial if the insurance company deals in bad faith.
Conclusion
According to attorney Ronald F. Wittmeyer, Jr. of the Law Offices of R.F. Wittmeyer, “The peculiarities of a personal injury case are pivotal in determining how much a victim gets as final compensation.” If you are a victim, you need qualified legal representation to help you get maximum compensation.
