What Is an Injury Settlement?
An settlement for an injury is an agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant to settle a case outside of court. This can be a quick and effective method to get compensation.
As opposed to special damages, which can be easily calculated but non-economic damages are difficult to quantify in a specific dollar amount. They include things like pain and suffering.
Medical expenses
Based on the severity of an injury, medical costs could be a significant portion of the settlement. This could include doctor's visits or medications, surgeries and other procedures. The majority of these costs are not covered by health insurance, and are often very costly. In addition, in many cases there are ancillary costs associated with injuries such as home healthcare, adaptive devices transporting patients to medical appointments, and many more.
Medical bills are typically paid by a private health insurance company, the government's Medicare or Medicaid, or your PIP coverage. If you receive a settlement with medical bills that have not been paid the money from the settlement will be used to pay them. Your attorney can negotiate with billing companies to lower the amounts.
Your attorney will also be able determine the right amount of damages to be used to cover other non-medical loss. These include loss of future income along with pain and suffering and other non-economic damages. To be able to file a claim your attorney needs to provide documentation and expert testimony regarding these additional damages.
Loss of wages
In addition to the compensation for medical expenses, injured people may also be entitled to compensation for lost wages. The amount of damages is based on the amount of time the victim was off work due to injuries. A seasoned personal injury lawyer will assist clients to recover the compensation for lost wages in a personal injury claim.
A traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury, for instance, can cause you to miss large amounts of work. You will need to prove that your accident caused you to miss work. In proving the loss of wages, it is important to include all sources of income. This includes regular wages, overtime, bonuses and commissions. You could also include vacation days or sick days.
If your doctor has determined that you can return back to work with a few restrictions then your employer must respect these limitations. This might involve changing certain aspects of your job or providing helpful equipment.
A seasoned personal injury lawyer will help you collect all the data needed to support a wage claim. They can also help in a case where the person who is injured is self-employed or earns a variable salary. In these instances the insurance company will need to review the person's past and future earnings and provide a reasonable estimate of future lost wages. This may require a detailed financial report from the plaintiff's accountant or financial professional.
Non-economic damage
When people think about personal injury claims, the first thing they consider is the loss of money due to medical expenses and lost wages. There are other costs that are hard to quantify in dollars. These are referred to as non-economic damages. These damages cover the non-economic consequences of an injury to a person, like suffering, pain,
injury attorneys and loss of enjoyment of life.
Economic damages are simple for juries and courts to calculate, as they can be documented by bills and pay stubs. Non-economic damages, on other hand, are more difficult to determine and could be based on subjective factors such as suffering, pain, and emotional distress.
The term "pain and suffering" refers to any mental, physical or emotional anguish resulting from the accident. This can include the difficulty of a person to take part in their normal social or leisure activities. A jury will look at the impact of the injury the victim's life.
Other non-economic damages include disfigurement, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life. For example one could be suffering from a disfigurement as a result of an accident that permanently alters their appearance. While this isn't necessarily an expense, it can be very painful to bear the scars and other permanent injuries.
Damages for pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering is one of the categories of non-economic damages for the emotional and physical suffering that you've suffered from your accident. These are subjective damages which are determined by the jury, not unlike medical bills and auto repairs as well as lost wages. Each juror will have different opinions on the amount of pain and suffering compensation is appropriate to your case.
Documentation is one method to assist jurors in understanding the extent of the injury. Your attorney can obtain the doctor's written notes detailing the extent and severity of your injuries. Additionally, he can gather images and video footage. Testimonies from friends and family are also persuasive. These testimonies could help create an atmosphere of sympathy for jurors and demonstrate how your injury has impacted your hobbies and family activities.
The length of your injuries may also affect the amount of your pain and suffering settlement. Acute, disabling injuries typically have higher pain and settlements than injuries that heal faster.
Injuries can cause a lot of emotional and psychological trauma, and a successful claim for injury should reflect that. Personal
injury attorneys (
Mspeech explains) can help you create an impressive case, and work towards a fair settlement for all of your injuries. If you have any questions about the possibility of settling your injury make a call to Adam S. Kutner & Associates to arrange a meeting.