When you are involved in a serious collision, you need to know what you can do to get the help you need. Initially, your focus has to be on getting medical care, but after you do, the next step is to look into seeking compensation from the at-fault driver.
There are a few kinds of compensation you can try to get from a personal injury claim. You may want to seek out:
- General compensatory damages for non-monetary losses
- Punitive damages
- Compensation for your financial losses
The amount of compensation you can get will depend on the types of injuries you suffered from. Generally speaking, the worse your injuries are, the more likely you’ll be to receive a large amount of compensation.
What should you expect from your claim?
Every case is unique, so it’s impossible to say exactly how much your claim will be worth. You will need to look at medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering and other factors with your attorney to begin building a reasonable personal injury claim.
For example, if you have become paralyzed because of your car accident, then you would first want to gather your medical bills and expenses. Then, you’d want to speak with your medical provider about the cost of additional care in the future. Your attorney will look at other situations like yours to get a feel for what would be good compensation for the specific health condition.
You’ll also want to consider the time you’ve missed off work and the financial losses you have from going to and from appointments or staying in hotels while waiting for treatment. You may want to write down the losses of opportunities to earn bonuses at work, commissions or other financial assets as well.
Of course, your losses aren’t just financial. You have changes in your life that you’re dealing with now because of your injuries, too. Non-monetary losses can be compensated as well, giving you compensation that you can use to try to make your own life easier.
The exact value of your claim may be hard to calculate, but it’s valuable to look into your real current and future estimated losses to get an idea of what kind of compensation you need to be made financially whole.