Accident Injuries: What Can You Recover?
If you were injured in a car accident, you will most likely want to sue for damages to cover any resulting costs—including pain and suffering. In order to sue for pain and suffering, you have to have received physical injuries from the accident at hand. There is no set amount that anyone can recover. As each accident is different, how much you are able to cover depends on the details of your particular case.
Here are some of the details that will factor into how much you are able to recover for your accident:
- Past medical bills uncovered by your personal injury protection insurance and/or the insurance company for the party at fault
- Past wage loss not covered by your personal injury protection insurance and/or the insurance company for the party at fault
- Future medical bills
- Future expected lost wages
- The loss of consortium amount for your wife or husband, should you be married
- Any out-of-pocket expenses (over the counter medications, medical examinations, etc.)
When it comes to pain and suffering, the amount that you can recover is hard to determine. These “noneconomic damages,” as they are called, are quantified in different ways, and depend solely on the severity of your case. Sometimes it has been given as one, lump sum, and other times it has been distributed equivalent to minimum wage for the duration of the recipient’s life. Either way, in order to obtain coverage for your pain and suffering, you are required by law to prove liability, causation and permanency as relevant to the accident in which you were injured.
In any case, hiring a personal injury attorney—one with experience handling cases like yours—to help defend your side will give you the best possible outcome for your case. By doing so, you will not only have someone there to help you understand the complex details of your case, but you greatly increase your chances of recovering the amount of damages you deserve.
