You must assess the worth of your personal injury lawsuit before filling it caused due to your car accident. The worth of personal injury case or the damages to be claimed depends on various factors including the cost of physical, financial and mental harassment caused due to the accident. Person legally responsible for the accident has to pay the damages to the injured person depending upon the negotiations among the attorneys of the accused and victim and the insurance companies or as per the orders of the jury of judge of the trial court. Common factors influencing various type of damages are provided in this article for your reference.
Compensatory damages
The damages paid to the injured person to compensate the losses incurred by him due to accident are termed as compensatory damages. All the consequences of accident have to be evaluated in monetary form to compensate the effected person but it is not easy to financially evaluate all the damages as physical and property damages can be assessed in terms of dollars but the pain and discomfort born by the victim can not be easily evaluated monetarily. Some of the compulsory damages are as under:
Medical bills: Reimbursement of the cost of medical treatment of the injuries caused due to accident along with estimated future medical care needed is included in the award of compensatory damages.
Future income: The impact on the income and wages of the victim due to accident are to be calculated on the basis of extent of physical damage to the victim and the loss of his earning capacity to compensate the loss of income in future.
Loss of property: Damage to vehicle clothing and other property held by the victim at the time of accident are to be evaluated for their repair or compensation at current market value of the property for the reimbursement of damages.
Suffering and pain: The pain and discomfort born by the victim during and after the accident are also compensated under compensatory damages award.
Emotional harassment: In severe accidental cases the victims are compensated for their emotional harassment like sleep loss, fear and anxiety which had affected their whole life for future.
Enjoyment loss: If the injuries caused by accident deprive you from the enjoyment of your hobbies, exercise, and other recreational activities then you can be compensated under the award of compensatory damages.
Loss of relationship: The loss of relationship caused due to accident like inability to maintain sexual relationship or companionship are covered under the compensatory damages award.
Penalizing damages
Punitive or penalizing damages are awarded along with compensatory damages are imposed on the plaintiffs of the personal injury cases if the accident is caused due to their extreme carelessness. The main aim of these punitive damages is to punish the defendant for his behavior as a preventive measure as well as affecting him monetarily. Though there are no hard and fast rules about penalizing damages but still some states had fixed some different type of cap to this effect. Some of my suggestion of great, professional personal injury lawyers are David Marocchi from Australia, Peter Mulhern from UK and from US Michael Ehline .
Thus, you can evaluate the worth of your personal injury case caused due to some kind of accident.