What Is an Injury Settlement?
An injury settlement is an agreement between the plaintiff and defendant to settle a dispute outside of court. It can be a successful way to receive the money you need quickly.
Non-economic damages are harder to quantify in dollar amounts. This includes things like discomfort and pain.
Medical expenses
Medical expenses can comprise an important portion of a settlement, depending on the extent of the injury. These expenses could include doctor visits, medications as well as surgery. These costs are typically not covered by insurance and can be costly. In a lot of cases, there are also other expenses that are due to the injury such as home health care or adaptive devices, transportation to medical appointments and much more.
Medical bills are usually covered by your private health insurance plan, Medicare, Medicaid or PIP. If you settle with unpaid medical bills the funds received from the settlement will be used to pay these. Your attorney can negotiate with the billing companies to reduce the amounts.
Your lawyer can also decide the appropriate amount for any other losses that aren't medically related. These include future income loss along with pain and suffering and other damages that are not economic. Your lawyer will have to provide expert testimony and evidence of these other damages to be able to claim the proper amount.
Lost wages
In addition to compensation for medical expenses, injured victims could also be entitled to lost wages. These damages are calculated according to the time that the person was unable work because of their injuries. A skilled personal injury attorney can assist clients in recovering lost wage compensation in a personal injury lawsuit.
A brain injury that is traumatic or spinal cord injury for instance, can cause you to miss significant amounts of work. This means you'll have to prove that the time you didn't work was directly correlated to the accident. When proving that you lost wages, it is important to include all sources of income. This includes regular wage bonus, overtime, and commissions. Include any days of vacation that you have not used or sick leave.
If your doctor decides that you're able to return work with certain restrictions, your employer must respect these limitations. This could mean changing some aspects of your job or providing beneficial equipment.
A personal injury lawyer who is well-versed can help you gather the required information to back your claim for lost wages. They can also help in situations where the injured person is self-employed, or receives a variable salary. In these situations an insurance company must look at the past and future earnings of the victim and provide a reasonable estimation of the future loss of wages. This is likely to require a detailed financial report from the plaintiff's accountant or financial professional.
Economic damages
When people think of personal injury claims they typically think of loss of money due to medical expenses and lost wages. There are injury lawyer massachusetts that are difficult to quantify in dollars. These are referred to as non-economic damages. They include the more tangible effects of a person's injuries, like suffering and pain, as well as loss of enjoyment of life.
Pay stubs, bills and other documents can be used to prove economic damages for courts and juries. However non-economic damages are more difficult to determine and may be determined by subjective factors, like suffering and pain and the emotional trauma caused by the injury.
Pain and suffering can refer to any mental, physical or emotional distress that is a result of the accident. This could include the inability to participate in their usual hobbies or social activities. A jury will consider the extent to which the injury has impacted the victim's quality of life.
Other non-economic losses include disfigurement, loss of consortium and loss of enjoyment life. A person may suffer disfigurement following an accident which permanently alters their appearance. Although this isn't an expense, it can be very painful to bear scars and other permanent injuries.
Damages for suffering and pain
Pain and suffering are not economic damages which cover the physical and mental stress caused by your accident. As opposed to medical bills, car repair costs and lost wages they are more subjective damages that need to be determined by jurors. Every juror will have a different views about the amount of pain and suffering compensation is appropriate for your case.
One way to help a jury to understand the extent of your injuries is to provide documentation. Your lawyer can gather documents from your doctor which detail the extent and severity of your injuries. Additionally, he can gather photos and video footage. Testimonies from family members and friends can be equally convincing. These testimonies can help build empathy among jurors, and also show how your injury affected your hobbies and family activities.
The length of your injuries could also influence the amount of your pain and suffering settlement. Acute, disabling injuries typically warrant higher pain and suffering settlements than injuries that heal quicker.
Damage claims should be able to reflect the psychological and emotional trauma that is caused by an injury. A personal injury lawyer can help you create an impressive case, and negotiate a fair amount of compensation for all your injuries. Adam S. Kutner and Associates can provide you with a consultation should you have any concerns about a possible settlement to an injury.