Every year, motor vehicle accidents cause severe injuries and deaths on our roads. A distracted driver may crash into another car, or a fatigued truck driver may veer into another vehicle. Broken bones, abrasions, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, whiplash, and long-term paralysis are just a few of the injuries sustained by motor vehicle accident victims. Dealing with the medical bills and hospitalization that these injuries entail can be difficult for victims and family members.
A victim may want nothing more than to return to work to act as the breadwinner for a family, but they must first recover from serious injuries in the hospital. While a victim may feel like all hope is lost, Joe I. Zaid & Associates can provide a sense of stability in this highly emotional and difficult time. A lawyer can provide a victim with hope in obtaining a settlement from an insurance company during this difficult time.
When a victim is unable to return to work or function in daily life, he or she is entitled to fight for compensation.
Filing a case of personal injury provides you with the opportunity to make the party liable for your pain and distress to take responsibility and pay for the damages that you have incurred because of their negligence.
Damages You May be Awarded
A personal injury case is usually a result of someone else’s negligence. While they are initially perceived as accidents, the fact that you were hurt will still place you in a good position to file a claim. Such accidents could have been avoided in the first place if only the person responsible had been more careful in his actions.
Normally, you get to receive a payment for physical injury from the insurance company of the person at fault, and this payment package covers:
- Medical bills and expenses
- Lost income
- Loss of family and social experiences and recreational events
- Psychological damages
- Permanent disability
- The damaged property involved in the accident.
Primary Causes of Brain Injury
One of the reasons brain injuries are so common throughout the world is the many different mechanisms that can cause injury to occur.
Many injuries occur due to blunt force trauma and direct impact, caused when the head comes in contact with a surface – perhaps a floor or a car’s steering wheel. Still, many more occur due to indirect insults, such as when the head is shaken, snapping forward and back, or side to side due to an impact.
This second type of brain injury is hazardous since it can occur without any initial symptoms. The sudden movement can cause a concussion or, worse, tear tiny blood vessels in the area between the brain and the skull, causing blood to leak. When the tear is severe, symptoms can show up right away. But when the tears are tiny, the build-up of blood can occur over time, sometimes for several days, before any symptoms are apparent. By the time help is sought, permanent brain damage almost always occurs – and sometimes, the result is death.
Other types of brain injury can occur when oxygen flow to the brain is blocked, such as in a near-drowning accident or when toxic fumes like chemicals or smoke are inhaled.
Brain Injuries Have Devastating Impacts
Even minor brain injuries can greatly affect your daily habits, making it difficult to perform many of the tasks you once took for granted.
These are just a few of the specific symptoms a brain injury can cause:
- Chronic headaches
- Vision, speech, or hearing problems
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Irritability or irrational mood changes
- Loss of impulse control
- Difficulty concentrating
- Memory problems
- Depression or anxiety
- Inability to sleep or sleeping too much
With such a wide range of problems, it’s easy to see how the cost of a brain injury can quickly surpass those associated with medical care, encompassing much broader losses like loss of wages, pain, and suffering, and other costs that can have a devastating financial impact.
Whiplash Injury
Whiplash injuries usually occur when a person is involved in a car accident and gets their head thrown forward and backward. Then their body goes the opposite direction, resulting in what looks like whiplash motion, with stress and hyperextension happening to the neck muscles most of the time. Before deciding on getting a whiplash injury claim, it is best to analyze first whether one truly has a whiplash-related injury. It is utilized to describe the snapping action that occurs to the neck when you encounter an auto accident.
Several symptoms could be classified as whiplash-associated disorders or injuries.
The most common ones are:
- Neck
- Shoulder pains
- Headaches
- Back pains
Restricted neck movement is also a very prevalent characteristic of whiplash-related injuries.
How Much is My Claim Worth?
As is evident, most people who are injured in a car sustain whiplash injury and are searching for answers. They want to either submit a claim, find out how much a claim is worth or get an idea of what the injury settlement for the claim will be.
As each claim is unique, there is no definitive answer until the circumstances are known.
Two questions get brought up a lot in just about any legal case:
- How much will this cost, or
- How must do I deserve?
While putting a dollar figure on legal issues may seem greedy, the simple fact is that you deserve something when you are wronged. If you, in turn, wronged someone, they too deserve something. This gets complex, especially in car accident law.
Know The Types of Damages
You can get many forms of damages after a car accident, depending mainly on what happened, who was at fault, and who is injured. Even in cases where the fault is on both sides, the person hurt can recover damages. This includes damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, mental anguish, and loss of life enjoyment. While you may think medical expenses may be the big number here, actually pain, suffering, and mental anguish can lead to much greater damages.
Know Who You are Suing
Car accident claims can be high, but it depends on who’s at fault. If you’re involved in an accident with another car, that car owner and their insurance will be liable. On the other hand, if someone hits you in a company vehicle, you might get more.
The point here is that the more at fault the individual is, the more they pay.
Valuing a Claim
Insurers first define claims by medical expenses and lost wages, not by pain and suffering. Medical and lost wages are where the process begins. Then, if the injuries are very severe, if the pain and suffering is a lingering issue, they may increase the initial number dramatically. However, the first offer may be low and not factor in pain, suffering, and mental anguish. How can you get more?
Get a Lawyer
There are instances in which you get caught in a very untimely situation, and as a result, you get hurt, either physically or psychologically, or sometimes even both. Indeed, such situations, and the results of these, are usually brushed off by others as they think that what happened was just an accident. But you cannot always follow the bandwagon, especially if the results of this supposed accident have heavily affected your life. Hence, this may be just the best time for you to consult the services of a personal injury lawyer.
A personal injury lawyer is essential in proving liability, damages, and protecting your rights. You cannot win without one. You don’t pay upfront costs either; an experienced personal injury lawyer will take a percentage of the final settlement.
If you don’t hire an attorney, it may decrease the value of your claim. With a lawyer, you can make fair counteroffers, and if need be, take this issue to court. How much does a lawyer get? This depends on the complexity of the case. If you settle before the court, a lawyer may take around 25% of the settlement. If you fight a long, protracted battle in court, the fee will be more like 35%.
