Defending Your Custody Agreement: Protecting Your Education Choices

Do You Know How Much Your Personal Injury Claim Is Truly Worth?

29 November 2014 by Daryl Young

When you sue someone for pain and suffering, you are not including any amounts for medical treatments or lost wages into that figure. Pain and suffering lawsuits are about how much money could compensate someone that has experienced a hugely altered lifestyle due to an injury caused by someone else. If you have suffered an injury because of someone's negligence, learning more about exactly how much your injury is truly worth is beneficial.

Special And General Damages

Special damages include monetary compensation for things like medical bills or the cost of fuel for transportation to doctor's office. To prove special damages in a court of law, you'll have to provide receipts for each one. Other special damages can include:

• Both prescription and over-the-counter medicine that's used for your injury.
• The cost of medical equipment like wheelchairs or hospital beds.
• Estimates made for how much future medical expenses may cost.
• Damaged personal property including any items you may have had on your person like jewelry or electronic equipment. In the case of a car accident, property in your car like laptops or smartphones are considered personal property.
• Wages you lost due to an injury. Your employer will need to provide your lawyer with a statement about how many hours you lost after getting injured.

General damages include pain, suffering, and other intangible issues caused by an injury that have changed your life. For some people, an injury may cause lifelong problems that would require long-term medical care. When you hire a lawyer, like Law Office Of John J Barrow, he or she will figure out an estimate of how much the long-term medical care would cost. This estimate is figured into the overall amount you would be suing for. Other types of general damage include:

• Emotional distress. This can have a devastating effect on someone's life, especially if it was caused by a traumatic injury. Some kinds of emotional distress are anxiety, depression, the onset of panic attacks and chronic insomnia. If you have experienced any of these issues due to an injury, you will need to have documentation from a mental health professional for proving it in a court of law.
• Decreased quality of life. Losing the ability to enjoy your life is considered a type of general damage that is hard to put a price on. If you are unable to do your normal daily activities or have fun doing your favorite hobby, you are losing a level of fulfillment you once had in your life.

Talk with your attorney about these different kinds of damages so you can figure out which ones you can claim.

Share

Search