Personal injury is a legal term that refers to any harm you or anyone suffers due to someone else’s negligence or other wrongful action. In the context of personal injury law, an injury is any harm someone suffers thanks to the actions or omissions of another person. Typically, the injury is something serious enough to harm your life or the quality of your life. As a result of a personal injury, you could end up injured, hospitalized, or permanently disabled. The cost that comes with dealing with any of these situations, especially when the cause of it happening wasn’t your fault, can be substantial and traumatic.
Suppose you get injured due to another person’s carelessness or even intentional actions against you. In that case, you may need to get a professional involved and file a personal injury claim in order to recover damages for your suffering and economic losses related to your injuries. Below is a brief guide on how a personal injury claim can help you get your life back on track after an unfortunate accident.
Recovering Your Economic Losses
Suffering an economic loss is one of the most significant losses you will incur due to your injury and the accident. These are the losses associated with your decreased ability to earn money and your medical expenses, along with any repair bills or the cost of replacing things that are destroyed beyond being able to repair them. If you’ve suffered an injury that has negatively affected your ability to earn money, caused medical bills, or in some way negatively impacted your life, you may be eligible to receive compensation for your lost income.
The amount you’re entitled to will depend on the type of injury you’ve suffered, its severity, and how long you’ll be unable to work. Along with that, how much of a burden the injury has put on you to earn a living wage. When pursuing legal action, it’s always best to get an accident lawyer to ensure justice is served properly, and that you are fully compensated because you’ll have a much higher chance of winning your case.
You may also have incurred significant medical expenses due to your injury. Your medical expenses may include things such as:
- Medical treatment and care.
- Medications.
- Rehabilitation costs.
- Future medical care.
Even the costs associated with hiring someone to help you with your daily tasks while you recover from your injury could be included. When preparing for your case keep track of every expense so the information can be used to help prepare for court.
Healing and Rehabilitation
One of the major reasons to get compensated for your injuries through a legal case is that insurance companies tend to offer less than you deserve in order to still make a profit or save money. An injury’s emotional and physical stress can be overwhelming, and the costs related to your treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery can add up quickly. Meaning your case can be very expensive for the insurance companies. Having a source of income to help cover these expenses can make a big difference in your life and help you focus on getting better, and if that’s not possible then seeking compensation may be your only option to avoid losing all your money as you work to get your life back on track.
You may also be up for compensation if your injury resulted in significant mental or emotional trauma. The compensation you receive will depend on how significant your emotional trauma is and how long it will last. In some cases, emotional trauma can be severe and last for years.
Helping You Recover from Emotional Distress and Mental Suffering
As with economic and material losses, emotional distress and mental suffering are other forms of damages you may end up being entitled to seeking compensation for as you recover. Emotional distress is a form of damage that is not physical but is still very real for the person experiencing it. Emotional distress damages get awarded in cases where the emotional damage has been severe enough to affect your mental and emotional state profoundly.
Helping You Recover from Physical Harm and Deal With Permanent Disability
Lastly, damages related to personal injury can be awarded where the physical harm has resulted in a long-term or permanent disability. Adapting and adjusting to a permanent change in your life is a serious, and often expensive, thing. You will definitely have to seek out different aids to help maintain your quality of life, your entire life is bound to change as adjustments are made, and all of it will definitely cost money. Even if you’re just dealing with a long-term disability that you’re expected to eventually recover from, that’s still time taken away from you and money that has to be spent in order to maintain a proper quality of life. Depending on what you’re dealing with, it’s likely you won’t be able to work, or not work nearly as much, while you recover.
These are all just some of the reasons you and a lawyer should pursue a personal injury claim. The money and justice can be a serious boost to you as you move on with your life after the accident. When it comes to pursuing a personal injury claim, always remember to get an experienced attorney and follow the proper procedures to ensure you are compensated as required by the courts and the insurance companies.
