Can I Claim Any Damages For Personal Distress Caused Due To A Car Accident?
Personal Injury Lawyer
Car accidents are traumatic events that can scar you for life. While insurance might take care of the physical damage done to your car, those emotional and psychological scars will be with you forever. So what are your options if you are involved in an accident? Here’s what you should do if you want to claim damages for personal distress due to a car accident.
Personal Injury Settlements After A Car Accident
When it comes to calculating the fallout of a car accident, the actual monetary expenses are easy to account for. You’ll need to keep track of medical bills and other expenses incurred as a result of the car accident caused by the other party. In addition, you can show how you will have ongoing expenses due to the trauma from the accident. You can also factor in the personal distress that the incident has caused you, highlighting how it will impair your quality of life or interfere with your work in the future as well. This is the tricky part and needs a skilled team.
Estimating Damages For Personal Distress
It isn’t easy to pin down a monetary value or even truly estimate “how much” personal distress, emotional pain or mental suffering someone has experienced due to a car accident. Law in West Virginia doesn’t give any clear standards on this either. However, an experienced personal injury lawyer can make a good estimate of the compensation you deserve, using their knowledge of typical damages awarded by juries in cases like yours. While the case will most likely never go to trial, the settlements can be estimated based on their experience of such cases.
If you have experienced a loss of quality of life, cognitive difficulties, or disfigurement, then these are also grounds for suing for personal distress. Factors that are involved in estimating damages include:
- Severity of distress
- Your age(if you’re younger and have to live with the fallout for that much longer than an older person you will probably be awarded higher damages)
- Degree of your suffering (a minor nuisance or discomfort will merit less concern than something like chronic pain stemming from the accident)
Getting That “Fair” Settlement – Why You Need A Lawyer
After you file a personal injury claim, you’ll need the legal backing of a good personal injury attorney relies on to ensure you get your due. The party at fault may also have a strong legal team, so it is imperative you hire the best to back you. Your attorney will put together a case to prove that the other party was responsible for the accident and has caused you personal distress. The damages that are awarded to you will be contingent on their making a strong case and proving you have incurred expenses or suffered losses due to the car accident. It is also important to have a good lawyer on your side so that they can guide you through any interviews or investigation undertaken by the other team. They will be able to help you understand how to tackle these situations and avoid doing or saying something that could undermine your case or make you seem like the guilty party.
