Types of Compensation in a Personal Injury Case

The main goal of a personal injury claim is to get you money for your damages. Therefore, it’s important for you to understand the many different types of damages involved with personal injury claims. With the help of a lawyer, you may be able to obtain full compensation for your injuries, missed wages, and pain and suffering.

Economic Damages

You can divide the damages into two categories, the first of which are economic damages. These damages refer to expenses that are easy to calculate. They include all of your past and future medical bills. For this reason, many attorneys recommend waiting to file a claim until you have reached your maximum recovery. This ensures you won’t have any unexpected surgeries or therapies to deal with.

Another type of economic damage is your missed wages. When you’re injured, you need to miss time from work. This could be due to the fact that your injury keeps you from performing your job, or the fact that your doctor appointments require you to miss work. In any case, you should save your pay stubs and add up all of your missed wages. According to personal injury laws, you may be eligible to seek compensation for missed wages. Much like medical bills, this should include past and future missed wages.

There may be other economic damages. For instance, any medical equipment needed or therapies cost money. Save your receipts for all of your expenses and include them in your total damages.

Non-economic Damages

Although non-economic damages are more difficult to calculate, they have a significant impact on the value of your settlement. Non-economic damages refer to expenses that have no obvious monetary value. They are commonly associated with catastrophic injuries and are not often a factor for those who have minor or temporary injuries.

For instance, pain and suffering is non-economic damage. When you have a painful injury, you have to cope with both physical and mental pain. You can also receive money for disfigurement. If you have a scar on your face, it will affect you for the rest of your life. Typically, cases involving physical disfigurement have high settlement values.

To determine the value of your non-economic damages, you can use a multiplier. Based on the severity of your injury, choose a number between one and five. Then, multiply your economic damages by that number. 

How Can You Collect Your Damages?

To collect your compensation, you need to file a personal injury claim against the negligent party. Then, there are two ways in which you could obtain compensation. The first way is through a settlement offer. Before your case goes to trial, your attorney could meet with the opposing counsel in mediation. During this process, a settlement offer could be made.

You’re under no obligation to accept the settlement offer. However, you could get a fair deal. Your lawyer will help you calculate your damages and will advise you on whether or not you should accept the offer. 

If you don’t accept an offer, you need to go to trial. This is the other way in which you can get compensation. Your lawyer could convince the court to award you damages for your accident. 

Most personal injury cases have a three-year statute of limitations in New York. To avoid missing the deadline, you should connect with a lawyer at Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff, LLP.