Being injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault can be a life-changing event. You’re left coping with your injuries and a loss of income while medical bills for necessary treatments pile up along with your normal living expenses.
You could file a personal injury lawsuit, but until a settlement is reached, you’re left with sleepless nights worrying about how you’ll support yourself and your family. If this scenario sounds familiar, speak with an injury lawyer.
Long Island personal injury lawyer team of experts in every phase of a case: from planning and negotiation to trial preparation and litigation. Working with an experienced legal team ensures you receive the maximum compensation possible.
After a consultation, you’ll have a much better idea of what your case is worth.
What Damages Can You Pursue in a Personal Injury Claim?
Before estimating how much your personal injury claim is worth, you’ll need to know what types of damages you can seek.
Medical bills are obvious, but other damages should be included in your case. To ensure you’re not leaving any money on the table, hiring an experienced Long Island personal injury attorney is crucial before seeking a settlement.
You could seek two types of damages. Economic damages are those that are usually easily calculated. Non-economic damages are a little more difficult to place a value on. Examples of economic damages can include:
- Medical bills
- Injury related out of pocket expenses
- Transportation costs to and from medical appointments
- Current and future lost wages and benefits
- Expenses to modify a residence with mobility devices if necessary
Examples of non-economic damages can include:
- Pain and suffering
- Permanent disability
- Disfigurement
- Loss of consortium
- Emotional distress
How to Calculate the Value of Your Personal Injury Claim
Your personal injury lawyer can help you compile a list of expenses, which will be used as evidence to support your claims. Once you have all of this required documentation, you can begin to calculate what your total claim is worth.
Ultimately, a settlement amount will be reached during the discovery phase, where both legal teams share evidence or in a courtroom.
However, you can come up with a ballpark figure.
The economic damages are fairly easy to calculate.
Here’s how to get a good estimate of your economic expenses.
- Medical expenses – Add up your medical expenses, not just your out-of-pocket costs.
- Property damage – Add repair expenses if your personal injury claim was due to an automobile accident.
- Lost earnings – Calculate what you would have been paid for the time you’ve been unable to work due to your injuries.
- Future lost income – If you know how long you’ll be unable to work, calculate how much you’ll lose. If you’re permanently disabled and unable to work, figure out what your future lifetime earnings would have been.
Non-economic damages are more difficult to calculate, although your personal injury attorney can use their experience from similar cases – together with established formulas – to figure out an amount.
These additional damages are for pain and suffering, PTSD, mental anguish, and other physical and emotional traumas that could last a lifetime. Situations that can influence dollar amounts can include:
- Age – Although somewhat unfair in calculating a damage amount, the victim’s age will play a part. Victims in their golden years may not receive as much as someone significantly younger.
- The severity of injuries – Catastrophic injuries that include the loss of a limb, disfigurement, or severe scarring may receive a higher settlement than injuries that will heal over time.
- Health condition before the accident – If the victim was already in poor health, this could influence “quality of life” damages.
Comparative Negligence
It should be noted that New York is one of the few states in the USA that has adopted what is known as “pure comparative negligence.” Fortunately for the victim, no matter how much the accident was their fault, they can still engage in a legal battle to pursue compensation.
However, if they were 60% responsible, they’d only receive 40% of the settlement amount.
How to Calculate the Value of Your Long Island Personal Injury Claim
Working with an experienced personal injury attorney is vital for receiving fair compensation for all of your damages. They’ll be able to help you get your case filed and have the negotiation skills to ensure you don’t leave any money on the table.
Only an experienced lawyer can accurately calculate all of your economic and non-economic damages.