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How is accident compensation calculated? Useful guide

Many factors affect the value of a personal injury claim, including the extent of a person’s injuries, the costs associated with treating those injuries and the amount of coverage available. Personal injury attorneys can review the details of an individual’s claim and provide an estimate of the value of their case.

What kind of accidents allow compensation to be sought

If you were injured in a slip or fall, at work, in a car accident or in some other incident, you are likely to have suffered financially, physically and mentally.

In the Civil Liability Act, the term “personal damage” typically refers to a civil lawsuit arising from the unlawful conduct of a negligent party that causes harm to another person, resulting in physical or emotional injury to that person. Common claims that an accident lawyer could help an injured person chase include:

  • Car and truck accidents
  • Bus accidents
  • Bike and motorcycle accidents
  • Slips and falls
  • Medical negligence
  • Negligence in nursing homes
  • Defective use products, including dangerous drugs
  • Claims for death due to negligence

The injured party must demonstrate negligence on the part of the opposite party by demonstrating: that the accused owed him a duty of diligence; that they failed to comply with that duty; the offence caused the injuries; and that the injured party suffered losses due to the injuries.

Due to the complex nature of personal injury claims and the requirements that can be imposed to succeed in your lawsuit, the injured party must hire an accident lawyer to help you file and litigate your claim.

Who can ask for compensation by accident

If you suffered an injury due to someone else’s careless or negligent behavior, you may have a viable claim that you can file against the negligent party with the help of a qualified lawyer.

If the injuries you are suffering were due to someone else’s negligence, you could be responsible for the losses you have suffered from that accident. A personal injury lawyer could help you get enough financial compensation for your pain and suffering.

Factors involved in the calculation of compensation

A common question when hiring a personal injury lawyer is how much is my case worth? To answer, let’s see the following:

  • Insurance companies generally value an injury agreement using formulas that take into account injuries, the amount of medical treatment needed and how much they have given in previous similar cases.
  • Each case is different from personal injury, but certain factors and laws are likely to affect the dollar amount of any injury compensation claim.
  • The value of a personal injury claim depends on the amount of damage suffered. Usually, the party considered legally responsible pays the damages to the injured plaintiff to compensate for the losses he suffered due to the accident or injury.
  • From a financial point of view, the damage puts a dollar value on the plaintiff caused by the accident. The final amount of damages in a suit can be determined by an agreed amount in a settlement or by a jury in a trial.

Economic and non-economic damage

Economic damage, or special damages, include current and future financial losses. These costs are usually based on amounts recorded in numbers along the way. For this reason, establishing a dollar value for this type of loss may be easier to calculate when generating a claim.

Economic costs may include:

  • Medical bills to treat the injury
  • Damage or loss of property
  • Wages lost for free time
  • Other pocket losses

Non-economic damage, or general damage, can be more difficult to calculate because it generally represents the physical and mental cost of accident or injury. This can include the physical discomfort and pain of the plaintiff, or pain and suffering.

Non-economic damage also takes into account:

  • Emotional distress / metal anguish
  • Loss of enjoyment
  • Loss of consortium

Determination of the fault and how it affects the value of the claim

Depending on the state, a plaintiff’s level of blout of battery for causing an accident can reduce the amount of compensation a jury could grant if the case were to trial. As a result, an injured person who shares the blame for an accident can find the value of their claim reduced at least partially.

If your own neglect or negligence contributed to the accident, the law in your state may require a reduction in the amount of damage you will receive for compensation. The amount that is usually reduced is based on the state where the accident occurred.

State Personal Injury claims laws

In some states, damage is reduced by an amount equivalent to your guilt percentage. In other states, however, any fault on the part of the plaintiff could cause compensation to be reduced altogether.

When it comes to the role of an injured person in causing an accident, states generally follow one of the three basic types of negligence rules:

  • Pure comparative negligence
  • Amended comparative negligence
  • Contributive negligence

Pure comparative negligence

In states that use pure comparative negligence, damages in a personal injury lawsuit are reduced directly by the plaintiff’s percentage of guilt for the accident. For example, if you are determined that you are 30 percent blame, the dollar amount of your damage would be reduced directly by 30 percent.

Amended comparative negligence

The amended comparative negligence rule follows the same pattern as pure comparative negligence, but only to a certain extent. States that use this method to determine damage based on failures include Colorado and Minnesota.

Under this rule, the dollar amount for damages is still reduced by the percentage of guilt. However, if it is decided that your percentage of guilt for causing the accident is equal to or greater than 50 percent (different states have varied limits), you will no longer be able to collect damages.

As a result, plaintiffs in states that use modified comparative negligence and share the blame at 50 percent or more, may find that their claim will be reduced in value.

However, this does not mean that any claim is worthless simply because the plaintiff is, at least in part, to blame. Contact a David Sanchez accident lawyer to talk about your rights and the compensation you can receive for your case.

Contributive negligence

Among these three standards, contributory negligence is considered to be the strictest when it comes to reducing damage by shared fault.

Contributive negligence prevents an injured claimant from collecting any damage if it is determined that he is to blame for the accident, regardless of the percentage.

This means that even 1 percent of the blame found by the plaintiff could drastically reduce the value of his claim in states that use this rule.Therefore, the best way to find out if your claim will be affected is to seek legal advice from an accident lawyer from David Sanchez.

What to consider for accidental compensation

Most civil cases in the United States have to do with personal injury. That leads to ask yourself this question.How can I have more opportunities to win my personal injury case? Here are some suggestions to consider:

  1. Be transparent with your lawyer
  2. The details of the case only be told to your lawyer.
  3. Don’t talk to insurance providers
  4. Try to have a medical professional on your side
  5. Document every evidence in your case
  6. You and your lawyer are a team.
  7. Trust in the process
  8. Choose the lawyer that’s right for you

In David Sanchez’s Legal Offices, accident compensation lawyers will help you with your claim. Call (972) 529-3476

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