Identifying key damages in car accident litigation is critical to winning your case in court and receiving proper compensation for all your losses, which can include personal injuries to your body, losing material possessions, dealing with financial problems, and more.
However, to get the best outcome possible and avoid many common mistakes people make during this process, you must understand everything about the damages considered valid in a car accident litigation.
What Are Car Accident Damages?
Car accident damages can be described as the loss of financial and non-financial resources during a collision of multiple vehicles on the road that affects the lives of everyone involved in that incident.
This situation could happen unintentionally for many reasons, like a vehicle malfunction, drunk driving, or someone’s carelessness when driving on the streets. They could also happen because of adverse weather conditions or external environmental factors that can increase the likelihood of causing property damage from car accidents.
Once you are a victim of one of these car accidents, you can seek compensation in a legal battle against the people who caused all the damage in the aftermath if you correctly identify the key factors in that event.
These factors include the types of damages in car accident litigation linked to your case since they can highly affect the final result in court and help you get a favorable outcome, depending on the circumstances.
Here are some of the most critical factors you should consider when dealing with car accident litigation.
Property and Vehicle Damage
Property and vehicle damage are some of the most common factors associated with any car accident and can be easily identified by looking at the current state of your vehicle in the aftermath and any other material possessions you lost in this event.
Depending on how much damage your vehicle or property took in the accident, you can recover everything you lost or a significant amount after winning your case against the other party.
Medical Care Costs
Medical care costs can also be included during litigation if you or someone close to you suffered any form of physical harm during the accident and had to receive immediate help from a doctor in a nearby hospital.
During your case, you may need to take pictures of the medical bills you received from the hospital when you were treated and request doctors to release all the medical records during the case to serve as proof of the injury you and others sustained during the car accident.
Lost Wages
Losing wages can become another consequence of a car accident if you can’t go to work every day and have to spend many weeks or months in a hospital receiving treatment because your body got hurt during this incident.
This situation could make it almost impossible to cover all the daily expenses in your home after losing your job and potentially leave you homeless shortly if you can’t find a short-term solution to your financial problems, especially if you get fired.
Non-Economic Damages
You can also suffer from non-economic damages when you are the victim of a car accident, leaving you with severe mental trauma and many psychological problems that make it difficult to live a regular life like everyone else.
These damages also include other forms of disability in your body, going from something as simple as lower hearing and visual problems to scarring/disfigurement to losing one of your limbs in the crash.
Types of Car Accident Damage Categories
All the damages you suffer during a car accident can fall into four categories that will change the difficulty level of your case and the compensation you can receive from the other party after you win in court.
Each category covers every possible scenario that could occur to you or others during these incidents, allowing you to identify the types of car accident claims you can file to get the best results.
These categories can also help you determine your specific case’s applicable statute of limitations since they might change depending on which types of car accident damages are linked to your claim.
1. Economic Damages
Economic damages are one of the most frequent types of car accident claims lawyers use to present your case in court since it is straightforward to measure for the most part and has a lot of weight in the lives of the people involved in the event.
Most economic damages in these accidents are related to the loss of property and material possessions like your vehicle or anything else that was destroyed during this incident. These economic damages from your personal property can be calculated by listing all losses and expenses you took to restore or repair your vehicle, plus other things lost in the accident.
In the case of permanent property loss, you can seek full compensation for their total value to replace everything that was destroyed beyond repair.
Besides losing your property, you can suffer economic damages through all the medical bills you had to pay after the car accident, including emergency surgeries, prescription medicines, rehabilitation therapy from the doctor, and more.
Additionally, you can lose your wages for an extended period after receiving an injury in a car accident, which can force you to miss work during the recovery process. At the same time, you still have to pay for your house and other daily expenses.
Thankfully, you can request compensation for these lost wages and any future earnings you would have obtained from your work by filing a formal lawsuit against the main culprits of the car accident.
2. Non-Economic Damages
There are also non-economic damages that you could suffer during a car accident, which are directly tied to different problems that negatively affect your personal life and have a huge impact on your body, your mental health, and your physique.
These damages are usually evaluated by a jury in court that determines if the victim’s claims are valid and if they deserve any compensation from the car accident.
Regarding the non-economic damages to your body, you could suffer from excruciating pain after going through a car accident and receiving multiple wounds from the impact that require immediate medical attention.
In most cases, your body will have broken bones or deep cuts into your skin that cause sharp pain 24/7, taking many months to completely recover and heal from all the damage you took in the accident.
For this situation, the damages are calculated with the help of a multiplier that has different amounts depending on the seriousness of your injuries and the level of effort doctors need to take to treat them.
Mental health problems are another form of non-economic damage you could suffer from a car accident, leaving you with post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of your life and other related symptoms like chronic depression or anxiety.
These problems can seriously affect your lifestyle, impeding you from living like other people do because of the trauma and making you go to therapy with a professional psychologist to reduce the side effects after the crash.
In the worst-case scenario, your physique could suffer permanent damage in the car accident by losing some of your limbs or being disfigured beyond recognition, making it extremely difficult to return to your old life and interact with others like everyone else.
3. Wrongful Death Damages
You can seek compensation for wrongful death damages when one of your family members or someone close to you dies in a car accident, especially when the other party is directly responsible for losing your loved one.
The amount of compensation for this non-economic damage can be difficult to calculate since you can’t put a price on something like a person’s life. However, depending on the connection between you and the disease, the court will decide on a suitable amount for your case.
The court will also consider all the emotional distress caused by the passing of that person and the different expenses associated with their death, including the following.
- Medical bills before death.
- Cost of the funeral service.
- Loss of financial aid from the disease.
- Pain and anguish before their death.
Once you have proved the level of intimacy or closeness you had with the person who died in the car accident and added all the information you can about the previous points, you will increase your chances of receiving better compensation in your case.
4. Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are eligible in your case if you can prove without a doubt that the other party who caused the car accident was intentionally trying to harm you or had complete disregard for your safety and everyone else nearby.
The more proof you have of their egregious behavior and terrible conduct during the car accident, the more compensation they will have to pay you during the settlement.
However, the court will decide how much punitive damages should be levied from the perpetrator depending on the severity of its actions and the level of risk it poses to the people involved in the incident.
Get Help When You File a Claim
When you understand the types of car accident damages you can seek compensation for, it opens up a whole new world for your personal injury case. However, you still need someone who understands the ins and outs of personal injury law to help maximize your payout from the responsible party.
You need a personal injury attorney who has experience with damage compensation and isn’t afraid to take your case to court should settlement offers not match the compensation you deserve. Luckily, that’s exactly what Legal Help in Colorado is prepared to do.
Contact Legal Help in Colorado today and see what we can recover after your accident damages.