Compensation for Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

The first thing that you need to do in order to receive compensation for your truck accident is to seek medical care. If you have any injuries, whether they’re severe or minor, you will need to be seen by a medical professional. Then, you must submit not only your medical records but your medical bills to your personal injury lawyer. Common truck accident injuries include:

• Broken bones
• Whiplash and concussion
• Head and brain injuries
• Injury to the soft tissues
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Spine injuries
• Emotional anguish and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Cuts and lacerations

How Compensation Is Calculated

No claims adjuster is ever going to give their exact formula for how much they determine a person receives in their settlement. However, there are certain things that can increase your settlement, as well as reduce it. The first step in calculating your settlement is to combine your total economic damages, which are your expenses due to medical treatment, lost wages, and future earnings as well as your damaged property, like your car and valuables in it.

Then that total amount is recalculated with a multiplier, which is based on the severity of your injuries. Multipliers start at 1.5 for the least serious injuries and go up to five or even 10 in the case of wrongful death.

Let’s take a look at an example. Jane Client is involved in a car accident on her way to work and suffers whiplash as a result of the accident. Her car is also damaged and needs a new bumper. The total cost of repairing her vehicle, her medical bills and the day of work that she lost came to $5,000. Because her injuries were minor and she is expected to fully recover with no long-term consequences to her health, her multiplier is 1.5. Therefore her total settlement would be $7,500.

This is merely an example to illustrate how a settlement could be calculated. Personal injury lawyers, however, can give you a better idea of how much you can receive during your free consultation to discuss your case specifically.

Tips To Stay Safe on the Roads

Not only are these great tips, but following them can help you in a personal injury case. If it’s found that you or your passengers weren’t wearing seat belts, or if you were not obeying traffic laws, then even the best attorney would have a hard time defending your case.

• Keep children ages three and under in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible until they outgrow it and need to move into a forward-facing car seat with a harness and tether. Keep older children in booster seats until they are grown enough to use a seatbelt properly.
• Make sure that all passengers in your vehicle wear seatbelts. It is believed that since 1975, seatbelts may have saved about 374,276 lives according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
• Never swerve in front of a truck or other larger vehicle. Due to inertia, they take longer to slow down and speed up compared to a smaller, faster passenger vehicle.
• Avoid driving during inclement weather when road conditions are worse. If you must drive, then give yourself extra time to drive slower and more carefully.