The possibility of one getting injured from numerous possible actions by other people is very high. This is what led to the rise of personal injury claims that one makes when injured, due to the actions of someone else.
However, initiating a valid personal injury claim can be difficult. To ensure you are successful with the claim, you should consult personal injury attorneys and make a comprehensive list of things you want to claim.
Personal Injury Lawsuit Without a Lawyer: Is It Alright To Do So?
The law allows one to proceed to file a personal injury lawsuit without a lawyer. You are also allowed to represent yourself for the whole duration of the proceedings.
However, it is important to know that personal injury lawsuits come with a lot of work which you will be handling on your own. Another factor to keep in mind is that your emotional connection with the case can alter your logical thinking about it thereby reducing the chances of winning a settlement.
This is why it is paramount to get a lawyer. A personal injury lawsuit without a lawyer has low chances of succeeding. The Insurance Research Council carried out a study comparing settlements of people who had lawyers and those without lawyers.
They found that those represented by lawyers in their personal injury lawsuits get approximately three times and a half times more than those who opt to represent themselves.
Most proficient personal injury lawyers offer free initial consultation sessions with the clients to evaluate the case. In these sessions, the lawyers look to gain a deeper understanding of the case. After understanding the case, they formulate an execution plan for the lawsuit.
When coming up with the list of things to claim in your injury lawsuit, you should not just focus on the present. You should look beyond the medical expenses incurred to cater for the injury. You are supposed to consider how the injury will affect your quality of life, then incorporate claims based on that.
In this article, we look at a few things that you can claim in a personal injury lawsuit.
List of Things To Claim in A Personal Injury Lawsuit
- General Damages
The general damages claim refers to the injuries you have sustained in the personal injury. They are damages that occur as a direct result of the plaintiff’s actions. The general damages claim can encompass a wide range of injuries that have resulted from a car accident, swimming injuries, construction injuries, etc.
General damages cover more than just physical impacts on one’s body. This claim includes several injury categories. The categories are:
- Mental anguish from the injury
- Physical suffering and pain from the injury
- Body disfigurement
- Physical impairments
- Loss of life partner
The general damages claim is often hard to assign a value to. This is why cases that seem to have similar types of injuries often end up having very different settlements for general damages.
To come up with a figure to quote to the plaintiff, your personal injury attorney should help you break down the various damages. From there, you can assign a value to every damage based on its intensity, extent, and impact on you as the victim. When doing this, it is important to keep in mind that if prompted, you will justify the values that you have quoted.
- Future Impact on Income
In today’s job market, employers are looking for maximum efficiency and productivity at work. This means that if one has attained an injury that will hinder or affect their performance at work, they are at risk of a pay cut or worse, losing their job.
When filing a personal injury claim, this should be critically considered. If the injury sustained will hinder you from ever working again, you should quote that in the claim. The claim payout for such a case will be an amount that is supposed to cushion your life and help you continue living well even with the lack of a job.
However, losing a job is not the only scare there is. Some injuries will result in reduced work efficiency which may cause your employer to reduce your salary. In such a case, you should ask for a settlement fee that is equal to the amount deducted from your salary before the injury.
The future impact on income also considers the types of jobs that one will be able to do. If you will not be able to ever work again, you should ask for a settlement amount that will support you financially for the rest of your life. In such cases, conducting a financial assessment of your life might help you come up with a rough estimate of the amount to quote.
- Housing Costs
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Some personal injury cases result in permanent body impairments for some people. With body impairments, one will need special kinds of houses that are designed for use by people with the impairment.
Oftentimes, these houses cost more than regular houses in terms of purchase price or rental price. In your personal injury claim, you should remember to include this if the injury incurred has caused any sort of physical impairment.
If, for instance, you were cycling and got hit by a drunk driver and after the necessary medical attention, you end up crippled you have to consider housing. For a person without the ability to use their limbs, you will have to use a wheelchair.
When using a wheelchair, living in regular apartments that have stairs is not a practical option. This will mean that you will have to move to an apartment block that has ramps, and escalators. You should consider the additional housing costs per month and include them in your personal injury claim.
- Medical Fees
Medical fees should almost be described as a must-have claim on a personal injury lawsuit. Your lawyer should be aware of all the medical expenses that you have incurred to treat the injury acquired from the actions of the plaintiff.
If you got a fractured leg, the claim should be valued at the amount of money you have used to get medical assistance and recovery. The medical fees can also incorporate long-term charges. This happens when you incur an injury or condition that cannot be treated completely and requires you to be on chronic medication.
- Loss of Pension
In cases when you end up being severely injured that you lose your job, this means that you no longer have an employer to pay your pension scheme. With the importance of pensions shown clearly in the current society, you should include a pension claim in your personal injury lawsuit.
The pension claim should be calculated based on the amount of pension plan payments that your employer was making for you. This will ensure that the pension fund you receive is not affected by the injury.
Pension claims are the epitome of planning for the future in the event of any injury. You should therefore work together with your lawyer to evaluate whether the injury will have any impact on your pension.
Conclusion
It is important to keep in mind that any lawyers suggested to you by the insurance company are there to protect the insurance firm, not you. This is why it is vital for you to hire your personal lawyer who will stand up for you in the personal injury lawsuit.
Hiring an experienced and proficient lawyer will ensure that your claims are well taken care of as you take your time to recover peacefully from any sustained injuries.
