After a car accident, it is vital to work with a car accident lawyer to get the damages you need. If you were not at fault for the accident and you faced injuries, it can be hard to know exactly how much your case is worth and what damages you are entitled to. Getting those damages paid can also be incredibly stressful.
When you work with an experienced Huntington car accident lawyer, your attorney can handle your case for you. This means getting you the damages you need through insurance claims and lawsuits and fighting on your behalf so you can focus on your recovery.
For a free case evaluation, call The Carrion Law Firm’s Huntington car accident lawyers today at (718) 841-0083.
Calculating Damages in a Huntington, NY Car Accident Case
To know what your case is worth, you will have to track down all of the damages related to your accident. Your Huntington car accident lawyers can advise you as to what damages you can claim in your case, what those damages are worth in your specific case, and what steps need to be taken to claim those damages.
Medical Expenses
If your injuries were severe enough to result in hospital stays, surgeries, casts, stitches, or even physical therapy and rehabilitation, you could be entitled to compensation for the full value of your medical expenses. In many cases, these damages are somewhat simple to calculate because there are medical bills and records of these costs.
In some cases, you may have future medical expenses. Discuss with your attorney about whether these damages can be included in your claim.
While your “no-fault” insurance should pay some amount of medical expenses without the need to prove fault, these damages are often limited by low PIP limits and deductible payments. For help getting these damages compensated in full, speak with our Huntington car accident attorneys.
Lost Wages/Lost Earning Capacity
When your injuries keep you from working, calculating damages can be complex. First, you could be entitled to any wages you missed between the date of the accident and the date you were fully recovered and able to go back to work. This is typically simple enough to calculate by looking at previous pay stubs and using your normal pay rate over those missed workdays to find the total lost wages.
If your injuries keep you from working at full capacity, require you to take a lower-paying position with fewer physical demands, or prevent you from working altogether, calculating damages is a lot harder. In many of these cases, your Huntington car accident lawyer will need to hire a financial expert to project lost wages over the time you would have continued to work if it were not for the injury. Getting these calculations right is an important part of getting the damages you need in your injury case.
These damages can be paid through no-fault insurance, but again, policy limits might allow only a percentage of these wages to be reimbursed, and deductibles may prevent you from getting compensated for the full amounts. Talk to a lawyer about suing for these damages.
Pain and Suffering
Along with other “non-economic damages,” pain and suffering is one of the core areas of damages you should consider claiming in your injury case. These damages are paid to account for the mental and emotional effects of an injury, such as your actual pain, mental suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, and more.
Talk to a lawyer about how to calculate these damages. The actual calculation is usually done by determining a multiplier based on the severity of your suffering and applying that multiplier to your other economic damages. Alternatively, the court or insurance company could pick a per diem rate for your suffering and multiply that by the number of days you suffered from your injuries.
In any case, no-fault insurance usually does not pay for pain and suffering, so you would have to go through the courts to get these damages compensated in full in New York.
Proving Fault in a Huntington Car Accident Case
To get damages from your no-fault insurance, you do not need to prove fault. However, this insurance only covers a portion of your damages, and you will often need to sue if you have severe injuries. Property damage is also not included under most no-fault insurance policies. However, you will need to prove that the other driver was at fault to get these damages paid.
In a car accident case, someone is usually found to be “at fault” if they made a mistake or committed a traffic violation. Typically, outside of cases involving vehicular assault, there is usually no malintent behind the accident, and there is usually no requirement to prove that the driver did anything “on purpose.” Instead, your Huntington car accident lawyers will seek to prove that they committed “negligence.”
Negligence is based on a violation of a legal duty through carelessness or inattention. So instead of proving that someone hit you with their car on purpose, you would prove, for example, that they hit you because they ran a red light or because they were driving under the influence. Proving this kind of violation is often sufficient to prove that the accident was the other driver’s fault.
The evidence needed to prove fault varies from case to case. Your testimony and the testimony of other witnesses can often prove what happened and show an insurance company or court that the other driver was responsible. Photos and documentary evidence might also be available, but actual video of the crash is often the strongest evidence.
For a Free Case Review, Call Our Huntington Car Accident Lawyers Today
To seek a free case review from our experienced Huntington car accident attorneys, call The Carrion Law Firm today at (718) 841-0083.