The pain and suffering you are likely going through after your car accident is no doubt incalculable. That is because any serious injuries from outside or inside a vehicle changed your life forever.
How do you calculate this level of suffering you are going through now and will go through for years to come?
Do not hesitate to seek legal representation after your accident occurs to seek a settlement for your pain and suffering.
What Is Considered Pain And Suffering In A Car Accident?
The injuries you face after a car accident are sometimes apparent enough in the pain and suffering you go through. This is why it is important to gather as much evidence as possible at the scene of the accident to help prove all your physical injuries.
Some of those physical injuries you might experience include:
1. Lacerations
Being tossed around in your car is going to cause considerable lacerations and bruises. Document these physical signs on your smartphone if you are able. Have a friend take pictures of your open wounds to document how severe they are.
While these heal over time, it is a start in showing the major impact of your car accident. Perhaps someone hit you head-on, from behind, or the side. Maybe your airbag did not deploy properly either, leaving more than just lacerations to deal with in the coming days.
2. Spinal Cord Injury
Being hit by a large truck at a high speed could easily sever your spinal cord. Some people who suffer spinal injuries have incomplete injuries, meaning their brain is still functioning, yet with partial body paralysis.
Complete spinal cord injuries mean full paralysis of the body, meaning you are likely to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair.
A spinal cord injury of any degree of severity is devastating. It brings untold pain and suffering for years to come.
Broken Bones
While broken bones eventually heal, they can bring long-term health problems if they are severe enough. Obtain documentation of this to further prove the pain and suffering you are going through now and into the near future.
What about the long-term aspects of pain and suffering, though?
Mental Suffering
Other evidence we typically seek includes the intangibles of pain and suffering. What kind of mental suffering will you go through with your injuries? That alone makes for a compelling argument on the suffering you will eventually go through.
Intangible evidence also often includes the loss of wages you will experience from not being able to work any time soon or ever again.
Ultimately, how you feel inside matters in your future quality of life. To prove your case to gain compensation from an insurance company, this is all too important.
How Much Is Pain And Suffering Worth After Your Car Accident?
Our main goal at The Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys is to win our clients the settlement they deserve. Based on the medical bills you likely have, financial difficulty is a given. Winning a substantial settlement can be essential to keep your life above water, especially if no longer able to work.
How does winning that settlement work? We take you through several steps:
1. Gather The Right Evidence
Once you agree for us to represent you following your car accident, we can go to the accident scene and obtain as much evidence as possible. We take photographs, interview witnesses, and place any physical evidence into safekeeping.
Video footage is also valuable when it is available. Traffic cameras are ubiquitous here in Tampa, giving ample opportunity to acquire this footage without too much effort.
Security camera footage from businesses or private residents is sometimes more complicated to obtain. Still, with a subpoena, we can often get that footage to prove the lack of negligence in your car accident.
2. Acquire Your Medical Bills
You may have thousands of dollars in medical bills already piling up. We need to obtain every piece of your medical bill history and place that into a safe place. Evidence like this helps prove your pain and suffering as much as anything.
In addition, we can prove through the intangible evidence side that your medical bills are likely to continue into the indefinite future. Proof of this shows how much pain and suffering you will go through on a financial level as well as physical/mental.
3. Negotiate A Settlement
One of the more challenging aspects of your car accident is often negotiating with an insurance company to win you compensation. These insurance companies represent the negligent driver who caused your accident. They are typically going to look out for themselves and their client.
Do not be surprised if they attempt to contact you for an early settlement offer. Do not take it, because you likely deserve a higher amount to pay your bills. Also, do not talk to the insurance companies about your injuries since they can easily twist your words later if you go to trial.
You are likely curious about how the negotiation process works.
How Much Should You Settle For Your Pain And Suffering?
Leave all negotiations to a personal injury attorney like those at The Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys. We have dealt with insurance companies for years. We understand how they operate and attempt to avoid payouts.
The evidence you present will heavily bear on your settlement. Nevertheless, never expect a certain amount, since all cases are different.
With severe injuries, you should not hesitate to pursue a substantial settlement amount to cover your medical bills.