When a motor vehicle accident results in potentially catastrophic injuries like brain trauma or spinal cord damage, victims suffer harm in several ways—physically, psychologically and financially.
In the early aftermath of a severe crash, injured victims might not consider the economic effects of their accident. At some point, however, they will begin to notice their money is running out when they need it the most.
You may be eligible for non-economic damages
You may hear or read the term economic damages when filing your claim. These are the direct financial hardships suffered because of the accident. Two examples are accident-related medical bills and lost wages from missing work over your crash injuries.
Non-economic damages, widely known as pain and suffering, compensate accident victims for the hard-to-quantify effects of the accident. Examples of such effects include:
- Ongoing physical pain or suffering
- Emotional and mental anguish
- Loss of intimate marital relations
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Loss of life enjoyment
If you can show you experienced these losses, you may qualify for non-economic damages on top of your monetary damages. Most who sustain disabling or catastrophic crash injuries need this additional money to make life worth living. Under Georgia law, there is no cap on how much pain and suffering you can seek. However, your compensation will be reduced by your percentage of fault, if any, for the crash (texting while driving, speeding, etc.).
Those seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident need up-to-date knowledge of their state accident and injury compensation laws. Without access to this knowledge, you risk compromising your settlement and possibly missing out on necessary medical treatment.