What Determines Your Auto Accident Settlement?
If you were injured in an auto accident that someone else caused, you may be wondering what your injury case will be worth. Here are some things that will impact your accident settlement.
Total Medical Bills
The first thing you need to look at is your total medical bills for your injury. This includes all medical bills that you've received up to the point that you are ready to settle your case or take it to trial and all of the potential future medical bills that you will receive. The problem that you'll run into is predicting what those future medical bills are. It's a number that you have to get right when making the request because you can't go back and ask for more money after you settle. Your lawyer will help you make a determination during the lawsuit to request the proper amount for your total medical bills.
Ability To Earn A Living
Did you have a job that involved performing manual labor, and now you won't be able to do so due to your injury? This means that the auto accident had a major impact on how you are able to earn a living and your settlement should reflect that. A lawyer can help bring in an expert witness to help determine the value of your future lost income. In some situations, determining lost income is a very simple process, where you know the exact amount of days you missed from work and can calculate it based on previous pay stubs.
Changes To Quality Of Life
You also need to think about your quality of life after the accident. This includes how long the injury impacted your life in the past and how it will impact you in the future. This is often the case when people cannot return to activities they used to previously do, such as playing a sport or even playing with their kids.
Permanence Of An Injury
Having an injury that is permanent can play into your settlement. This includes injuries that you will never fully recover from, loss of range of motion, and scarring that you will have to live with for the rest of your life. Even if you are not physically hurting, the permanence of a scar is something that you can be compensated for, with more visible scars being worth more than those that are hidden under clothing.
Reach out to a car accident lawyer for more information.
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