People who have been injured in a car accident may wonder how they can pursue compensation for their medical bills, lost wages and other damages. When their injuries stem from an accident caused by another driver’s negligence, they may be able to recover compensation through a personal injury claim.
In the context of a car accident case, negligence works like this: A driver has a duty of reasonable care to avoid causing harm to others on the road. A driver who breaches that duty by doing something unreasonably careless, like looking at a smartphone instead of at the road, has committed negligence. If that negligence causes an accident, and the accident causes injury to another person, the negligent drier can be held liable for the injured person’s damages.
Damages in a car accident case can include medical bills, lost wages from the time spent away from work, as well as pain and suffering and other noneconomic damages. In cases of serious injury, the injured person may need long-term medical care and other losses that carry on years into the future. For this reason, it’s important to calculate the expected future damages stemming from the injury. Sometimes, injured people accept a settlement offer that fails to take their future damages into account, and they end up struggling as a result.
A skilled personal injury attorney can help the injured and their families understand their options for pursuing compensation, and help them calculate their damages in a way that gives them the tools they need to deal with the long aftermath of an injury.