What You Need to Know About Compensation for Pain and Suffering
One of the most common misconceptions about personal injury lawsuits is that the plaintiff is only allowed to seek compensation for medical expenses and reimbursement for time off work.
Depending on the nature of your injuries, pain and suffering could impact your life for months, years of for the rest of your life.
What you need to know
In some car or motorcycle accidents, injuries such as broken bones and lacerations, are evident immediately. Yet in others, injuries don’t appear for an extended period of time. Imagine you trip over a large rock and you sprain your ankle. The sprain may heal if you don’t seek medical treatment and you may not experience long-term side effects. On the other hand, if you cracked or shattered a bone during this incident, the lasting effects may not begin to emerge for quite some time. As the years progress, you may experience arthritis, limited mobility and you may find you have problems walking, jogging or running.
Damages for pain and suffering may be awarded in personal injury lawsuits to compensate the injured party for long-term effects.
Be sure to see a doctor
Mental suffering can also be long lasting. One woman we spoke with indicated she’d been in a catastrophic car accident with a drunk driver when she was in her late teens. And while her physical injuries healed over time, the damage to her mental state persisted for years. Before the accident, she lived a vibrant, full life. Yet in the years after, she had problems with impulse control, depression and keeping her train of thought.
Since pain, suffering and metal suffering are hard to document in an x-ray, if you or someone you care for has been injured in an accident, you’ll want to seek medical care as soon as possible. This will allow doctors to document your physical and psychological symptoms, which will be helpful when your personal injury lawsuit goes to court.
Personal injury attorney in Naples, FL
If you or someone you care for has been in a car or motorcycle accident, don’t try to negotiate a settlement with the plaintiff’s insurance company on your own. Remember- the insurance company’s job is to minimize losses- they don’t have your best interests in mind.
For more information on how personal injury lawsuits work, or to learn more about damages for pain and suffering, call our office today to learn more.
