What Determines “fair Compensation” for My Personal Injury Claim?
Author: Justin Demerath
Many people, in our experience, simply want fair payment for their injuries from a car accident. They don’t intend to get rich or acquire something for nothing. However, what is the definition of “fair compensation?”
A standard doesn’t exist for calculating the amount of compensation you can collect. Many different factors are taken into account, whether by your attorney and the insurance carrier in talks or by trial, in determining the right level of payment. These factors include severity of the accident, how severe the injuries are, impact of the injuries on the victim’s employment and day-to-day life, and extent of medical care, just to name a few. Aggravating factors including drunk driving can both speed up payment and affect the settlement amount.
Fair compensation certainly involves more than just reimbursement for your costs of medical treatment. Under Texas law, a personal injury victim may collect payment for—
• Costs of medical treatment already incurred,
• Medical expenses to be incurred in the future,
• Lost salary,
• Loss of earning capacity,
• Physical pain,
• Mental or emotional suffering,
• Physical impairment,
• Property damage, and
• Other losses.
In some cases, the injured person’s family members may be entitled to payment, depending on how severe the injuries are and their reliance on the injured person.
You are entitled to payment for medical bills even if those bills already have been paid by your health insurance coverage. This also holds true for lost wages, even if you take sick days or receive worker’s compensation benefits.
This, however, is not a windfall or double recovery. First, under a principle called as “subrogation” your health insurance coverage (based on the plan documents) and your company’s workers’ compensation carrier (under Texas law) may be entitled to reimbursement from your recovery for what they pay out. Therefore, in order to be adequately compensated you need maximum payment from car insurance just in case your health insurer or workers’ comp carrier makes a subrogation claim against your recovery.
Second, if the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier limits your injury compensation simply because you have paid for health coverage, or paid increased car insurance premiums for “PIP” coverage (Personal Injury Protection), or have attained sick leave or paid vacation, the adverse insurance carrier is taking unfair advantage of the fact that you are a responsible individual and hard worker. If your sick days are completely spent because of harm incurrend from the car accident, that time will not be usable for other types of health problems. If you sacrifice to obtain extra coverage, the at-fault driver’s insurer should not take advantage of you.
In the end, you obtain a greater amount of payment with good legal representation than you would by going it alone. In fact, we believe that in the end you keep more dollars with a personal injury lawyer, even after attorney fees and expenses are deducted, than you normally could get on your own without an attorney. Until you retain a trial attorney, the insurance carrier is unlikely to provide fair compensation because the insurer knows that you won’t be ready to take your case to trial.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/national,-state,-local-articles/what-determines-fair-compensation-for-my-personal-injury-claim-219671.html
About the Author:
Justin Demerath, a personal injury lawyer in Austin, Texas, has dedicated his law practice to helping people who have suffered damages at the hands of others, in the state of Texas, recover monetary compensation. For more information, please visit: http://www.txinjurylawfirm.com/PracticeAreas/Car-Accidents.asp