If a car accident has left you with various types of damages, you may be entitled to recover them from the at-fault driver and their insurance carrier. The way the accident and your recovery has affected your life can be divided into two categories: economic and non-economic. Non-economic damages refers mostly to pain and suffering, and the compensation for that damage can be considerable. The other category, however, covers a large variety of damages that can be directly equated to dollars and cents. Not all personal injury cases will include every one of the below–only those that can be shown to apply to your case will be included. Read on for a listing of economic damages in your personal injury case.
1. Medical Expenses
Any medical expense that is related to the accident falls into this section of economic damage. Unless your accident and the resulting injury were relatively minor, you can expect the dollar amount and the documentation for this category to rise higher than almost any other. Even if you have not paid for any of your medical expenses out of your own pocket, you must keep up with the expenses anyway. This can include:
- Ambulance service (including air ambulance if necessary)
- Emergency room treatment
- Doctors care
- Hospitalizations
- Surgery (inpatient and outpatient)
- Medication
- Durable medical goods (braces, crutches, raised toilets, etc.)
- Physical therapy
In some cases, home healthcare or housekeeping services are included in the medical expense category.
2. Transportation
You are entitled to have your vehicle replaced or fixed, but you can also be reimbursed for other transportation-related expenses. If your own policy doesn't pay for a car rental, for example, you can ask the other side to pay for that expense. Be sure to keep up with costs associated with seeking medical care, such as tolls, parking fees, and mileage to and from appointments.
3. Lost Wages
Keep up with all of the time missed from work as a result of the wreck since you can ask the other driver to pay those expenses. Using your own paid time-off is fine, but you are entitled to be paid back for that. If you can show that your ability to work at your career has been permanently affected by the wreck, you may also be entitled to lost earnings compensation.
4. Future Medical
You may not be able to wait for the final outcome of surgeries and future medical needs, so this category allows you to be paid based on a prediction of future needs by experts.
To learn more about economic damages, speak to a personal injury law firm, such as Steeg & Glista PC.
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