Types of Damages You Can Explore After a Car Accident

If you have been in an automobile accident, you may find yourself not only frustrated about the accident occurring but also overwhelmed with unexpected expenses resulting from the accident. These feelings are completely natural following an auto accident, especially if the accident occurred as a result of someone else’s negligence. The good news is that you may be eligible to claim damages for your injuries. Your personal injury attorney can help you get financial compensation for a number of different types of damages that were a result of the accident.

Types of Damages You Can Explore After a Car Accident

• Compensatory and Punitive Damages

There are basically three types of damages that may be awarded in a personal injury claim: economic damages, also known as special damages, non-economic damages, also known as general damages, and punitive damages. Both special damages and general damages are included in the category of compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are the compensation for damages of loss, injury, or harm that resulted from negligence or the at-fault party’s breach of duty of care. 

Punitive damages, also known as exemplary damages, are awarded to the plaintiff in addition to the compensatory damages as an attempt to punish the defendant for their negligent actions. Punitive damages are basically the legal system’s way of discouraging future bad behavior by making it financially harmful for the defendant.

• Medical Expenses

One of the largest expenses you may incur following an automobile accident is medical expenses. If you are involved in an automobile accident, your injuries can be as simple as a few bruises or minor cuts, but they may also be as serious as permanent disabilities. Unfortunately, not all injuries are immediately apparent, or you may need additional medical treatments in the future. It is extremely important that you have a medical examination immediately following the accident, regardless of how minor you think your injuries may be. 

Medical bills may include an initial visit to the emergency room, obtaining a diagnosis, brief to long-term hospitalizations, and treatment costs. Once you receive a diagnosis, you may need to take continued medications and/or go to physical therapy treatments. All of these current, as well as potential future medical expenses, can be included in your claim for medical expenses. 

• Lost Wages

A major impact on many people following an automobile accident is lost wages. After sustaining injuries in a car crash, you may lose your earning capacity. Losing time at work may be the result of the injuries you sustained, lost work due to medical appointments, hospitalizations, mobility issues, or other things, such as emotional trauma that prevent you from earning your typical wages. 

These types of income losses are taken into consideration when your personal injury attorney is determining the amount you should seek for compensation for your injuries. It is important that you provide your pay stubs, proof of potential promotion that you lost, and all other information that has affected your current and future lost wages.

• Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering are a reference for the non-tangible ways you have suffered following the auto accident. In legal terms, it means the physical or mental distress in which you may seek damages in a personal injury lawsuit. The damages are dependent on the type of injuries you sustained, how serious your pain is, and the probability of future pain that is associated with the injury. Pain and suffering can also include emotional and/or mental damages that are a result of the accident, such as stress, depression, or anxiety. Some states allow the plaintiff to also include pain and suffering damages for the loss of enjoyment of life. For instance, if you are no longer able to get out and do the things you used to enjoy because you fear being involved in another accident or the thought of driving again invokes mental issues, such as anxiety. 

• Loss of Affection or Companionship

Loss of affection or companionship isn’t a well-known type of damage that can be claimed for damages resulting from an auto accident. If you are in a domestic partnership or married and your accident deprives your spouse of your ability to show affection or to maintain a sexual relationship, in legal terms this is known as a loss of consortium. 

This basically means that as the injured spouse, you would claim other types of damages, but your health, uninjured spouse claims loss of affection or consortium. If you do not recover damages for your injuries, loss of affection or companionship damages cannot be recovered by your spouse. If the auto accident involved a fatality, surviving family members may claim loss of companionship damages. 

• Property Damages

When you are involved in an automobile accident, your vehicle is typically damaged as well as bodily injuries. There is also a chance of other property damages as well, such as your personal possessions that are inside the vehicle or the property where the crash happened. If this type of damage occurs as a result of the auto accident, you may be eligible to seek compensation through a property damage claim. A property damage claim is generally handled separately from a bodily injury or wrongful death claim. 

Proving property damage claims may be done with photographs of your vehicle at the scene of the accident, witness testimony about the accident, and photos of other property damages as a result of the crash. If your vehicle is totaled or has substantial damages, you may also be entitled to compensation known as diminished value, which is the amount of the value you suffered because your auto has been wrecked.

• Wrongful Death

States vary on the types of damages that may be claimed as a result of an auto accident; however, in most states, wrongful death damages may be claimed if your loved one died in a car accident due to the negligence of another driver. A wrongful death claim generally includes medical costs, the cost of a funeral, and compensation for the pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life that your loved one experienced between the time of their injury and the time of their death.

Some states also allow the pecuniary value to be claimed in a wrongful death claim, which is the amount that represents what your loved one would have earned over their expected lifetime minus their projected expenses. 

If you are involved in an automobile accident, the most important thing is your health and safety, so it’s important to seek medical attention as soon as possible following your accident, keeping in mind that some injuries may not be immediately apparent. If your accident was caused by the negligence of another driver, once you have sought medical attention, the next step is to seek the help of an experienced personal injury attorney.