Personal injury cases can be pretty complicated. You have to deal with insurance companies, find and interview any witnesses, and sometimes even work with your lawyer to make navigating a subrogation claim in a personal injury case as simple as possible. 

Before the process can get into full swing, though, you need to know exactly how much you can claim. After all, a necessary part of every single personal injury case is that you experienced some kind of damage. 

Different Kinds of Damages

Since car accidents are one of the most common types of personal injury, the damages below will revolve around that kind of accident, but keep in mind that not only are there more damages you may be able to claim based on your case, but the following may also apply to your case, even if a vehicle was not involved.

Medical Expenses

The most obvious and common damage claim in personal injury cases as a whole is medical expenses. Sometimes these claims are pretty cut and dry; you simply seek enough to cover the cost of the hospital bill after you’ve been treated. 

Unfortunately, many aren’t so simple and require everyone involved to consider the cost of your future treatments as well. This could be as simple as a follow-up with a doctor to make sure the treatment is working, as intense as multiple physical therapy appointments, or as devastating as multiple surgeries. The most difficult costs to receive damages for are when you’ve received an injury that will require treatment for the rest of your life. 

It’s impossible to account for every possibility in these cases, but both your team and the court will try their best. However, the defendant will try to combat these claims. They’ll bring in their own expert witness to testify that you didn’t actually need that treatment, you’re not that injured, etc. It might sting to hear those words. When this happens, take a deep breath and relax. Your lawyer will know exactly how to handle this scenario.

Pain and Suffering

Not all damages associated with car accidents are easy to prove, and pain and suffering is a great example. The severity of the accident and your own mental health contribute heavily to how you’ll react to a car accident. 

Some may walk away a bit shaken and shocked but be able to drive again in no time. Others will suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as a result of the wreck and struggle to get back into a vehicle. 

Proving this can be difficult, especially when physical symptoms are required, and determining exactly how much this distress is worth monetarily is even more of a struggle. If you claim this damage in your case, don’t be too shocked if it gets dismissed or is heavily debated. 

The defendant wants to pay as little as possible and will take whatever route they can to do so, which may include attempting to deconstruct and wave away any mental anguish you may have suffered. Once again, trust your legal team; they’ll have prepared for this.

Car Value

This may be the last thing on your mind, but you should also claim the damage to your car in your case. Hopefully, this will simply be asking for a recuperation of a repair cost, though it could also be the cost of the entire vehicle if it was damaged beyond repair. 

It will require research to determine exactly how much you’re owed. This may be as simple as getting the repair done and receiving the bill for it. Sometimes, though, you need the opinions of multiple repair shops to prove to the court that your car is not repairable and needs to be replaced. 

Either way, you should file an insurance claim as soon as you can so you can at least get something, whether that be the repairs covered or a rental car to use for a while.

Wrongful Death

The most painful claims to bring are wrongful death claims. Whenever an accident ends the life of a person, this damage is claimed. From here, your lawyers will work as hard as they can to prove without a shadow of a doubt that the defendant owes you monetarily for this loss. Your side will have to argue that the actions of the defendant directly caused the death. 

Typically, this is through negligence. For example, if the defendant was driving while texting, eating, or doing some other distracting task, they broke the duty of care they had to drive responsibly. Reckless driving or even the intentional result of a road rage incident could have also led to a breach of this duty. 

Once the breach of duty has been found, your team will have to prove that this directly led to the death. From here, you’ll have to prove that the death was a direct result of the accident and that you were damaged as a result. These last two are typically pretty easy to prove. 

Once this has been determined and the courts have accepted your arguments over the defendant’s, then you’ll be awarded whatever the judge or jury feels is fair.

Loss of Consortium

While you hopefully never have to make a loss of consortium claim, it’s important to understand it just in case. 

While the specifics vary from state to state, this claim is usually used when the spouse of the injured party would suffer as a result of the injuries they sustained in the accident. It can also be claimed in the event of the death of the spouse as well. 

This other person may be left in mourning, assisting with care in some way, dealing with the loss of income, and more, and these damages demand compensation in return. While the money can’t repair what has been broken, they can make moving forward a bit easier.

Some cases allow for a different type of consortium claim: loss of filial consortium. Typically, the child must either be fatally wounded or the parents must have passed as a result of the accident in order for this claim to stick. 

While not very common, these claims can be just as, if not sometimes more, tragic than the usual loss of consortium claims, and both need to be handled with care and respect.