If you were injured in a car accident, one of your first questions may be to ask how much your case is worth. It is difficult to fully understand what your case might be worth without looking at the rules in your state that govern what you can recover in a car accident and the specific details of your accident. There really is no such thing as an “average” settlement, and injury lawsuits always rely on the specifics on your case. Fayetteville car accident lawyer Ken Kieklak explains.
Calculating Car Accident Damages
Recovering compensation for your car accident is important. Especially if you suffered severe injuries, you might be facing financial challenges in your life. The cost of medical treatment after a serious injury can be very high. Especially for very dangerous injuries like traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury, you could be facing the cost of ongoing medical care, which could last the rest of your life. Any medical costs that stem from the injuries you sustained in the car accident can potentially be compensated in a personal injury lawsuit. This means the cost of emergency treatment, surgeries, ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and other expenses are all compensable.
If your injuries kept you from returning to work, you may also seek compensation for your lost wages. While some injuries may be temporary and only keep you from working for a few weeks or months, more serious injuries may make it too difficult to return to work at all. If this happens, you may be entitled to recover the paychecks you missed while you were gone, as well as any future paychecks you will miss. This may require detailed analysis by a financial expert to project how your paycheck would have grown over time, but it can help you get coverage for the wages you’ll miss so you can continue to support yourself and your family.
Lastly, there are damages for pain and suffering. These damages are often some of the biggest parts of personal injury lawsuits, and could entitle you to substantial recovery. These payments typically scale with the severity of the injury, so minor injuries are worth less pain and suffering compensation, but severe ones may be worth much more.
Average Injury Damages for a Car Crash in AR
Personal injury lawyers understand that their potential clients want numbers. They want to know what kind of damages people in their position typically win, and what kinds of damages they can expect in their case. Unfortunately, lawyers aren’t typically equipped to give that kind of information. First, there are no real studies that track the winnings in each case, so determining an average is quite difficult. Second, it is important that a lawyer does not set you up with expectations or promises in your case.
Every case is different, and relies heavily on the specific facts of what happened. While many facts of a case could be similar, there are details in every case that affect the outcome. The injuries sustained, details about who was at fault, facts about the plaintiff and defendant, and facts about the jury can all affect the outcome of a case.
Ultimately, most cases come down to what damages you can prove in court, and how willing the jury is to award damages. In some cases, the proof of who was at fault is clear, and the injured party is an obvious victim of the other’s negligence. In other cases, you may receive less damages if the jury sees you as partly responsible for the crash. Each person’s experience of injury is different, and a jury may see one person as clearly suffering from their injuries, but a more stoic individual may not receive as much money for their pain and suffering. The jury’s view and understanding of the victim and the negligent driver may also affect the outcome, with less likeable people sometimes being made to pay higher damages.
This means that, overall, a lawyer should not give you an expectation of what’s average or expected, but rather discuss your case with you. Only through learning the details of your specific case can a lawyer give you a ballpark understanding of what your case may be worth. If you want to discuss your case and get help finding out what your car accident injury case is worth, talk to a lawyer today.
Fayetteville Car Accident Lawyer
Ken Kieklak, Attorney at Law, is a Fayetteville AR personal injury lawyer with over 20 years of experience helping Arkansas car accident and truck accident victims recover compensation for their injuries. If you need help with your car accident case and want to understand what your case might be worth, call our law offices today for a free consultation. Our number is (479) 316-0438.