How Are Victims Compensated in a New York Personal Injury Case?
After you’re injured by a serious motor vehicle accident, slip-and-fall, or other injury accident, you might end up with huge expenses to cover the costs of your medical care and time spent off work while recovering. Personal injury claims and lawsuits are designed to get you the money you need to cover these expenses. These claims may also provide additional funds to compensate you for the pain and suffering you’ve endured.
You may be wondering, how are these monetary awards calculated, and what determines how much I can expect to win in a lawsuit? Read on to learn more about how damages are calculated in a New York personal injury claim.
Damages related to your expenses and injuries
While money can’t always restore your health and future prospects after an accident, personal injury awards are intended to provide sufficient funds to make you whole after an accident. These awards can consist of two types of damages: special and general.
- Special damages are those intended to reimburse you for your expenses stemming from a claim, such as any medical bills, costs to replace damaged property, lost wages, and diminished lifetime earning capacity caused by your injuries. Special damages tend to be easy to calculate, since you’ll be able to use paystubs and the bills you receive, such as from your doctor or vehicle repair shop, to prove your losses.
- General damages are the funds intended to compensate you for injuries that don’t carry an objective monetary value and can’t be calculated as easily, but are nevertheless important. General damages include compensation for things like pain and suffering you endured, any physical disfigurement you suffered, or your reduced quality of life. General damage awards vary based on how severely you were injured in the accident.
Negotiations with the insurer or defendant can make a major difference
If you’ve been seriously injured in an accident, hiring an attorney to handle your claim can make a critical difference in how much you recover. Since general damages are not based on any objective measure, the award can be determined by the support from case law and the skills of the negotiator advocating for the victim. An insurer may insist that general damages are calculated strictly by using a formula based on a percentage of your special damages award. However, there is no law stating that damages must follow this pattern, and a skilled personal injury attorney can advocate for the full amount you deserve when commonly-used formulas won’t leave you whole.
If you’ve been hurt in a trip-and-fall, car crash, or an injury on the job in New York, find skilled and compassionate legal help to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve, and contact the Goshen personal injury lawyers at Dupée & Monroe for a consultation, at 845-294-8900.
