Morgantown Catastrophic Injury Attorney

Often, people can recover from injuries sustained in an accident after appropriate treatment and several weeks of rest. However, in some cases, injuries are so severe to the point of being catastrophic, causing permanent deficiencies in movement or brain function. Those who suffer from catastrophic injuries deserve just compensation more than any. They also are likely to face a long fight with insurance companies, because long-term and permanent injuries will cost the insurance company a lot of money—sometimes in the millions of dollars.

No one should go through a catastrophic injury claim alone. A victim of catastrophic injury should focus solely on their medical recovery as much as possible. If you’ve suffered catastrophic injuries in an accident in Morgantown that wasn’t your fault, contact the Morgantown catastrophic injury lawyers at Desai Law, PLLC today to learn about your options for legal recourse.

Definition of a Catastrophic Injury

The United States Code defines a catastrophic injury as an injury that prevents you from “performing any gainful work.” The impediments of catastrophic injuries are usually permanent.

Catastrophic injuries could include spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, or other severe injuries that disable one from performing basic functions. Catastrophic injuries might include burns, tissue damages, amputation, certain fractures, back and spinal cord injuries, mild concussions, severe concussions, penetrating brain injuries, and other types of brain injuries.

These injuries affect not only the victim but their family members and friends, especially the family members who must take on caretaker roles for a loved one suffering from a catastrophic injury or pay someone to take care of their loved one. In-home or nursing home care is expensive, and most people cannot afford to pay for it, especially if the injured person was a primary income earner.

How Much Compensation Can You Receive in a Morgantown Catastrophic Injury Case?

The amount of compensation you can recover in a Morgantown catastrophic injury case, whether through settlement or a court award of damages, depends largely on the nature and severity of your injuries. The amount tends to be higher in catastrophic injury cases, generally speaking. Your amount of recovery will depend on the economic and non-economic damages you can prove, and possibly also punitive damages.

Economic damages are those that have a fixed monetary value and may include:

• Past medical expenses
• Future medical expenses
• Past lost wages
• Future lost wages
• Replacement or repair of destroyed or damaged personal property
• Funeral, burial, and/or cremation expenses

Non-economic damages are impacts without a price tag, which may include:

• Pain and suffering, including emotional distress
• Loss of quality of life
• Loss of companionship or consortium
• Loss of use of a body part, such as a foot or a hand
• Loss of use of a bodily function, such as your eyesight or bladder function
• Amputation, whether you lose a limb in the accident itself or after due to, for instance, an infection in an open wound caused by surgery for an accident injury
• Inconvenience, if you have to hire someone to do tasks you would normally do, including grocery shopping, home and lawn maintenance, and house cleaning
• Excessive scarring and/or disfigurement

A court awards punitive damages to punish a defendant’s especially condemnable actions or inactions. The court must find that the defendant’s actions or inactions were grossly negligent or intentional to award punitive damages. For example, a court might not find that a speeding driver’s actions were grossly negligent, but might find that someone texting or drinking while also speeding was.

Do You Need to Hire a Morgantown Catastrophic Injury Lawyer?

While you certainly do not have to hire an attorney for your Morgantown catastrophic injury case, it’s in your best interest to do so. Those who attempt to handle their catastrophic injury cases without the help of an attorney often end up leaving money on the table. Insurance companies are for-profit businesses, which means that they will take steps to deny or minimize your claim. Every claim an insurance company pays out hurts its bottom line, especially claims worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. In a Morgantown catastrophic injury case, a claim’s value is likely higher, so the claimant may face more fierce opposition from an insurance company.

Morgantown Accidents that Cause Catastrophic Injuries

While any accident can cause catastrophic injuries, these injuries are common in vehicle accidents, and often those between:

• Any size vehicle and a pedestrian or a bicyclist.
• A tractor-trailer truck or other large truck and passenger vehicles.
• Any size vehicle and a motorcycle.

Those involved in multiple car pileups are also at a higher risk of suffering from catastrophic injuries, especially those near the front of the pileup.

Recovering Damages After a Morgantown Catastrophic Injury

After a catastrophic injury, you can recover compensation referred to as “damages,” which means expenses and impacts you have experienced as a result of your catastrophic injury. You may recover both past and future damages. Compensatory damages include economic and non-economic damages. You need to show that your injuries are catastrophic—or at least severe enough to be long-term—to collect some future damages.

Economic Damages

Economic damages, also referred to as special damages, have a calculable monetary value and include:

• Past medical expenses, for those incurred because of the accident and before a settlement or a trial award
• Future medical expenses, for those incurred because of the accident and anticipated after a settlement or a trial award
• Past lost wages, for hours of work you lose from the time of the accident up until the settlement or trial award.
• Future lost wages, for those you expect to lose after a settlement or trial award
• Replacement or repair of destroyed or damaged personal property

Medical expenses may include cognitive therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other psychological therapies, ambulatory aids, prosthetics, changes to your home and vehicle to accommodate disabilities caused by accident injuries, and any surgeries, doctor’s appointments, and other medical appointments related to accident injuries. They also include expenses for pre-existing conditions that accident injuries might have exacerbated and secondary injuries, such as infections, related to accident injuries. Future lost wages are particularly prevalent in catastrophic injury cases, due to the permanent losses these injuries involve. If you can go back to work, but your injuries and disabilities prevent you from making the same amount of income as you did before the accident, you could collect partial future lost wages.

If catastrophic injuries kill a loved one, the family can recover damages, such as funeral, burial, cremation expenses, and medical expenses your loved one incurred after the wreck.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages, also referred to as general damages, do not have a readily quantifiable monetary value and include:

• Pain and suffering, including emotional distress
• Loss of quality of life, such as the burden of having to take medications, use ambulatory aids, or making other life-long changes because of your catastrophic injuries
• Loss of companionship, if you can no longer enjoy and/or participate in certain family activities and events
• Loss of consortium, if you can no longer have a physical relationship with your spouse
• Loss of use of a body part, such as a limb or digit
• Loss of use of a bodily function, such as your bladder or eyesight
• Amputation, whether you lose a digit or limb in the accident or need it amputated later because of infection or another secondary injury
• Disfigurement and/or severe scars

Often, you can only collect non-economic damages if your medical provider expects you to suffer long-term or permanent injuries. You can also collect some non-economic damages if you lose a loved one in an accident.

Do I Need a Morgantown Catastrophic Injury Attorney?

Generally speaking, a victim of catastrophic injuries should hire a lawyer. There is a lot on the line when sustaining a catastrophic injury. You want the best legal representative you can find to make sure you recover every dollar you deserve. Not all personal injury attorneys have the experience to handle catastrophic injuries. As with other areas of personal injury, catastrophic injury accidents have unique aspects that require special expertise and experience.

On top of increasing your odds of recovering maximum compensation, hiring an experienced and skilled catastrophic injury lawyer can relieve an immense burden while victims focus on their medical recovery. Catastrophic injury victims do not need the stress of negotiating with an insurance company or figuring out how to file a lawsuit in court. Those who negotiate their own settlements often leave money on the table, and those who represent themselves in court often lose their cases, recovering nothing.

Morgantown Catastrophic Injury Attorney, Chirag Desai

Settlement funds generally come from insurance. Insurance companies are in business to make a profit, and every claim they pay out loses them money. Thus, their incentive is to deny or minimize claims. With a catastrophic injury, they stand to lose a lot more money. They’re more likely to fight claims harder.

An attorney with experience in catastrophic injury cases can thus be an immense help in many ways. They can take on the burdens of the claim process while you focus on your health recovery. At Desai Law, PLLC, we understand the pain and struggle our catastrophic injury victims are facing, and our priority is to ensure they receive all of the compensation they need to be able to adjust to their new lives.

If you or a loved one suffered catastrophic injuries in an accident, contact the Morgantown catastrophic injury lawyers at Desai Law, PLLC, at (304) 974-1974 as soon as possible for your free case evaluation.