Car accidents are a primary cause of very serious accidents in this country, and the losses accident victims experience tend to be immense. If you’ve been injured in a car accident that was caused by another driver’s negligence, you can seek compensation for your full range of legal damages, which include property damage to your vehicle, your medical expenses, your lost earnings, and your pain and suffering. Because receiving the compensation to which you’re entitled will play a key role in your recovery, you need the skilled legal counsel of an experienced West Virginia car accident attorney backing you up.
The Required Elements of Your Claim
In order to file a successful car accident claim, you’ll need to ensure that each of the following elements is established:
- The other driver had a responsibility to your safety, which every motorist on every road bears for everyone with whom they share the road.
- The other driver didn’t live up to this responsibility. This is where negligence enters the picture, and common examples include impairment and distraction.
- The other driver’s negligence was the direct cause of the car accident that caused you to be injured.
- You suffered legal damages – or losses for which you can be compensated – as a result.
Your accomplished car accident attorney will do what it takes to precisely define each of these elements in your car accident claim.
Property Damage to Your Vehicle
The vast majority of car accidents cause property damage to the vehicles involved, and in your car accident claim, you can pursue compensation for the damage to your vehicle and for any damage to its contents. It probably comes as no surprise, but even relatively minor car damage can be enormously expensive.
Medical Bills
If a car accident leaves you seriously injured, you could be facing a lifetime of medical expenses. Even injuries that are less serious, however, can require ongoing medical attention. Seeking the medical attention you need immediately after the car accident in question and carefully following your doctor’s advice and instructions is likely to be costly, but it will play a critical role in your ability to fully recover.
Lost Income
While you are tending to your physical recovery, you may also experience diminished income that is related to lost hours on the job, and the combination of mounting medical bills and decreased earnings can be a serious financial challenge. If your career is derailed in the process or if your earning capacity is affected long-term, the financial impact can be that much more dire. It’s important to note here that there can also be an emotional component to this category of loss based on the significance many of us attach to our careers.
Physical and Emotional Pain and Suffering
The physical pain and emotional upset you experience following a car accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence can be difficult to move past, and it can also interfere with your ability to regain your health and well-being and set your career back on course. Ultimately, the pain and suffering you endure can exceed your other categories of loss combined, which makes it important to pay special attention to this unique form of legal damage.
Noneconomic Losses
While attaching a total cost to the other categories of loss you experience is generally a straightforward process of tallying the amounts involved, calculating the extent of your pain and suffering, which is considered a noneconomic loss, is a different matter. Emotional consequences like those associated with pain and suffering are more difficult to quantify, but they are – nevertheless – all too real and can seriously affect your future.
The Multiplier Method for Assigning a Value
Often, what is known as the multiplier method is used to calculate the extent of a car accident victim’s pain and suffering. Because West Virginia doesn’t impose a cap for pain and suffering in car accident claims, you can pursue comprehensive compensation that adequately covers your complete noneconomic losses.
The Calculation Process
The multiplier method assigns a number from one to five that is based on the severity of the injuries sustained – with one being less serious and five being exceptionally serious. This number is then multiplied by the victim’s total economic losses, which include their medical bills and lost income.
For Example
By way of example, let’s say that you suffered moderately severe injuries, such as chronic whiplash and an arm laceration that required extensive stitches, in a car accident that was caused by someone else. If you experienced a total of $60,000 in medical bills and lost earnings as a result, this amount will likely be multiplied by 3 – reflecting your moderately severe injuries – which means that the value assigned to your pain and suffering will be $180,000 – or 3 times $60,000. As such, your overall losses translate to $240,000, which is $60,000 plus $180,000.
Your Unique Car Accident Claim
While your claim will be unique to you and the situation that applies, the example of the multiplier method considered represents a simplified version of how pain and suffering are often calculated in West Virginia car accident claims. You can count on your practiced car accident lawyer to skillfully advocate for the compensation to which you’re entitled in every category of loss you experience.
Discuss Your Claim with an Experienced West Virginia Car Accident Lawyer Today
If a negligent driver leaves you or someone you care about injured in a traffic accident, Chirag Desai at Desai Law – proudly serving both New Jersey and Pennsylvania – is a compassionate car accident attorney whose impressive practice focuses on fiercely advocating for those facing the immense resources and power that the insurance companies they’re up against have at their disposal. In the process, Chirag has earned an imposing reputation for success. To schedule a free consultation, contact us online or call us at 304-974-1974 today.
