Accidents that lead to catastrophic injuries can be devastating to the victim and their family. The seriousness of the injury will largely help determine what kind of legal claim can be made as well as how much one can seek in compensation. For most people, injuries don’t last long and are temporary. However, injuries that are permanent and life-changing are the ones courts consider catastrophic injuries.
Other issues that may be considered to be catastrophic injuries include;
- Not being able to find a job or go back to work because of the accident
- Not being able to physically take care of yourself because of the injury
- Requiring ongoing medical attention
- Requiring medical device assistance, for example, needing a wheelchair to move around.
- A spouse needs to quit their jobs to offer continual home care
Other problems, like the severity of pain and the kind of physical injury, might also qualify the ordeal as a catastrophic injury. Working with reputed law firms like Stewart J. Guss Injury Lawyers will help you fully understand the type of injury you’ve got as well as ensure your damages get full value.
How Are Catastrophic Injury Damages Different?
When you’re catastrophically injured or permanently disabled because of the injury, your lawyer will most likely be incredibly aggressive when it comes to how much you deserve. Your compensation needs to fairly represent the damages and all the different ways you’re suffering because of them. This includes lost wages, therapy and rehabilitation costs, future and current medical bills, loss of earnings, and pain and suffering.
A settlement linked to a catastrophic injury legal claim is usually significant because the injuries have seriously impacted the person’s life. Your attorney will value the damages, including the cost of medical equipment, modifications to your car or home, and future and current expenses for medical care.
You wouldn’t typically spot these kinds of damages in a regular personal injury lawsuit because the person will eventually fully recover with time in most cases. However, including such damages in catastrophic injury suits is crucial because it helps make sure the party involved gets fair compensation.
Should you handle personal injury cases and catastrophic injury cases differently?
Both yes and no. Why? Because catastrophic injury claims are handled a lot like most personal injury claims, there are a few things that you’ll need to do in both cases if you want to comply with state legislation as well as the statute of limitations.
In some cases, you might have to take the issue all the way to court. If this is the case, you can expect the time it’ll take to settle the case to be longer. However, somehow, this always works out to be in the client’s best interest. It’s way better to take a longer time to settle the matter fairly than hurriedly accepting an offer and lacking the funds you’ll need to cover future costs.
Besides higher compensation, some of the other things that help differentiate catastrophic injury claims are the meticulous settlement negotiations usually involved as well as the different kinds of damages.
Should You Hire a Catastrophic Injury Attorney?
It’s hard enough to have to deal with a catastrophic injury that came as a result of a traumatic accident. You should not have to worry about how you’re going to settle your current and future medical bills as well. Catastrophic injury attorneys will help you ensure you get the justice and compensation you rightfully deserve under the law.
You and your family deserve to get fair financial compensation to help cover all your medical expenses as well as try to ease your pain and suffering.
