If you have been involved in a car accident that was caused by another person or company, you are likely reeling from all of the issues you are facing. Life is busy enough as it is, and adding a legal matter and bodily injuries can make things far more complicated.
When this happens to you, you are understandably concerned whether your already stretched budget will cover the expenses that may be entailed with damaged property and new medical expenses. Then, to make matters worse, you may have a loss of income due to not being able to work.
These consequences can compound and will naturally cause you to wonder if you will be able to receive compensation to cover all of your losses. As a result, you will definitely be wondering about the true value of a car accident case.
Stated really generally, the value of a car accident case is primarily dependent upon two factors: The harm that an accident victim has suffered and the harm that they are anticipated to suffer moving forward. For example, if a car accident victim needed to be rushed to the hospital immediately after the crash occurred, they suffered pain, trauma, and the burden of ambulance and medical bills. If they need to take time off of work to heal, they likely are burdened by the harm of lost wages. If they require follow-up care, have sustained disabilities, cannot return to work, etc., their overall “harm” includes the costs of these forward-looking burdens.
The goal of the law is for you to be “made whole” after you were in a crash. The law seeks to provide compensation for you for your injuries, your past and future medical expenses, your past and future lost wages, your past and future pain and suffering, your past and future inconvenience, and for any disfigurement and embarrassment you may have suffered as a result of this crash.
Questioning the Value of Your Accident
As an experienced car accident lawyer can confirm, it is important to avoid making assumptions about the value of your case until an attorney can meet with you to assess your circumstances. That requires understanding the impact of the crash and the true impact the crash has had on your life. The road to recovery is often long and exhausting, and the true value of an accident case may not be something that is clear right after a crash occurs.
All too often, car accident victims underestimate the overall value of their crash cases. This undervaluation can lead them to believe that they don’t need to fight for compensation now because their harm isn’t “really” that costly. They may underestimate their injuries or not fully appreciate how their injuries will impact their lives. In reality, when accident victims total their past and total burdens related to moderate, serious, or catastrophic injury, the cost of a crash is oftentimes truly significant.
If you’ve recently been injured in a crash that was caused by someone else’s fault, chances are that you’re in a strong position to pursue compensation related to your harm. This is because Virginia law allows you to recover from the other party if they were at fault and it caused you to suffer injuries. Pursuing a claim does not mean that you will be forced to file a lawsuit or even go to court, but our attorneys are willing to fight aggressively for you as necessary, including by suing any other party whose negligent, reckless, or intentionally dangerous conduct directly contributed to the cause(s) of your injuries.
It is important to understand that any claim we bring on your behalf will be against the other party’s insurance company. It is very rarely the case that we seek to recover any money above and beyond the limits of available insurance coverage. As a result, any action you would bring to receive compensation will not seek the personal assets of the party who committed the wrongdoing.
Virginia is somewhat unique among states in that it follows what is called the doctrine of “contributory negligence.” The doctrine can prevent an injured party who is even partially at fault for their injuries from recovering compensation for their injuries. Most other states follow “comparative negligence,” which allows victims to seek compensation after a crash even if they were partially responsible for their own harm.
Although Virginia does have a more restrictive approach than most states, a skilled and experienced personal injury attorney can assess whether it is possible to overcome the contributory negligence defense when it would apply. The doctrine does have some exceptions, and, in the right case, we could apply exceptions to overcome this defense. Therefore, it is almost certainly worth your time and effort to speak with a lawyer about your situation if you have suffered injuries and economic harm as a result of a crash. Depending on your circumstances, another driver, a manufacturer of defective auto parts, or a government agency tasked with safe road maintenance may owe you damages.
For a legal consultation with a personal injury lawyer, call 434-817-3100
Calculating the Value of Your Accident
Once our attorneys are familiar with the particular ins and outs of your unique situation, we can provide a rough estimate of your total economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are objective and easily quantifiable (medical bills, lost income, etc.). Non-economic damages are subjective and not easily quantified (pain and suffering, etc.).
Once your attorney has estimated the total value of your harm and the circumstances that may have played in the cause of your crash, you’ll have a strong sense of how much you could expect to be paid if you pursued a lawsuit.
Although it is difficult to give a detailed value of your case at the outset of representation, we will gather the information necessary to be able to provide an estimate. We can then devise a plan for proceeding based on the particular details of your case.
The attorneys at MartinWren, P.C. offer free consultations to discuss your case, answer your questions, and explain your legal options. Call us today to schedule your free consultation!
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