Understanding Your Bodily Injury Claim
Bodily injury claims are claims which are intended to compensate you for any injury you suffer due to negligence. As with other types of personal injury claims, the idea here is to return the injured person to the position he or she was in prior to the accident. In this blog post, we will explain how bodily injury claims work in the state of Florida.
Damages Available in Bodily Injury Claims
There are basic categories of payments you are entitled to under the bodily injury claim: special damages, general damages, and punitive damages.
Special or Economic Damages
These are the damages which can be easily calculated into a dollar figure. Like a property damage claim, there are certain amounts of money that you will spend to recover to your pre-accident condition, as well as calculated amounts that you will lose due to the injury. These are called special damages, and include reasonable medical expenses, lost wages while you were unable to work due to your injury, and any other damages which can be calculated as a dollar figure with some degree of certainty.
Lost Wages/Loss of Earnings: You are entitled to be compensated for the reasonable amount you would have earned had you not been injured and been able to work. This wage loss is calculated from the time of the injury until the doctor has determined that you are fit to return to your prior job. This is often a bit more difficult to calculate than your reasonable medical expenses. Your doctor’s medical opinion will determine the beginning and end of the period when you cannot work, and the paychecks or pay stubs from your job prior to the injury will determine the amount you are entitled to recover. This amount can also be documented by a letter from your company detailing the lost time and your pre-accident wages.
General Damages
General damages are the portion of your claim often referred to as the pain and suffering claim, the amount above and beyond the actual expenses and costs you have incurred to compensate you for your injuries. This, however, cannot be quantified specifically, so it is compensated in an amount often somewhat related to your special damages, but in addition to those damages. General damages are very hard to determine with any degree of specificity, because general damages do not compensate for any known, specific dollar figure. No scientific test can determine the amount of pain any person suffers, and each individual has a different, individual pain threshold which is impossible to measure.
Psychological and Emotional Injuries
If you have an injury and you also suffer from emotional or psychological trauma that requires treatment from a mental health practitioner, you will almost certainly be able to recover for these nonphysical injuries as a part of your injury claim. These are presented as a part of the injury claim, using the same methods described above to document your claim for physical injuries. What if you do not have a physical injury, but suffered an emotional or psychological injury because of what you experienced or witnessed? In Florida, you need to have either suffered some actual injury, or have been in physical danger, or the so-called zone of danger, yourself.
Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer Miami Today!
Having an accident is traumatic, frustrating, and entirely unpleasant. If you have been injured in a car accident, you have the right to file a personal injury lawsuit against any responsible parties. Our legal team of Miami personal injury lawyers has decades of experience handling claims involving all types of personal injuries. Because we understand personal injury law in Florida, we can make sure you’re fully compensated for any medical bills, pain and suffering and other damages you may have experienced. After being involved in a car accident, the last thing you want to think about is filing a lawsuit. However, you deserve compensation for your injuries and property damage. A consultation appointment takes less than an hour in most cases, and if you have unrecovered losses, it could wind up being one of the best investments of your time that you’ll ever make. Our attorneys are ready to provide proven legal representation and stand ready to protect your rights. We are available 24/7 to give you a free, no risk case consultation!
We serve clients throughout Florida including those in the following areas:
Miami-Dade: Aventura, Coral Gables, Doral, Fontainebleau, Hialeah, Homestead, Kendall, Miami, Miami Beach, Miami Lakes, North Miami, Tamiami, and Westchester.
Broward: Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, and Weston; and Palm Beach County including Boca Raton, Lake Worth, and West Palm Beach.
