After being involved in a car accident in which you were an injured pedestrian, you may wonder how much you could recover from the driver who injured you. Because each case carries unique factors that determine recovery, it’s impossible to give an exact amount. The following are some factors that could help to give you a better idea.
The Type of Injury You Have
If your injuries consist of bruises, sprains and strains, they are known as soft injuries. Unfortunately, soft injuries don’t often do well in court during a personal injury case, and you may not receive much for those types of injuries. Brain damage, broken bones, spinal injuries and other similar types of injuries are known as hard injuries. These tend to result in larger settlements.
The Amount of Work You’ve Missed
Lost income is something you can be compensated for after your accident if the reason you missed work is directly related to your accident. For example, if you headed straight to the emergency room after your accident, which occurred while you were on your way to work, you’d probably miss that entire day of work. If your injuries were severe, you might stay a few days or weeks at the hospital, missing more work.
There’s also a possibility your injuries would require extensive care, which would probably mean you’d miss even more work as you attend doctor appointments and other rehabilitation appointments. If your injuries are bad enough, this could prohibit you from working at all in the future, which would be considered loss of future earning capacity and could be included in the settlement.
The Impact the Injuries Put on Your Life
Some damages compensated are for the negative impact an injury has on your life. Pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life are just a few of the damages you may be able to seek. While you can’t just total up an amount these things have cost you, there is a formula for which a court uses to determine how much you deserve to be compensated for these impacts to your life.
The Fault of the Injury
In many pedestrian accident cases, it’s obvious the driver was at fault, but there are some situations in which you could carry a portion of fault as well. If that’s the case, your recovery amount may be lower.
Getting Started
To learn more about personal injury cases and how much you might be able to recover, contact a professional who can help.