Understanding Your Compensation Rights After a Georgia Car Accident
If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Georgia, you need to understand the compensation laws and your rights. Georgia is an at fault state, which allows an injured driver who didn’t cause the accident to seek compensation for their costs.
Dealing with injuries alone can be traumatizing and challenging. The situation becomes even more complicated when you must navigate the legal process to claim compensation for your losses. Understanding what you’re entitled to claim can ensure you receive full and fair compensation for your personal injury damages.
Types of Compensable Damages
‘Damages’ refer to the monetary compensation awarded to individuals who have suffered loss or injury due to another’s negligence. They aim to restore the injured party to the position they were in before the incident occurred. Georgia personal injury cases allow two main categories of damages:
Economic Damages
Economic damages are a form of compensatory damages in civil cases. Also known as “liquidated damages” or “special damages” in Georgia, economic damages cover measurable financial losses such as:
- Medical Expenses: include medical bills and other medical costs that wouldn’t have occurred but for the accident. Examples include hospital bills, rehabilitation, physical therapy, prescription medications, travel costs, assistive devices and more. You can claim both past and estimated future expenses.
- Lost Income: If your injuries prevent you from working, you can claim lost wages. These ‘wages’ include salary, missed opportunities, commission, bonuses, etc. Additionally, the use of vacation or PTO represents another one of the types of damages in personal injury cases. Lost income extends beyond past earnings and to future losses or earning capacity.
- Rental Cars, Repair Costs & Property Damage: You have the right to claim repair costs or replacement costs if your vehicle is totaled. This includes any decrease or diminution in value due to the accident and subsequent repairs. If you repair your vehicle, you have a claim for your rental car cost, while it was in the shop.
Non-economic Damages
Non-economic damages are a subjective form of compensatory damages. Also known as “non-liquidated damages” or “general damages”, they are the other types of damages in civil cases. Several examples of personal injury settlement amounts examples fall under this category, which includes:
1. Pain And Suffering: often the most significant part of car accident settlement payouts. These damages account for a large portion of bodily injury settlement amounts. They encompass anything related to the pain, distress and trauma you experienced.
Some pain and suffering settlement examples include:
- Past and future physical pain and suffering
- Past and future mental anguish
- Disruption to bodily health and vigor
- Disruption to normal living
- Disruption the enjoyment of life
- Permanent scarring or disfigurement
- The loss of the ability to work and make a living
- The shock of the impact of the injuries on the victim
- Fear about the extent of the injury
No pain and suffering calculator exists to provide the exact measurement of a person’s pain and suffering. It wouldn’t be right to use a one-size-fits-all approach as everyone’s experiences with pain are different. An Atlanta car accident lawyer can help you calculate the pain and suffering damages you deserve.
2. Emotional Distress: serves as a prime compensatory damages example. This section of pain and suffering covers compensation for conditions like mental anguish, depression, and anxiety.
3. Loss of Consortium Claims: a type of special damages personal injury that compensates for negative impacts on family relationships. Generally, someone who was not hurt in the accident, like a spouse, makes these claims. Yet their loved one’s injuries have affected them.
These types of civil damages cover the loss of love, support, companionship, and household assistance. The injured person can no longer provide these due to their injuries. It recognizes how an injury can hurt relationships and affect day-to-day life.
Proving Liability and Damages
You need how to calculate damages in a civil suit. Whether you have economic damages, non-economic damages, or both. Many different factors that affect the outcome for car accident victims. But before you get to that step, you must prove:
First, the other driver was at fault: you will need to gather evidence to prove who was at fault. This includes police reports, eyewitness accounts, photos, videos and more.
Second, the accident injured you: you must prove that the accident caused your injuries. This is crucial for claiming both economic and non-economic damages. Without this essential evidence, car accident claims cannot succeed.
Need Help with Your Georgia Car Accident Case?
You can claim many kinds of damages after a car accident. This articles does not address them all. In addition to economic and non-economic damages there is a separate discussion of compensatory damages vs punitive damages.
Determining ‘what’s my car worth’ and determining how are general damages calculated can be complex. If you’re asking ‘how much is my case worth’ and you’re getting a quick answer, that may be a red flag. The case value of personal injury claims depend on a number of factors that are many times hard to quantify.
An experienced accident lawyer can shed light on typical car accident settlement amounts. This includes understanding the average car accident settlement, even the compensatory damages definition. At Georgia Trial Attorneys, we can help you calculate everything you’re entitled to after a car accident.
Contact us today for a FREE consultation to discuss your options. Don’t go it alone – let our dedicated attorneys fight for the settlement you deserve under Georgia law. Start today – CALL NOW to get help with your case!