Key Points
- Injury claims are legal requests for compensation filed by an injured individual who has suffered an injury.
- There are two types of damages you can get: compensatory damages and punitive damages. Compensatory damages seek to remunerate the victim while punitive damages seek to punish the defendant.
- A personal injury attorney will help you file your claim so you may receive proper compensation for any injury you might have sustained. Consider seeking legal counsel to help you receive justice for your case. Moreover, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years from the day that the injury was discovered, so it is beneficial to act quickly.
Filing for an injury claim is a tedious task. You are probably already feeling overwhelmed and emotionally traumatized from the incident that caused you to sustain various injuries. Having to go back and relive all those moments over and over again on your own can be exhausting.
Also, having to navigate your way through an insurance claim to get compensation for your injuries can be a nightmare.
This article will explain what constitutes an injury claim and the different types of damages you might be able to seek.
What Are Injury Claims?
Understanding what an injury claim means is vital because life may surprise us with unprecedented events. We may suffer from personal harm caused by a negligent driver. These personal harms may result in physical and emotional distress, and social harms that may even end up being irreparable.
In these instances, there may also be the possibility of negotiating with an insurance company that may refuse to provide you with the appropriate compensation amount that you deserve.
An injury claim is a legal request for compensation filed by an individual who has suffered an injury. This process takes place when a claim is filed to seek compensation as a result of negligence caused by another person.
These claims are intended to lessen the burden on the injured party, whether it be from dealing with grief, pain, and suffering, mounting medical expenses, non-economic damages, or missed income.
Negotiations with the defendant or their insurance company are often a part of injury claims, which could result in a settlement or even legal action to receive just compensation.
What Injuries Can You Claim For?
A claim can be made for various types of injuries. Once you have proven that the at-fault party is responsible for causing your injuries, then you will be able to seek compensation for your injuries. Some common cases that result in personal injuries include:
- Bicycle accidents
- Burn incidents
- Car accidents
- Construction accidents
- Defective product
- Drunk driving accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Slip-and-fall accidents
- Truck accidents
- Workplace injuries
- Wrongful death
The above list is only some examples of different types of injury-resulting cases where you are likely to pursue a personal injury claim. To facilitate this process, we recommend that you look for a personal injury lawyer who will advocate for you.
What Are The Different Types of Damages In Personal Injury Claims?
Strictly speaking, there are many types of injury claims depending on what basis you categorize them into, including the nature of the incident and the injuries sustained. These injury claims can be compensated by two types of damages: compensatory damages and punitive damages.
Compensatory Damages
Compensatory damages, as the name suggests, seek to provide you with monetary compensation to offset the costs an injury may have brought you. A common word that laymen use is “reimbursement”.
In almost all cases, compensatory damages are present in injury cases. This is because the court proceedings seek to monetarily quantify the personal cost an injury may have caused the plaintiff.
Special Compensatory Damages
Special compensatory damages are also known as economic damages. This kind of compensation is often quantifiable by the submission of receipts and invoices.
Simply put, if you are seeking special compensatory damages, you are basically asking for a reimbursement of the things you had to pay for out-of-pocket (such as medical treatment) or the income you may have lost due to missing work as a result of your injuries.
Examples of special compensatory damages
- Medical expenses. This may include surgery costs, medical bills, treatment expenses, and medical examination costs (including laboratory and radiologic examinations). It can also mean compensating for rehabilitation costs, expenses due to doctor’s appointments, cost of buying prescription medications, and medical transportation.
- Expenditures required for repair and/or replacement of damaged property. If the injury resulted from a car accident, damaged bicycle, or property damages, then the costs for its repair and/or replacement will have to be covered by the defendant.
- Lost wages or lost earning capacity. This kind of compensation serves to reimburse the wages you failed to get due to your injuries. Furthermore, it also covers the compensation for future wages that you will be deprived of earning due to your injury.
- Loss of irreplaceable items. This often involves the loss of heirlooms or other irreplaceable items that result from an injury. You can claim for the compensation of such and it is likely that a court will award you additional compensation for it, which is typically more than its initial market price.
General Compensatory Damages
Intangible and unquantifiable damages often fall into general compensatory damages. Things like pain and suffering, lower quality of life, physical impairment, and inconvenience are covered by general compensatory damages.
This type of compensation is often confusing to many since you cannot print out a receipt for your feelings. This is why the court of law often uses a jury to help quantify human emotions since it is hard to quantify them objectively.
Wrongful Death
In the event of a wrongful death, the victim may be compensated with both economic and non-economic damages because it has both material and immaterial repercussions for the victim’s family. Moreover, punitive damages may also be rewarded to deter similar crimes from happening in the future.
Examples of compensatory damages are the following:
- Burial and funeral costs
- Medical expenses prior to wrongful death
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of financial contribution
- Emotional distress
The first two examples are special compensatory damages, while the latter three are general compensatory damages.
Punitive Damages
While financial redress is the goal of compensatory damages, punitive damage seeks to punish the at-fault party for the wrongful act.
Both of these types of injury claims are not mutually exclusive in the sense that if the court sees that the compensatory damages are insufficient to serve justice and do not deter the defendant from doing the same crime again, the punitive damages may be rewarded to the plaintiff as well.
Who Can Apply For A Personal Injury Claim?
An injured party may be entitled to compensation and legal representation. The at-fault party, whether an individual or a company, should be held responsible for the harm that they have caused you.
If you have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, reach out to a California personal injury attorney to help evaluate your claim.
How To Apply For Personal Injury Claims?
Personal injury lawyers will help navigate the injured party with their claim, and help fight for you in court, should the need arise. These attorneys can assist you in obtaining damages to redress you for the injuries you have sustained.
In short, the help of a legal counsel is recommended so that you can get the compensation you deserve.
Where Can I Get A Free Consultation With A Personal Injury Lawyer?
Personal Injury attorneys can help navigate you through this long and tedious process. Reach out to a California personal injury for a free initial consultation.
A personal injury lawyer will be able to assist you with your personal injury, insurance, and wrongful death claims and help get compensated for your injury and losses.
