You were injured in a car accident, and now you are filing a lawsuit against the driver that hit you. You need your personal injury case to pay out as much as possible, since you need a new car and have all of these medical bills to pay. This is a situation that people find themselves in every day. Fortunately, handling your personal injury case the right way means you can recover enough to handle those bills. If you have a personal injury case pending, learn more about how to get the most from your injury claim.
How Are Payouts for Personal Injury Claims Calculated?
When you file a personal injury lawsuit, your case involves many individual claims. Your lawyer files a claim for each bill or expense that you have related to the incident. That means that when you go to the emergency room, follow-up visits with your doctor and even visits to specialists are claimed separately.
You may see this entered as a single list of medical expenses with line items for each expense, but all of them are considered separate items to be dealt with by the judge. The judge decides if:
● Each claim is valid, meaning it is relevant to the incident
● Each claim should be paid for
● How much is paid for each claim
This can be a long process for the judge if the claims are contested. To avoid this problem, your lawyer tries to make sure that each claim is accurate and backed by evidence like billing paperwork from your care providers.
Make Sure You Claim Everything Appropriate
When you discuss your claims with a Georgia personal injury attorney, make sure that you include everything related to your accident. Don’t leave any expenses unreported to your lawyer, even if you are not sure that it qualifies. Your lawyer can help you determine which claims are appropriate and which ones are not.
One of the difficulties that people face when recovering from a personal injury is that they forget to claim some of their expenses. You cannot collect compensation for expenses that you don’t claim in your case. Unclaimed expenses can quickly inflate into a lot of money that you need to come up with on your own with no hope of recovering compensation for them.
Consider the Long-Term Costs When Filing Claims
It is especially important to consider the long-term costs of your recovery when filing claims. If you have an injury that takes a long time to heal or needs continuing treatment, you need to include those ongoing costs in your claims. A perfect example of this is physical therapy. You could be in physical therapy for months or years after a serious accident. If you don’t include those costs in your claims, you’ll have to come up with all of that money on your own.
Your Lawyer Can Guide You Through the Process
Filing claims can be a tedious and confusing process, which is a good reason for working with a Georgia personal injury lawyer to manage your case. Contact Joshua J. Smith Attorney at Law by calling us at (706) 217-2095 or filling out our contact form, and let us help you get your personal injury case together.
