When you make a claim for injuries resulting from a pedestrian accident, the ultimate goal is to claim financial compensation for the losses as a result of the accident. Losses for a bodily injury claim can be broken down into two categories, economic losses and non-economic losses. Adding your economic losses and your non-economic losses will summate the amount of compensation that you are entitled to following an accident.
Economic Losses: Economic losses include medical bills, lost wages and other out of pocket expenses. In most pedestrian cases, your medical bills will be paid for by some form of insurance. However, not all expenses may be covered. Other losses such as co-payments and unreimbursed medical expenses that you incur are reimbursable through your lawsuit. Also, in some cases you may be required to reimburse your healthcare provider for medical expenses that they have incurred if you receive a settlement. In such cases that amount of money will be passed onto the defendant in the case. For example, if you incur $10,000 in medical expenses that have to be reimbursed to your health insurance company, that amount of money would be added to your settlement so that the cost is passed on to the responsible party.
Also, many people have disability policies that pay them a portion of their salary following an injury. In a personal injury lawsuit, you are entitled to receive your total lost wages from the defendant. If your insurer is entitled to reimbursement from your lawsuit then you will receive the total amount of lost wages from the defendant and be required to repay the insurer the portion that they paid to you.
There are often out of pocket expenses associated with an injury such as travel expenses and cost of modifications to your home or vehicle. This is also the responsibility of the at fault party, because these are not expenses you would have to make should you not have been injured by the at fault party.
Finally, your economic damages may last into the future and in some cases may be permanent. For example, if you cannot return to work you are entitled to life-long lost wages. In such situations it may be necessary to hire an economist to figure out your future lost wages so that they can be reimbursed in your lawsuit.
Non-economic Losses: Non-economic losses include your pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and other emotional injuries. Unlike economic damages, non-economic damages are more subjective. Therefore, it can often be difficult to put a financial figure on such damages. The way it is usually done is by comparing people that have suffered similar injuries and seeing what juries have awarded them at trial. However, if a settlement cannot be reached then that amount of money is decided by a jury. This can often lead to a wide discrepancy from case to case. Also, like economic losses, non-economic losses can also be permanent. In such cases that will have to be accounted for in the jury’s verdict or in the settlement.
Finally, perhaps the most important factor in determining the amount of money that you are entitled to following an accident is the amount of insurance the responsible party has to satisfy any judgment you obtain. For example, if your total losses equal $1,000,000 but the responsible party is only insured for $25,000, your only way of recovering the difference will be by personally enforcing the judgment you obtain at trial against the responsible party’s assets. In my experience as a Pedestrian Accident Lawyer, most people do not have assets to pay that type of judgment. Therefore, for most accidents your recovery will be limited by the other party’s insurance. However, there are situations where you can make an additional claim against your own insurance carrier if the responsible party is underinsured.
