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Potential Expenses After an Accident

Written by AskTheLawyers.com™

Potential Expenses After an Accident

Written by AskTheLawyers.com™

AskTheLawyers™

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Car accidents can be traumatic physically, emotionally, and financially. A wide variety of expenses can occur after a car accident which may or may not be covered by insurance. In some cases, it may be possible to combine health insurance and car insurance benefits. If you or a loved one have been involved in a car accident, it’s important to know what to expect. To discuss your options for expense recovery after a car accident, reach out to a car accident attorney.

Potential expenses after a car accident may include the following:

  • Medical expenses are one of the most common expenses after a car accident. Even injuries that seem minor at first glance should be looked at by a doctor; some injuries may worsen with time or not be felt for days or even weeks after an accident. Injuries resulting from a car accident can be wide-ranging and may include: whiplash, scrapes and cuts, head injuries, broken bones or fractures, internal bleeding, herniated disc, knee trauma, head, neck or back trauma, spinal cord injury, loss of limbs, brain injury, disfigurement, burn injury, paralysis, PTSD, and, in the worst-case scenario, death. Car accidents are one of the most common causes of serious injury and death every year.
  • In many cases, an injured person must take time off work to seek medical treatment and recover. This results in lost wages the injured party might otherwise have relied on to pay for food, housing, etc. Additionally, when the loved one of an accident victim has to take time off work to stay home and care for the victim, this constitutes additional wages lost.
  • In some cases, lifecare expenses might be an important factor to consider. Severe car accidents and chronic or long-lasting injuries can result in the need for ongoing life support, home living support, and ongoing medical expenses. For example, if a car accident victim will require a motorized scooter for mobility from now on, that scooter as well as any predictable maintenance or replacement could be covered in a successful car accident claim.
  • Vocational rehabilitation may come into play when someone might be physically able to return to their chosen profession or any profession with proper physical and mental rehabilitation. Rehab can be extremely helpful, but expensive, so it’s important to assess whether or not this expense should be included in a car accident claim.
  • It’s no secret that one of the biggest concerns after a car accident is how to pay for the damaged vehicle. Depending on the state of the car before the accident and after, the property damage could be significantly higher than what insurance is prepared to pay. In this case, it may be possible to roll the cost of the damaged or destroyed vehicle into the expenses of a car accident claim.

Expenses in a car accident claim are referred to as “damages”, and may be sought via a lawsuit, trial, or settlement. The damages discussed above are often referred to as “economic” damages and have to do with the expenses that can be calculated with relative ease after a car wreck.

Other damages that may be compensable after a car accident include non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of companionship; these damages take an expert’s assessment to calculate. If you or a loved one were injured in a car accident, reach out to an experienced car accident attorney for help assessing your expenses and compensable damages.

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