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Construction
Accidents FAQs
Construction
workers face a wider variety of hazards and
greater risk of work-related injury or death
than employees in any other U.S. industry. Brett & Coats PLLC has been helping Washington
State victims of personal injury win substantial
settlements and awards for more than 33 years.
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How
do I successfully pursue construction accident
injury insurance claim?
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What types of money damages can
I recover?
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How much is my injury claim
worth?
-
What should I do immediately to
help preserve my claim?
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How should I select a lawyer to
represent me?
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How much will it cost to hire a
lawyer?
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How does the insurance claim
process work?
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What can I do if the person who
caused the injury is uninsured?
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How can I deal with my
immediate medical bills?
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How long do I have to file a
claim?
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What if I have a preexisting
medical condition?
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What types of money damages
are allowed for wrongful death?
1.
How do I successfully pursue construction
accident injury insurance claim?
Four requirements
must be met to receive compensation in your
construction injury insurance claim:
> You must
prove that the accident occurred due to the
reckless or negligent actions of another party,
> You must prove that you were injured,
> You must establish that your injury was
caused by the accident and not by a preexisting
condition or unrelated event, and
> You must establish that the party who
injured you was insured.
An insurance
company will only pay for a construction injury
accident claim if you prove that your injury
occurred because of another's reckless or
negligent actions. You must prove that the
negligent party owed you a duty (either because
of a law or because of a general duty to act
with reasonable care) and that the other party
failed to meet its duty. Approximately 40% of
all construction site fatalities involve
electrocution. Other types of accidents and
injuries that frequently happen on construction
sites include:
· Compressed Gases Hazards
· Construction Site Falls
· Crane Accidents
· Explosions
· Logging Accidents
· Mechanical Hazards
· Nail Gun Accidents
· Scaffolding Accidents
· Welding, Cutting and Brazing Accidents
· Dangerous and Defective Machines
More than one
person or entity may have been partially at
fault in your accident, and you may have even
been partially at fault. In these situations,
the court distributes the fault among all of
these entities. Generally, if the other person
bore 80% of the fault and you were responsible
for the remaining 20%, you will recover only 80%
of your total damages. If several people were at
fault, there are special rules on "joint
and several liability" that govern the
portion of the total damages that are paid by
each person or entity at fault. If you face a
situation where several people or entities may
have been negligent, your best course of action
is to consult with an experienced personal
injury lawyer who can help to prove your claim.
At Brett & Coats PLLC, we offer a free
case evaluation to determine the likelihood of a
recovery and the likely range of any recovery.
Contact us for your free case evaluation.
If you have been
injured through the fault of another, your
lawyer should immediately obtain all records,
witness statements and photographic evidence so
that the issue of fault is immediately laid to
rest. Your attorney must act promptly since
memories fade, conditions change and witnesses
move. Without proof of fault you cannot support
a claim for your injuries.
In order to prove
who was at fault for an accident, your attorney
should also obtain all investigative records,
including witness and investigating officer
interviews. In more complicated cases, your
lawyer may hire licensed engineers to
reconstruct the event.
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2.
What types of money damages can I recover?
You are entitled
to be compensated for your losses if you were
injured because of another party's negligence or
careless actions. The justice system's goal is
to attempt to restore you to your position prior
to your injury. While the justice system
recognizes that money cannot undo the accident
that caused your injury, it works to provide
fair financial damages to compensate for the
injury. There are six main categories of damages
you may be entitled to:
- Property Damages
- You are entitled to repair or replacement of
any property damaged in the accident. For
example, damage to your car, your clothes, your
eyeglasses or other personal property. For more information on
Property Damages click here
- Medical Expenses
- All costs incurred for health care should be
repaid to you including ambulance bills,
hospital bills and charges for surgical, medical
or chiropractic care. Depending upon the type of
insurance coverage you or the other party
purchased, you may be entitled to payment of
these bills regardless of who caused the
accident.
For more information on Medical Expenses to
date click here
- Future Medical
Expenses - You are entitled to a sum of money
that will enable you to pay for future medical
care of injuries or disabilities caused by the
accident. For example, you may be entitled to
future surgical care or future in-home nursing
care if you are disabled. For more information on Future
Medical Expenses click here.
- Lost Income -
Even if you are self-employed or work on
commission, you are entitled to be paid for the
income lost because of your injury. These
damages are meant to cover lost wages from your
job while in the hospital, lost income while
recuperating and visiting the doctor and for
continued therapy visits after your return to
work.For more
information on Lost Income click here.
- Lost Future
Earning Capacity - If you are partially or
completely disabled from employment because of
your injury, you are entitled to a sum of money
that will compensate you for the lost capacity
to earn income in the future.For
more information on Lost Future Earning
Capacity click here.
- General Damages
for Pain and Suffering - You are entitled to be
compensated in dollars for the pain, suffering,
disfigurement and disability you have
experienced as a result of the injury. An
experienced attorney can help to assess the
dollar amount of the loss based on their
experience in other similar cases as well as
their understanding of the local justice system.
Your lawyer will be invaluable in working with
the insurance company and substantiating your
claim.For
more information on General Damages for Pain
and Suffering click here.
Additional
information on Property Damages
You are entitled
to have personal property damages paid by the
insurance company of the person who caused the
injury. If the personal property was damaged
beyond repair, you are entitled to the
difference between the fair cash market value of
the damaged property immediately before it was
damaged and its salvage value. If the personal
property is repairable, you are entitled to
recover the lesser of the cost of repairs plus
any diminished value after the repairs, or the
difference between the fair cash market value
before the damage and the salvage value. In
either case, you are entitled to a sum to
compensate you for loss of use of the property
during the time reasonably required for repair
or replacement.
Often if your
only losses are to personal property and you
were not injured in the accident, you can
negotiate a settlement directly with the
insurance adjuster without the help of a lawyer.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Medical Expenses
As a personal
injury victim, you are entitled to any medical
expenses incurred as a result of your
construction injury. These expenses will be paid
by the insurance company of the party at fault
for causing your injury. To acquire these sums,
your attorney will collect all of your medical
records from health care providers, including
bills. This documentation is then provided to
the insurance company to prove that the expense
was incurred and that the treatment was required
because of the accident. The insurance company
may attempt to argue that you had a preexisting
condition that dictated the treatment or that
another injury required the treatment. In order
to protect you against this ploy, a skilled
attorney will obtain a complete history of
medical care predating the accident, including a
written statement from the attending physician
confirming that in their professional opinion
the need for treatment was more than likely
attributable to the accident.
Recovering
compensation for medical expenses from an
insurance company is similar to filing for an
income tax refund from the government - you need
to collect all of your receipts and accurately
fill out the required paperwork. Brett & Coats attorneys and paralegals are trained to
handle the paper process in a timely, proactive
manner.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Future Medical Care
You are entitled
to compensation to pay for future medical care
related to your injury. The insurance company
will require an accurate, detailed estimate from
the physician or health care workers who will
provide your future health care services.
Your attorney
will obtain your complete written medical
records from all health care providers so that
the insurance company (and you) can see the
doctor's diagnosis and recommended treatment for
your injury. Your lawyer will meet regularly
with physicians to review the records and help
them to address the insurance company's
requirements in order to pay for future medical
care.
It is important
to remember that there is a one-time lump-sum
payment for future medical care paid at
settlement. Once a claim is settled, it is not
generally possible to reopen the claim.
At Brett & Coats, PLLC, we are careful to
avoid settlement until we know all of our
client's future medical needs.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Lost Income
If you have been
injured through the fault of another, you are
entitled to recover all the lost income caused
by the injury, including lost wages from your
job while in the hospital, lost income while
recuperating, doctor visits and any continued
therapy visits after your return to work.
Medical proof of your inability to work and the
amount of pay that will be lost due to the
injury must be calculated. If you are a wage
earner who lost a specific number of hours of
work, you are entitled to receive your hourly
wage for each hour lost. However, if you work on
commission (like a realtor), or if you are
self-employed (like a fisherman), your lawyer
must reconstruct your financial losses by
reviewing business, tax and accounting records
from prior years to determine your future wages.
Your lawyer will
obtain your complete written medical records
from all health care providers to confirm the
doctor's opinion regarding your medical
situation. Your attorney will also meet
regularly with doctors to review the records and
help them to address the specific requirements
imposed by the insurance companies before they
are willing to concede that a client has been
unable to work because of the injury.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on Future Lost Income
You are entitled
to compensation for the loss of future income or
future loss of earning capacity. In order to
receive an award, you must provide medical proof
that your injury will inhibit your ability to
earn income in the future. You must also
demonstrate the amount of income you will lose.
Projecting the amount of future income lost can
be a simple or complicated process depending on
your type of employment. While this can be
difficult, the Brett & Coats, PLLC team is
experienced in economic reconstruction and
projection.
To prove that you
are unable to work or cannot work at the same
level of earnings you enjoyed before the injury,
your attorney will obtain a written statement
from a doctor describing your medical condition
and prognosis. This documentation is then
reviewed by a vocational rehabilitation
specialist who can better assess your ability to
perform in the work force with the medical
condition. The specialist's review often
requires extensive physical, mental and
psychological testing. Once the vocational
specialist establishes a level of employment
ability, an economist will be consulted to
estimate the difference between the anticipated
future earnings prior to the accident and the
earnings you can now expect in the future as a
result of total or partial disability. This
difference is the loss of future earnings or
loss of future earning capacity.
If you were
partially or completely disabled as a result of
an injury caused by someone else, the loss of
future income or an inability to work at the
same level can have a significant impact on your
capacity to support yourself and your family.
Talk with an experienced legal professional at
Brett & Coats PLLC before you attempt to
negotiate a settlement with an insurance
adjuster whose goal is to minimize the insurance
company's payout.
(Back to question 2)
Additional
Information on General Damages for Pain and
Suffering
The law is clear
regarding a victim's right to recover money
damages for pain, suffering, disability and
disfigurement. However, it is more difficult to
estimate the amount of money required to
compensate a victim for their loss. This
difficulty is compounded by the need to prove
the calculation to an insurance company or a
court. While medical expenses or lost wages can
be substantiated through bills or pay stubs, how
is a value assigned to pain? How do we measure
what pain is worth? Since we can't ask
volunteers to describe how much money they would
be willing to accept to be seriously injured in
a construction accident, we estimate the money
value in a pain and suffering claim by analyzing
damage awards made in similar cases. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we have access to state,
regional and national publications, as well as
computerized data banks to identify similar
cases and project a solid estimate of the range
of awards made for similar losses. These
comparisons help us to secure the most fair
settlement amount with the insurance company. In
situations where the insurance company refuses
to pay a fair settlement, our attorneys have the
skill to present real human losses to a jury in
a compelling way. Because our experienced
personal injury attorneys are always prepared to
take a claim to trial (and the insurance
companies know it), we can usually obtain a
favorable settlement that includes an
appropriate amount for general damages in an out
of court settlement.
(Back to question 2)
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3. How much is my
injury claim worth?
There are two
ways to estimate the monetary settlement value
of a claim, and our attorneys recommend that
both be used to achieve success in a
construction injury accident claim.
To find a total
claim value, add up the amounts you are entitled
to for property damage, medical expenses to
date, future medical expenses, lost earnings to
date, future lost earnings, and general damages
for pain and suffering. Since damages such as
general damages for pain and suffering are
difficult to evaluate, the second method of
assigning a monetary settlement value is used.
Your attorney will review state, regional and
national publications and computerized databases
to find similar claims with similar injuries and
similar liability patterns to develop a
statistical analysis of your claim's value.
If you have been
seriously injured through someone else's fault,
you should not attempt to estimate the value of
your claim without professional assistance. At
Brett & Coats PLLC, we offer a free case
evaluation to determine the likelihood of a
recovery and the likely range of any recovery. Contact
us for your free case evaluation.
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4. What should I
do immediately to help preserve my claim?
The answer to
this question is not: "Get a lawyer
quickly" or "be your own lawyer".
Instead, work to keep your claim alive until you
can select a proven personal injury attorney. To
support your claim before you meet with an
attorney, it is important to preserve evidence
and protect your negotiating position. By
documenting your accident and injuries, you are
substantiating your claim and providing your
chosen attorney with a head start on your legal
strategy.
The first step in
preserving evidence is to obtain the name,
address, phone number and insurance information
from the party that caused the accident. Take
photographs of the accident scene, photographs
of your injury, and photographs of yourself
during your recovery period. Do not attempt to
interview witnesses to the accident. Instead,
record their names, addresses and phone numbers
so that if there is a later dispute you will
have objective bystanders to support your
version of events. Also, be sure to keep a daily
journal beginning with the date of the accident
to document all physical and mental injuries, as
well as your perspective of the accident. Bring
all of this to your lawyer once you have
selected one.
Next, preserve
your negotiating position. Do not sign anything
presented by the insurance adjuster. Do not give
a written or oral statement to an insurance
adjuster. Do not attempt to negotiate a
settlement with an insurance adjuster who works
to minimize payouts. While you are in the
process of preserving evidence and protecting
your negotiating position, you can also invest
the time to find a first-class personal injury
lawyer.
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5. How should I
select a lawyer to represent me?
When you select a
lawyer to represent you in a personal injury
claim, consider three factors:
Does this lawyer
have a reputation for excellent legal ability
and high ethical standards? The
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory is a
twenty-four volume set listing almost all of the
lawyers in the United States and rating their
legal ability as A (very high to preeminent), B
(high to very high), C (fair to high) or no
rating. A rating of V is given for high-ethical
standards. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we are
proud of our Martindale Hubbell AV rating, the
highest available. The Martindale-Hubbell
directory is also available online at www.martindale.com. But you don't have to rely
solely on a publication. You can ask people in
our community who have experienced the legal
system, talk with someone who works in the
courthouse, or discuss your situation with
someone experienced in personal injury accident
claims. Ask a number of people to see if any
particular name keeps coming up. Also, look at
the Brett & Coats PLLC attorney
profiles to see that our firm's attorneys are well
qualified to handle your construction injury
claim. For example, Dean Brett has repeatedly
been selected as a "Superlawyer" by
Washington Law & Politics Magazine, and has
been selected as a Fellow of the American
College of Trial Lawyers. Dean Brett has served on the Board
of Governors of the Washington State Trial
Lawyers Association, the state-wide group
dedicated to fighting for victims of negligence.
Does this lawyer
have experience handling my particular type of
personal injury case? If you have been injured
by another party's negligence, a divorce
attorney or a lawyer who works in estate
planning cannot provide the best representation.
You need to hire an experienced personal injury
lawyer with the credentials to effectively
represent your interests. Relatively few lawyers
devote most of their practice to representing
individuals with claims for personal injury or
wrongful death. Before you hire a lawyer, you
should know how many times the attorney has
actually gone to court on a personal injury
claim. You should also know whether that
attorney has ever obtained a verdict or
settlement in a personal injury case of over a
million dollars, or over $100,000, or even over
$50,000. Don't allow the lawyer to answer your
questions with generalizations. Ask for specific
cases with specific results. Remember, when you
talk to a lawyer you are interviewing him or her
for a job working for you. Look at their resume.
You may also be interested in looking at our
results case
results.
Does this
attorney inspire trust and confidence? You
should hire a lawyer in whom you feel
comfortable placing your trust and confidence.
Remember, the lawyer is going to be employed by
you, to represent you. You need someone easy to
talk to, someone who will explain and advise on
your situation. The best way to determine your
comfort level is to personally meet the lawyer.
If you want to take things a step at a time,
talk to the lawyer on the phone and test your
comfort level prior to scheduling an
appointment. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we
offer a free case evaluation to help determine
the likelihood of a successful claim and the
likely range of any financial recovery. This is
an excellent opportunity to decide if you are
comfortable placing your trust and confidence in
a personal injury lawyer at Brett & Coats PLLC. Contact us
for your free case evaluation.
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6. How much will
it cost to hire a lawyer?
At Brett & Coats PLLC, our clients have a choice in how
they pay for legal services. We can charge on an
hourly basis or on a contingency fee.
If you choose to
hire us on an hourly basis, we will track the
time our lawyers and paralegals spend on your
case and bill you monthly. Our hourly rates
range from $225 for lead trial attorneys to $185
for associate trial lawyers and $80 for
paralegals. On hourly billings, there are two
basic rules: all fees and costs must be paid
monthly and our firm is paid regardless of
whether your claim is won or lost.
With a
contingency fee arrangement, we are paid
one-third of any recovery by settlement or
judgment. If there is no recovery, you owe us
nothing for our legal services. However, you
must pay your own costs, such as the charges
doctors make for providing records and reports,
out of the money you receive when the case is
settled.
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7. How does the
insurance claim process work?
Insurance
companies are in business to make a profit.
Generally, the insurance company's profit is the
difference between what it collects in premiums
and what it pays out in claims. Therefore, the
insurance adjuster's job is to settle your claim
for as little as possible to maximize the
company's profit. Your lawyer's job is to settle
your claim for its maximum value.
We know how to
work with insurance companies. Insurance
companies have developed a huge bureaucracy to
scrutinize, criticize, evaluate and ultimately
pay insurance claims. The insurance adjuster's
job is to identify false or fraudulent claims
and to refuse to pay undocumented claims. The
insurance adjuster is trying to build a file, to
critically evaluate your claim, and to pay as
little as possible to settle your claim as soon
as possible. Remember, the insurance adjuster
reports to a supervisor. If the adjuster has a
thin, small file on a claim that was settled for
$10,000, the supervisor is likely to say
"You paid too much. This file does not
support a $10,000 payment." Conversely, if
the adjuster settles a claim for $100,000 and
gives the supervisor a thick and well-documented
file that includes complete witness statements,
complete medical opinion letters, and
comprehensive records of all medical care, wage
losses, and other expenses, the supervisor is
more likely to say, "That's fine, the claim
was worth $100,000". Your attorney's role
is to help the insurance adjuster build a file
that supports a full and fair claim settlement.
Your lawyer's
goal should be to maximize your financial
recovery from your injury. Your attorney should
have a reputation for honest dealing; for a fair
but firm settlement posture; for refusing to
settle for a penny less than the claim is worth;
and for being prepared to take each claim to
trial to get a full and fair recovery, if
necessary.
There are
basically five steps the insurance adjuster must
take in handling a personal injury claim:
1. Collecting
Information
2. Setting Reserves
3. Evaluating Damages
4. Negotiating Settlement
5. Defending in Trial if Necessary
Collecting
Information. Since the adjuster must collect
information needed to understand your claim,
your lawyer should provide all the required
information to validate the claim to the
adjuster and their company. Sometimes insurance
adjusters are so busy looking for damaging
information about you or your claim that they
miss favorable information. Your attorney should
collect and highlight that favorable information
- witness statements, photographs of the
collision and your injury, opinion letters from
experts in medicine, and accident reconstruction
or economic loss. When your attorney presents
the claim to the adjuster, he is more likely to
understand the significance of your claim.
Setting Reserves.
When a claim comes in, the company must set
reserves, an accounting entry, to assure
government regulators that the company has
adequate money to pay the claim. If initial
reserves are set too low, when the time comes to
settle the claim, the adjuster will sometimes be
too limited in the amount of money he can offer
in settlement. Your attorney must get the
appropriate information to the adjuster as soon
as possible to assist the company in setting
high enough reserves that the ultimate
settlement can be for the full claim value.
Evaluating
Damages. Since the adjusters must evaluate the
claim value, your attorney should provide them
with all relevant information, including
comparable cases from state, regional and
national publications and computerized
databases, and our own evaluation of the claim's
value to assist the adjuster in coming to a full
and fair evaluation.
Negotiating Settlement. There is an old saying,
"A lawyer who represents himself, has a
fool for a client." Likewise, a personal
injury victim who attempts to negotiate a
settlement with a professional insurance
adjuster is likely to recover far less than the
claim's true value. Do not attempt to negotiate
a settlement of your personal injury claim
without professional advice.
Defending in
Trial if Necessary. If a settlement cannot be
negotiated, the insurance company must defend
its position in court. To improve your chances
for compensation at trial, your attorney must
have a quality reputation, proven credentials, a
fair but firm settlement posture that refuses to
settle for less than a full claim value, and the
ability and resources to prepare for an
aggressive litigation of your claim.
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8. What can I do
if the person who caused the injury is
uninsured?
If you are
uncertain as to whether the party at fault for
the accident has sufficient insurance, contact a
lawyer immediately to help you in gain this
critical information.
Brett & Coats PLLC attorneys have represented many
individuals who have been injured by an
uninsured or underinsured party who cannot pay a
full and fair claim. While these cases can be
difficult, do not give-up until you investigate
other potential sources of compensation for your
injuries. Other possibilities include
underinsured motorists coverage, the Crime
Victim's Compensation Act, and "joint and
several" liability of insured individuals
whose negligence combined with that of the
uninsured party to cause your injuries. Although
a lawyer cannot guarantee that he or she can
find coverage and obtain a recovery for you, an
effective attorney is obliged to explore all of
the alternatives and advise you of their
availability in your situation.
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9. How can I deal
with my immediate medical bills?
To ensure that
you continue to receive the highest quality
medical care and to protect your credit, it is
important to immediately pay medical bills. As a
part of our representation in your personal
injury claim, Brett & Coats PLLC will
manage payment of your medical bills. Your
priorities are to find the best medical care,
follow your doctor's advice, strive to reach the
best possible medical recovery, and send all
your bills to the Brett & Coats PLLC
office. In turn, we will coordinate the
paperwork to obtain payment of those medical
bills through your own medical coverage; the
insurance coverage of any parties involved in
the accident; state and federal medical payment
programs; or by arranging with your health care
providers to hold collection until you receive
your settlement.
Your good health
is too important to sacrifice quality medical
care because of financial considerations. Take
care of your health first and your Brett & Coats PLLC attorney will coordinate payment of
your medical care as part of our service in your
personal injury claim.
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10. How long do I
have to file a claim?
If your injury
occurred more than one year ago, you may have a
statute of limitations problem. The statute of
limitations requires that a claim be filed
within a certain period of time after the
accident or you will forever lose the right to
do so. Depending on the manner in which you were
injured, the statute of limitations could be
three years, two years or less from the date of
injury. Do not delay in contacting a Brett & Coats PLLC attorney. We offer a free case
evaluation to determine the likelihood of a
recovery and the likely range of any recovery.
Contact us today.
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11. What if I
have a preexisting medical condition?
If another party
is to blame for your injuries, you are entitled
to be compensated for only the injuries suffered
in the accident. If the insurance company
suspects that your injury existed prior to the
accident or that you were injured in an
unrelated event, they may refuse to pay your
claim. To prevent this situation, we obtain your
entire medical history so that we can identify
what has been reported in the records, and we
can then reassure the insurance company that no
preexisting or unrelated injury exists. The
proof of a causal link between the accident and
the injury may seem simple, but your lawyer must
work hard to eliminate the insurance company's
natural skepticism which can lead to non-payment
of your claim.
Special rules
govern compensation for aggravation of
preexisting injuries. If your accident has been
caused by the negligence of another party and
you have been injured in an area where a
pre-existing infirmity exists, you are in the
complicated situation that requires expert legal
help. If prior to the accident you had a
pre-existing bodily condition that was causing
pain or disability and then the accident further
exacerbated the pain or disability, you are
entitled to compensation for the aggravation of
that condition.
If you had a
pre-existing condition or disability prior to
the accident and it made you more vulnerable to
injury than a normally healthy person, you are
also entitled to compensation for those injuries
and damages caused by the accident. You are not
entitled to compensation for an injury sustained
in a subsequent accident that is a normal
consequence of an impaired physical condition
caused by the original injury and which would
not have occurred had the plaintiff's physical
condition not been impaired.
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12. What types of
money damages are allowed for wrongful death?
Four interrelated
statutes govern calculation of recoverable
damages when a person dies as a result of
someone's reckless or negligent actions. While
none of the statutes can ever replace the
husband or wife or child who was lost, a
successful claim can help the survivors in many
ways. Your attorney will coordinate with the
criminal prosecution of the party at fault and
arrange for grief counseling. Of course our most
important form of support to grieving families
is securing monetary compensation for their
loss. Money cannot relieve the grief over the
loss of a loved one, but it can help to relieve
financial burdens.
If the person who
died was a minor (under 18) or a child on whom
one or both parents were dependent for support,
or a viable fetus, damages are defined to
include "loss of love and companionship of
the child and for injury to or destruction of
the parent-child relationship in such amount as,
under all the circumstances of the case, may be
just." This broad language has been
interpreted to include parental grief, mental
anguish and suffering. Significantly,
computation of damages is not limited to the
lost child's minority. In addition, medical,
hospital, medication and related expenses and
loss of services and support are recoverable.
A second statute
also allows damages to be recovered on behalf of
..."The wife, husband, child or
children" of the deceased. Adult decedents
who are single and without children do not
qualify here. But for decedents with a surviving
spouse or child, "the jury may give such
damages as, under all circumstances of the case,
may to them be just." Whether an adult who
dies has dependents dramatically affects
verdicts and settlements in death claims.
A third statute
allows recovery for decedents even if they were
unmarried without dependents; the recovery is to
their estate and includes the present value of
their future net earnings had they lived a
normal life expectancy. Usually proof of loss
must be made through the calculations of an
economist
A fourth statute
is useful to help survivors who may not qualify
for help under other statutes. Care must be
taken to avoid duplication of claims made under
other statutes.
The claim may be brought on behalf of the
husband or wife, children, and under special
circumstances, certain other family members.
Developing a
successful legal strategy in a wrongful death
claim is best left in the hands of an
experienced attorney. At Brett & Coats PLLC, we offer a free case evaluation to
determine the likelihood of a recovery and the
likely range of any recovery. Contact us for
your free case evaluation.
We are providing
the information on this Website as a service to
educate the public and encourage accident
victims to seek legal advice. The following
information should not be considered as legal
advice or applied to an individual legal
situation. For expert counsel on your legal
situation, consult with an experienced Brett & Coats PLLC personal injury attorney
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