If you’ve been injured in an accident and can’t work, you may have grounds to file a personal injury claim. Through a personal injury claim, you may be able to recover compensation for your medical bills, lost income as well as intangible losses like pain and suffering. If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence or recklessness, it’s in your best interest to consult a personal injury lawyer to discuss your legal options.
The personal injury lawyers of Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law, offer free legal consultations. Our compassionate, experienced attorneys can advise you of your legal options and possible next steps. We only charge a fee if your claim is successful.
Personal Injuries that Prevent You from Working
Unintentional accidental injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans aged 1-44, according to the CDC. Motor vehicle accidents, drownings and falls are included in this grim statistic. Even more people are injured in these same ways.
An injury can prevent you from working in several different ways. Even what seems like a relatively minor or commonplace injury, like a bone fracture, can have a large impact on the victim’s life. Injuries can prevent you from performing daily tasks, like getting dressed, driving or taking care of family responsibilities. These can prevent an injured victim from being able to get to work, much less perform their work tasks.
Depending on the type of job you have and your injuries, you may not be able to work at all or you may not be able to go back to the same job you had. Workers who stand for long periods of time or need to be able to lift and move may not be able to perform their job, at all given certain types of injuries. Conversely, sitting at a desk or using a keyboard could be an impossible task for injured victims.
An accident can cause cognitive impairment. For example, a traumatic brain injury or even a severe concussion can impact your memory and ability to think, speak or understand language. Victims may be unable to concentrate at work, communicate or remember important information that is necessary for your job.
Some accident victims may be diagnosed with a mental condition that developed because of the incident. For example, the most common mental condition after an auto accident is post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD. Any type of emotional distress can severely impact a victim’s life and may cause them difficulty in daily routines such as going to work, attending school, or even getting out of bed in the morning. Emotional distress can be relatively short-lived but, for some, these feelings and daily interruptions can persist for some time.
Many personal injuries can linger for many months or be masked by the pain after an accident. A severe personal injury can have both short-term and long-lasting effects on your physical and mental health, which in turn can prevent you from working after an accident.
Compensation for a Personal Injury
In a personal injury claim, injured victims can file a claim or lawsuit seeking compensation to cover losses like medical bills and lost income, as well as compensation for the mental anguish of what you endured.
Medical Expenses
Economic damages are designed to make the injured party financially whole. These types of damages often can be proved through documentation, bills and evidence of the cost. The most common type of economic damages are medical bills and lost income. Keep in mind that medical bills include the any expense incurred in relation to treatment for the injuries including:
- Hospital and doctor bills
- Rehabilitation therapies
- Co-pays and out-of-pocket medical expenses
- Medications
- Medical devices
Lost Income
Lost income in a personal injury case includes lost wages, bonuses, commissions and other benefits usually provided by your employer. If you missed out on any of these types of income due to your inability to work because of your injuries, you may be eligible for damages that include the sum of lost income. Typically, lost income also includes vacation or PTO time used and includes any partially missed income in the event you’re only able to return to work part-time.
In the case of serious injury that results in the injured person being permanently unable to work or work at the same job, future lost income and earning capacity could be a part of the compensation awarded.
Especially if your case involves serious injury, an experienced personal injury lawyer is your best way to prove lost income and maximize your claim.
Intangible Losses
While damages for medical expenses and lost income are usually intended to help restore a person to their financial position before the accident, non-economic damages are a form of compensation that accounts for an injured person’s physical pain and mental anguish due to their suffering as a result of the accident. Common kinds of non-economic damages include
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium or companionship
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Because non-economic damages aren’t attached to a specific financial value, the amount of compensation awarded for non-economic damages varies by case. Factors such as the severity of injuries, changes in lifestyle from before and after the accident as well as age play a part into how those losses are calculated.
Get Help with a Personal Injury Claim
If you’ve been injured due to another party’s negligence or reckless behavior, you should not be left responsible to pay for your medical bills, lost income and other damages. At Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law, our compassionate attorneys will pursue your best interests and aggressively pursue your claim. We have decades of experience in car and truck accidents, slip and falls, injury accidents and employment law.
Contact us today for a free consultation. Our clients tell us they feel a sense of relief once they make that first phone call. We work on a contingency basis, which means we only collect a fee if you win your claim. Locations in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.