Your settlement from your Atlanta car accident will depend on your injury and how severely it impacted your life. Car accident compensation is personalized according to your pain levels and expenses. The more severe your condition, the higher your settlement could be.
Our car accident injury attorney can evaluate your situation and explain your case’s potential value.
Your Settlement Value will Depend on the Following
The outcomes of many car accident cases are confidential. So, there is no way to know the average settlement for nerve damage from a car accident in Atlanta. Your case’s value will be determined by:
The Nature of Your Condition
Settlements are based on how much an injury interfered with your life. Nerve damage can impact your everyday activities, depending on where the pain or impairment is located.
Nerve damage that separates the brain and spinal cord is called peripheral neuropathy. According to the Mayo Clinic, this can affect
- Sensation
- Motor skills
- Blood pressure
Injuries that directly damage nerve roots can have even more severe consequences. Damage that impairs your day-to-day life might therefore earn a higher settlement.
How Your Nerve Damage Impacted You?
Your compensation can be affected by how much the injury interferes with:
- Self-care
- Daily tasks
- Working ability
- Spousal intimacy
- Mobility
- Independence
For example, if you have a job requiring fine motor skills and your car accident left you with nerve damage in one of your hands, you may not be able to work. It could also impact your ability to interact with your children. These elements could have an impact on the overall value of your damages.
The Cost of Your Financial Losses
Any medical condition results in bills. What you have already paid, as well as what you are likely to pay in the future, can be reimbursed.
This can include:
- Emergency room visits
- Diagnostic testing
- At-home care
- Medical equipment
- Prescription medications
- Physical therapy
We can also seek compensation for alternative therapies, such as acupuncture. We work with your doctors and specialists to learn about your past expenses, present financial struggles, and future costs. We then use that knowledge to calculate a fair settlement amount.
What Your Future Holds
While you may be thinking of your expenses now, we think of the big picture. We want to secure compensation that will address your prognosis in the months and years to come. Nerve damage injuries can be permanent, leaving you unable to work at your job in the same capacity—or even at all.
In addition to medical experts, we consult economists and actuaries when determining a settlement amount. They can tell us about your injury’s anticipated costs, including those that affect your future earning ability.
Some other factors we include in the value of your case involve:
- Job retraining
- Occupational therapy
- Reduced earning capacity
- Permanent disability
- Long-term care
- Lifelong medications
Your Personal Relationships
We also consider how your injury will impact your relationships with your spouse, family, and friends. Your injury doesn’t just impact your future, but the relationships that are a part of that future. Our team doesn’t want to neglect any aspect of your life that this injury has impacted.
We will consider other factors when determining the overall value of your car accident case in Atlanta.
Your Settlement May Comprise These Losses
Your settlement will depend on the amount of recoverable damages in your case. You could recover two main types of compensatory damages through your lawsuit or claim: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are compensation for financial losses caused by your car accident. If your pinched nerve has made you miss work or required you to receive pricy medical services, economic damages can help offset this cost.
Some economic damages you can recover after a car accident include the following:
- Past medical bills
- Future medical expenses
- Chiropractic services
- Medical equipment costs
- Medication costs
- Lost wages
- Lost earning potential if your injury impacts your future work
The Mayo Clinic reports that pinched nerves can require physical therapy or surgery. Such costs could make you eligible to collect an award.
Non-Economic Damages
After suffering a pinched nerve in a car accident, you lose more than just money. You may lose:
- Your health and peace of mind
- Your ability to go through your daily life without pain
- Your enjoyment of hobbies and other activities
Non-economic damages are compensation for these losses.
Once your personal injury lawyer reviews your case and analyzes your losses, they will be able to give you a better idea of the damages you could recover. The amount of your settlement depends on this number, so the sooner you reach out for a consultation, the sooner you can get an idea of your potential settlement.
How Negligence May Impact Your Settlement?
The Legal Information Institute (LII) affirms that negligence is an action or inaction that fails to meet the standard you would expect from another reasonable person in a similar situation.
Proving Your Case
Your ability to recover compensation and the amount you can recover depend on proving your case. You and your lawyer will need to present evidence to demonstrate that the following apply to you and your accident:
- You were owed a duty of care by those you are suing to be kept safe.
- They failed to meet this duty of care because of their negligence.
- This failure caused your accident.
- Your accident caused your injuries and losses for which you can be compensated.
Types of Negligence in Car Accident Cases
There are many ways in which a driver’s negligence could contribute to a car accident. We can hold all these negligent parties responsible for their dangerous actions:
- Distracted drivers
- Drunk drivers
- Drivers under the influence of drugs
- Drowsy drivers
- Speeding drivers
To prove that the party you are suing was negligent, we will look for evidence such as:
- CCTV footage
- Photographs
- Witness statements
- Police and medical records
- Other official documents
The more evidence we can collect, the stronger a case we can build on your behalf, and the more you could potentially recover in damages.
How Modified Comparative Negligence Can Affect Your Settlement?
Georgia has something called a “modified comparative negligence” statute. This law allows the amount of damages you can recover to be modified based on the amount of blame you hold for causing the accident (OCGA §51-12-33).
Under this law, you can recover damages even if you believe you are partially responsible for the accident that caused your injuries. This is why you should still reach out to our firm to discuss your options instead of assuming that you have no case.
This law also means that the insurance company may reduce the amount you recover if you contributed to the accident. It is your lawyer’s job to show that the other party was more at fault than you were. Your lawyer will use evidence uncovered through investigation to argue that you are owed the appropriate amount after your accident leaves you hurt.
How Long Do You Have to File Your Case?
The deadline for filing your claim depends on the liable insurer. The deadline for filing your lawsuit, however, depends on the state.
The statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit in Georgia is two years from the date of the accident, per OCGA §9-3-33. Nonetheless, some factors can change that filing window, such as:
- You were injured as a minor.
- You were hurt in a hit-and-run accident.
- The other party hid their identity or left the state.
Talk to one of our car accident lawyers to learn more about your case’s filing deadline.
Call for a Free Consultation and Learn About Our No-Fee Guarantee
Talk to the team at Kaine Law today to learn more about the settlement amount you could receive for nerve damage following a car accident in Atlanta.
Not only will we pursue a settlement that fits your needs, but we will also not accept a penny unless you receive that settlement. Call us today to get started.
