As auto accident lawyers, our primary objective is to obtain maximum compensation for you after you were injured as a result of the carelessness and negligence of somebody else. We do that by aggressively pursuing all damages that are available to you under Florida law.
Florida laws are in place that allows a claimant to seek personal injury damages for a wide range of economic and non-economic losses. Here are the types of Tampa car accident damages that are commonly pursued in local car crash cases.
Non-Economic Damages:
Mental anguish and injury, pain, disability, disfigurement, or loss of capacity for enjoyment of life.
Medical Bills:
These can range from emergency room bills that you incur right after the accident to future medical bills, so long as they are reasonable and necessary. Here are some examples of typical medical bills that our clients receive for services rendered as they progress to reaching maximum medical improvement after an accident:
- Hospital emergency room.
- Emergency room physicians.
- Hospital diagnostics.
- Surgery and surgeon’s costs.
- Physical therapy or rehab costs.
- Medical supplies.
- Prescription drugs.
- Out-of-pocket costs.
- Any home health care.
- The estimated cost of any future medical care.
Lost Earnings:
If you were unable to work after an accident, you can seek compensation for your lost earnings from all sources of income. Lost earnings can include bonuses, commissions, or lost retirement contributions. If you were unable to work for a long period of time, maybe your career got derailed. You might be entitled to lost earning capacity for the future. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) is the minimum required insurance. It is automobile insurance coverage that allows people to recover for economic loss, such as lost wages or medical bills, resulting from physical injuries sustained in an accident from an auto insurance company they are insured with. Fault does not have an effect on PIP.
Permanent Disfigurement:
Scarring can cause not only embarrassment and loss of self-esteem, but it can also cause a loss of range of motion and pain at a joint location. Scars on areas of the body that are visible such as the face, neck, arms, or hands are perceived to be more compensable than scarring that can be covered with clothing.
Permanent Disability:
This involves the permanent deprivation of the partial use of your body or brain. Compensation for permanent disability might be for rehabilitative care, counseling, the cost of household services and emotional distress. Permanent disability also seems to be more compensable for women than men.
Pain And Suffering:
The amount that might be claimed for pain and suffering is directly proportional to the nature and extent of your injuries. The pain and suffering that an accident victim endures can take a great toll on his or her life. Damages for pain and suffering include the type of medical treatment that the victim received, physical pain, and emotional anxiety. No sum of monetary compensation will take an accident victim’s pain away, but financial compensation is the only compensation that the judicial system can offer.
Loss Of Consortium:
These damages are typically raised when the injury victim proves that his or her injury has profoundly affected their familial relationship. Loss of consortium pivots on the loss of comfort and society suffered by a spouse or domestic partner. A child is allowed to raise a loss of consortium claim regarding a parent, and the parent is allowed to raise the claim regarding a child.
Funeral Expenses:
In most auto accident cases, funeral expenses may be recoverable under the decedent’s personal injury protection coverage, uninsured motorist coverage, or against the other driver.
Wrongful Death:
Like every other state, Florida has its own wrongful death laws. These wrongful death statutes provide that when a person’s death is caused by the negligence of somebody else, the estate of the decedent can bring a civil lawsuit for damages for that death and the losses that resulted. Those damages follow:
- The value of the support and services that the decedent provided to surviving family members.
- The loss of companionship, society and guidance that he or she had provided to surviving family members.
- Payment of any medical, funeral or burial services that a surviving family member may have provided.
- The value of the lost earnings that the decedent would have gained had he or she survived.
- Other earnings of the estate had he or she survived.
- Any medical, funeral or burial expenses that were paid by the estate rather than family members.
- Survival action damages had the decedent survived the accident, even for a short while.
Punitive Damages:
These damages are intended to punish a defendant for particularly reckless and egregious conduct that caused an accident, injuries or a death. These are limited to a sum equal to three times the amount of any compensatory damages, or $500,000 dollars, whichever is greater. To recover punitive damages, you generally need to show that the at-fault party was reckless, such as driving drunk or driving on the wrong side of the road.
Contact A Tampa Accident Lawyer.
After being injured or losing a family member in an accident anywhere in or around Tampa, contact our offices right away to arrange for a free consultation and case evaluation from an experienced and aggressive personal injury lawyer. You can tell us what happened and how it happened, and we’ll be prepared to answer all of your questions. After that, we’ll advise you on your full range of legal options to recover Tampa car accident damages.
If you have been injured in an accident as a result of another’s actions, please contact our personal injury law firm to discuss your case and which damages you may be entitled to. We never charge any up-front fees to handle your case, and no fees are collected until Hancock Injury Attorneys wins the case. Call today to schedule a confidential consultation.