If you have been seriously injured in an accident in Alabama, you may be entitled to financial compensation for your accident-related losses. In most cases, recovering just compensation after an accident involves negotiating a personal injury settlement. For example, if you were injured on someone else’s property, seeking the compensation you deserve will most likely involve hiring a Birmingham premises liability lawyer to negotiate a settlement with the property owner’s insurance company.
Of course, a settlement is not guaranteed—and, if you have a personal injury claim, it is up to you to make sure you are seeking the full compensation you deserve. So, how can you make sure that you don’t unknowingly settle your claim for too little?
Making Sure You Seek Full Compensation for Your Accident
Here are seven factors that can affect the amount of a personal injury settlement in Alabama:
1. The Severity of Your Injuries
Whether you have a claim for a slip and fall or any other type of accident, the severity of your injuries will be a major factor in determining how much you are entitled to recover. As discussed below, the severity of your injuries will play a role in determining not only the financial costs of the accident, but the accident’s non-financial costs as well. This makes it important to ensure that you receive a thorough diagnosis—and this means that seeing a doctor (if you have not done so already) should be among your top priorities.
2. Your Medical Bills (Past, Present, and Future)
If you have a personal injury claim, you are entitled to just compensation for all of the medical bills you have incurred—and that you will incur—as a result of your injuries. This is one of the first areas where the severity of your injuries comes into play. Before you accept an insurance settlement, it is critical to ensure that the settlement will provide the financial resources you need to cover all of your medical expenses going forward.
3. Your Other Out-of-Pocket Costs
Along with your medical bills, if you have grounds to seek a personal injury settlement, your settlement should also include compensation for your other out-of-pocket costs. Depending on your individual circumstances, this could include everything from prescriptions and medical supplies to medical transportation and at-home care. If you incur any additional costs as a result of your accident, these are costs that you can—and should—include in your settlement demand. Here, too, this includes not only costs you have incurred already, but costs that you anticipate incurring in the future as well.
4. Your Income and Expected Time Away from Work
Do your injuries prevent you from working (or do they restrict your ability to work)? If so, you may also be entitled to just compensation for your lost earnings. While calculating your lost earnings to date is a fairly straightforward process, to calculate your future loss of earnings, you will need to know how much your injuries are likely to cost you in the future.
This is one of many aspects of the process that requires experienced legal representation. When you hire an experienced lawyer to represent you, your lawyer will use your medical records, employment records, and various other types of evidence to forecast your lost future earnings resulting from the accident. If the accident has left you unable to work long-term (or indefinitely), this could account for a substantial portion of your settlement.
5. Your Pain and Suffering
The compensation you are entitled to receive for your pain and suffering could account for a substantial portion of your settlement as well. This is compensation above and beyond the costs of treating your accident-related injuries. If your injuries have left you struggling with chronic pain, if you have localized pain that restricts your mobility, or if you are dealing with any other daily reminders of the accident, these are all non-financial losses for which you can—and should—seek just compensation.
6. The Other Ways the Accident Negatively Impacts Your Life
Along with pain and suffering, accident-related injuries can negatively impact your life in many other ways as well. For example, if you have a personal injury claim in Alabama, your lawyer may also be able to help you seek just compensation for other non-financial losses such as:
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of society
- Loss of services and support
Under Alabama law, these are all types of non-financial losses that accident victims can seek to recover from the insurance companies. However, as with the other types of losses discussed above, it is up to you to make sure you are seeking the full compensation you deserve. This means that you need an experienced lawyer on your side who understands how to apply Alabama law to the facts of your case and who can negotiate effectively with the insurance companies on your behalf.
7. Your Legal Representation
This brings us to our last factor: your choice of legal representation. When you have a personal injury claim, your choice of legal representation matters immensely. Not only do you need a lawyer who can calculate the total value of your claim, but you also need a lawyer who can fight for just compensation effectively on your behalf. While this often involves negotiating an insurance settlement, going to court will be necessary in some cases—and, in many cases, showing that you are prepared to go to court will influence how the insurance companies approach the settlement negotiation process.
Discuss Your Case with a Birmingham Premises Liability Lawyer for Free
If you need to speak with a Birmingham premises liability lawyer about filing a personal injury claim, we encourage you to contact us promptly. We represent victims of vehicle collisions and other serious accidents as well. To discuss your claim with an experienced lawyer for free, call us at 205-855-2745 or tell us how we can reach you online today.