Many people have seen negative depictions of personal injury lawsuits on TV or elsewhere. If you've been injured, you may be hesitant to sue. However, if you understand how personal injury lawsuits work, you'll understand why you should file a lawsuit to recover for your injuries.
What Can You Receive in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
A personal injury lawsuit only lets you recover the exact amount of money that you lost by getting injured. In basic cases, this includes your lost wages and medical bills. In more serious injuries, you may have a loss of quality of life or a permanent disability. If you ever see cases where people won a large verdict, understand that their life has been seriously impacted, and they probably would rather have the accident not have happened than have the money.
Who Are You Suing in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
You may also be worried that you'd be hurting the person that caused your accident if you bring a lawsuit. While you may be suing that person on paper, they're rarely the ones who would actually pay. Most personal injuries are covered by auto insurance, home insurance, business insurance, or some other type of insurance. When you make a personal injury claim against someone, you write their name on the lawsuit, but it's their insurance company who will defend and pay the claim. The major exception is a very large business that may have decided it makes more financial sense to pay these claims on your own.
How Else Can You Pay Your Bills?
Another important thing to think about is if you don't bring a personal injury case, how else would you pay your bills? Health insurance might cover some of your medical expenses, but there are often many exclusions that mean it won't fully cover a personal injury. Health insurance also doesn't cover lost wages or other quality of life losses since it's only for medical expenses.
Even if you do have health insurance or disability insurance that might cover everything you lost, the insurance company has the right to receive that money back if it was due to a personal injury. They may require you to participate in a lawsuit against the other party to recoup what they had to pay.
To learn more about whether filing a personal injury claim is the right thing to do, contact a local personal injury lawyer today.
Someone else does something silly. You get hurt and incur thousands of dollars' worth of medical bills, and you're also forced to take a month off from work. It doesn't really sound fair, does it? It's not. But luckily, there is a way you can ensure the responsible party ends up paying for your expenses, and that's by hiring a personal injury attorney. Your attorney can file a civil suit against the person who caused your injuries, so you can get paid what you deserve.
Learn more about personal injury attorneys and the work they do right here. When you're injured due to someone else's actions, this information will come in really handy.