How to Calculate Full Value for a Car Accident Claim
One of the most important benefits of working with an experienced car accident attorney is getting help with calculating the full value of your car accident claim. Some accidents are straightforward: You have damage to your car and minor injuries with a projected recovery date.
However, when there are complications from injuries that require ongoing medical attention, you might not want to wait until you’re fully healed to file a claim, and you shouldn’t.
You do want to understand the full potential range of those expenses.
The attorneys at the Thomas Law Offices have the knowledge and experience to help with those calculations.
Economic Damages
These are all your actual financial losses. In most cases, they can be backed up with receipts.
You and your attorney will need to add up all past and future medical bills. That includes your first trip to the emergency room, all your doctor’s visits, the diagnostic exams, surgery, and hospitalization. You also need to include physical therapy costs, prescription expenses, and any medical supplies.
You also need to include your lost wages. If your earning capacity is reduced because of your injury, that should also be factored into your lost wages. Finally, you have to factor in your property damage, such as vehicle repair or replacement costs.
Noneconomic Damages
Your noneconomic damages are tied to the pain and suffering you’ve endured because of your injuries and the inconvenience of losing your car. These damages speak to your issues like dealing with chronic pain, sleep disruptions, and overall lack of enjoyment of life.
This is a number that can’t be backed up with a receipt. Instead, the attorneys at the Thomas Law Offices could apply the multiplier method. With this method, you would multiply your total economic damages by a number between 1 and 5, depending on the severity of your injuries.
We might also apply the per diem method, where we assign a daily financial rate to your pain and multiply it by the total number of days you suffered before healing. This method is typically used with injuries such as fractures that have a finite recovery period.
It is important to note that under Ohio law, noneconomic damages are capped at the greater of $250,000 or three times the economic loss, with a maximum of $350,000 per plaintiff or $500,000 per occurrence. Your economic damages and costs for catastrophic injuries have no caps.