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Guide on How to Recover from Loss and Medical Bills

13:20 May 08, 2020
By: Staff

Accidents and injuries are part of life, and one must know how to deal with the recovery from pain and suffering, as well as the financial burden left behind by medical bills. If you are injured because of someone else's negligence, you may be able to pursue a personal injury claim with the party at fault. In the United States, the financial burden left behind from medical bills can be huge. This is why most liability insurance policies may provide coverage upwards of $1 million. Most businesses that are at risk of causing accidents have to have the right insurance coverage. So, if you are hurt at work, there is leeway to get the proper compensation for your medical bills to aid you in recovering from the loss of a loved one or a personal injury.

How To Determine Pain & Suffering Damages

First, it is important to understand that "pain and suffering" is a legal term, and it refers to injuries that one suffers as a result of any accident. This includes third-party claims, workplace injuries, and car accidents. It is important to understand that pain and suffering encapsulates not just physical pain, but other not-so-obvious health damages, such as emotional and mental issues that arise as a result of the accident. Thus, things like fear, insomnia, grief, worry, and inconvenience can be included under this category in your lawsuit.

For more information on how to get started with a pain and suffering claim, it is recommended to check out this website and to get the right information on fighting against insurance companies. The experts agree that to successfully proceed with a pain and suffering claim, it is very important to establish who the at-fault party is. Then, you need to document any evidence from the time the accident was caused to the time that you start your recovery. One needs to gather photos, documents, witness accounts, medical receipts, prescriptions, and doctor's testimony of your pain to proceed with a successful claim against the defendant.

How Insurance Calculates Damages

There is no general rule as to which insurance companies calculate pain and suffering damages. However, most attorneys use general rules to get monetary values out of damages. The first method is to add all of the plaintiff's actual damages, which include medical bills, lost wages, prescriptions, and other direct expenses incurred as a result of the injury. Then, that is multiplied by an inconvenience factor, which may range anywhere from 1 to 5. Therefore, if your total bills are $10,000, that could be multiplied by a factor of 3, to account for pain and suffering, so the attorney would go after $30,000 for compensation.

The other method used is a "per day" approach. Therefore, from the time the accident occurred until the time that you have a full recovery, a dollar value is assigned to each day—for example, $100 per day.

Most insurance companies have their methods to calculate pain and suffering. They have computer programs that determine what amount of settlement should be offered. The programs take into account the type of injury; type of treatment; average recovery time from previous cases; how the injury impacts one's life, job, or mental state; cost of medical treatment for that particular injury based on previous cases; and the cost of future care, such as therapy, medications, and surgeries. Based on these factors, the insurance company comes up with a compensation package.

Proving Accident Damages

To successfully go through with any type of injury claim, documentation is important. This includes documents and written opinion from mental health experts that testifies to the injured state of mind and whether it can be used for legal purposes, as well as documented evidence from a medical doctor that testifies on the pain treatment type and its longevity. It is also important to prove that the pain and suffering were not there before the injury. Therefore, one must have previous medical records showing that that person was healthy and not suffering from any of the ailments that arose after an accident.

It is important to understand that it is in the insurer's best interest to downplay your injuries, to compensate you as little as possible. Hence, it is important to have an attorney by your side to stick up for you during a stressful time. The main things to remember are to find out the at-fault party; gather all evidence from witnesses, medical experts, and other specialized experts; and to not forget that most accidents may have delayed or everlasting negative symptoms on your health, so it is important to settle for a lot more than your current medical expenses to be covered down the road.



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