Articles Posted in Insurance Settlements

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A hand holding an small image of a carUnder Georgia law, you are required to carry car insurance. Unfortunately, the insurance claim process is complicated. If you aren’t careful, you could wind up receiving far less than what your claim is worth. 

The car accident attorneys at Slappey & Sadd know how to get you the compensation you deserve. We work with accident victims across the state of Georgia and have helped them recover millions of dollars in compensation. If you’ve been injured in a car accident as a result of someone else’s negligence, call us at 888-474-9616 or visit us online to schedule a free consultation with one of our experienced car accident lawyers. 

The Investigation

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A chalkboard with a question mark drawn on itIf another driver’s negligence leaves you injured, you look to the insurance company involved to compensate you for your damages. The trauma and stress associated with car accidents don’t put you in the best position to ascertain whether the settlement offer is fair or not, and the insurance company may be banking on that. If you’ve been injured in a car accident that was caused by someone else, don’t accept the insurance company’s settlement offer until you’ve consulted with an experienced Atlanta personal injury attorney.

Your Damages

If a car accident leaves you injured, you may think that your damages amount to your medical expenses – and that that is the end of that. The fact is, however, that the damages you’ve sustained may be far more extensive, including:

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A doctor holding a chartWhen someone is injured in an accident due to someone else’s negligence, they deserve to be made whole. In many accidents, covering the medical bills and lost wages may not be enough – the victim has had their whole life turned upside-down. The victim is entitled to be compensated for their non-economic losses. Damages awarded for pain and suffering are how the law attempts to make victims truly whole.

What are Pain and Suffering?

Damages for pain and suffering fall under the category of general damages since you can’t easily assign a specific value to it. It is an attempt to compensate victims for the physical, emotional, and psychological injuries sustained in an accident.

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A man turning out his pocketsIf your injury leaves you unable to work, you will be facing lost income and the possibility that you may not be able to pay your bills. You may therefore be entitled to compensation that includes both your lost income and future income, regardless of whether you are a full-time employee, part-time employee, or work on an hourly or salaried basis.

Basic Lost Wages

For this part of your claim, it’s important to emphasize that you are calculating the income you actually lost. As a result, it’s important to carefully track the exact number of days and hours that you miss work, even if it’s just a couple of hours off to go to a doctor’s appointment. This is a straightforward calculation if you are paid on an hourly basis – you simply multiply the number of hours that you missed by your hourly wage. For salaried employees, the calculation is pretty much the same, but you may have to document your claim a little differently.

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A pile of one dollars bills.In every personal injury case, the parties are trying to work out whether or not one party should be held liable for the injuries and losses of the other party. If the other party is found to be at fault for the accident, then the question becomes how the injured party should be made whole. Because you can’t undo the damage that was done, the only viable option is to award monetary compensation to the victim. The amount of compensation that the victim is entitled to receive is referred to as “damages” in the legal context.

If you are injured in an accident and meet with a personal injury attorney, one of the first things your attorney will do is try to estimate the damages that you may be entitled to. A discussion of the components of your claim may be helpful in determining how your attorney calculates this amount.

General vs. Special DamagesThe first thing to understand is the distinction between general damages and special damages.

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The Georgia Supreme Court buidlingMost non-lawyers are very hesitant to go to court, hoping that their case will quickly settle. We previously wrote about when you should consider settling in your personal injury case. But what happens if settlement isn’t an option? Why do you have to go to court, when other claims simply get paid? In this post, we’ll discuss some of the situations where going to court may be your only option.

The Parties Cannot Agree on Liability

The first step in any personal injury case is determining who was at fault for the accident. In some cases, liability is obvious – someone who ran a red light and caused an accident because they were texting on their smartphone was obviously negligent. In other cases, it can be a lot harder to determine who was at fault. This may be because the facts are in dispute, people don’t know what really happened, or both parties believe the other to be at fault. It may ultimately require a judge or a jury to decide who was at fault in the accident.

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