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Accidents that cause injuries can lead to tremendous upheaval in your life. Not only are you suffering from significant physical pain, but you may also be facing a permanent disability, financial burdens from medical bills and lost work, and suffering from mental trauma.
When you’ve been injured by another person’s careless actions, you can file a personal injury claim to recover compensation for everything that you’ve gone through. This type of compensation is intended to help you recover your economic and non-economic losses (or damages) from the accident. In this article, we’ll go over economic damages and how a Michigan personal injury lawyer can help you recover them.
Economic vs. Non-Economic Damages in Michigan
The two main kinds of damages that can be awarded in a Michigan personal injury case are economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are those losses you’ve suffered that are monetary in nature. For example, if you were injured at your workplace and missed wages due to your injury, those lost wages would translate to economic damage.
Non-economic damages are losses that don’t come with a price tag. For example, the mental anguish you suffered from a particularly serious car accident or the depression you’ve experienced as a result of the loss of a limb could be considered non-economic damages.
Some examples of economic damages in Michigan include:
- Medical Bills and Related Expenses: Such as for surgeries, doctor appointments, physical therapy, medications, mileage and gas to and from appointments, and more.
- Lost Wages and Future Lost Earning Potential: Whether you’ve missed work while recovering or you will never be able to return to work, income-based losses are typically recoverable.
- Assistance: If you have been disabled due to your injuries, assistance-based costs such as for caregiving, accessibility updates your home, and mobility devices are generally covered losses.
Non-economic damages include the following:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional trauma, such as post-traumatic stress disorder
- Loss of your quality of life
How Are Economic Damages Determined in Personal Injury Cases?
While non-economic damages don’t have specific values, economic damages typically have a direct financial cost associated with them. However, it’s essential to consider your economic losses both in the present and the future when calculating economic damages. These future costs shouldn’t be neglected when seeking compensation, as you deserve to recover compensation that actually covers the losses you have suffered.
Some ways that a Michigan personal injury lawyer may help support your claim to compensation for economic damages includes:
- Consulting with medical experts about the severity of your injuries and their effect on you long-term
- Reviewing your expenses and collect receipts for bills that you have already paid
- Reviewing your treatment plan with your doctor
- Obtaining any needed documentation, such as from your employer about missed work or lost benefits
The more evidence to support your claim for economic damages, the stronger your case for compensation will be.
How Michigan State Laws Affect Your Personal Injury Claim
Michigan has a comparative negligence law which means that your personal injury settlement offer is affected by the percentage of fault that you have. This means that if you are at all responsible for your accident, the amount of damages you can recover is reduced by the percentage of your fault. For example, if you were to receive $100,000 but were considered 20 percent at fault then you would only receive $80,000 in damages.
While you can get economic damages if you were more than 50 percent at fault, you cannot seek noneconomic damages at this point.
Additionally, Michigan’s statute of limitations on personal injury cases is typically three years. This means that you generally have three years from the date of your accident in which you can pursue a personal injury lawsuit. Missing this deadline can bar you from recovering damages, economic and noneconomic alike.
How Can a Michigan Personal Injury Attorney Help You Recover Economic Damages?
If you’ve suffered an injury, your whole world may feel out of control. Struggling with physical pain and a changed future is enough of a burden on its own. Adding in the complicated process of recovering compensation for your economic and non-economic losses can seem frustrating and out of reach. Our Michigan personal injury lawyers can help. We can:
- Fill out all required paperwork, ensuring that is done correctly and submitted promptly
- Gather evidence that supports your claim for damages
- Negotiate with insurance companies
- Fight for you to get the maximum compensation that you are entitled to
- Answer your questions and keep you updated on the progress of your case
- Guide you through the settlement offer process, including rejecting or renegotiating offers
- Represent you in court, if needed
Personal injury lawyers also typically work on a contingency-fee basis, which means that your financial circumstances shouldn’t prevent you from obtaining legal representation. Contingency-fees mean that you will only pay your lawyers fees if they recover compensation in your case.
What Evidence Can a Lawyer Use to Calculate Economic Damages?
One important aspect of an injury claim is proving that victims have actual losses. When it comes to economic damages, valuable forms of evidence include:
- Medical bills and estimates
- Home modification invoices
- Paystubs and invoices associated with your employment
- Receipts and card statements that show you out-of-pocket expenses
- Bills from in-home aides or childcare providers that you may need to hire
- Receipts and bills related to lodging and transportations if you had to travel to seek medical care
If you have these and other documents detailing your economic losses, make sure you share them with your attorney. This proof can help your attorney get started on calculating your damages.
Contact Our Michigan Personal Injury Lawyers Today
We hope you now have a better picture of what Michigan classifies as economic damages in personal injury claims as how this affects your case. If you’ve been injured in an accident because of another party’s actions, you can seek compensation to cover every hardship you’ve suffered.
For help, contact one of our Michigan personal injury lawyers at Christensen Law. Your initial consultation is free and we are happy to answer your questions.
