After a serious car crash, people generally worry about two primary sources of financial costs: medical bills and property damage repairs. Insurance settlements may adequately cover these expenses, but there are many other types of damages people experience that insurance doesn’t cover.
Emotional distress
Serious crashes can affect you in ways you cannot see right away. Emotional distress is one example of this. Emotional distress is a type of non-economic loss that can consist of:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Sleep changes
- Physical symptoms, like headaches or stomach-aches
- Declined school or work performance
These symptoms can and often do have profound implications for a person when they affect income, health and relationships.
Cost of future care
Car crash victims can require care indefinitely. Some of these future costs can involve:
- Ongoing physical therapy
- Counselling
- In-home care
- Prescription medications
- Future surgeries or other procedures
Just because these expenses haven’t accumulated at the time a person is seeking compensation doesn’t mean they are irrelevant. With medical and legal assistance, parties can estimate future costs when determining damages.
Lifestyle change expenses
After a serious accident, victims may need to make significant changes in their lifestyle. They may need to add ramps and other accessibility features to their home, buy a new car or give up activities they used to participate in. These take a tremendous toll on individuals, and different types of damages can address these.
These costs can be just as significant as medical bills and property damage, but too often, people overlook them because they are not always tangible.
Accounting for all types of damages
Car accidents can affect people far more than they might expect. Too often, people minimize their non-physical injuries or assume an insurance settlement will be enough to cover all their damages. These are costly oversights.
Pursuing a lawsuit can help individuals maximize the compensation they could receive by taking into account these and all other related costs. Thus, recognizing the myriad ways a crash can affect people can help them make informed decisions about their future and any settlement they might receive.
