Someone that has decided to submit a personal injury claim must send a demand letter to the insurance company of the responsible party. That same letter should state the size of the requested compensation.

What to consider when determining the value of an injury?

• What was lost? What loss should be compensated?
• What was the total for the medical bills? What is the projected cost for any planned or anticipated treatment?
• What was the loss of wages? What was the loss of future earning potential?
• To what degree did this injury cause pain and suffering?
• Did the claimant suffer any emotional distress, such as fear, anxiety, depression or loss of sleep?
• Has the injury deprived the claimant of the ability to take part in certain recreational or leisure activities?

Should the injured victim seek punitive damages?

The court awards punitive damages to plaintiffs that have suffered a reported loss as the result of an egregious or careless action, one that was undertaken by the defendant. The court calls for that award in hopes of deterring a repetition of the defendant’s objectionable actions.

A final factor that can affect the worth of a victim’s injury

This final factor relates to the victim’s own actions, both before and after he or she was injured by involvement in the accidental occurrence.

What took place before the accident? Did the victim undertake any action that helped to cause the accident? Did any of the victim’s actions or lack of action increase the severity of the accident-caused injuries? A “yes” answer would indicate that the commission of negligent behavior.

What took place after the unfortunate incident? Did the injured party seek medical attention as soon as possible? If not, how long did he or she wait before seeing a doctor? The defendant could point to that delay as proof of the victim’s failure to mitigate the damages. Suppose that a plaintiff has been charged with negligence or with the failure to mitigate damages; how does that affect the injury’s worth? Injury lawyer in Pittsburg knows that the proof of such negligence or of a failure to mitigate damages can result in a lowering of the expected compensation.

To what extent would the compensation be decreased? That would depend on the degree to which the plaintiff’s actions or lack of action contributed to creation of the accident or to the injuries caused by that same accidental occurrence. The court would assign some percentage to those actions, or that lack of action. Then it would deduct that same percentage from the compensation that the plaintiff had anticipated. Still, any punitive damages get presented to the plaintiff as a different and separate award. That is because some of those can be taxed.