In a personal injury case, a lot of attention is given to proving liability. While it’s certainly imperative that you do so, that’s not the only aspect of your car accident case that you have to thoroughly prepare. Proving your damages is just as critical to your future as proving liability. After all, a court can find a defendant liable for your injuries but then order no damages if you haven’t demonstrated the harm that has come to you.
So how do you go about proving your damages? Here are a few ways:
- Medical bills: To calculate your incurred medical expenses, simply retain and gather all of your medical and rehabilitation bills.
- Prognosis: To figure out your expected medical expenses, you’re going to need to talk to your doctor to figure out your prognosis and what treatment will look like moving forward. You might need expert testimony on this point.
- Lost wages: Here, gather your pay stubs and keep track of how much work you’ve missed. This will give a clear sense of the wages that you’ve already lost.
- Lost earnings capacity: If your injuries are severe enough to affect your ability to perform your job moving forward, then you might be able to recover compensation for your lost earnings capacity. Again, you might need an expert to testify as to this point, indicating the likelihood of your ability to return to your line of work, what your realistic income opportunities are, and what your income would have looked like in the future if you hadn’t been injured.
- Non-economic losses: Your pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life are invaluable, but you should still try to recover compensation for them. Consider how you can portray the ways in which your injuries have affected your life, including limiting how you spend your time with your children and how you feel on a daily basis.
Thoroughly address every aspect of your claim
There’s a lot on the line in your personal injury case. As such, you need to be thorough with every aspect of your claim. That’s why you should know the law, how it applies to your case, and how to make convincing legal arguments that are well thought out. Perhaps then you can secure the outcome that you need to find financial stability and focus on your recovery.