WHAT COMPENSATION DO YOU DESERVE IF INJURED IN A CAR ACCIDENT IN ATLANTA?
by
Theodore A Spaulding on Sep. 19, 2014
Accident & Injury Accident & Injury Car Accident Accident & Injury Personal Injury
Summary: If you have been injured in a car accident caused by a negligent driver, that driver’s insurance company is required to compensate you for injuries caused by its driver’s negligence.
Injured in a car accident? hIRING A cAR aCCIDENT lAWYER IS IMPORTANT
If you have been injured in a car accident caused by a negligent
driver, that driver’s insurance company is required to compensate you for
injuries caused by its driver’s negligence.
What many people do not know and what insurance companies will not tell
you is exactly how much an insurance company is responsible for paying you in
In
Some insurance
companies may try to convince you that reimbursing your out-of-pocket expenses
that were not covered by your own health insurance and paying you for any time
you missed from your job makes you whole because you have been reimbursed for
what the accident actually cost you. That is not the law in
In other words,
if your emergency room visit would have cost you $10,000 without insurance then
you are entitled to be compensated $10,000 by the negligent driver’s insurance
even if your actual out-of-pocket cost for that bill was far less than $10,000
because of your health insurance. Your
health insurance may require you to reimburse them some of that $10,000 through
a process known as subrogation, but a skilled personal injury attorney can
usually negotiate a favorable settlement of any subrogation claim asserted by
your health insurance that allows you to keep most of that money.
Lost Time From Work After Your Car Wreck
In addition to
paying the full cost of your medical and pharmacy bills, the negligent driver’s
insurance is also required to reimburse you for any time you missed from work
as a result of the accident. Even if you
were technically paid by your employer through the use of sick leave or
vacation leave, you are still entitled to be reimbursed for the hours you
missed from work as if you did not have paid leave available. If you own your own business, you may be able
to recover additional compensation if your injuries negatively impacted your
business’s profits.
On top of paying
your full medical bills, lost wages, and any other expenses directly caused by
the accident and injuries, the insurance company should also compensate you for
your pain and suffering. Unlike medical
bills and lost wages, the dollar value of pain and suffering is very difficult
to quantify and is highly subjective. As
a result, this is the measure of compensation that is fought over the most
during lawsuits. Only you and perhaps
your close friends and family truly know how much your injuries have caused you
pain and suffering, but the individuals who ultimately would place a dollar
value on it are twelve strangers on a jury who hear your case. Pain and suffering is usually calculated as a
multiple of your quantifiable bills, (known as special damages) including
medical bills and lost wages. Whether
your special damages should be multiplied by two, three, or some other number
to arrive at your total compensation including pain and suffering is influenced
by numerous factors. Some of those
factors include the degree of your injuries, the extent of your treatment, your
diligence in complying with treatment instructions from your doctors, the level
of negligence exhibited by the insured driver, any pre-existing injuries you
had, and how sympathetic jurors in the negligent driver’s county of residence
(where any lawsuit would have to be filed) are likely to be to your case.
If you are
injured in a car accident caused by an uninsured driver and are forced to file
a claim with your own uninsured motorist insurer (called UM insurance), these
same rules governing required compensation still apply to uninsured motorist
claims. UM insurance is a unique
situation that can be quite complicated in and of itself. We have written many times on the subject. Check out our car accident injury page for articles on this topic.
© 2025 LAWYER.COM INC.
Use of this website constitutes acceptance of Lawyer.com’s Terms of Use, Email, Phone, & Text Message and Privacy Policies.