A serious car accident can create financial problems almost immediately. An ambulance ride may be followed by emergency treatment, hospitalization, surgery, rehabilitation, and weeks or months away from work. Meanwhile, the insurance company may begin asking questions about your injuries, prior medical history, employment, and how the crash occurred. One of the most important questions for an injured person is therefore: What compensation can I recover after a Mississippi car accident?
At Barrett Law, PLLC, I represent people injured in serious motor vehicle accidents throughout Mississippi. My goal is to determine not only what the accident has already cost you, but also how the injuries may affect your health, employment, finances, and quality of life in the future. A serious injury claim should not be valued solely by adding up the bills that have arrived during the first few weeks after the crash.
Medical Expenses Caused by the Accident
Medical expenses are often a major component of a Mississippi car accident claim. Depending on your injuries, these costs can include ambulance transportation, emergency room treatment, hospitalization, diagnostic testing, surgery, specialist appointments, physical therapy, rehabilitation, prescription medication, injections, medical equipment, and other necessary care.
For someone with catastrophic injuries, medical treatment may continue for years. A traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, severe orthopedic injury, or internal injury can require additional surgeries and long-term rehabilitation. Future medical expenses may therefore become just as important as the bills already incurred.
Before resolving a significant injury case, I want to understand the medical prognosis and whether doctors anticipate future treatment. Accepting a settlement before those issues are reasonably understood can leave an injured person responsible for substantial future expenses.
Lost Wages While You Are Unable to Work
Serious accident injuries frequently prevent people from returning to work. Some victims miss several weeks while recovering from surgery. Others may be unable to work for months.
A personal injury claim may seek compensation for income lost because of accident-related injuries. Pay records, employment documentation, tax records, and medical restrictions can help establish these losses.
Self-employed individuals may also recover lost income when adequately supported, although establishing the amount can require a more detailed review of business and financial records.
The goal is to determine what you reasonably would have earned had the accident not occurred.
Loss of Future Earning Capacity
Some injuries permanently affect a person’s ability to earn money.
A construction worker with a serious back injury may no longer be capable of heavy physical labor. A commercial driver with neurological impairment may lose the ability to perform that occupation. Someone with a traumatic brain injury may return to employment but be unable to handle the same responsibilities or advance professionally.
Loss of earning capacity addresses the financial impact of those long-term limitations.
Age, education, occupation, employment history, medical restrictions, prior earnings, and expected career development can all become important when calculating future losses.
For a younger person with decades of expected employment remaining, diminished earning capacity can become one of the largest portions of a serious accident claim.
Pain and Suffering After a Serious Crash
Not every loss has a receipt attached to it.
A person may endure tremendous physical pain during hospitalization, surgery, and rehabilitation. Chronic pain may continue long after the visible injuries have healed. Accident victims can also experience anxiety, depression, sleep problems, fear of driving, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of activities that previously formed an important part of their lives.
Mississippi personal injury claims may include compensation for legally recoverable non-economic damages resulting from the accident.
These damages are individual. Two people with similar medical expenses can experience dramatically different consequences depending upon the severity and permanence of their injuries.
Permanent Disability and Physical Impairment
A catastrophic accident can permanently change what someone is physically capable of doing.
Spinal injuries may restrict walking or cause paralysis. Severe fractures may reduce mobility. Nerve damage can limit use of an arm or leg. Brain injuries may affect concentration, judgment, communication, or independence.
A permanent disability can influence employment, household responsibilities, recreation, relationships, and nearly every aspect of everyday life.
A fair damages evaluation should consider these permanent effects rather than focusing only on how long the person remained hospitalized.
Scarring and Disfigurement
Car crashes can cause burns, facial injuries, severe lacerations, amputations, and surgical scars.
Permanent disfigurement can create emotional as well as physical consequences. Visible facial scars, loss of a limb, or other significant physical changes may affect confidence, social interactions, employment, and quality of life for decades.
The seriousness, location, permanence, and impact of the disfigurement may all become relevant when evaluating damages.
Property Damage
Compensation may also be available for the damage to your automobile and other personal property involved in the crash.
Depending upon the circumstances, the vehicle may be repaired or declared a total loss. Property claims sometimes resolve much earlier than bodily injury claims because an injured person may need transportation immediately even though medical treatment is continuing.
You should understand exactly what you are settling before signing any insurance paperwork. Resolving vehicle damage should not unintentionally resolve a bodily injury claim that has not been fully evaluated.
Future Care and Assistance
Some accident victims require assistance long after leaving the hospital.
A person with permanent mobility limitations may need modifications to a home, wheelchair-accessible transportation, medical equipment, or assistance performing daily activities. Severe brain and spinal cord injuries may require long-term or lifetime care.
These expenses can be substantial and should be considered when supported by the medical evidence.
A catastrophic injury settlement intended to compensate someone for a lifetime should account for the future rather than merely reimburse the past.
What if I Was Partially Responsible for the Accident?
Mississippi follows a pure comparative negligence system. This is important because an insurance company may attempt to place some responsibility on you even when another driver clearly contributed to the collision.
Being partially at fault does not necessarily prevent you from recovering compensation. However, your damages may be reduced according to the percentage of fault attributed to you.
For example, if legally recoverable damages were determined to be $500,000 and you were assigned 20 percent of the responsibility, comparative negligence could reduce the recovery accordingly.
Because fault percentages can significantly affect compensation, I do not believe an injured person should simply accept the percentage suggested by an insurance adjuster. Police reports, photographs, witnesses, video, electronic vehicle information, and accident reconstruction may provide a much more accurate picture of what happened.
Compensation After a Fatal Mississippi Car Accident
When an automobile accident results in death, Mississippi law may allow qualifying family members or the appropriate representative to pursue a wrongful death claim.
Depending upon the circumstances, recoverable losses may include medical expenses incurred before death, funeral and burial expenses, lost financial contributions, and other damages recognized under Mississippi law.
Fatal accident cases also require careful consideration of the family’s relationship with the deceased and the financial and personal losses created by the death.
No financial recovery can replace a loved one. A wrongful death claim instead provides a civil mechanism for holding responsible parties accountable and addressing the losses their conduct caused.
Do Not Let an Early Insurance Offer Determine What Your Case Is Worth
Insurance companies sometimes make settlement offers before an injured person knows whether additional surgery will be necessary, how long recovery will take, or whether returning to the same occupation will be possible.
Once a personal injury claim is fully settled and released, you generally cannot demand additional compensation simply because your condition later turns out to be more serious than expected.
Before resolving a substantial claim, the full medical, employment, and personal consequences should be evaluated.
Barrett Law, PLLC Represents Seriously Injured Accident Victims Throughout Mississippi
At Barrett Law, PLLC, I investigate both liability and damages. I work to determine who caused the accident, identify all potentially responsible parties and available insurance coverage, preserve important evidence, document medical treatment, calculate lost income, and evaluate future financial and medical losses.
I represent accident victims throughout Mississippi, including Jackson, Gulfport, Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Southaven, Olive Branch, Tupelo, Meridian, Pearl, Madison, Greenville, Oxford, Clinton, Horn Lake, Brandon, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and communities throughout Central, Southern, and Northern Mississippi.
Injured in a Serious Mississippi Car Accident? Call Jonathan Barrett 24/7/365
If another driver’s negligence has left you facing medical expenses, lost income, pain, permanent limitations, or uncertainty about your future, you deserve to understand the complete value of your claim before accepting an insurance company’s settlement offer.
Barrett Law, PLLC represents people seriously injured in car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle, and other motor vehicle accidents throughout Mississippi. I work to identify every available source of compensation and pursue damages that reflect both your current losses and the future consequences of your injuries.
Call Mississippi attorney Jonathan Barrett 24/7/365 at (601) 790-1505 for your FREE consultation.
