Worker’s Comp and Personal Injury compensation are different. In worker’s comp, under CT state statute Sec. 31-308, each body part is rated. For example, the primary arm is worth 208 weeks of pay. If a client ends up with a ten percent disability to their primary arm, worker’s comp pays 20.8 weeks compensation. 10% of 208 weeks is 20.8 weeks for that 10% disability. Personal injury awards are nothing like that. With personal injury awards, there are no monetary limitations. How do you ensure you are getting the most compensation after an injury? Consider things such as the person’s age, their life expectancy, the injured body part, etc. The biggest thing to consider is how does the injury affect them?
If a lawyer loses one of his fingers, it doesn’t affect their occupation, but if a world-famous pianist has a finger amputation, that’s a real problem. Compensation all depends on how the injury affects the person, not only in their personal life and in their social life, but also their work life. Additionally, what kind of future treatments are the doctors recommending going forward and for how many years? There are several factors to figuring out what a personal injury case is worth. To determine the maximum compensation after an injury, the more information a personal injury lawyer has, the easier it is to make a successful case.
Should the cops be called at the time of the accident?
They should. Just exchanging paperwork is not good enough. Later the other person may claim that you caused the accident. You should always request a police accident report, because stories can change.
What can I bring to help improve my compensation after a personal injury?
If possible, take pictures of both cars, especially the damage to the cars. We usually ask people to bring a copy of their car insurance policy, so we can see whether they have uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage. What happens when our client has an insurance claim that’s worth $200,000 but the person that hit him only has a $10,000 policy? In this case, we would look to our client’s insurance to put a claim in under the uninsured / underinsured portion of the policy. The insurance company can’t raise your rates if you have this in your insurance. Insurance rates only raise for claims based upon fault.
If possible, we ask clients to bring a police report, if they have it. Unfortunately, nowadays these reports take so long to process, often taking six months to get an accident report from the state police. Therefore, we suggest our clients come in, and we will get the report. If you have health insurance, bring your health insurance card as well.
Seeing the doctor after a personal injury
A lot of times, people will start off with their primary care physician. Primary care physicians are used to treating minor aches and pains, bumps and bruises, the flu, and a wide range of illnesses. But if you go to a family physician complaining of neck pain, the doctor’s going to likely suggest you take some muscle relaxants and go to physical therapy. However, you might have a bigger problem than just a little muscle soreness, perhaps a damaged disk. This is why we recommend you go to a specialist.
For example, if this client came to see us, we would recommend they see an Orthopedic physician. Invariably, the physician would order an MRI to get a comprehensive idea of what’s going on. Family doctors often do not request these right away.
Often, you will have to go to more than one doctor. Doctors specialize in different areas. When the orthopedic doctor is done, if the client is still having a problem, we’ll send them to a pain management specialist who has other available procedures. They do epidural steroid injections, trigger point injections, radio-frequency ablation, acupuncture, marijuana might be suggested, etc.
The goal is to figure out what it will take to get you back to the position you were in before the accident, and if you can’t get all the way back, determining the compensation that is appropriate for your loss.