Compensation for Emotional Distress After a Car Accident
September 09, 2020A car accident can leave you with more than just physical or monetary damages. Read on to discover how compensation for emotional distress after a car accident can significantly increase the value of your settlement for a Florida car accident you didn’t cause.
Understanding Eligibility for Emotional Distress After a Car Accident
Suffering through a car accident can be extremely hard. On one hand, you might be dealing with medical bills, lost wages, and other economic factors related to your accident. At the same time, you could also find yourself impacted emotionally by the ordeal you’ve gone through.
Following an accident, it’s common for victims to experience emotional distress or mental anguish. Mental anguish can manifest itself differently for everyone, but some of the primary symptoms could include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Social isolation
- Loss of appetite
Although it’s possible to suffer a variety of emotional problems following your accident, it isn’t necessarily the case that you will be able to win compensation for emotional distress following your accident.
Given that Florida is a no-fault state for insurance purposes, most accident victims will defer to their own insurance companies for coverage of their accident costs, filing a personal injury protection (PIP) claim. PIP claims can help victims of smaller accidents get money for things like medical bills and lost wages when their injuries are relatively minor.
Receiving a sufficiently grave injury, however, allows accident victims to step outside the no-fault structure in order to sue the at-fault party for damages directly. Effectively, your injury has to lead to disfigurement, broken bones, or other debilitating effects in order to meet the standard necessary to file a third-party lawsuit.
Once you’ve established the severity of your injuries, you will be able to file a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver or other party for non-economic damages, including emotional distress or pain and suffering.
Calculating the Value of Your Emotional Distress Claim in Florida
Often, the damages that earn the most money following a car accident in Florida are purely economic ones, including medical bills and lost wages. With that said, damages for emotional distress or pain and suffering can paint a more complete picture of the damages you’ve suffered at the hands of the careless driver or party.
Often, it can be difficult to come to an accurate understanding of the value of your injuries. An insurance company tends to look to protect its bottom line, often at the expense of accident victims.
But just because emotional distress is harder to quantify doesn’t make it any less valid. Consulting with your doctor and a local car accident lawyer can help you understand how emotional distress should be reflected in your compensation.
Contact a Car Accident Lawyer in Pensacola
Before accepting a lowball offer from an insurance company, have an experienced car accident lawyer review your claim. The car accident lawyers at Gross & Schuster, P.A. know what to look for when considering the value of emotional distress in a car accident claim, and they can help you maximize your compensation.
Call 850-434-3333 or fill out the form below to schedule your free, no-obligation consult now.
