Nerve damage resulting from a car accident can not only cause extreme physical pain but can also leave the victim temporarily or even permanently disabled. Proving nerve damage after an accident presents unique challenges when pursuing a settlement, so it’s important to know what to expect.
If you or a loved one is left with nerve damage after being in a car accident, you deserve to know your options for financial recovery. The experienced lawyers at John Foy & Associates are dedicated to helping you assess what you can expect from a car accident settlement for nerve damage. Known as The Strong Arm across Georgia, we have recovered over $1 billion in jury awards and settlements over the past 20 years.
How Nerve Damage Can Affect You
Car accidents can cause many injuries to the body, and some are not apparent right away. Broken bones and lacerations can heal in a few weeks, but nerve damage may last for the rest of the victim’s life. This kind of injury can affect functions in all parts of the body, including the brain, chest, and limbs.
Nerve damage may be hard to diagnose right away since any pain or numbness you have may be considered a result of your other injuries. However, your doctor may need to investigate if you have mostly recovered from your wounds and still have discomfort. Nerve damage symptoms include:
- Digestive issues
- Lack of coordination or paralysis
- Increased sensitivity to touch
- Sudden drops in blood pressure
- Muscle weakness
- Pain during sleeping or resting
- Increased sensitivity to heat or cold
- Numbness in your fingers and toes
- Unexplained throbbing or stabbing pain
Nerves do not regrow if they are significantly damaged, but they can regain some function after an injury. Because they are so critical to how your body works, damage to your nerves can lead to substantial medical bills.
You may need physical therapy or other treatments and can even lose function permanently. Some victims suffer lifelong pain after experiencing nerve damage due to a car accident.
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How Much Can a Car Accident Nerve Damage Settlement Be?
Because every case is unique, there is no way to state an average settlement. Every situation depends on how serious the injuries are and how much of the victim’s life is affected. Other factors include how the accident happened and who is at fault.
More serious injuries often result in higher settlements, especially when the person at fault was driving recklessly or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. With over 7 trillion nerves in the human body, the potential for damage during a car accident is tremendous. Nerves can be stretched, torn, pinched, or even severed completely.
You could lose your ability to feel or end up feeling pain constantly, 24 hours a day. Nerve pain is sometimes overlooked after a crash, and settling with an insurance company too quickly could leave you without compensation for pain that lasts a lifetime. Suppose you were active and healthy before your accident but are left permanently paralyzed or disabled.
In that case, your lawyer can argue that you deserve compensation for losing a huge part of your enjoyment of life. The same can be said if you worked in a physically demanding job and can no longer perform the work. Having a lawyer who has litigated car accidents and personal injury cases is critical to ensuring you receive the largest settlement you are eligible for to cover all past, present, and future expenses.
Nerve Damage Hurts More than Your Body
The physical pain you suffer from nerve damage can be difficult to bear and turn your world upside down. Relying on medications, learning to use mobility devices, and not being able to live your life the way you did before takes a heavy psychological toll. Many victims of car accidents who suffer nerve damage report these types of changes in their lives:
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Emotional distress
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Social disorders
- Mood swings
- Fear
Nerve damage can also disable you enough that you can no longer do your job or any work at all. You may experience lifelong disability and pain. Your family often needs to rearrange everything in their lives to help you recover and adjust.
When you are the victim of this kind of change, you need a skilled lawyer who can help you calculate the damages involved and pursue the maximum compensation for you.
What Damages Can My Settlement Cover?
The medical expenses you face can pile up quickly after a car accident and that is just the start of the loss and damage you could face. While you want someone to reimburse you for your doctor bills, you also need to recover much more compensation than that.
When the car accident is not your fault, you can seek damages from insurance companies or the individual who caused your crash. Your lawyer will help you put together a list of expenses, usually in the form of economic ones and non-economic ones. Some examples include:
- Economic:
- Medical and hospital bills
- Surgery costs
- Automobile repair or replacement costs
- Medications
- Medical devices
- Therapy expenses
- Lost wages when you cannot work
- Loss of earning potential when you are disabled
- Travel costs for medical treatment
- Non-economic:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship with family members
- Mental anguish, including depression and anxiety
- Scarring
- Disfigurement
You should keep a record of all your receipts and expenses for every medical treatment and any related bills. You should also start a pain journal to document how you feel each day of your recovery and record the pain you experience. Gather all the records and bills you can from your medical providers and keep them in a folder.
When you hire a car accident lawyer, share all the information you have with your attorney’s team. The law requires that an insurance company or court must consider all your costs associated with nerve damage for compensation. John Foy & Associates have decades of experience in building lists of damages with our clients.
Why You Need a Personal Injury Attorney for Your Car Accident
When you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, your life becomes filled with worry and the demands of recovering. Your whole world stops while you try to deal with the injuries and medical treatment. Once the immediate danger is past and you begin to heal, you are faced with the overwhelming job of trying to seek compensation from those who hurt you.
Negotiating with insurance adjusters, even for your own insurance, is not easy. Insurance companies do not like to pay claims for anyone, and they will work to deny or reduce the payout for your injuries. An experienced personal injury lawyer can have these conversations on your behalf while you and your family rest.
They will also help you gather evidence to support your damage claims, such as:
- Accident investigator reports
- Auto repair bills
- Driving records of those involved in the crash
- Expert testimony
- Medical records and bills
- Police accident reports
- Video footage and photographs of the accident
- Witness testimony
Medical expert testimony can be especially valuable in cases where the victim is liable to suffer lifelong pain and disability. Your lawyer can argue for a higher settlement when they can show that you will have bills for a long time to come and need to cover future medical expenses. Because the attorneys at John Foy & Associates have so much experience in the Atlanta area, we have built relationships with medical experts to explain how nerve damage from car accidents can affect victims for life.
Contact a Skilled Car Accident Lawer Today
How much you can expect from a car accident settlement for nerve damage can depend on how experienced your car accident lawyer is. Because nerve damage is hard to prove with X-rays or tests, it can be more challenging to win compensation. At John Foy & Associates, we help you find the right doctor to see after an accident, in addition to building the strongest case for you.
The lawyers of John Foy & Associates stand ready to help you with your case. We have a reputation for big wins and no fees until we win. We offer superior care for our clients and respect their needs, listening to their stories with compassion. Contact us now for your no-risk, no-obligation free consultation using our convenient online form.
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