Stoneham, MA Car Accident Lawyer
When car crashes happen, victims can often seek the compensation they deserve by filing claims against negligent drivers.
Settlements should cover the majority of victims’ damages from an accident, notably their medical damages. All reasonable medical expenses are compensable, including future treatments you will need after your lawsuit ends. In addition to ensuring a settlement covers your medical bills, we will confirm that it includes lost-wage damages if you cannot work because of the collision. After quantifying your pain and suffering and any additional out-of-pocket expenses, we will be prepared to evaluate any settlement offers from a negligent driver. We can take your desired recovery timeline into account as well, changing directions to a trial if the defendant stalls negotiations for too long.
Call the Law Office of John J. Sheehan’s car accident lawyers at (617) 925-6407 and get a free and confidential case assessment today.
What to Consider When Evaluating Car Accident Settlements in Stoneham, MA
When evaluating car accident settlement offers, there are many important factors to consider, starting with a victim’s medical damages. Our lawyers will calculate your losses from treatment to date as well as the cost of future care. We will also keep your lost wages and non-economic damages in mind when assessing proposals, only advising you to accept offers that fairly compensate you for your losses.
Your Medical Damages to Date
Most importantly, settlements must cover victims’ medical expenses. We can organize bills throughout your treatment to track your damages and help you obtain the appropriate records from hospitals and providers. Losing track of medical damages at any time could lead to inaccurate calculations, skewing how victims view settlement proposals. For example, if plaintiffs forget to request compensation for certain costs, settlement offers might seem fair, only for victims to realize their medical damages are greater. We can avoid such situations by overseeing victims’ medical damages, like the cost of emergency room visits, surgeries, prescription medications, appointments with specialists, and checkups. Do not miss any scheduled medical appointments with doctors and specialists, as this could lead to gaps in your records.
Your Anticipated Future Medical Expenses
In addition to considering your current medical damages to date when assessing settlement offers for a car accident, we will also make sure the proposal includes future medical damages. Car crashes might cause serious fractures and head or back injuries that require physical therapy or treatments down the line, even after a lawsuit ends. If necessary, we can enlist medical experts to testify about the future care you will need to aid your physical recovery. This will help us establish the defendant’s liability to compensate you for these damages, even though you have not incurred them yet.
Your Reduced Earning Capacity
Our attorneys can evaluate whether or not a settlement compensates you for lost wages and proceed accordingly with negotiating alternative agreements. Accident injuries could leave victims with debilitating injuries that prevent them from earning income, whether temporarily or permanently. Some victims can only resume working at a lower earning capacity, and a negligent driver can be liable for this difference in income. Defendants who refuse to compensate victims for lost wages fairly initially might change their minds after our car accident lawyers leverage certain evidence during negotiations, like expert statements and victims’ medical records.
Your Pain and Suffering
Fair settlements should compensate victims for their pain and suffering, as they might experience considerable emotional distress after surviving chaotic car accidents. Their injuries might cause further emotional turmoil, especially if victims cannot engage in the same daily tasks or activities they once could. Our lawyers can quantify your non-economic damages after speaking with you about your experience, possibly also enlisting mental health experts to assess you and testify about their opinions of your pain and suffering. This can sway juries and convince them to avoid greater damages, something defendants often want to avoid, possibly incentivizing them to propose better settlement offers.
Your Other Out-of-Pocket Expenses
There are other out-of-pocket expenses to consider that car accident settlements should cover. For example, your car might be totaled after a serious accident, leaving you with no way to get to and from doctors’ visits. Furthermore, your injuries might prevent you from driving yourself, and you might incur transportation costs to get the care you need and make scheduled appointments. Because these damages are directly due to the defendant’s negligence, the defendant would be liable for covering them. This is true for other newly incurred expenses since the collision, like the cost of in-house medical assistance for victims who need it.
Your Desired Recovery Timeline
During settlement discussions, our lawyers can keep your desired recovery timeline in mind. Though many victims want compensation quickly, some are deeply concerned about waiting to recover damages and might want to accept settlements immediately. This is understandable, and we can speed up negotiations when possible to reach a suitable arrangement quickly. However, it is important to note that agreeing to an unfair proposal could lead to financial distress for victims in the future. The first several offers from defendants are typically low, sometimes frustratingly low, but that does not necessarily indicate how high defendants are willing to go.
Victims should wait unnecessarily long to get compensatory damages after accidents. We can proceed with a trial if our lawyers determine that the defendant’s offers will not increase with more conversations.
Regardless of how long it takes to get compensation, which varies from case to case, victims typically have the same amount of time to file lawsuits after accidents: three years. Wait any longer, and the court may dismiss your claim, leaving you without an opportunity to negotiate a settlement or win compensation at a trial.
Call Our Lawyers in Stoneham, MA About Your Recent Accident
Call the Law Office of John J. Sheehan for a free case review from our car accident lawyers at (617) 925-6407.
