Dedham, MA Car Accident Lawyer
While you focus on your physical health after an accident, our lawyers can focus on preparing and bringing a case against the negligent driver.
After a crash in Dedham, our lawyers can help file your lawsuit only after we know the full scope of your damages and injuries. Victims who file any sooner might not have enough evidence to support their claims. Also, before filing your case, we will collect all records and information related to the accident, such as incident reports from police, eyewitness statements, and photos. As we do this, you should focus solely on your medical care and building medical evidence. Settlement negotiations typically follow case filings, and it is important to evaluate settlement offers before accepting them. If necessary, we can also take victims’ claims to court, where we will seek to prove at-fault drivers’ negligence in Dedham.
For a free case review from the car accident lawyers of the Law Office of John J. Sheehan, call us today at (617) 925-6407.
Damages that Victims Can Claim in a Lawsuit After a Car Accident in Dedham, MA
When people are injured in Dedham car accidents, they can seek damages to make them who again. Car accident victims often have several forms of damages, including financial losses, like medical expenses, as well as non-economic harm, such as pain and suffering. In some cases, a defendant’s misconduct is considered so egregious that the court grants punitive damages to punish them. However, not every victim is entitled to recover some of these damages because lawsuits cannot always be filed for a car accident.
Drivers and passengers injured in an auto accident are subject to the state’s no-fault insurance system. Under these rules, vehicle accident victims must go through their own auto insurance for coverage but do not have to prove the other driver caused the accident to get it. The drawback is that they cannot get benefits for non-economic losses through no-fault insurance, nor can they file a lawsuit unless specific criteria are met.
You can only file a lawsuit to recover pain and suffering from a motor vehicle accident if your necessary and reasonable expenses, like those for medical, surgical, and dental care, ambulance costs, hospital bills, and others, are over $2,000, according to Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 231, § 6D. Non-economic damages are also recoverable if a victim suffers a whole or partial loss of a body member, whole or partial serious and permanent disfigurement, eyesight or hearing loss, or a fracture. If your injuries meet one of these definitions, you can sue for all the damages the negligent party caused.
Economic Damages
Economic damages account for the monetary losses the accident has caused and will likely cause in the future. Medical expenses usually represent the bulk of these damages. You will typically have emergency room bills, hospitalization costs if your injuries are serious, medications, and expenses for rehabilitation treatment. Your future healthcare costs should also be covered in your economic losses. For instance, victims paralyzed in a car accident will likely have treatment and rehab costs for the rest of their lives. Our team can work with experts to help quantify these losses and negotiate for them in your settlement.
You are also entitled to recover lost wages as part of your economic losses. If your injuries temporarily or permanently put you out of work, you should be compensated for it. This is usually not too challenging to calculate if you are only out of work for a certain amount of time, as we can add up the days you are out and recover your daily pay. For permanent or long-term injuries, you will likely need compensation for your lost earning capacity since you cannot perform the same work as you could before the accident. Our team can have medical and occupational experts explain how your injuries impact your overall ability to work and the professional benefits you will lose out on because of them.
Property damage can also be covered in a personal injury lawsuit. Most car accident victims must have their car repaired or replaced after the crash. You would not have had these costs had the other driver not acted negligently, so they should be compensated. You can also claim damages for personal property damages in the collision, like broken jewelry, your phone, or other pieces of property.
Economic damages can also include out-of-pocket expenses you incurred while handling your case and going to treatment. Transportation costs, like bus fare or gas, can be claimed for the money spent on attending appointments with your lawyers or going to your routine physical therapy sessions. You might also have expenses for childcare. These damages also stem from the accident, so can be claimed as economic losses, so be sure to keep your receipts so these losses can be proven.
Non-Economic Damages
The benefit of filing a lawsuit for your car accident is that you can recover non-economic damages in it. These damages account for the subjective experiences you had during the accident and after, including pain and suffering, as well as other intangible losses.
You will also certainly feel pain when you are injured in the accident, as well as getting treatment in the emergency room and the days and weeks following the crash. Even victims with minor injuries will experience pain during rehabilitation, but those with serious injuries or nerve damage will often have great pain associated with their recovery. Our team can help quantify the time a car accident victim will live with pain and include it in your damages claim.
Non-economic damages also compensate for a victim’s emotional suffering. Many car accident victims develop mental health conditions that impact their daily lives, like depression over being injured, PTSD, and anxiety when driving, in addition to many other issues. Victims with visible injuries, scarring, or disfigurement often have feelings of embarrassment and humiliation. They should be compensated for their diminished quality of life.
These subjective losses can be recovered by using medical evidence and expert witnesses to explain the harms. The more severe your injuries, the longer your pain and suffering is likely to last. When our lawyers or a court decides the value of non-economic damages, they typically look at the medical evidence to determine how long the victim’s particular injuries are likely to impact them. Expert witnesses can explain how your injuries tend to affect others with them, including how their professional and personal life will change as a result. Your mental health counselors can also testify to the emotional harm you have suffered. Lastly, we will usually have you, family, and friends testify about your challenges following the accident.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are rarely awarded for car accidents since they are reserved for situations where the court wants to punish a defendant for malicious or willful conduct. They are not intended to compensate for any direct losses you suffered.
For instance, a court might award punitive damages in DUI cases to punish a drunk driver. A judge might also order a trucking company to pay punitive damages if they knowingly violated a safety regulation, like making a trucker drive past the hours of service limit. Our team will review the facts of your case to determine if an argument for punitive damages can be made.
Deciding When to File Your Dedham, MA Car Accident Case
Timing is a critical factor in car accident cases, and our experienced lawyers can help you determine the optimal time to file your lawsuit, ensuring compliance with the statute of limitations in Massachusetts.
First of all, the final date to file your lawsuit will be three years from the crash date, according to Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 260, § 2A. Unless a rare exception applies, victims cannot sue any later than that date in Dedham.
In addition to minding the statute of limitations, strategically choosing a filing date is important. For example, right after a crash, victims may not know their final diagnoses, medical damages, missed wages, or pain and suffering. When you file a lawsuit, you also request compensation. If you have yet to incur close to all the damages you expect to incur in your case, it might be too soon to file.
Our car accident lawyers can help you strike that all-important balance of filing not too soon but not too late. Once we learn the scope of your injuries, we can estimate your medical damages, including future medical costs. This will also help us calculate your future lost wages, especially if your medical records prove you sustained permanent or long-lasting injuries in the accident.
We can start preparing your case immediately after the accident so that you can file as soon as possible while also being confident in your claim’s success in Dedham. This might involve enlisting experts, like medical experts, who can shed light on anticipated future damages from the accident.
What to Do Before Filing Your Dedham, MA Car Accident Lawsuit
Before filing your case in Dedham, give our lawyers any information, images, or records you have about the accident, your injuries, or your damages. We will help you source additional documents and use them in your case as necessary.
Whenever you get bills or charges related to the accident, forward them to our lawyers for our records. We can also help victims obtain relevant documents, like hospital medical records or accident reports from the Dedham Police Department. If you took any pictures of the accident’s aftermath, give them to our lawyers. Before investigating further, we may ask you detailed questions about the accident to gain a foundational understanding of what happened.
As we prepare your case, you can focus on your physical health by continuing medical treatment. This also helps claims since continuing treatment means victims keep generating medical records. Medical records are important evidence in all injury cases, including auto accident lawsuits. Even after we file your lawsuit in Dedham, you should continue your treatment. Keep getting medical care until you are fully healed, as failing to do so might jeopardize your case.
What to Expect After You File a Car Accident Lawsuit in Dedham, MA
After we file your complaint with the court, the defendant may wish to negotiate a settlement to avoid a trial. To ensure the settlement agreement is favorable to you, we will carefully evaluate it and compare it to our calculation of your total losses in Dedham.
Negligent drivers often want to avoid trials, especially if a jury is likely to find them liable. This means victims often have the upper hand when entering settlement talks and can use that to their advantage when negotiating an agreement. Because of this, accepting the defendant’s first proposal is often unnecessary. That first offer does not always reflect what the other side is willing to pay.
When responding to low offers, our lawyers will point out evidence in our favor, such as proof of your catastrophic injuries or eyewitness statements confirming your version of events. Enlisting experts for accident reconstruction, even if your case does not go to trial, can help quicken negotiations, convincing the defendant to settle fairly and out of court.
As mentioned, compensatory damages for non-economic damages in car accident cases are not guaranteed and typically depend on the severity of a victim’s injuries, their effect on victims’ lives, and victims’ anticipated recovery timelines or the permanent nature of their injuries. Getting non-economic damages through settlements typically requires aggressive negotiations.
Even with clear evidence of their negligence, defendants might refuse to properly compensate victims in Dedham, leading to trials. Preparing for the possibility of a trial from the beginning of your case is crucial so that we have the necessary evidence to prove liability to a jury.
If the jury decides liability or you settle out of court, you could recover damages in a lump sum payment or across structured payments. Our lawyers can represent your interests when the payment plan is structured so that it ultimately favors you as the victim.
Call Our Car Accident Attorneys in Dedham, MA
To discuss your case for free with the car accident lawyers of the Law Office of John J. Sheehan, call (617) 925-6407.
