Personal Injury Compensation in Arizona

Our AZ Injury Attorneys talk about compensation expectations on Arizona Injury cases

Some accidents are easy enough to forgive and forget. Others can cause severe injuries, with longer lasting impact on your health, career, and personal life. If you’re a victim of the latter type of accident, you deserve financial compensation for your damages resulting from the accident. You can collect more than just the cost of repairs to your vehicle and your medical treatments after an accident, as long as you know what to request. To proceed with your personal injury claim, you must calculate your total damages and send a demand letter to the responsible party, or their insurance company.

As soon as possible after you are injured in an accident, you should contact a personal injury attorney for guidance on how to handle your claim. From the moment insurance companies become involved in your claim, they will use various methods to decrease the amount paid to you, whether it’s by assigning you fault in the accident or arguing for a smaller multiplier in your pain and suffering calculations. Statements you make can later be used as evidence against you to decrease the value of your claim. An experienced personal injury attorney will help you avoid these pitfalls, and help you identify which damages you may be eligible to receive compensation for in your claim.

Types of Compensation in an Arizona Personal Injury Case.

The two types of compensation in an Arizona personal injury case are compensatory damages and punitive damages. Compensatory damages are then divided into two subcategories- general and special compensatory damages. Special compensatory damages are those that have a clear dollar amount. Things like your medical bills, missed wages, alternative childcare, and transportation to your medical appointments are simple enough to calculate.

General damages are those that have a more negotiable amount. These include emotional distress, loss of consortium or companionship, and pain and suffering. Emotional distress is financial compensation for the mental anguish felt after an accident. Loss of consortium and companionship represent the financial value of the accident’s impact on your relationship with your significant other. Pain and suffering can include emotional distress, and also the physical pain you felt from an accident. It is typically calculated by multiplying the rest of your total damages by a number between 1 and 5. A higher multiplier will be used when the injuries are more severe, or when the defendant was especially reckless or under the influence.

Punitive damages are infrequently awarded, and can only be awarded in a trial setting- not an out of court settlement. As the name suggests, punitive damages are meant to punish the responsible party for particularly reckless or reprehensible conduct. Punitive damages need to be substantial enough to actually hurt the defendant and dissuade continuing that behavior, so they can result in a windfall for the accident victim if the defendant has deep pockets.

The Various Types of Damages that you may be Compensated for in an Injury Accident.

• Medical Costs- The expenses from your medical treatment will add up quickly and exponentially if you are in a serious accident. Ambulance transportation, hospital stays, x-rays, surgeries, prescriptions, physical therapy, and other medical bills are all expensive but common treatments used after many types of accidents. If your health insurance pays for most of your medical expenses, they may seek reimbursement from the defendant in your lawsuit. This is known as subrogation. If you don’t have sufficient health insurance for your medical costs, you may be treated using medical liens. In this case, your doctors will seek reimbursement for their unpaid balance out of your personal injury award. 
  

• Future Medical Expenses- Serious accidents can result in permanent disability, paralysis, and brain injuries that will affect the victim for the rest of their life. Medical treatment for these types of injuries doesn’t stop within the 2 years Statute of Limitations for personal injury claims in Arizona. You may need to hire medical experts to estimate the cost of your medical treatment for the rest of your lifetime, as you can’t come back and sue the defendant again if you didn’t request a sufficient amount the first time. 
  

• Re-Imbursement of Lost wages– If you are seriously injured in an accident, you will likely need to take time off of work to recover. You might burn through your PTO days, or not have nearly enough hours to cover the span of your recovery. Either way, the time you miss from work is one of the expenses for which you can be reimbursed in your personal injury claim. 
  

• Loss of Consortium- These damages can reflect both the romantic portion of your relationship with your significant other, as well as your household contributions. For example, a full time homemaker wife is injured in a car accident, resulting in broken bones and nerve damage. Her husband has to take over all the household chores and child care she used to manage, as well as continue to work full time outside of the home. This creates tension in their relationship, as well as the wife’s inability to be intimate. The wife can seek loss of consortium as one of the damages in her personal injury claim. 
  

• Pain and suffering- As mentioned above, pain and suffering is often calculated by multiplying the rest of the damages by a number chosen based on factors involved in the accident and injuries. These factors include the type of injuries suffered, how long the injury lasts, the permanent quality of life after the injury, and the prescribed medications (and their side effects). 
  

• Emotional Distress- Emotional distress and mental anguish may be included in pain and suffering, or they may be calculated as their own separate damages. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other negative emotions can have a profound negative impact on your life. Your therapist and psychiatrist expenses can serve as a baseline for calculating these damages. 
  

After you’ve been the victim of an accident, don’t hesitate to contact an attorney to begin your personal injury claim. Our dedicated team has years of experience getting the best results for clients just like you. We also offer an affordable 25% contingency fee guarantee, a savings of 8% or more compared to our competitors! Get started today with your free consultation.

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