This is one of the most common questions personal injury attorneys receive—and understandably so. If you’re injured, you’ll be facing medical bills, lost wages, and a great deal of stress. It’s only natural to wonder if there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
You are certainly entitled to compensation if your injuries are the result of someone else’s fault or negligence. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how much you can receive. The value of your personal injury claim in Kansas depends on three key factors.
1. Your injuries
The value of your personal injury claim depends heavily on the extent of the medical treatment you require, including hospital stays, surgeries, and rehabilitation. As such, the severity of your injuries plays a key role in determining your compensation. Injuries can typically be classified as:
- Significant: Permanent disability, internal organ damage, traumatic brain injury, spinal injury, permanent disfigurement, or death.
- Moderate: Bone fractures, substantial muscle damage, and lacerations.
- Minor: Sprains, soft tissue damage, minor abrasions, and contusions.
It’s clear that a minor sprain won’t result in the same compensation as a traumatic brain injury, broken bone, or permanent disability.
2. The liability
Because Kansas follows a modified comparative fault rule, if you’re partially at fault for the accident, your compensation will be reduced. For example, if you are found to be 20% responsible for the accident, your total award would be 80% of the total value of the claim. However, if you are 51% (or more) at fault, you won’t be able to recover any damages.
3. The experience and skills of your Kansas personal injury attorney
In a personal injury case, you can seek both economic and non-economic damages. While economic damages are often considered straightforward to calculate—simply adding up the cost of medical treatment, property damage, and lost wages—they can become more complex in severe injury cases.
For serious injuries, you’ll also need to account for future medical care, rehabilitation, assistive care, loss of income, and loss of earning potential. This is where things can get tricky unless you have an experienced attorney who can effectively present your case.
Even when it comes to current medical expenses, insurance companies may try to undermine your claim by citing preexisting health conditions or past injuries.
That said, the real problem arises when it comes to non-economic damages, which include compensation for pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of consortium, and loss of life quality, among others.
Since there isn’t a fixed dollar amount when calculating non-economic damages, it all comes down to how effectively your attorney can communicate the extent of your trauma to the insurance company—and, if necessary, to the court.
The impact of legal representation on tort claim payouts is so significant that victims with an experienced attorney often receive payouts up to three times higher than those who handle their claims on their own.
That alone should be reason enough to reach out to DeVaughn James Injury Lawyers. Contact us today and let us take charge of your personal injury claim, giving you the time, space, and peace of mind you need to heal.