For anyone injured in any type of significant or serious accident, working with a personal injury lawyer is essential. Significant or serious accidents include those where the person loses time on the job, has medical issues that are acute or chronic from the accident or injury, or when there is any type of short or long-term disability. Spouses and surviving eligible family members also work with a personal injury attorney in the case of wrongful death.
One of the important roles of the Minneapolis personal injury attorney is to carefully consider the compensation in the case. The compensation is developed from determining the damages or the cost involved for your or the family based on the facts of the case.
Types of Damages
There are two types of damages, compensatory and punitive. Compensatory damages are payment for direct costs associated with the injury. This includes medical bills, lost wages, and property loss.
It can also include other types of categories of damages including pain and suffering, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment. In addition, loss of consortium, or the inability to maintain the same type of relationship with a spouse, may also be included in the damages. While these are harder to value than actual bills and costs, but a personal injury lawyer can use past settlements to assist in determining a value.
Punitive damages are not available in most personal injury cases. These are specific damages used by the court to punish the defendant for extremely negligent or malicious types of actions, and they can be very significant. Punitive damages are most commonly found in wrongful death types of cases or where there are long-term injuries and disabilities from the accident.
Talking to a personal injury lawyer in Minneapolis is the best way to determine the possible settlement for your case. This can be done at any time, but there are statutory time limits for filing, and talking to an attorney early in the process is the best option.
