If you get involved in a car accident, you may deserve financial compensation for direct damages stemming from that crash. This is why establishing fault—which often centers around negligence—is so important. If the other driver is at fault, they may be liable for your damages.
Fault or negligence can be established in a few different ways. It is wise to take pictures at the crash scene if you can. You also want to contact the authorities and get a copy of the police report, which may explicitly state which driver the officer believes caused the accident.
Moving forward with compensation
After you’ve taken these steps, what type of compensation could you consider? It depends on the case, but here are a few examples:
- Medical bills: If you’ve suffered injuries and needed emergency treatment or hospitalization, you may deserve compensation for those costs.
- Long-term medical needs: For serious injuries, you may have long-term costs such as the need for in-home care, future surgeries or physical rehabilitation.
- Lost wages: Car accidents resulting in injuries often cause you to miss at least a short time at work, so you deserve compensation for the wages you otherwise would have earned.
- Reduced earning capacity: If you’ve suffered serious injuries that are going to make it harder for you to earn a living in the future, such as spinal cord injuries, you may deserve compensation for those lost future earnings.
Beyond these, you may deserve financial compensation for things like pain and suffering, emotional distress, a long-term disability or disfigurement and more. If a loved one passed away in the accident, you may deserve compensation for funeral and burial costs, loss of consortium, or lost earnings—especially if the person was the family’s breadwinner.
To seek compensation for all of these costs and damages, it’s important to know what legal steps to take after the accident.