Car accidents often leave drivers and passengers with substantial repair costs, but our focus is on their physical injuries and recovery. The medical care to treat injuries from a car accident can be very expensive, and your own car or health insurance might not cover them in full. Besides, if someone else caused the crash, they should be responsible for your damages.

Our lawyers can help you get the maximum compensation you are entitled to, fighting insurance companies and defendants for the damages you deserve. We seek to get medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering damages covered, whether through a settlement or a lawsuit against the driver.

For a free review of your case, contact Leeson & Leeson’s car accident attorneys at (610) 890-6332 as soon as you can.

Insurance Claims vs. Lawsuits for Car Accidents in Allentown, PA

Pennsylvania’s car insurance laws are often a bit confusing. If you have been involved in an accident in the past and just suffered vehicle damage, you might be familiar with making a claim through your own insurance or having the defendant’s insurance cover your needs in full. When it comes to injuries, the compensation is often a bit more confusing.

Most states use either a “fault” or “no-fault” system for car accident injuries, which usually determines which driver covers the damages with their insurance. In a fault system, the at-fault driver covers the victim’s injuries; in a no-fault system, your own insurance covers you. Pennsylvania has a “choice no-fault” system under 75 Pa.C.S. § 1705. This uses a “limited tort” policy for no-fault insurance and a “full tort” policy for fault insurance.

Under this system, you usually cannot sue in court or claim non-economic damages if you have limited tort insurance, but your insurance will cover your medical bills and lost earnings. However, if you have certain serious injuries, you can sue and get compensation from the other driver, including non-economic damages. If you pay for a “full tort” policy, you can go straight to a lawsuit with full damages.

Ultimately, our car accident lawyers can guide you through the claims process and take your case to court when appropriate. Going to court – and potentially all the way to trial – can put additional pressure on the defendant and their insurance company to settle the case. In most cases, a reasonable settlement that covers all of your damages will be the ultimate goal. However, some defendants and insurance companies deny fault or simply refuse to settle, in which case we can take the case to trial to get you the damages you need.

Damages for Injured Car Accident Victims in Allentown

Whether your case is being settled or paid through an award at a jury trial, the core damages you need covered are the same:

Vehicle Damage

Even when injuries are more important, car accident victims are still concerned with the big expense of repairing or replacing their vehicle. If we can prove the other driver was at fault, we can often get repairs paid for as long as the vehicle is not totaled. When a car is “totaled,” it means that the damages cost more than the car’s total remaining value, so instead of repairing the car, the insurance company offers to pay you the remaining fair market value.

Medical Bills

Every dollar you spend on treatment for injuries from a car accident should be reimbursed, with some small exceptions. If you had to use your own insurance for your injuries, you would often pay a deductible to use your coverage. However, if we can take the case against the other driver, they should pay you back for the total cost of surgical care, hospital stays, follow-up appointments, physical therapy, rehabilitation, medication, and other care needs, including mental health care needs.

Lost Wages and Earnings

If you had to miss time at work because of your injuries, the defendant should pay you back for those lost wages. This is true even if your accident had nothing to do with your job; the fact that the injuries took you away from work makes the lost wages the other driver’s fault.

If your injury will keep you out of work or cause you to take a lower-paying position or stop working entirely, then our lawyers can help you claim the value of your ongoing lost earning capacity. This value is often difficult to calculate and involves projections about how much longer and how much money you would have made in your career before the injuries took that away or reduced it.

Other Economic Damages

Other expenses you faced or property that was damaged should also be paid for, such as a cell phone broken in the crash. This also includes expenses around the house to deal with your injuries, such as adaptive ramps or even the cost of hiring someone to clean if you cannot do it yourself anymore.

Non-Economic Damages

All of the damages discussed so far deal with the costs that you face. They can be proven in court with bills and receipts, but some damages take a toll that cannot be expressed in terms of dollars.

“Pain and suffering,” “emotional distress,” and “mental anguish” are some of the common terms used to describe these damages, but we often refer to them as “non-economic” damages, given that they have no price attached. When claiming these damages in your case, we will assign them a value based on a few possible calculation methods. These usually base the claimed value on how much pain you faced and how severe the impact of the injury is on your life, with more serious injuries usually having higher non-economic damages.

How Our Car Accident Lawyers Can Help with Your Case in Allentown, PA

Never take on insurance companies alone. Our lawyers can help you understand what your claim is worth, what your chances of success are, and how to best go about claiming the damages you need. We can also represent you every step of the way, help you build a strong case, and negotiate with the defense’s lawyers to try to reach a fair settlement for your case while you focus on recovering and moving forward with your life.

Call Our Car Accident Attorneys in Allentown Today

For a free case assessment, contact our car accident lawyers at Leeson & Leeson today at (610) 890-6332.